I have been a part of Lords of Gaming or LOGNET for a little over 2 years. In that amount of time, I reviewed plenty of games, interviewed devs and game creators, and wrote plenty of articles. My articles have ranged from monthly updates, guides, insights on certain topics, news, and a few community pieces. So this is my 100th article and I decided to share some of my journey. That ranges from learning, success, tragedy, and humbling experiences. This is my story!
Never Writing
I feel before we venture into my Lords of Gaming journey I gotta share why I never even had the thought to be where I am. I graduated in the 2007 High School Class from Shelbyville Senior High School. You might be wondering how this relates to writing for LOGNET? Well in middle school before we got to high school we had a visit from Oprah and not for a good reason. She came to our middle school and high school with new’s crews. We had a pretty big class, and she came to our schools because we had extremely high drop-out rates. On top of that, in middle school over half the class failed the ever-important I-Step testing in 6th grade.
This testing is imperative for graduation and school to measure some amount of success. So you have to pass it in the grades that it super matters. I would like to say our school was full of very intelligent people, but there were struggles. Moving along to high school and in my junior year, I failed 2nd semester of my English class. This is important because it was all about writing. I made it up my senior year and still managed to graduate pretty high in my class. After leaving high school, I always thought I would never need to write again. Man, was I wrong!
The Journey Begins
In the beginning, I had no desire to write for anyone and that included LOGNET. I stumbled into a lot of info about the new IP Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. All I wanted to do was talk about this information and the game in general with whoever would listen. That’s when I randomly discovered Lords of Gaming and the Iron Lords Podcast(ILP) on youtube. At this point, I had a couple of friends in the community that let me come on their shows, and it was a great time. It allowed me to get my feet wet and get rid of the “podcast jitters.” The chances given to me by Wilmy Hood, Fun Speculation, and Spooky Sprocket during this time were key to my confidence building. However, I had a goal in mind. I really wanted to talk to the Lords on ILP both about Eiyuden and share my gaming story.
The info I had, besides what Eiyuden’s Kickstarter gave us, was that I had learned about the Game Pass deal ahead of time, but I didn’t want to outright bring that up. So I messaged Lord Addict telling him he should check it out since I knew he liked JRPGs. I don’t know if he ever did, so I went ahead and sent some of the Kickstarter info I had to Lord Cognito, CEO of Lords of Gaming. Lord Cognito, known informally as Cog, sent me a long message and brought up the idea of writing about Eiyuden for LOGNET. Despite my misgivings, Cog was very convincing, and I agreed to submit a sample article. An article that would end up becoming my first for Lords of Gaming.
Enter World Boss: Josh Reding
By the title here you might think, that sounds ominious. It’s not as bad as it sounds, but mentally I had a major hurdle to overcome. That hurdle was our then Editor-in-Chief, now our Lead Review Editor, the legend Josh Reding. I had a couple of articles under my belt at this time, and they garnered a decent amount of views, especially for a first-timer. My next article on the agenda was everything we knew about Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires. I have always loved Kessen and the Dynasty Warriors series and thought this would be a home run. I’ll knock it out of the park. Enter World Boss, Josh Reding.
This would be the first one he would edit, and I was going to knock his socks off. When I tell you it looked like he grabbed a can of red ink and threw it at my article that would be an understatement. Let me tell you, I was humbled with a quickness. The crazy thing to me at the time, that I understood later, was he liked the article, but I needed to learn certain things. Josh wanted to get the best out of me. I learned quite a bit from Josh and I would not forget that moment.
Do I Belong Here
After riding high for a time with my Lords of Gaming articles doing great numbers, I hit a rough patch. I went from around 8 or 9 hundred views down to 300 and mentally that shook me. When this happened, immediately I began to think about if I truly belonged as a writer. At this time, I hadn’t quite built the friendships I have now yet, so I really didn’t think there was anyone to talk to. So honestly I did what I am sure many people do, and I bottled it up inside and tried to figure out a solution myself. Ultimately, after a couple of bad articles, I tried not to focus so much on the views and just tried to put out some quality stuff people wanted to see. This was a low point at LOGNET that I’m sure not many people knew about.
My First Review
After a while, the time finally came for me to have an opportunity to do my first review. I chose something I had a decent experience with since I have done wrestling over the years with a little on the indies. I chose WWE2K22. Of all the different types of articles, reviews take some of the most time and work, and I had no idea till this. Trying to pour over every aspect of the game since we got it the day before it came out was a struggle. My editor for this review was none other than Josh Reding. He helped me a lot here cause I was definitely in over my head with my first review. All he wanted was it to be as good as it could be, and thanks to him I learned a lot once again. After this experience, I don’t struggle with reviews and I have a newfound respect for the people that review games.
Tragedy Strikes
Since the beginning of my time at Lords of Gaming, I have talked non-stop about the Eiyuden Chronicle games. With the launch of Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising it was my chance to review one. Then bam, out of now where tragedy struck. I got a message telling me my cousin passed away. This devastated me. He was my partner in crime growing up and we were always inseparable as kids. We had recently started talking again, and it was like we never stopped. Then this. Needless to say, I was shook and didn’t know what to do at first. Once again, I tried to bottle things up again and keep moving forward. Then about 3 hours later, I found out that one of my best friends of over 20 years had also passed away.
This double blow absolutely devastated me. I knew I definitely couldn’t do anything gaming related at that time. Fortunately, my friend and current Associate Editor Joe Repko stepped up when I asked him if he would do the review. I knew Joe had a love for these styles of games, and he would do a great job. which he did. One of my worst months ever and I didn’t do anything for LOGNET for a few weeks. People did check on me throughout this time. One person who helped out a lot with a few conversations was Pong Soul. Thanks to Pong’s advice, I was able to get back to a good place and return to Lords of Gaming.
Finding My Lane
Eventually, I would try to proverbially “find my lane” where I excelled for Lords of Gaming. I was worried about going out of my comfort zone and losing traction. I would try to avoid popular news a lot, so I wouldn’t have to compete with other great sites like IGN, Windows Central, etc. Halo Infinite is getting delayed? Well let me go over here and write about “Surviving in Cyrodil Pvp at a Low Level.” MLB: The Show is going to be in Game Pass? Well let me write about where Beyond Good and Evil 2 is. I just wanted to do my best and hold onto any traction I got. Still, I shied away from good hard-hitting news at times that could have been great for Lords of Gaming.
I would travel off the beaten path and write about cool stuff, but never the big or breaking news. This was also right about the I started to get the occasional DM from the trolls. I never let them affect me really, but there were times they would tag my brethren or people of podcasts I’d gone on. All of this to try and tear someone down. So at this point even though I was ignoring them, my lane was looking nice and safe.
Image courtesy of Ken Levine, Allsport, 1991, NBA title a new ‘bawlgame’ for Jordan – Chicago Sun-Times (suntimes.com)
Michael Jordan Mentality to LOGNET
At one point we had a writer meeting where we had someone join the team that was a big Nintendo fan to help us cover that more. I remember Lord Cognito saying he wanted us to try and hit more all-around topics if we could for all platforms. After this meeting, I left thinking to myself I can’t play it safe forever. I needed to prove something to myself and our Lords of Gaming audience. I still did my normal stuff like the Eiyuden updates and all that off-the-beaten-path. But I also went outside my comfort zone and started grabbing things that caught my eye. Monthly Pokémon articles, periodic VR pieces, even China trying to control their people’s gaming times, I went for it all. I even got my first taste of interviewing game developers. If you know Michael Jordan, he was always going hard trying everything he could to win, and he won. I went from being a single lane writer, to someone who could do anything for the site. Our Scribe of the Month award was the icing on the cake.
Should I Stay or Should I Go
As we reach the end of 2022 for Lords of Gaming I thought I was a shoo-in for Scribe of the Year. I felt no one had as much unique stuff as I did. Even with 2 tragic deaths, I thought I killed it. I had dev previews, unique pieces, the highest average views, networked the most, and even big community articles. There were a lot of amazing people from the gaming community in the December article. I even had the “Wizard of Xbox” Jason Ronald in it. Well, we get to the end of the year meeting which involves LOGNET awards that we do. We get to the big moment, and my name wasn’t called for Scribe of the Year. I didn’t say much after this.
They explained how it was super close and off by like 1 vote or something. Then later in the day, they announced a December Scribe of the Month which they don’t usually do. Because this is where the Scribe of the Year is announced. They said I won December Scribe of the Month, and I felt like it was a pity award. I was on vacation so I pretty much stayed out of Discord for a while. One of the editors messaged me on Twitter and checked in on me. I told him how I felt, and I was thinking about quitting writing. He assured me the work everyone did was appreciated including mine. We talked for a while and I said I needed time to think.
Talking to the Head Cheese
Eventually, I finally decided to message Cog and express how I felt and why I disagreed. I laid out all the facts, and he appreciated my determination and mentioned his side and why the choice was made. Though, I still disagree with the decision, but I respect their choices. I do want to say that I have no ill will for any choices made. Not every story or journey is completely positive. After a week or so I decided I was in for the long haul and Lords of Gaming was my home. My mindset was that I wasn’t going anywhere not then, not ever!
Pax East 2023 Approaching
Pax East 2023 was coming and pretty much going to be my first big convention. So I started 2023 with a vengeance with dev interviews and reviews for Lords of Gaming. I reviewed 4 games in a single month for LOGNET. I even played Blood Bowl 3 for around 14 or 15 hours straight to just get the review out before other people did. Then I had an article about strategy games that went for over 21k views. with all this going on you would think I was heading into Pax East determined. Actually, I was pretty nervous about going. I was to meet up with multiple people I had never met before. Also was going to stay with someone I had never met before. The nerves were definitely there cause I am usually not comfortable around people till I get used to them.
Well, thanks to King David who started talking to me quite a bit helped calm my nerves and assured me he had me. Not only that, but I was talking to Lord Cognito pretty often. Normally I’m not as trusting right away, but if you know Cog and King you know how good of people they are. After a couple of phone calls and Cog helping me out, I was completely confident they had my back. This guy from Indiana felt like he could take over the world. Even though I had only flown once before, I was ready.
Pax East 2023
Once I arrived at the airport, I was ready. Big shout out to “Magic Gene” because he helped me out so much. I stayed with him and rode with him every day. Gene provided some aspects of gaming and writing I never thought of and I built a great friendship with him. We eventually met up with the rest of the Lords of Gaming team and WOW! Everyone except for me, Cog, and Sov were like 6 foot 7. I might embellish just a little there. But from the moment I started talking with them, I felt comfortable, and they treated me like family. It truly felt like I had known them for years. Once the convention began, Lords of Gaming got to work.
We didn’t just have fun, we put in the work there. On Media Day we got there an hour early and we had interviews all day, every day. Everyone from big names such as THQ Nordic and Daedalic Entertainment all the way to Drattzy Games and Mega Cat Studios. Lord of Gaming wanted to shine as much light on as many games as we could. I had the opportunity to follow Cognito and Petey around and learn the “tools of the trade” so to speak. Interviewing developers is a lot different than cutting a wrestling promo.
Meeting People At Pax
When I tell you Lords of Gaming capitalized on every opportunity I mean it. We spent a good time with our Valari partners. Even had some extended time at the Demeo booth as well. Lord Sovereign got some hands-on with Demeo and the PSVR2, and he liked it. We hung out with Dom from Wicked Good Games and even Mr. Matty Plays. We randomly saw on Twitter that Major Nelson was going to be at a barcade so we made sure to jet over there. We talked to him for a good bit and had some great conversations. Even met up with Hip Hop Gamer!
There were a lot of Lords of Gaming fans that came up to talk and loved our matching shirts. Even Jake Baldino hung out with us for a bit in the press room. On our last night, we tried to do an in-person episode of ILP which didn’t turn out so great. I will say though the dinner afterward was amazing. I learned a lot about everyone as well as shared some personal stuff about my life with them. Hargeet Chani had dinner with us that night and even Jake Baldino showed up to hang out. It was one of the best dinners I have ever had. When the trip came to an end, I can honestly say it was the best trip ever!
The LOGNET Future
Now I can’t say I can tell you exactly what my future at Lords of Gaming will entail. Obviously, I will be going to Pax East again, and as many events as I can with the team. I have some stuff planned that will be a surprise. Branching off for some tech stuff soon, and obviously, the reviews will keep coming. You know all about my love for Suikoden and Eiyuden Chronicle and that isn’t changing either. Expect the unique stuff you have grown to love as well. Some goals that I do have in the future are to have Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond, and Aaron Greenburg take part in a community article I do. There are a couple of developers I would love to interview as well like Yoshitaka Murayama.
In the future, I hope to continue to improve with each piece I work on. Maybe I even become a panel member on a podcast one day. I believe Lords of Gaming has the potential to be the best. The Lords at Pax showed me that this is a family, and they all stick together. I aspire to have the people/talking skills of Lord Cognito. I want to have the confidence of King David. Then you got to have the intelligence of Lord Sovereign, and the never give up attitude of Lord Addict. We truly have an amazing team at Lords of Gaming, so you can expect big things to come!
