Ten Things you didn't know(or cared to ask) about me.

[This is directed at the trolls on BOTH sides that claim the other's GUI is ugly!]

10. I'm a first generation American.
My parents and family(on both sides) hail from Central America. Specifically, El Salvador. Fun fact: As of 2001, the official currency of El Salvador is the United States Dollar(USD).

9. I started gaming in 1985 with the Atari 2600
The first videogame I ever played was Burgertime. I loved that game. I played it for hours. That said, I have zero interest in playing the new Burger Time World Tour. Looking back, it really wasn't that good a game. The only reason the new XBLA/PSN game exists? Hard nostalgia.

8. Videogames kept me out of trouble as a kid.
Being born and raised in SouF CentroW, Los Angeles(now known as "South Los Angeles" because, if you change the name, people will forget the Boyz in tha Hood lifestyle that it's known for) made for an interesting childhood, to say the least. While some might say I missed out on some of my childhood, I would argue that it kept me off drugs, out of trouble and less-dead than some of the people I knew who encountered such problems.

7. I don't complete many games.
I tend to lose interest while playing many games. Of the thousands that I've played, the number of games I've actually beaten would probably come in under a hundred. I would theorize that I have ADD of some some kind but then, I'd rather just blame the game for being uninteresting. I also don't like to replay games(those that have some sort of replay value or a New Game+ mode). Once I beat a game, I'm done. The only exception being Bastion(because it's such an incredible game), Ocarina of Time: 3D(Master Quest), Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem(because it's one of the best games of all time) and last but certainly not least:

6. Half-Life is my favorite videogame of all time.
This game. As stated above, I don't finish many games. I've played Eternal Darkness four times. One for each Ancient: Ulyaoth, Chattur'gha, Mantorok and Xel'lotath(voiced by Jennifer Hale, btw). This 'fact' might be a gimme but I'll still list it for those that have never seen/heard of me. Yes, my avatar is Gordon Freeman standing victoriously over Mister Chef™ because he just shoved that crowbar where only Cortana has been.

5. I used to draw.
No, I was not very good at it but I bring it up because this blog here gave me such a boner to be creative and put pencil to paper again!

4. My nickname is a result of pressure under fire.
When my best friend introduced me to Half-Life, and thus PC gaming, he told me(as I was just about to play a multiplayer round of Half-Life: Deathmatch for the first time) 'Oh, you're gonna need a nickname.' What?! You couldn't have given me some time to think about this!? Crap. Uh, let's see, let's see.. *5 minutes later* 'It could be something you like?' At the time(I was about 15) I was a big Rammstein fan. Cracking under pressure, I didn't even try to come up with a witty variation and just used the band's name itself.

I've never been one to name-hop, so I've had to lie in the bed I made for the last 13 years. I don't mind. It only sucks when signing up for a new service. Also, when in a debate, people like to cite 'herp derp u liek rammstein so ur point is mute', despite my musical tastes evolving greatly since then. For example, I no longer prefer rap as my genre of choice, though I still love old-school hip-hop. I like Power Metal(Hammerfall, Falconer), Trance(Tiesto,Robert Miles, and pretty much all kinds of electronic music) and even a bit of Classical(Brahms, Bach, Mozart).

3. I'm an aspiring game designer.
I say 'aspiring' because I've not really made a serious effort. I used to 'map' back in the Half-Life days, but that boiled down to mostly tweaking and editing existing maps to my liking for fun with friends(moving and removing corridors, adding pathways, etc). I have a concept/design/gameplay/vision/idea ready to go. All I need now is the talent.

2. I hate Halo, Citizen Kane and The Beatles.
Not really. I hate fanboys. Before fanboys, I was merely just not 'into' Halo. Having played Half-Life in 1998(and GoldenEye64 a year before that) I had seen the peak of the sci-fi first person shooter genre. I had also been witness to the epitome of a multiplayer console FPS' experience, with GoldenEye64. When I picked up Halo, I played half-way through the game before I just got bored and didn't really care about the 'Chief, the story, the enemy or why everything of theirs was painted magenta and why they were attacking th-zZzZzZ-sorry, I can't even talk about it without falling asleep. Fanboys made me hate Halo. With their exaltation of it as the best thing to ever exist and how infallible it is. Nope.jpg

1. The reason I chose to make Destructoid my home?
You're reading it! Dtoid really emphasizes community. Something I feel is sorely lacking from other places that I shall not name. Back in 2006 I was reading anything and everything gaming related. I was gorging on all the gaming tidbits I could feast my eyes on. I visited many sites but ultimately settled on Dtoid because they were the only ones who seemed to 'mean it' when it came to putting Community first! Also, I really love this bit about "auditioning":

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[I love reading this every time I'm about to comment!]
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So there you have it! Hopefully this provided some insight on the mind behind the troll(I'm really a nice guy, honest)! Thanks to Tubatic for suggesting the '10 things' format and to EpicKx for making me do this in the first place! <3