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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.
Joystiq blogger bio: James Ransom-Wiley
I've split my working hours blogging about games with a full-time job for a nonsectarian Buddhist foundation since July 2004. I care deeply about both matters, games and Buddhism, which are sometimes, but not always, at odds ...Does disregarding the bodhisattva's way of life within a virtual world affect the worlds without? How about following it? Even so, if a single human life is so precious, should fleeting moments be spent playing video games? Is there merit to be generated? These, my friends, are questions worth asking.Nearly 2,500 posts later, I suppose it's time for a proper introduction: First game experience: ColecoVision -- my older brother's set. I used to play around with Tarzan, mashing the 5-button to initiate the monkey-man's signature cry (sorta sounded like this). Other than that, I was too young to understand the goal -- if there was one. Games that changed me: Rampage (Arcade), Super Mario Bros. (NES), The Legend of Zelda (NES), Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (NES), Shufflepuck Café (Macintosh), Ninja Gaiden (NES), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade), King's Quest V (MS-DOS), Battletoads (NES), Street Fighter II (Arcade/SNES), F-Zero (SNES), Madden 92 (SNES), Wolfenstein 3-D (MS-DOS), DOOM (MS-DOS), NBA Jam (Arcade/SNES), GoldenEye (N64), Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation), Tekken 3 (PlayStation), Halo (Xbox), Vice City (PC), Guitar Hero (PlayStation 2), Brain Age (DS). Potential sources of bias and conflicts of interest: (1) Nintendo (NES) was one of my first loves (lost after N64) -- but rediscovered with DS; (2) so, I saw Sega as the 'other guy,' and later Sony -- though I owned Genesis and PlayStation, and I own PlayStation 2 and PSP; (3) I quit gaming between the ages of 18–20, until a friend showed me Halo -- Xbox is the reason I'm back to playing games today; (4) I'm suspicious of consolidation, sequels, and mainstream "hits"; (5) and I root for the underdogs, the indie guys & gals; (6) especially if an "innovative" risk is involved. Why I'm blogging about games: I needed to supplement my income, so I responded to a Craigslist ad for a writing position on a developing video game website. I submitted three samples in the style of some site called 'Engadget.' Five weeks later I got a response. I was hired and began blogging for Joystiq alongside Ben Zackheim. Some 26 months later, Joystiq has grown beyond my expectations, and while I continue to work on expanding my writing beyond the scope of games, I find myself drawn to this medium, particularly its relationship with popular culture and its potential to tell good stories. 'Holla.
