VITAL STATISTICS Date of Birth July 21, 1984 RPGamer Hire Date February 17, 2008 RPGamer Position Preview Hero Location Madison, Wisconsin Personal Homepage None Hobbies 1) Tabletop gaming 2) Writing 3) Game design Favorite Movies 1) Six-String Samurai 2) The City of Lost Children 3) The Princess Bride Favorite RPGs 1) Suikoden II 2) Earthbound 3) Mother III 4) Suikoden V 5) Disgaea: Hour of Darkness

Expect a photo as soon as I can get this zombie makeup off! ... Uh oh!

    Hello! I'm Zach, and I'll be your previewer today. I've gone by many internet names in the past, but keep on coming back to this one. It's my real name, and I'm fond of it. Being a kender, moogle, or what-have-you was right fun, but I don't identify with it anymore. I have grown-up dreams now, like steady employment or becoming a stegosaurus rancher. Where does that leave me for my introduction? Let's see...

   I'm a recent graduate of Cornell College where I majored in English and History. During that time I focused on the tabletop side of my gamer spirit and ran many a fine story under the auspices of the Chess and Games club. There were video games too, of course. Loud, bombastic fun, mainly. The days when I engineered five simultaneous Disgaea runs (with spectators) were, sadly, rare. I took time off from all that wild stuff to publish a slick little number called Intergalactic Cooking Challenge. It's a niche product to be sure, but I'm content with having aided the long-suffering fans of slapstick cooking battle anime in attaining their story-telling dreams.

   Console RPGs, however, are my roots. I started with the promotional copy of Dragon Warrior that Nintendo Power used as seed for the American RPG market, and have yet to regret their tasty, tasty bait. Small projects appeal to my sense of personal aesthetics, and I've been slow in coming to accept good-looking games. ASCII is good enough for Nethack, so who's complaining?! Despite this sole streak of premature greyness, I'm an urbane, objective kind of guy. That's the role of the video game journalist in the dawning millennium, hey? Nevertheless, my fannish impulses come out full force when discussions turn to matters Suikoden. Come industry crash or high water, that's where I'll be.

   Feel free to e-mail me with any of the usual hilarities. Rock on.

   Last Updated: February 18, 2008