What is The Tired Obsidian? – An Origins Tale

I have actually recently had a few people who have reached out to me asking me “What is The Tired Obsidian?” “What does it mean?” and “Who is The Tired Obsidian?” Well, I’m just going to do a real quick post explaining where the name came from.

The Origins

The Tired Obsidian was/is the name of my Tumblr blog. Back in 2012 when Tumblr was the hit new thing and really had no clue what type of site it was suppose to be, I created an account. My username was Slannxe, the same name I used for just about every other social media site, all the way back to Neopets and My Heroes Abilities on Facebook. I needed a blog name though. So I did what any other teenager with the lack of imagination would do: I used a blog name generator.

One spin generated 10 different names. Tired Obsidian was on that list so I rolled with it. That’s really it. The name came from a bad blog name generator. When my friend Tyson and I decided to create a gaming podcast together, we really had no idea what to call it. We didn’t want to do some bad pun or be too obvious in our name. I personally was looking towards the future with it and thought about a name that we could have over a bunch of different projects we did. So I stole my blog name for my podcast name.

Our first run at the podcast lasted less than 20 episodes. It was a lot of fun but I started to get more ambitious with the stuff we were doing, and I felt dejected when the podcast wasn’t getting very many listens. So I killed it. Later on we would attempt at reviving it doing the same stuff, but that attempt didn’t last very long either.

So to really legitimize the name and to kind of just keep it alive in some way, I made this WordPress blog. This blog has also taken many different iterations, with the site getting wiped several times as I would leave and come back wanting to start fresh. I find myself doing this a lot. Making an attempt at a podcast, or a blog and then giving up on it after a bit feeling like it’s a waste of time. I’m starting to realize that the amount of reach I have shouldn’t reject me from having fun creating new content.

Current Iteration

Alright, so fast forward to a few months ago now. My friend Brandon, who had guested on the first iteration of The TTO Podcast, and I decided to do a spoilercast on the newest Spider-Man game by Insomniac. I decided to once again use the name The Tired Obsidian. I honestly should have retired the name for podcasting. Having 3 different attempts at the name doing the exact same thing really makes no sense. Eventually, you have to re-brand. But for now, that is what the podcast is called. And to this day we have actually don 10 episodes that have been a pretty good time so far. We actually have podcast feeds on multiple sites like iTunes and Spotify, and we are making a tiny bit of money off of each episode right now.

The Future of The Tired Obsidian

So what’s the future of The Tired Obsidian? This blog will probably live on regardless of what happens with the podcast. The podcast is a lot of fun to do with Brandon and Mary Beth. I think there is a possibility of a rebranding entirely for the name though. I like the idea of The Tired Obsidian being the name of multiple projects. Kind of like how there is Rooster Teeth, but they oversee other groups within. I also feel like breaking into the gaming podcast scene is pretty difficult. I listen to quite a few podcasts myself, and more than half of them are gaming. Recently though I have started to feel tired or bored with them. Every game site has some great personalities, but when every site seems to be talking about the same things and everyone’s perspective and “hot takes” are pretty similar to each other, there’s not much to gain from listening to so many different podcasts that are essentially giving me the same info.

I think I eventually want to take a break from a gaming podcast. It’s my favorite hobby. Hell, it’s really my only hobby outside of the occasional post I put on here. Without creating content that is actually unique in the space though, I don’t think the podcast will really go anywhere. I know I said earlier in this post that the popularity of my content shouldn’t deject me from continuing what I am doing, but I really do think it would benefit from a name change. I want to branch into other things as well. I want to actually help people produce their own podcasts, and just make some sort of podcasting network as a whole. That, I think, is my main goal for The Tired Obsidian.

I will always continue to write things up. I hate the rehashing of news articles though, so you will very rarely see that sort of stuff from me. I like giving my opinions on things I care about. I have people who follow the site here, I constantly get views on posts both old and new. I will continue to let this be my outlet. So even if The Tired Obsidian doesn’t amount to much more than this blog, I will always keep the name alive here.

If you guys are curious about the current iteration of the podcast, check out its Anchor Page here! You can find links for multiple different podcatchers on Anchor, but you can also search for the podcast on whatever you use currently. It should pop up. Hopefully.