Further Nostalgia From the Last Five Years (Give or Take) - Feature Articles

Feature: How an Aside Became a Five Year Plan

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Further Nostalgia From the Last Five Years (Give or Take)

From Mark Leung - Five years can seem like a long time, or a very short time as I'm sure you all can relate to. With this in mind, I can honestly say that writing for the Empire these four years has indeed felt like a very short four years . While no

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Mark Leung REALLY likes his games

doubt this is very cliché, time has flown by; things have changed in my life throughout this time but the Empire and my love of games has remained.

Things have progressed from wondering if anyone cares about my review for an adventure game I think no one will play, to seeing quotations from my reviews up on sites that collect scores for games from different sites; I always do get a kick out of seeing that! Writing for the

Empire has led me to a greater appreciation for games than I may not have had, because in writing reviews for games, I force myself to consider, as in all critical writing, why I find a game good or bad. The why of something is always to be debated but in searching for the critical truth, I find some absolutes that I may not have found were I not forced to look for them. There have been times when I was literally forcing myself to play a game in order to write a fair and comprehensive review. At the same time, there have been games where I was hard pressed to stop playing the game long enough to write the review even after finishing it. Through these experiences, I've found games that I consider art, poetry, literature, a combination of all three, and others that were just a plain awesome time. I'm definitely looking forward to the next few years as the gaming industry and its target demographic matures. Hopefully we'll see even more of an evolution in the way games are perceived and in what they can offer and achieve in both technically and socially. Anyway, here’s to many more late nights of writing and gaming. Remember, it's not sleep deprivation if you make it a lifestyle!

- Mark Leung

From Siddharth Masand -

I remember my younger years back in high school, when times were much simpler and easier. No worrying about trying to review games and balance school at the same time. Unfortunately as situations change, some things become more difficult to cope with, but this long summer break has given me a lot of time to reflect on my past, both game and non-game related.

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It seems like only yesterday I was working on my first review for AE.

Certainly, writing about videogame related material never really popped into my mind until my high school years – I’ve spent most of my life living in a small town of about 8,300 people so there really isn’t much to do for fun.

I remember in the Summer of 2002 having just finished working my first real job at the local grocery store and had a few weeks to spare before school started. I was eagerly anticipating the release of Sony’s network adapter and SOCOM: US Navy SEALs for the PS2. I still remember the August 27^th release date engraved in my old

siddharth masand

Sidd is ready to take your order and kick your butt in SOCOM II.

calendar. I had read a preview by one of the editors on a different gaming website who was critiquing a demo he received from E3 that year (E3 2002) for the single player portion of game.

I had a plethora of questions about the game and chatted with the editor and he briefly mentioned that he received free games to review. I immediately forgot all about SOCOM, and all my attention focused on his phrase “free games”. I thought perhaps someday I could be in the same position as he was and be an editorial writer for a video gaming website or magazine.

Later that summer I began writing for a few smaller sites (most of which are no longer running). I didn’t discover AE until October of 2002. I immediately submitted an application, which was more thorough (cover letter and resume) than any other site I applied to. (I’d be lying if I said free games weren’t a good enticement to join AE.)

After almost a month I got accepted for a writing position and it was nice to step foot into a website that seemed to have a growing fan base and solid leadership.

It certainly took some time for me to get used to working for a website like AE. The writing format for articles differed greatly from previous websites I worked for.

There are certainly a lot of things I would like to accomplish while writing for AE. First and foremost possibly attend a gaming even such as E3. Perhaps 2006 will allow me to attend E3 for the first time and experience what it’s really like, rather than seeing it through someone else’s eyes.

The last three years have certainly been great experience for me to try something new and do something I really enjoy. I’ve certainly enjoyed my time writing for AE and I’m hopeful that the future is as kind to me as the past few years have been.

- Siddharth Masand

(August 18, 2005)