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I am Jonathan Oyama, a 26-year-old graduate from California State University Long Beach. I live in Los Angeles County, in the Torrance suburbs. I'm a freelance writer, but I'm hoping that a newspaper or magazine will hire me in the near future.
I am currently a freelance writer for Centerfield Media, but my official job title is "independent contractor." I spend time writing oddball hair removal articles for hairremoval.org. Although hair removal is generally not my cup of tea, my weekly salary is much more consistent now.
I used to write articles as an intern for the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot in 2010. However, due to financial cutbacks, I was laid off. I also used to write many articles for Patch.com, a community news website that publishes local news in small towns and cities all over America. Unfortunately, the parent company, AOL, is pretty tough on its writers and editors. I don't really write stories for them anymore as a freelance writer.
Thankfully, I take refuge in playing video games and watching Japanese animated shows and television, also known as anime. I guess I have an attachment to anime and Japanese video games because I'm a Japanese American. Even though I'm technically more American than Japanese, I'm drawn to these Japanese characters for some reason. Maybe it has to do with the way they dress, or their smart, cyber-punk attitude.
My favorite game is Persona 4, a Japanese RPG that is still somewhat underrated. Although it is more than two years old, the amount of depth and social interaction makes it one of the most memorable adventures of all time.
I also play various first-person shooters. Although I'm not a big Halo or Call of Duty fan, I love playing Portal and Mirror's Edge. My favorite, though, is Bioshock. All the humongous special effects and beautiful graphics blew me away.
I used to compete heavily in fighting games in college, but I always hated the controllers. The Playstation 2 controller's D-pad especially wore some of the skin off of my thumb. I almost stopped playing fighting games completely because of the awful controllers of the current-gen systems. Once I found an excellent third-party gamepad though, I couldn't stop playing Blazblue. It's my number one fighting game so far.
I'm always itching to play more Japanese RPGs. I doubt that the genre will disappear anytime soon, because the visual flair and the storytelling style is much deeper than many American RPGs. On the other hand, Square-Enix should start some different RPG franchises. After playing through seven of the Final Fantasy games, I really hope that I'll never live to see Final Fantasy 52 anytime soon.
I hope that the readers enjoy the rest of my articles, because I love writing for this website. It's one of the few places where I can vent out my passion for video games.
More random tidbits
Other favorite games:
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Catherine, Chrono Trigger, Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy 6, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Monkey Island 2, Record of Agarest War, Sin and Punishment: Star Successor (Wii), Sinistar
Favorite movies:
Blade Runner, Breathless (the original version in French), Citizen Kane, Fargo, Good Night and Good Luck, Lost in Translation, The Matrix, Sunset Boulevard, Tron Legacy, Underworld, Yojimbo
Favorite anime films/TV shows:
Akira, Baccano!, Eureka Seven, FLCL, Ghost in the Shell, Princess Mononoke, Serial Experiments Lain, Paranoia Agent, Tokyo Godfathers, Whisper of the Heart
Favorite music artists:
Beck, Cibo Matto, Antonin Dvorak, Joy Division, Kraftwerk, Nirgilis (J-pop), Outkast, Pennywise, Phoenix, the pillows (J-rock), Radiohead, Souls of Mischief, The Zombies
Have any questions for this writer? Feel free to post it in the comments below.
Feel free to read his other Bitmob articles as well:
Digital friends with benefits: Socialization in games
Why Final Fantasy 13 was a success (a four-part series): Part one, Part two, Part three, Part four
