Meet the Team: James Ransom-Wiley
In the world of professional game blogging, the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important groups: the bloggers who investigate the stories and readers who make silly comments. These are the first group's stories.
Name: James Ransom-Wiley
Job Position: Managing Editor / 3,750 posts and counting...
Past Experience/Education: Joystiq plucked me fresh from the "outside" in July 2004. I did manage a BA in Sociology from Wesleyan University a year before that.
Life Outside of the 'Stiq: Is a mostly quiet, mostly Hispanic, quickly gentrifying neighborhood in Brooklyn. (Call it "East Williamsburg," or just plain Bushwick.) Lex and I share an Astroturf'd yard set away from the street between buildings, where she really got her flower pots going this spring and on warm evenings we dine at Brittany Perez's just-painted baby blue (from pink) picnic table. On late nights back from the city we hit up the best sandwich place no one's heard of: T&A Deli. There, Alex greets us with, "Goodmornin! The usual, baby?"
Why I'm blogging: I needed to supplement my income, so I responded to a Craigslist ad for a part-time writing position on a developing video game blog. I submitted three samples in the style of a site I'd never heard of: "Engadget." Five weeks later I got a response. I was hired and began blogging for Joystiq alongside the then only contributor, Ben Zackheim. Coming up on four years later, Joystiq has grown far, far (far!) beyond my naive expectations and completely sucked me up with it.
First Game Experience: Big bro's ColecoVision. I remember Tarzan, mashing the 5-key to set off the monkey-man's signature cry; and thrashing the mini-wheel on the mammoth alternate controller to flicker around the bases in Super Action Baseball; and helping my color-blind brother figure out which blocks he'd changed in Q*bert. Plus: River Raid, Time Pilot, Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle, Cosmic Avenger, Donkey Kong, Venture, Zaxxon, Front Line, Looping, Mouse Trap -- yeah, they got me hooked young...
Favorite Games: Contrary to what GTA IV reviewers will tell you, there still isn't anything quite as "perfect" as Castlevania: Symphony of the Night -- but I'm gonna go with five close to my heart: The Legend of Zelda, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, Ninja Gaiden (NES), F-Zero, and Halo ... and five shoutouts to: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game, Tecmo Super Bowl, Gitaroo Man, Pac-Man C.E., and Shufflepuck Café.
Stick or Automatic? Stick.
There's more to come every Tuesday and Thursday.
