I’m 28. I’ve been in Austin, Texas since 1998. I was in England before that, attending university and earning pocket money by writing C&C strategy guides for magazines both foreign and domestic.
Today, I write C/C++ compiler and linker manuals for the Sony PS2, Gamecube, GameBoy Advance, and Palm OS handheld devices.
I owe it all to comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategy. :wink:
23-year old Itinerant Jackass Masquerading As Editing Peon.
32 - also just last Sunday. I knew Ben Sones was cool for some reason.
I live in Waynesburg Ohio, which is the armpit of Canton/Akron.
Network engineer for the USPS. (until the money runs out… which may be Sept, hehe) I’m also their helpdesk, web programmer, and asskisser of middle management.
My first computer was also a Ti-99/4a, which I got exactly 20 years ago last Sunday. Odd to realize that you’ve been doing something for 20 years. First game for it was Parsec, but Tunnels of Doom was my fav.
I wrote a little for CGS+, which was my first gig. Bauman was kind enough to give me a run after reading some stuff I wrote as “reader reviews” at Gamespot. Then I wrote a few columns at Gamepen, and wrote for Gamesdomain off and on for 2 years - mostly flightsims before Gordon Berg single-handedly killed the genre and put me out of work. Well, actually, after the BS that went on last year, I didn’t feel too much like writing for a while so I took a hiatus that I’m about to end.
Currently I’m teaching myself enough PHP to be dangerous and resurrect my old gaming site. Purely a “for shits n’ grins” sort of project.
Other than that, I’m a member of www.insomniax.net - a great bunch of fellow gamers who are usually playing whatever most recently came out and supports coop gameplay, as well as the “classics” that never seem to lose our interest. Lot of talent over there too, with several people making mods and such at any given moment.
I’m 33, a game artist/writer/whatever else is needed at the moment, one half of the independent game company Octopus Motor…the other half is my husband. We live in the SF Bay area with three cats and a percula clown fish that refuses to die (despite my best efforts). I really like cheap white birthday cake with lots of icing, preferably in some horrible color rarely found in nature. I intensely dislike monkeys, Julia Roberts, shellfish, and anything made of wicker.
Are they rolling Informix’s Redbrick into DB2 or what? God, Redbrick was sexy.
The Informix stuff is separate from DB2. DB2 OLAP Server is wholly based on Hyperion’s Essbase database. Actually… DB2 OLAP Server is essentially Essbase unless you want to have some drill-through to regular DB2 tables. There’s a lot of power in adding the drill-through (say going from styles down to SKUs, etc.) Essbase stores everything as bitmaps with index files driving the show. It’s slick and much faster than anything that Oracle or any other relational based system could be which is why IBM partnered with Hyperion to get it done. I’ve built three cubes in the last couple weeks on DB2 OLAP Server.
Before that and still in production, I’ve been using straight Essbase on NT for the last three years and we’re only now moving to IBM’s DB2 OLAP implementation on the AIX platform. We’re building a data warehouse using DB2 on OS/390 that will feed the OLAP Server setup on AIX. Boscov’s, the company I work for, has been in the news at ZDNet a little bit lately. You know those commercials IBM has where the guys wonder where all the servers went and the nerdy dude says they’re all “on there”? We’ve got one of those Z-Series mainframes and are leading development of SuSE Linux on VM on the Z-Series.
Did I confuse everyone but Jason and maybe wumpus? Good. :)
–Dave
I’m a 23 year old graudate student working on my Masters in aerospace engineering. My thesis is about magnetohydrodynamic inverse cycle scramjet engine performance. (Take that Dave Long! :D) Tries to reread the previous post, gets through one sentence. NM, you win. :)
Been reading the QT3 boards and site since Mark plugged it in one of his GameSpin columns back when it was on Gamecenter (R.I.P.). (Very glad to see you guys are back BTW.) My only connections to the computer game industry are being a consumer, and this board. :)
My main gaming interests are flight sims and space flight sims (1st PC game was Falcon 3.0), as well as RTSs. I have a small interest in FPSs and RPGs. Right now, I’m just playing lots of IL-2 Sturmovik, though I have yet to try it online except for 2 games with a pair of friends from school.
[Edit 4/8/03 - I graduated in Dec '02 and work for Boeing now.]
40-yr-old environmental engineering guy, working now as a manager of government affairs for a waste-to-energy company. You make garbage, we turn it into electricity. Obviously, no affiliation whatsoever with the gaming industry, except that I spend way too much on games, read about games when I should probably be managing my “portfolio”, and probably help pay the bills for several of you. My actual gaming time is limited to 9pm - 12 am nowadays, however.
Started games in Grad school about '85 when a professor gave me a copy of Ultima III and the photocopied manuals after he caugt me using the lab computer to play Zork. I’ve been trying to recapture that feeling ever since. Play mostly RPGs, but had to stop playing on-line games due to the time suck - - I have 2 little daughters and I have to function at work by 8 a.m. I can’t stomach adventures anymore, but play around w/ space sims, some strategies, and wargames. I own way more games than I’ll ever have time to play.
27-year old gamer;
started playing in the late 80s with Might & Magic, Gunship, and Pirates, then started playing online on CompuServe with Island of Kesmai and British Legends at 1200 baud;
first started really posting on the internet about games in 1993 when MOO and X-COM double-whammied the strategy game market;
in 1994 I decided to start running a web page to detail some of the more interesting and unpublicized aspects of the industry, half of which I would glom off of my work at Electronics Boutique, and so StrategyNet was born on my UTD webpage (www.utdallas.edu/~dunk1888 I think it was);
a year or so, maybe two, later I guess Paul Bannister approached me about merging with his new and upcoming gaming site called Online Gaming Review (OGR), then at ogr.nrgroup.com;
left OGR, not under the best of circumstances to write news and eventually edit stuff for Gamespot in 1998;
editing stuff for GameGuides pretty much dried up in 2000 when I joined Playnet and still work there today, albeit in a totally different role than when I joined (I now live in the drearly sludge of tech support manager hell).
In and around there I’ve written a bunch of stuff for different folks (gaming, historical, and otherwise) including the Dallas Morning News, boot magazine, Crypt Newsletter, Computer underground Digest, Wargamer.com, Computer & Net Player magazine, Sybex, Prima, Brady, Strategy & Tactics, and a few other things.
— Alan
28 year old gamer. Live in Alexandria, VA, just across the Potomac from our Nation’s Capitol. God Bless America and all that (hey, it’s July 4th here, cut me some slack!)
Have loved games for almost 2 decades. First real computer was a Commodore 64 – I still remember sitting up late at night with a blanket over my head playing Pirates! (the blanket kept stray light and sound from alerting my parents that I was still up at 3am!)
I’ve worked for last 7 years on various aspects of the political process, including IT policy, Internet policy, spectrum policy, education technology policy, and all kinds of fun stuff. I’m currently working for an association that represents k-12 school administrators, doing training and other work around accountability systems. Not terribly exciting. Before coming to Washington I lived in Southern California, where I went to college and worked as a sysadmin and user support person (which is where I got what little technical background I have!)
Current passion is putting together small form factor (SFF) PCs. I own a modified ThinkNIC and a SV25 that currently are my multimedia and file servers, respectively, and I’m positively slavering at the prospect of Shuttle’s new SS41, which will be a small form factor box supporting Athlon processors and having an AGP slot. Yeah, I know. I’m also an evangelist for PVRs – I don’t think I’ll ever watch TV without my ReplayTV (or Radeon AIW) ever again – and am thinking seriously about getting involved head over heels in the Northern Virginia Wireless (www.novawireless.org) group, which is all about bringing wireless 802.11b access to the masses.
22 and (usually happily) married. No kids, yet. Two dogs, and I’ve been playing computer games avidly for about three years, and as time permitted for about ten years before that.
I work in the travel industry, for SABRE, the largest computer reservations system out there. (If you buy a ticket, it’s probably going through our system.)
Major RPG fan, adore Neverwinter Nights, but love shooters and strategy titles (especially in multiplayer) as well.
Loose link to the industry, as I’ve been writing for Gamersclick for about a year now, and have a grand total of one “professional” article in the July issue of CGM. (And I really hope to increase that number!)
23 year old programmer for a game developer I won’t name (mainly because I’d like to maintain some shred of privacy). Been interested in games for as long as I can remember, from the TI-99/4A and 2600 up through the latest and greatest today. Now I’m just having fun on the other side of the fence. :D
Roger: from your description I’m guessing you’re at Metrowerks? Heh, if so, then my compliments on the CW PS2 manuals, they’re pretty good in general…
Wow, I feel kind of out of place, being a complete non-tech type and a non-writer. I do have the gaming background, though, starting with Avalon Hill & AD&D in the 70s, moving on Steve Jackson & GURPS in the early 80s, then switching to computer gaming (actually it was the Intellivision that I got in 1982 that was the real culprit - ah Utopia forefather of all Civ & Sim games). Started gaming on a Commodore 64 in 1983, eventually moving to an early PC (some kind of Tandy in 1988) and then after a Mac hiatus from 90 to 95, back to the PC. I am big fan of strategy games, especially quality 4X, innovative turn based, and (the ever scarce) “deep” Beer N Pretzels game. I also play RPGs, and have dabbled in MMORPGs although I’m in remission on those at present.
Here at Qto3 and on UseNet I am primarily a lurker but have been known to lob in the occasional overly long & involved post.
I’ve been a long time member of a gaming group for older gamers “The Elders” (originally The StarCraft Elders and not to be confused with the various MMORPG guilds of the same name).
In my non-gaming life I’m a 34 year old attorney living and working in the Los Angeles area, single, no pets, and fairly boring. I guess I do a lot of writing on a daily basis but its all boring civil litigation stuff. My specialty is California Worker’s Compensation law, (representing employers) which means I deal with on the job injuries. The most interesting thing about work is that I changed firms recently and about half my cases now are for the biggest payroll company in the entertainment industry, which means I handle cases against the crew folks who makes movies and TV. Grips who fall down, cameramen with carpal tunnel, that sort of thing. But I DO get the occasional bit actor or stuntperson case, which livens things up. The job I’ve done lately which would most excite this crowd was taking the deposition of the stuntlady who was Pamela Anderson’s body double during the first season of VIP. (Actually it wasn’t all that exciting).
Anyhow, thats me
Dan (Sharpe)
I was born in Santa Monica, California, and attended the University of California at Los Angeles. At UCLA I was a member of Tim Robbins’ acting troupe and it was this collaboration that led to my 1992 film debut in Bob Roberts. Although I was just a background voice in my first film, my appearances in such television shows as The X Files, my breakthrough performance in High Fidelity, and my folk-rock/comedy band have created an ever growing cult following.
“and have a grand total of one “professional” article in the July issue of CGM. (And I really hope to increase that number!)”
That’s great Murph! Down with the day job!
38 year old Australian High School art teacher. I jumped from board wargaming to the 'puter with an Amiga in '91. Game obsessed since then. Makes for interesting staff room discussions when I feel compelled to stand up for those evil computer games that are destroying our youth.
Still able to hand most students butts back to them on a plate in any RTS.
Son (3) and daughter (4 months) now chewing up most of my free time, but it’s way better than anything I’ve ever done on a screen.
BTW are any of you father types determined to limit your kids access to the computer? I reckon I’d be worried if my son spent as much time on the computer as I do… Yeah, I’m a hypocrite.
I’m 44, with a wife and two kids. I’ve been in journalism for 22 years, first at newspapers, then the last two-plus years as Managing Editor at GameSpy.
Total Annihilation got me started on the web, running a TA fan site that reviewed user-made maps. I did that in my spare time, and did a bit of gaming freelance work on the side. I also covered games for a year at my last newspaper before taking my current job.
My move to gaming journalism full time necessitated moving to California, uprooting the family from South Florida. Hasn’t been to easy for the wife, but I have enjoyed the job immensely.
Of course, I’m the old fart in the office. At least it gets me a little respect once in a while. :lol:
im 27 (will be 28 in 3 months). i went to iowa state u for 5 years, graudated as computer engineer, and lived there for another year. (i seriously like it there, all that space! :o )
i have been playing computer games since apple ii. but i never had any console gaming until playstation one (never had the money, even so my parents wouldve kicked my ass, hard). i play rpgs, actions, strategies etc mostly.
i used to work for a local pc game magazine in hong kong. in fact, a chief ed last year. but the company, which had 4 electronic gaming related magazines and a dotcom, folded completely last nov. been looking for a job since then… :cry:
making my own NWN mod now 8)
48 year old professional American expatriate sleazebag, living in Paris, France, with my wife and 7 year old kid. Before becoming a full time sleazebag I was a club musician for 16 years, playing bass, guitar, and singing. I’ve probably done 3000 club gigs, all of them crappy. I reviewed TA maps for TAMEC when it was happening. Wrote a couple articles for Alan Dunkin at Playnet. I recently finished drawing (well drawing is not the right word, more like ‘hacked together’) the game interface, the buttons and whatnot, for the upcoming Combat Mission sequel, Barbarossa to Berlin. Please don’t ask me about it, I can’t say squat. Anyway, I know Photoshop a little, mainly from modding CM. I also teach English and advertising to French kids. How I got the advertising gig, I’ll never know, I knew absolutely nothing about advertising before I started. Still don’t, for that matter. Favorite period in gaming history: when I got my Atari 1040 (SubLogic Flight Simulator, Civ, M1 Tank Platoon, Railroad Tycoon). Nice big boxes, nice thick manuals, I miss 'em. Now, I just play games and surf the Internet. I suppose I should get a job of some sort. Really.
DeanCo–
28 soon to be 29 yr old (out of work) support tech / contractor in the Chicago area. Single bachelor, a fool who likes gaming til my body drops to the floor (or falls asleep at the pc!). And I can thank GAMING for getting me into the wonderful tech industry (learning to get games running taught me supposedly! before that was an art snob in college!) Of course, I’m thinking of doing something else … hopefully!
Started gaming in early 80’s on an Apple 2 clone with Wizardry. Gamed with everything til family got an AT in the mid 80’s and played lots of Meier and then off to college and stopped gaming almost completely for 5 years, then back to gaming with a brand spanking new pc in the mid 90’s.
Its weird how gaming is a BIG part of my life when I think about it. Not that it rules my life, but I remember things from my past and say, “I was playing so and so at the time…hmmm.” Weird.
BTW anybody hiring?!?! ANd Happy July 4th! Viva Lamerica!
etc
I really wonder about these. Jack Black: secret gamer?