Name: Chase Koeneke

Age: 20

Profession: Student at the University of Missouri majoring in Strategic Communication (It’s like advertising and journalism rolled into one)

Hometown: Hallsville, MO

Twitter: Chase_Koeneke

Gamertag: Chal00pacabra

Current Systems: Xbox 360, Wii, DS (Phat), PSP, iPod Touch

Now, with all that logistical crap out of the way, let’s get to the meat of this thing. I’m Chase, a student at Mizzou. At first, I was majoring in magazine journalism thinking I was going to try my hand at this video game journalism thing, but I slowly came to the realization that a fancy journalism degree wasn’t going to help me achieve that. So instead, I decided to get a less fancy journalism degree. Go figure.

I’ve worked at my campus newspaper, The Maneater, for about two years now, writing reviews of games, recording podcasts about gaming, basically doing anything I can that doesn’t involve going out to interview people (something I despise doing, another great reason to abandon a hardcore journalism degree.)

I even worked as the arts editor of the paper for a semester. It had its moments, but mostly, it disillusioned me on the “magic” of the whole process and I felt it was time to spread my wings and try something new.

That’s where Bitmob comes in. Being an avid reader of EGM and a loyal subscriber to all 1up podcasts back in the day, I kept track of all the great talent scattered by the 1upocalypse. Bitmob seemed like the coolest thing, having a dedicated community of people who not only cared about games and the culture behind them, but of the quality of writing of its community as well.

As for gaming, I started with an NES hand-me-down from my uncle with nothing but a copy of Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt and Light Zapper to play on it. From there, I continued to stay about two years behind the console curve, adding a Genesis, SNES, and a Nintendo 64 to my collection. It wasn’t until the Gamecube that I finally got a home system on day one and thankfully, I’ve been able to stay current ever since.

As much as I love my home consoles, I think I’d have to classify myself as a handheld guy first and foremost. From my original black Game Boy to my shiny PSP, This is where I flourish (mostly due to those damn Pocket Monsters and their “catch ‘em all” attitude.)

So what can you expect from me on Bitmob? I’m going to try really hard to keep from posting any reviews here. I find reviews pretty boring and clinical; you can read them anywhere and my opinion isn’t really any better than the next guy’s. But what I see as the true strength of Bitmob is that it’s a place where people can discuss real topics that affect us (the community) as writers and as gamers. It’s that kind of interaction I’m striving for. Unfortunately, that means ideas for articles come to me randomly, so don’t expect any regular schedule from me.

I aim to start dialogues, so please, don’t hesitate to comment and share your opinion. Just don’t make it formal; like I said, interviews are my kryptonite.

Oh, and one last thing. I’m getting my own video game podcast started with fellow Bitmob writer (though he hasn’t updated in forever) and good friend AJ Hurst as well as non-Bitmob writer, yet equally as good of friend Bryan Edelman. It’s called the “World 8 Podcast” and with a little luck, the first episode will be on iTunes soon. Rest assured, I will definitely write a post when that happens.