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About Me

Anything PS3, PS2, Old-school Mac (Dark Castle FTW).

My name is Mark, and I work in finance.

I am a nerdcore individual, and have done pretty much everything I've ever wanted to do in life. I've owned a comic shop, written for GamePro (one article w00t), traveled the world, played a couple CCGs professionally (and actually made money at it), owned 3 other businesses, romanced the most beautiful women and done it all with friends.

I have a blog over at http://www.gamersledge.com/wordpress where all the friends I pick up over the years like Katamari Damarcy hang out and we discuss nerdgasm things. Always looking for interesting people to join us.

There's a bit left on the old to-do list, but I'm pretty happy at my current job because I'm helping people.

I'd call myself a hardcore gamer; I started with el pong, although I was pretty young when it came out. From there I got a 'tennis' game (i don't think they actually had another name), my folks got me an Intellivision for Christmas and that was it; it was all over. I knew I could never get enough. (I get bonus points from all my friends because I still carry a He-Man intellivision keypad cover given to me by a great friend, in my wallet. The cover, not the friend.)

From there, my folks moved to the Ozarks, in the middle of BFE and Nowhere. I learned about the NES and eventually started stealing games from Wal Mart and Toys R Us, back before they had learned. Eventually I got caught stealing em at a video store, and I never did it again. But I bought a SNES from Wal-Mart my sophomore year in high school. Final Fantasy II made me an addict to RPGs. I returned my SNES to wal-mart in its original box and styrofoam my junior year of college. Because I had the receipt, original box and all styrofoam/equip, they gave me full price LOLz. I used that to buy a PSOne. It was that system that really drew me in and Final Fantasy VII and VIII and the original Persona destroyed any chance of me ever losing the RPG bug. I had a friend from Brazil while I was in college, and he was independently wealthy. Every week we would go and buy a SNES game or computer game and play it together and beat it. We were both great at fighters as well, so in my sophomore year I started doing the competitive circuit around KC, and always walked away with money. I've given up fighters mostly now; Tekken, VF, SC, SNK vs. Capcom2.. I play them for fun now; I don't have the time/energy to try to always win anymore... I won't forget the first time I walked into a Japanese arcade... I got 20-hit juggled with Cervantes. I cleaned up on SNK v. Capcom tho, and Virtua Fighter. I fared on tekken as I did on SC LOL.

Anyways, after college I started travelling for work, and was bringing in big bucks as I was gone all week/every week. I got a DC and every game/peripheral made for the system, in fours. I had a projector that I used for work, and when I was home 1-2 days a week, I'd throw parties like Mario Party as a drinking game, or Bushido Blade while drunk. It was great stuff. I picked up 5 ps2s on launch day, and let my friends buy them from me for cost. I got 2 ps3s on launch day, but 1 got cancelled, so the friend I had promised the other two let me get it. I was afraid I was going to be shot/mugged on the way out to the car with it. But it was awesome.

I am a Rhymes with Bony fanboi through and through, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate Xbox or Nintendo.

I did a 50-episode podcast on videogame news/reviews at my website http://www.gamersledge.com/rssfeed.xml

I think it was hellafun and good, but scheduling conflicts with my partner and I led to its ultimate demise.

I produced that podcast, and was putting like 4-5 hours a day into it. It was too much with work; I'm beginning to think that a roundtable format with no sfx is a much better idea LOL.

Anyways, my gamertag on the PS3 is balth feel free to add me if you want to play some warhawk or super puzzle fighter hd turbo remix alpha hyper king kamehameha spirit bomb genshiryoku shin reppu shao koken II.

The only thing that really sucks about having moved back to the 'Zarks is that there are not really any educated nerdcore type people here. I have no friends my age here, so online gaming is pretty important to me.

RPGs; Persona 3, Every Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest VIII, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Elder Scrolls Oblivion, R:FOM, Warhawk, White Knight Story when it comes out.

Gamer Profile

3DS friend code:
Steam:
Battle:
PSN: balth
Mii:
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Following (31)

And now, for something completely different (NVGR..well..GR) Looking to start a gaming group balth | 11:05 AM on 06.05.2008 14 comments

[b]Hello![b] I'm a geek. A nerd. Super Serial. I'm a balanced person, in general, but I LOVE me some 'vidjagames', as the Pres might say before falling off his Segway. But before videogames for me, back in 1981, I donned a pointy hat and was run through my very first experience of something that would not only shape parts of my life, but every single videogamer today: You killed my father... That's right, when I was just 7 years old, my stepbrother ran me through my first dungeons and dragons campaign. I was a rogue, and my goal was to assassinate a wizard. I made it through the whole campaign and then was killed by the wizard at the end. I cried and cried. I was still too young to grasp everything, but all I know is this world of magical fantasy was opened to me, and I played the game throughout much of my life. I eventually migrated to other pen and paper rpgs, and have played more than I care to admit. It helps that I like to write. "But Balth!" you ask, "why the hell are you talking about this NOW and HERE?" Because, my dear friends, tonight at midnight, at 06/06/08, marks the release of: The fourth edition of D&D releases tonight. And trust me, whether you know it or not, it's a huge deal. They have literally gutted the system and replaced old outdated mechanics with fluid, dynamic and fun storytelling. I fully expect to see some of the standards introduced here to trickle down into videogames, just like D&D has influenced every RPG ever made. I have read through the entire Player's Handbook (I have an...ahem..advance copy of the books), and I have to say they've really done a good job with it. I have recently purchased a virtual tabletop here, which does technically make it a bit like a video game. If you have ANY kind of interest in the world of PnP rpg's, I cannot recommend enough that you pick up the trilogy of core books. It is a level-editor, combat simulation and create your own story video game, minus your tv (unless you use a virtual tabletop like me). Prepare to die... that is all.