In these pages you will find a paradox: I love and hate games.
To me games are more than a hobby. For over eighteen years I have been playing games in one form or another. I have destroyed keyboards and mice. I have screamed at Televisions. I have tested friendships. I have well-defined thumbs. Games have advanced tremendously since my days of monochrome monitors and switching diskettes. But they still have a long way to go.
This website started off as a simple diversion for when I wasn’t playing games. I wanted to write reviews, but I didn’t want to give a final score. I wanted to record what it was about the game that made me keep playing - or pound it into the earth with my heel. It has turned into something more, something I take very seriously. Especially since the gaming weblog has made its permanent home on the internet alongside traditional mass gaming media.
I have received a great deal of feedback through comments and email since I’ve started writing for this site in 2003, and thankfully most of it has been positive. Probably the greatest comment I ever received was that my overly intense review of Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines made them want to play the game, despite its obvious faults. This tends to have its effects.
But you want to know who is writing this.
I occasionally hide behind the alias “gatmog” as a carryover from the days where nicknames were a badge of honor. With weblogs filling up the landfill that has become the internet, it seems like things are going the opposite way. Everyone wants to be recognized. Consider it a statement.
Andrew Smale is the name concealed by the alias. I live in Markham, Ontario, Canada. I have a day job that has nothing to do with games.
When I am not absorbed in a game, I am listening to music. Another form of media I take too seriously.
I am never one to pass up an opportunity to play Axis & Allies.
I am married to the greatest person in the universe (who knew that someone with my interests and social ineptitude could find such a woman?) We have a dog that walks all over me at the best of times. On August 30th, 2006 I became a father and ever since I have been trying to find a balance with one of the greatest hobbies I have ever known, and writing about them.
Games and gaming will always be a part of my life. For that reason, this site continues to exist.
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