Hi everyone, my name is Tha Meat, and I’m addicted…to joining an online gaming oriented community, leaving comments on many articles and c-blogs without properly introducing myself.


I know the rules, yet when I first joined Destructoid I ignored them, thinking that I will just visit the site, obtain videogame related news and get out. What I realized soon afterwards was how awesome the community actually is. So why didn’t I post my intro back when I realized how tits Destructoid was? Well, I guess you could say I was lazy. Being in Grad school for architecture and having a full time job really consumes a majority of my time. But I feel that I use that excuse too much in my life. I think the real reason why I didn’t post was my paranoia surrounding a negative backlash towards a bad intro post or someone pointing out how bad of a writer I am or some other excuse convincing myself that I didn’t need the introduction. Well I think that day has finally arrived where I properly introduce myself.

The name is Tha Meat, and I’m 26 years old and currently live in Boston, MA with my GF. I am in my third year of grad school attempting to get my Masters in Architecture. I love the city and love the fact that PAX East will be held within walking distance to my apartment. I hope to meet and hang out with many of you who will be attending. My life is fairly hectic recently and not much time can be spent playing games. In fact, I wished this morning that I had more time I could devote to playing videogames. I guess that makes the time I do spend playing more enjoyable and worth it, right?

I have been playing games for my entire life starting with the NES. I remember my dad bringing it home one day hooking it up and then playing Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt with my sister while I watched because I was still a little whippersnapper. Then something happened. My entire family lost all interest in the videogame system and I took the reins and started my life long relationship with the medium. My first real game that I remember playing and being infuriated by was Punch Out. I would play the game for hours trying to memorize my opponents tells and punching patterns. For the first portion of my life I remember being a fan of ALL Nintendo systems. I believe the only Nintendo system that I haven’t owned is the Gameboy Color. Yes, I do own a Virtual Boy but have no clue where it is.

After the first true console war between the SNES & Genesis (I owned both) I transitioned into the next generation with the N64. I was completely mesmerized with the graphics and 3D environments. After a friends recommendation, I soon purchased a Playstation so that I could play FFVII and Castlevania: SOTN. After this transition, I went Benedict Arnold on Nintendo and became an utter devotee to all things Sony. I have owned a majority of mainstream systems up till now, excluding the 360. In my past, I have owned the NES, SNES, Gameboy, Game Gear, Genesis, N64, Playstation, Playstation 2, Dreamcast, Gamecube, Xbox, PSP, DS Lite and finally the PS3 & Wii. Oh yeah, I also never owned a Saturn. I also do a lot of PC gaming but limit myself to whatever gets released on Steam.

Interestingly, most of the games I play are DLC. Probably because of my life and the time I no longer have to play videogames. I don’t really buy too many new games and usually stick to used whenever I need to add something to my collection. I also like not spending $60 on a new game. This usually prevents me from buying brand new games until they drop in price. The downloadable games that the Playstation and Wii platforms offer hold me over fairly well. I also purchase many games for my iPhone and am currently addicted to Canabalt.

I am really looking forward to the release of Left 4 Dead 2 and offer my Steam ID to anyone who would like to join me in this awesome experience. I’m sure that this game will hold me over for a long time if not longer than the original L4D did. I’m also looking forward to the New Super Mario Bros. Wii. My girlfriend has also played games for most of her life, but on a much smaller scale than myself. She’s pretty awesome. This year she gave me her old NES and Genesis for my B-day. The NES came with the Advantage arcade stick and also SMB3, TMNT & Tetris all with original game boxes and instruction manuals. Growing up with an NES, and being a pseudo collector of videogames you realize how awesome that is. She also brought home the Super Extreme The Beatles Rockband Edition the other week. I asked why she was so spontaneous with this purchase and she replied with “I want us to have a videogame that we can play together.” Here is where New Super Mario Bros. Wii comes in. The co-op in this game seems like a lot of fun that the both of us can enjoy. I’m very lucky to have someone who can get excited about one of my passions and also enjoy the time she spends playing with me. She even mentioned that she wanted to get into L4D2 with me. I’m telling you, one of those trademark Kojima “!” from the MGS series miraculously appeared above my head. I was really happy to hear that.

I like to play all types of games with the exception of MMOs and point-n-click adventure games mostly due to not playing them. I am currently playing Critter Crunch and Battlefield 1943 on my PS3 and am seriously over playing the L4D2 demo on my PC. I have Scribblenauts in my DS right now but haven’t progressed too much into the game because I was fairly disappointed with the controls. It’s a great game, but it didn’t really catch my interests like I thought it would. Then comes my PSP where I just dl’d Wild Arms 2 and waiting patiently to delve into that story.

I think I can wrap up here. Phew! That wasn’t so bad. Now that I have this posted, it feels like a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders. Now I’m not sure how much I will actually be posting on the c-blogs in the future, but promise that if I do I won’t spam some meaningless BS and push someone else’s blog off the ladder. I hope that you have enjoyed my intro and taking a little peak into my world. I look forward to participating in the community. Also, I know that this intro is a little long, hopefully you don't mind.

FYI
PSN – THA_MEAT_CLEAVER
STEAM – MEAT_CLEAVER