The Game Fanatics Staff 

Writer: Ben Runnings

Ben graduated from college-land with a degree in game design and spends his time working on little game projects of his own. He also runs the official Game Fanatics Podcast, the G-Spot. Hobbies include: continuing to learn Japanese, playing video games (duh), reading (in Japanese and English), writing (also duh), and rock climbing. He has also recently gotten back into PC gaming after many years of having terrible computers and loves it. 

Question 1: How did you become interested in online journalism and what attracted you to The Game Fanatics?

Well I had always been interested in games to the point where I went to college and majored in game design. I graduated at a pretty bad time for the economy and all that, plus breaking into the industry isn’t easy so I just kind of floated around for a bit. Turns out the school I went to sponsored TGF and I saw a link to them on Facebook. So I looked it over and submitted my stuff and then was brought on. I’ve always had an interest in writing so it seemed like a good idea. And I could get some kind of related industry insight and all that.

Q 1.1: I guess a follow up to that. If you had a job in the game industry, what would you like to be doing? 3D modeling, character modeling, programming, environment art?

Level Design, General Design, or Writing. Along those lines.

Question 2: What video game or franchise is your absolute favorite? Why?

Game and franchise are two different things to me since a franchise has so much more to offer so it will almost always win. Favorite single game is tough, but easily one of my favorites that has no sequels would be Killer7. I’d sum it up as if Quentin Tarantino was Japanese and he made a game. It’s esoteric, violent, and bizarre. There’s a subplot (a subplot!) about a nuclear attack on Japan that culminates in a boss fight against some executives whose heads pop open and you have to shoot their brains. And that’s one of the more normal things that happens. Love that game.

As for series, I’d say Zelda. Not sure if I need to qualify that at all (Laughs). A close second would be the Resident Evil series. I feel like i’m forgetting a bunch of others that I like but whatever.

Question 3: Do you have goals that tie in with being a part of The Game Fanatics and/or the gaming community?

This has kinda been answered but I’d like to continue to grow the podcast and start doing a streaming and video project. Like I’m working on a video review of DMC right now.

Question 4: What is the first console you ever purchased or had gifted. What was the game you played and what were your earliest memories?

My earliest gaming memories are of playing Asteroids on the Intellivision. I was super young and it was way after the Intellivision had come and gone, like 94 ish. I didn’t even know what it was until years later. But that only barely counts. I remember going with my dad to buy a Genesis and that came with Sonic 2. I played that for years afterwards.

Question 5: If you could turn Charles into any kind of animal, which one would it be?

A human! Or octopus.

Question 6: Aside from writing and podcasting, what do you do to entertain yourself apart from TGF?

Video games! I took a few years of Japanese in college and I like to continue learning things. I usually play a game or two in Japanese each year, jrpgs. I’ve played FF13, Star Ocean 4, Ni no Kuni, and Tales of Xillia, all in Japanese. I think that’s all of them. While gaming I listen to other podcasts. A lot of them. I think I’m subscribed to 15 or so. Other than that, just the normal people things like music and TV shows. Mostly sitcoms.