The multitalented Shawn Elliott exhibits two entirely different personalities. One side shows someone who looks at video games as an intelligent art form and critiques them in a professional and unique manner unseen in the gaming industry. The other side depicts a hilarious, self-proclaimed “griefer” and prankster, shrouding the line between mastermind and idiocy.
Currently, Shawn works for 2K Boston, the video game studio headed by industry genius Ken Levine that created 2007’s hit Bioshock, but Shawn’s previous path led him to develop a unique perspective with insight rarely seen in this rapidly growing industry. Shawn’s two distinct personalities reflect his fondness for challenging people’s expectations, demonstrated both in his professional writing and prankster antics.
Before getting involved in game development, Shawn worked for Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) and eventually Computer Gaming World (CGW) and Games for Windows (GFW) magazine, all within the 1UP.com network. Shawn graduated from the University of Washington in 1998 with a degree in English.
He nearly graduated with a degree in Fine Arts, but one semester before finishing up the BAFA, Shawn switched his major to English. Then, Shawn attended graduate school at Western Washington University, where he earned master’s degree in Creative Writing, while simultaneously teaching at the university level.
Shawn said that he wanted to teach because, “going to school for the rest of [his] life seemed like a dream come true.” He planned to be a professor post-grad school, but after realizing how much he loved playing games with other students and professors, Shawn decided to contact Dan Hsu (the editor-in-chief of EGM at that time) and Crispin Boyer (an EGM staff writer at that time) to ask about job opportunities for EGM.
The strength of Shawn’s writing samples landed him a job at EGM located in the San Francisco area. A few years later, Shawn Elliott started writing for CGW, which eventually became GFW magazine. Shawn said, “Working for EGM [and later CGW and GFW magazine] combined two of my biggest passions at that time: writing and games.”
In 2006, 1UP.com decided to create GFW Radio, a weekly audio podcast with the editorial staff of GFW magazine blabbing freely for about an hour. After the initial transition stage when the editors needed to get used to the idea of podcasting, GFW Radio grew in popularity throughout the hardcore gaming community, and beyond the expected listening audience of only PC gamers.
Anthony Gallegos, one of Shawn’s former 1UP.com co workers, claims Shawn has, “the rare ability to mix low-brow and high-brow humor.” Clicking on a couple of links on Shawn Elliott’s Twitter account provides ample evidence for Shawn’s wide range of comedic tastes.
Shawn created a popular semi-regular segment on GFW Radio dubbed “Heroes of the Web” – a reading and interpreting of hilarious, shameful, and often stereotypical posts by random online forum posters. For example, one “hero” addressed and attempted to answer if Superman urinates like normal humans and if Clark Kent ever sweats.
Another hero posted about his love for a Legend of Zelda character from Link’s Awakening on the Game Boy. Shawn demonstrated his comedic skill every time he presented a new hero on GFW Radio, and this video game humor balanced Shawn’s smart and intellectual side.
With GFW Radio, Shawn could further express his creativity and talent through a different medium. Shawn’s less professional side showed noticeably on GFW Radio, with his hilarious voices, prank calls, stories from his youth and college days, and plenty of other amusements, enjoyed and loved by the online community.
One of Shawn’s trademarks is griefing in online games and online chats. Griefing is a form of playful online harassment by taunting and joking with other players for personal humor and enjoyment. Shawn considers his griefing as different than random bullying and verbal harassment.
Shawn does not simply yell and scream with middle school insults in an online game to annoy people; rather, he creates online personas and irritates the jerks online that tend to bully others in online games. In other words, he bullies only those who bully others. Shawn Elliott created these online characters, each with their own personalities and a unique voice.
For example, Ralphie (voiced by Shawn) sounds like an overweight, 30-something year old geek who lives with his grandmother. Shawn even writes and records rap songs with these different characters. One of Shawn Elliott’s most memorable raps is a parody of Eminem’s “Stan,” but instead it is about Ralphie writing to Shawn Elliott:
You probably hear this every day, but I’m your biggest fan. I even got the
podcast sketch that you did with EGM. I press ‘print-screen’ on your pictures
and your posts, man…sincerely yours, this is Ralphie. P.S. We should grief
together too.
Anthony Gallegos describes Shawn’s griefing: “Shawn doesn’t just go out and insult people. Rather, Shawn plays a character by bringing out the inner bully in others.” Jeff Green, former editor-in-chief of CGW/GFW magazine and Shawn’s former boss, believes Shawn “exposes the real griefers online – the bullies, bigots, and jerks who would come out of the woodwork to dogpile on him.”
Anthony, Jeff, and many others believe that Shawn’s tactics are in some ways, a work of genius.
Shawn worked in Safeway grocery stores for several years before crafting a career in video game press and development. On GFW Radio, Shawn Elliott told humorous stories from his days of working at Safeway.
These stories expressed Shawn’s hate for the ridiculous policies involved when working retail and low-skilled labor jobs: a hatred that anyone who has ever worked similar jobs can sympathize with. Shawn described how he would write on his lunch breaks while working the midnight shifts at Safeway. This love of writing along with the loathing of blue-collar jobs convinced Shawn to begin a career doing what he loves.
Anthony Gallegos said, “growing up the way Shawn did could have turned him out one of two ways: into a raging dick who ended up doing nothing, or into someone who worked hard to rise above. Shawn chose the latter, but he still lived a hard life early on.”
Certain circumstances, like a raging alcoholic father (thus forcing frequent moves during Shawn’s childhood) and a crystal methamphetamine addicted brother are just some of the hardships Shawn experienced growing up.
Shawn Elliott has a unique and valuable talent that provides him the ability to talk about anything and make that “thing” interesting and appealing to nearly anyone. This talent (along with the dichotomy of the GFW staff editors) grew GFW Radio’s popularity within the gaming community. He can describe to anyone why something is cool or why someone should be interested in it.
Shawn reads multiple non-gaming publications daily, including Time, Newsweek, The Atlantic, Harpers, and countless others. He is also extremely interested in sociology and history (especially World War II history). The breadth of his reading tastes and interests are catalysts for his writing and help explain the source of Shawn’s incredible gift of describing things in great detail, but in a fascinating and entertaining way.
His writing talent extends far beyond the usual audience of video game enthusiasts. Jeff Green describes Shawn’s voice (in the gaming community) as “one-of-a-kind, hilarious, and insightful.” Shawn Elliott’s unusual route to getting into the video games industry gives him a unique edge over others.
Researching sources for this profile paper on Shawn Elliott included, but certainly not limited
to, the use of Facebook, Email, Skype Chat, AIM, Youtube, Twitter, and MySpace, along with
reading countless blogs, articles, forum posts, magazines, and other forms of publications.
This paper also required listening to the enormous backlog of GFW Radio podcasts (a weekly
show posted on 1UP.com from 2006-2008), as well as other weekly podcasts, including 1UP
Yours, EGM Live, 1UP FM, A Life Well Wasted, Rebel FM, Out of the Game, Gamasutra, and
Gamers with Jobs Conference Call podcast.
This is a short list of sources mentioned in the paper:
• GFWRadio.1UP.com
• GFW Radio Podcast Backlog
• Eat-Sleep-Game.com (Anthony Gallegos)
• Twitter.com/shawnelliott
• Shawn Elliott’s Dido/Eminem Parody on YouTube
• ShawnElliott.blogspot.com
• ALifeWellWasted.com
• Jeff Green (Now working at Electronic Arts) – Facebook
• 2KBoston.com
• Various other Twitter and Facebook accounts for communication and sources
