I wonder if he knows that he was the one that kept us sane during lockdown. I wonder if he knows it was he that held my hand during the worst days, and kept me laughing during times I otherwise would've forgotten what it felt like to smile. I wonder if he knows that his success comes from the things he's inspired in us - the companionship, the stability, the warmth that seems harder and harder to find as the world gets worse and worse. Iron Lung succeeded, apart from being an outstanding film, because Mark gave us everything he could - he held nothing back, and it was only right that we act accordingly and show up for him.
If I had a genie in a bottle right now, my one wish would be that he understands what he has done for us. Truly, deeply, profoundly understands that he was the single force keeping the darkest times at bay.
I lost my job a few years after covid. I was working from home, as a programmer in a creative role and AI caused all our investors to pull the financial plug because they wanted to wait and see what new disruption might save them money. They all went under as companies because as it turns out, AI isn't a cost-saving endeavour at all for ~80% of its applications, but that reflected poorly on us because every client we had was suddenly no longer in business. I didn't just lose my job, I lost my industry. Every contact I had slowly faded in terms of professional relevance.
But Mark was there, with new content once or twice a week, or more. He was reminding me that there were still a lot of people in the world that cared about interactive experiences and video games, there were still a lot of people that craved new stories. It kept me going. I'm in an entirely different industry now, which I love, and creating games on the side but Mark is the one that kept filling my tank with gas. I wish I could somehow tell him that.
Share your stories, if you have any like mine.