This post has not been edited by the GamesBeat staff. Opinions by GamesBeat community writers do not necessarily reflect those of the staff.

The decision on the subject of my first article – determining the best process of handing out video game awards – I don't find a very interesting story to tell. I find that boringly self-explanatory. I got modest traffic for what I typically get – which apparently is the equivalent of being non-existence around here after reading Andrew Hiscock's "Better Living Through Data Mining" piece – and one comment. It wasn't very original. As such, I'll stick to sharing what brought me here.

I've never been shy about what sparked my interest in games journalism , in spite of a lot that's gotten in the way. Much of that influence came from really paying attention to what was going on at EGM and 1UP as well as IGN around 2006, particularly that fall when I started writing on video games for The Daily Texan.

Much of that influence fell from four people. Jeff Haynes, the first person I became aware of that "looked like me" and also one of the interviewees on my first news feature on video games on the subject of video game laws that summer. That made me feel more like it was something I could possibly break into on some level. More to shaping my actual ideas were Jon Davison, Dan Hsu, and especially Garnett Lee through 1UP Yours.

I've done more than sang the praises of Bitmob enough elsewhere. But when I initial decided to become active in the community, it was 100% percent because Shoe  was a co-founder and I wanted to see and take part in what someone I thought of so highly would be creating. And at the time as a person looking for another outlet in which to write, it provided such a place to post articles in which one of those said influences might actually notice my work. That's only worked out to the point of Shoe calling me a "Son of a…" for a dig a this beloved Wolverines, but following Shoe has led me to a gaming community in which – with no disrespect to any other communities – I actually find constructive and edifying to take part in rather than frustrating and annoying. I've hardly ever been active in a gaming community in which I didn't have a byline.

So actually being involved in the community itself is shaping and teaching me in ways through the community in as important ways as anything I've learned from reading to listening to Shoe himself. Heck, my most read article – at least for now, my last column on thin-skinned games and tech fans is on pace to pass it soon – as inspired-by and a response to another Bitmob article by Daniel Feit. Matter of fact, 40% of anything I've written here has been born of the infleunce of the thoughts of another Bitmobber. Which makes sense as Shoe has said himself repeatedly that massive community effort that is Bitmob is what makes it tick and why it is special.