Hey all,
Wanted to start off by saying thank you for reading my first post. There will be many more to come, and I hope all you all enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them.
So what is my story, and why am I here? My obsession for games started pretty late in life. Actually in my earlier years, I constantly tortured my younger brother for being so devoted to his games. At the time I was a pretty avid gamer myself, but was no where close to him. I grew up around adventure games, so I would take months to finish a game. I have always been a sucker for a good story. When Halo first came out, and the world of first person shooters began to evolve, my younger brother was instantly hooked. Spending and extraordinary amount of time not only playing the game but having scheduled clan meetings, tweeking his hand eye coordination, and even just roaming the game in LAN mode alone to learn the map. I found this annoying and a useless waste of his time. To me the chance of being a professional gamer or even having the chance to work with them was just as slim as becoming a movie star. I was not afraid to express my opinion. Even force it on occasions. Still, he played on, and gradually climbed the ranks of the leader board. I just didn't understand.
Some where in 2008 my brother got really sick. Even throughout a lot of his treatment he still continued to play every video game he could get his hands on. When his condition worsened, he received a wish from the Make a Wish foundation. I was not surprised at all with what he asked for. A plasma screen TV, much too large for his room, a first edition PS3, with all the extras(Keyboard, Bluetooth headset, etc..), a surround sound system, and other miscellaneous gadgets and games. After a while though, he wasn't even able to move the joysticks anymore. At least not to his satisfaction. For a year I came to his hospital room and played these games for him. He enjoyed watching, even if he couldn't play. We played everything from Resident Evil to Halo3, and with every passing day I enjoyed being emerged in these make believe worlds with my brother more and more. We began to get into long conversations over game mechanics, and the future of gaming. Things that were way over my head when I was his age. When my brother passed on December 17, 2009, he left that little part of himself with me .I have respect for every game I play now and the work that goes into each and every job involved in the makings. My passion for these games is unlike any other I have felt before.Every time I get to sit down and emerge my self in a game, I am with my brother again for just that much longer. It keeps him alive, and it keeps me motivated. What I didn't realize then, that I do now is that my brother had laid the ground work for my entire future.
During my first years of college, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I had spent my whole high school career with my priorities completely backwards. I finally chose computer science in 2010, mainly because I was out of time, and it was something I knew I had prior experience with. I still didn't know what I wanted to do with the degree, but at least I had narrowed the options down a bit. Two years have past, and I have explored all types of IT careers. Every time I learn something new, I come back to video games, and every time I have told my self that it is a wild goose chase. In the past couple months I have realized something though. Everything in life that is worth having, is hard to obtain. My dream is to work for a company like IGN and be able to immerse my self in everything video games for the rest of my life. I do not want to be stuck with a certain label or be disconnected from parts of the gaming community by being stuck to one console. I love all consoles and all games. The only logical way to achieve this is by reporting on all games,news and culture. IGN is so diverse with so many different view points and really creative marketing strategies. I have to say Gregg Miller has to be one of my all time favorite news castors. He is so alive and excited about his job it is quite infectious. Therefore I have made it my goal to become an IGN editor, which begins with writing posts, not so much like this, but posts non the less. I will do my best to keep the posts more relevant to upcoming or newly released games on the PS3, and hopefully give some people a point of view from which they would have not seen before. What I wanted to do here was give everyone an explanation of my intentions on this site, and I think I have over achieved my goals. Thank you for reading through this. Please feel free to leave any comments, or questions below.
On a side note: The first couple of posts will be pretty rough. I am trying to get used to professional writing, so please be gentle. I am all for constructive criticism though! so don't be shy, just cut me some slack on some of the formatting for a little while. Thanks everyone!
Until next time, read on.
VG