Meet the Game Boy

I think it’s fair to say that the majority of Maximum PC readers are hardcore gaming enthusiasts – it’s hard to imagine a PC hardware aficionado excited about multi-core CPUs, DirectX 10 video cards, and low latency RAM without also wanting to utilize all that processing power on some killer apps. Sure, lightning fast spreadsheet calculations and speedy video encoding is convenient, but hardly the best way to make the most out of your tricked out rig. Gaming is probably the biggest proponent of PC hardware sales, and the reason we go of our way every year to drop hundreds of dollars on new components.

My personal gaming history has its roots in playing a ton of casual games on the PC, like the original Lemmings and Wheel of Fortune. But it was only after playing Alone in the Dark for the first time that my perception of gaming took a drastic turn. Since then, I’ve gone through several milestones where gaming has been a big part of my life. Here’re a couple examples of those experiences:

• My first time seeing Quake 2 with OpenGL graphics acceleration, running the game on a [then] blazing fast Nvidia Riva 128.
• Creating an online gaming webzine with high school buddies to review new PC games, and using that as a stepping stone to my current job writing for PC Gamer and Maximum PC magazines.
• Actually enjoying the Postal 2 game.
• Joining an online Shoutcasting network as a games broadcaster, providing live commentary for multiplayer matches at the World Cyber Games.
• Almost flunking out of college for spending too many hours online playing Battlefield 1942.
• Finally giving up being a “PC snob” and picking up both an Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii (and loving it) this past year.

The great thing about being a gamer are the fantastic stories and experiences we glean from our hobby. I’m sure all of you have many memorable moments in your gaming lives, and I’d love to hear them. It’s my hope that this blog will facilitate an ongoing discussion about relevant topics in gaming, whether on the PC or console spheres. My goal is to bring you some insight into the gaming world from my perspective as an “industry insider,” and get some constructive feedback that I can take back to developers and publishers as well.

Feel free to drop me an email at any time, especially if you’re into Guitar Hero 2 and think you can challenge my “Surrender” score of 268,557.

COMMENTS:

1

TAGS: 

gaming, gaming blog, Norm the intern

Comments Print Email