I was 3 years old when my Dad brought home an Apple IIe and 5in floppy games labelled Hard Hat Mack, Burger Time, Sea Dragon, Pitfall in the early 1980s. He showed me how to slide the diskette in, type a few things on the keyboard, how to press the buttons and I was hooked immediately. I missed a few of the major eras of gaming due to my age and exposure - text-based RPG games and later MUDs at the start of the internet - but have been able to experience most of what the gaming world has had to offer from PC to consoles starting with ColecoVision and Atari 2600 through today's PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. If you want to see a list of the games and franchises that I thoroughly enjoyed throughout my lifetime in the industry, please visit my (WIP) list - Games I've Owned and Loved.
My love for gaming wasn't only in the digital arena but also the analog as I've been an avid board and card gamer as well. I can't say they have the same effect on me that a good video game does, but sometimes going back to roots is important and there are plenty of good board and paper games out there.
Joining the video game industry was an interesting step for me; I got to join an industry that I had a place in my heart since I as a kid and was able to follow in my older brother's footsteps. He had recently started a job as an animator, after being an intern, at an studio in Phoenix that was changing its focus to video games and they needed Quality Assurance testers. Starting as a temp QA Tester in 2004, I was able to find a home pretty quickly. Being the type of guy that typically had 1-3 jobs a year, I knew immediately that this was a career and I wasn't going anywhere. Maybe it was the fact that I was able to wear jeans, a polo shirt, and a hat for my job interview and walk out knowing that I was likely going to get the position. Or, maybe it was that my brother put his name on the line for me but there was a motivation to do a good job and make the best product we could while still keeping to a fun atmosphere. Google and other giants have taken a page from us here...you're welcome Corporate Americans!
Something else happened in the early 2000s for me as well, I found MMORPGs. My buddies started playing Ultima Online when it came out but I wasn't sold on what I saw; I hadn't really been much of a fan of the Ultima games though I can certainly appreciate them for what they are. However, when I saw my younger brother playing Everquest with his friends, I had to jump on board and I certainly picked a good time to do so. I got to experience one of the crowning achievements in Western MMO history that was Everquest from 2000-2004. Maybe it was just my experience, maybe it's a bias, call it what you will, but I can almost say that I am glad I took 4 years to finish a 2 year associate's degree from a community college so I could play that game...almost (see future!). Then 2004 hit me.
They always say things happen in three, so I list the big ones that happened all within a few months at the end of 2004 (in chronological order): I got hired as a QA Tester at Rainbow Studios, World of Warcraft was released, and I graduated from college. I spent the next 4 years working as a Tester focusing on console games and when the opportunity arose I was able into the MMO industry on the East Coast while doing some R&D development with my console background. Our R&D project went through a few iterations, never got the legs it needed with Management due to a Merger & Acquisition and during that time I was able to transition to the Production track working on a central back-end as a service (BaaS) technology in 2011. Since that transition, I have spent my time in many departments, learning as much as I can about rules, process, policies, management, operations, security, logistics, customer relations, marketing, business intelligence and consumer analytics, acquisition and accounting, hoping to claw my way to the top to bring people games we love to make and you love to play.
Wish me luck.
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