10 years ago, I introduced myself through a list of 25 Things About Me as a Gamer. As of today, with over 2,000 posts in the chamber, you probably already know way more about me as a gamer than you care to take in. But if you’re just tuning in, or if you want a Coles notes update to how I’ve grown since I wrote the first list, here you go!
In 2009, I created this blog. Though it has – and always will be – a place for me to vent my personal thoughts and feelings about video games, board games, and other nerdy pursuits, I never saw it coming to this point. From running for a decade, to expanding to video and streaming, to having my content reach as many people as it has the world over, to making a number of new friends along the way, it’s been quite the adventure.
This is the 10-year anniversary of the site, so let’s celebrate! Throughout the year, I’ll be reflecting on the decade that was, providing updates to past topics and speculating on the future of the site. Starting tomorrow, I’ll have the long awaited sequel to 25 Things About Me as a Gamer, though with over 2,000 posts about gaming here, it might be stuff you already know. Nevertheless, come back for that and more as we celebrate a decade of In Third Person!
Before I go, a few shout outs to special people who have helped out throughout this journey.
My wife Steff – Thank you for being there for me during all of this. You’ve always supported me being involved with my hobbies and I hope I can be as supportive and helpful to you in your hobbies!
Randy – Thank you for being my brother and lifelong gaming buddy. Besides a lifetime of gaming memories, I always appreciate your appearances on my stream and I’ll always appreciate you carrying the night shift during the Extra Life 2018 marathon!
Jason – We met through our respective blogs years ago and have become friends and podcast partners ever since. You’ve always been great to talk to about games, and I really should have hopped on the Overwatch bandwagon with you years ago. Meeting you and Laura in Vegas will always be a highlight, and maybe someday we’ll meet up again IRL! Also, congrats to you and Laura on your engagement!
Mat– Lost touch after college, but reunited to start the Recurring Bosscast with Jason and I a few years ago. Now on Boss Rush, it’s always awesome talking with you about games, and we really should get us, Liza, Jon, and Steff together again for a board game night! Working on an online Codenames night for us all, but let’s get an in-person get-together in the calendar soon! Bark!
JJ – We met through Splitkick, but our friendship goes well beyond video games at this point. Thank you for being a great friend and I look forward to the day when you’re ready to make your triumphant return to Boss Rush! And if you choose not to, we’ll keep chatting on other avenues as we always do.
Jon – RBD original. I probably should have brought you in during the Recurring Bosscast days, but it’s awesome to have you now as part of the Boss Rush crew! Thank you for being a part of the Extra Life marathon and helping raise money for the kids. We’ll take down Mat & Jascha in NHL someday!
Kris & Rachel – Though we only connected during the latter half of 2018, you’ve made a tremendously positive impact on my life ever since. Over the course of numerous written posts, live streams, mutually-beneficial tech support chats, Disney shaming, and other shenanigans on-and-off-the-record, it’s been awesome to see our friendship grow. Looking forward to seeing where we’ll go and what we’ll create in 2019! #teamkris #teamrachel #freeunclericky #moreofahat
The whole Splitkick crew: Jim, Todd, Adam, Aaron, Ben, David, Dan, and any one else I may have missed – thank you guys for bringing me into your fold. You made me feel like a part of the family. You edited my work with a great level of scrutiny, which pushed me to be the best version of myself. Thank you for the opportunity to start my own show with Jason and Mat. Jim and Todd, I still watch Short Attention Gamer every chance I get! Wishing everyone all the best!
Everyone that’s ever followed my work, regardless of platform – Thank you for your ongoing support! Truly appreciate you having enough of an interest in my work to follow along. I understand it can be really hard to follow at times when I binge on making content for just one fighting game for six months, or when I decide to only write about board games for two years, so it means a lot knowing that you’re there with me through it all.
Anyone who has ever given my content a chance – Thank you for giving me a shot!
Cheers to everyone for a decade of In Third Person. Let’s make the next decade even better!
As the clock strikes midnight tonight, we will bid farewell to 2018. It’s been an eventful one for the In Third Person experience, as I made great strides in expanding beyond the site. Here a few noteworthy things that went down this year!
While I am no stranger to reviewing bad games for my own site or others, I generally pass on the opportunity to do so. As such, I don’t play a lot of bad games per se. However, even though I go to great lengths to avoid duds, some games just fall short of my expectations. While these games aren’t considered bad in the grander sense, these games did let me down more than any others in 2018.
For years, I have kicked around this silly hypothetical question in my head. “In a world where characters are scored based on their abilities within each video-game-related skill, how would I score in each?” In this post, I pick a handful of genres that represent my strengths and flaws as a gamer and give them a score based on a 0-10 scale. Let’s try this out!
Best known for that one terrible rap song that was wildly popular – and to it’s credit for better or worse – probably more influential to the direction of modern music than I’d like to admit, Soulja Boy has entered the gaming industry with the SouljaGame Console and SouljaGame Handheld. Yes, both of these are real…to an extent.
Will be the first to admit that I didn’t watch the show live. Though the Boss Rush crew originally had plans on streaming a live reaction, it’s not every day that you get the opportunity to watch Home Alone with a live orchestra providing the score. I got home just in time to watch the last two award presentations and have more-or-less caught up on the reveals.
You will find better and more comprehensive notes about The Game Awards from pretty much anywhere else on the internet. But if you want personalized notes about the specific things I care about, stick with me!
My experience with the Pokemon franchise has been one largely devoid of PvP. I never touched it in Pokemon X or Pokemon Ultra Moon, the two mainline games I played prior to Let’s Go Pikachu/Let’s Go Eevee. Pokemon Go will be getting a form of PvP soon, but it’s been absent from that game for over two years. The only times I’ve engaged with it were during random instances where I’ve fooled around in Pokemon Stadium on the Nintendo 64 with the default Pokemon.
Taking on Kris from Double Jump the other night in a few Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu/Let’s Go Eevee battles was an eye-opening experience. Even with just the handful of matches we played that night, it gave me a greater appreciation for the franchise’s battle system and how exciting it can be to go head-to-head with another human.
Keeping up with the latest and greatest in games is an unrealistic task for most. With so many new games hitting every week and prices that make it difficult to obtain everything you want, certain games will slip through the cracks. There are also games that weren’t on your radar at the time of release that make their way to the top of your priority list later on. Whatever the case may be, we all inevitably get to some games after the zeitgeist has moved on.
Here’s a list of games that originally slipped by that I finally got around to.
In Third Person at its core has always been a personal outlet. Taking my deep thoughts and feelings around video games and translating them into text, I didn’t really pay any mind to who was on the receiving end of my content. When I started making YouTube videos, I got a bit of a better idea of who that was. Based on their demographic data, the audience for videos was 99% male, ages 18-34. Regardless of what demographic gravitated towards my work, I always felt like the thoughts and feelings I wanted to share in the moment were more important than trying to appeal to an audience.
Things are a little different on Twitch. While I’m pretty sure the vast majority of my followers are male, I’ve chatted with a number of viewers who have identified themselves as being high school or elementary school students. It has caused me to think more about those on the receiving end and the impact I was making on the world.
In Third Person 