Scott and I both agreed we should share with you some of our personal motivations for creating Experience Points. We hope our short introductions will give you a better understanding of our writing styles, personalities, and goals.
As you can see from the title of this post, my name is Jorge. You can pronounce it however you like. Shen is the most common persona I use when gaming and it means quite a bit to me. Like many other gamers this alias, among others, has been used for years. I've more an affinity to my gamer tag than my middle name, and I am not alone in this.
I share a lot with gamers all around the world. Millions of us were there when Mario finally reached the princess, when Aeris was murdered, and when Samus Aran took off her Varia suit and revealed she was a woman. Our shared experiences are not limited to videogames either. Many of us have fond memories of Golden Eye battles with friends around the N64 or heated debates about pirates/ninjas and pie/cake.
We can't deny we find ourselves in a gaming community. Just take a look at the Penny-Arcade Expo which just concluded in Seattle if you don't believe me. There you will find people of all ages, some fit "gamer" stereotypes and many do not. Above all you will find a widely diverse group of people content and sharing their enthusiasm with others. I want to take this sense of community and put it into this blog.
I hope to move beyond "fanboy" fanaticism but avoid putting myself upon a pedestal and by doing so create a dialogue between readers and writers. I like to imagine it like a videogame book club, and this blog is our couch, our console, and our margaritas all in one.
Really, I love thinking about, talking about, and writing about the videogames. I hope by sharing all this you will enjoy the process as much as I do. Welcome again to EXP.
A story about the gamer identity. I was talking to my director at the preschool. She wanted a formal "Getting to know you" style meeting. When she asked me about what I do in my free time. I said read comic books and hang out with Allie. I explained that I like to draw, and like to compare the styles of other comic book artists. I didn't mention what I do with the majority of my free time because it is such a hassle to explain what gaming means to me in a way that people will understand even though to me it is quite simple. I like to play games and I like to compare the styles of other games. I was feeling kind for guilty not mentioning this huge part of my life in response to such and innocent question. Luckily, I got another chance. She asked me if I played video games because she has a 22 year old son in law who did. So I told her about Spore.
ReplyDeleteThe moral of the story is that gaming is coming out of the fringes. People are beginning to notice that it is common of people in our generation. We need to be able to speak about our community in a way that is cogent in a way that can connect the gamers and the curious, the avant and the -garde, the leet with the nubs.
Hm, so I was wondering - what IS actually your XBL gamertag? Or is there any particular reason why you guys didn't put them up on this site?
ReplyDelete@ Krystian
ReplyDeleteYou've found us our! We're an ARG! Not really. My XBL name is Shen4891. There is no reason its not on the site other than finding an appropriate place for it.