Visit Ryan’s Blog

Ryan grew up in the western suburbs of Chicago, in an area dubbed “The A” by its residents. It was there that he learned useful tips on how to shank someone (remember, kids, it’s in and up), how to embroider and, above all, how to play Halo. Ryan also took up the art of writing after several tumultuous years of high school, where he learned people didn´t like talking to him all that much. Ryan capitalized on his love of writing and his teenage social awkwardness to complete a journalism degree from Roosevelt University in downtown Chicago. He currently works at the Chicago Tribune as a multimedia producer. Ryan likes White Sox, Guitar Hero, chicken, chicken with sauce (ketchup works, but BBQ is preferred) and reading books.

Visit Andrew’s Blog

Andrew can recall a time when gamers were mocked, and when a young man would get teased for wearing a Legend of Zelda t-shirt to school. But, while others hid their hobby, he accepted his passion and wore the shirt with pride! He studied games, experimented with games and even smelled the cartridge upon the initial opening of a new title. Like a fine cigar, he relished digging into a new experience, a new world and something a little more fantastical than the small Midwest town in which he felt so trapped. Games were, and still are, a gigantic portion of his life, and although he must tend to other duties, such as a rock band, college and, most importantly, his son, he’s still a studier and a critical judge of a quality game experience.

Visit Ed’s Blog

Ed is a Massachusetts-based writer and gamer who first felt the compulsion of “just one more level” with an all night marathon of Yars Revenge. The Atari 2600 was his first major console and he’s owned most of them since. That said, at heart he’s a Nintendo fanboy - calling the Mario, Metroid and Zelda series his Holy Trinity. Ed attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst from 1990 to 1994 and graduated with a B.A. in Journalism. Although he’s worked in the financial industry since graduation, he’s continued to scratch that creative writing itch through an alarming number of failed screenplay attempts. Regardless, that call forever beckons; hence, a blog is born. Despite the added responsibilities of career, home and family, Ed finds time to game daily as a way of unplugging from the rigors of the real world. No matter how old he gets, he can’t shake the gaming jones. He was introduced to video games in the mid-70’s through a neighbor’s Pong machine, used his Machiavellian skills of coercion on neighborhood kids to invite him to sleep over so he could co-opt their Atari 2600, and in the 80’s, discovered he’d never remember the combination to his high school locker so long as UP UP DOWN DOWN LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT B A B A SELECT START was tattooed upon his neural tapestry. These days, he’s the proud patriarch of a Wii60 household.

Visit Jason’s Blog
Jason is a graduate student studying English Literature with a passion for Renaissance drama and computer role playing games. While his exact age is classified, he remembers playing video games with a type of controller referred to as a “paddle.” Jason enjoys games from all genres, though his preference for single-player gameplay is evidenced by his complete lack of skill against human opponents. While he has no children, Jason is the proud father of two cats. Their ability to understand language, including words such as “no” and “get out of that” while simultaneously ignoring these commands indicates that cats have a similar OS to his PC. Aside from cats, Jason finds stress in his relationship due to his recent acquisition of a 20′ monitor and his beloved’s complaints that games look better on it than on her computer. A duel to the death has been scheduled between Jason and his beloved in PvP while Pat Benatar sings “Love is a Battlefield.”

Visit Michael’s Blog

Michael is an East Coast, old-school gamer. His early gaming life was spent with consoles; he had an Atari 2600, a Colecovision (and the long-lamented Coleco Adam PC, which loaded games from cassette tapes) and an SNES. He even had a brief dalliance with the Sega CD. But in 1998, a friend and co-worker let him borrow a copy of the shareware demo for a little game called Half Life, and since then, he’s worshipped at the PC gaming altar. He’s amassed a collection of more than 70 titles from the year 2000 up to the present day, and he’s built three gaming PCs from scratch — but he also recently purchased an Xbox 360, “just to see how the other half lives.”

Visit Michele’s Blog

Michele is a life long gypsy and underachieving Jack of Trades. After a 13-year career as an air traffic controller, she decided she preferred playing video games. When she’s not reworking someone’s novel or screenplay, you might find her under a tree teaching Latin or the Greek classics. She does take time out to study for her Information Technology Management classes, and has been known to get lost in Oblivion or the landscapes of Kingdom Under Fire when no is one looking.