Hey all.  I wasn’t planning on writing one of these, but since all the cool kids are doing it...

I was born on July 10^th, 1989 in Bronx, NY, where I grew up.  I’ve been playing games longer than I remember.  The earliest console I remember playing on is the Sega Genesis.  My mother has told me there was a console I played on before that, but neither of us remembers what it was.  It’s too bad I’ll never know.

Gaming and game magazines have always been a huge part of my life.  I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t looking forward to picking up a new issue of a game magazine.  I didn’t play favorites.  Electronic Gaming Monthly, GamePro, Tips&Tricks, EGM2, and many other magazines were in my collection (although Official PlayStation Magazine still holds a special place in my heart).  I remember writing a letter to GameNow asking how to contribute to the magazine when I was about 11 or 12 years old, and was extremely excited when they published it. 

At that age I wanted to do it all.  Write about games, write code for them, create artwork, test, etc.  Anything to get in the industry.

I guess the magazines have had a huge influence on how see the industry.  I’ve always been the one guy who took games more seriously than all my friends. 

Back when EA first got the exclusive licensing deal with the NFL, I was the only person I knew who cared.  I couldn’t have been older than 15, and didn’t even play many sports games(I still don’t), but I was genuinely upset.  Especially considering I already had to save up a bunch of allowance money just to be able to buy a $20 2K game, and at $50, Madden would set me back months.

In 2007 at the age of 17, I enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, and between training events and deployments, I missed out on a ton of gaming, and perhaps more importantly, a ton of potential writing.  I still kept up with all the industry news, but only as a spectator.

Fast-forward to today and I’m out of military and getting ready to move back to NY to go back to school.  I’m still not entirely sure if I want to pursue writing or programming.  I don’t consider myself a good writer, but I’m probably worse at writing code.  I’m terribly unorganized, and both my writing and programming suffer for it.  At a very young age I accepted that I will never have artistic talent, so that is out of the question.

The truth is I really just want a role or influence in the industry.  I want my voice to be heard in an industry where the power of “hardcore” audience’s opinion is growing more marginalized by the day. 

Until I figure that out, I’ll stick to Bitmob.  Seriously, I love this site.  It’s tab on my browser never closes, and I read just about every post that pops into the mobfeed.  Bitmob is also one of the few sites where I can disagree with someone without being insulted or accused of bias. 

As much as I love games, I can’t stand game forums and user reviews/comments.  Somewhere between all the fanboyism, overwhelming sarcasm, and stupid Internet memes like “cool story bro” that only enforces stereotypes, I slowly begin to understand why publishers ignore us.

That’s just about all I have to say.  If you want to hit me up on Xbox Live, my gamertag is “Guy Who Rages,” and yes, I do rage quite a bit.