A Winner is Me: The Liebster Award

I’ve received a few Liebster Awards over the years, and I’ve always enjoyed using it as a tool to not only meet fellow bloggers, but potentially introduce my readers to other gaming blogs they may not be privy to.

So what exactly is a Liebster Award? It started off in 2011 as a way for bloggers to nominate other bloggers, as a way to both show their appreciation for the nominee’s work and to expand their social network among the blogging community. The word liebster is German for kindest, nicest, endearing, and most importantly, valued, so hopefully it makes a little more sense.

First off, BIG thanks to The Well Red Mage for nominating me!

The rules are simple:

1. Thank the person who nominated you (also recommend linking back to their blog).
2. Answer the 11 questions you’ve been given.
3. Provide 11 random facts about yourself.
4. Provide 11 questions of your own, and nominate 11 other bloggers to do the same.

It may seem a little silly to some, but it’s a good way to get to know one another. We’re all tiny fish in a sea of gaming sites, so a little networking can go a long way.

For this post, though, I’ll be breaking the rules a bit.

Well Red nominated a few of the only bloggers I follow, and I know there’s no way I’ll come up with 11 others. So what I’m going to do is try and provide more in-depth answers to Red’s questions and then follow it up with a list of other blogs you should check out.

The 11 questions Well Red asked:

1: DC or Marvel? (all that matters)

I’d say I’m a mix of both, though I tend to fall in to the DC realm as of late. I grew up with Marvel, reading a lot of Daredevil, Punisher, Wolverine, and Ghost Rider. As I grew up I became more interested in Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc.

2: Favorite superhero?

The Flash. Love the comics, love the show, love Jay Garrick, Wally West, and Barry Allen. I have t-shirts, toys, candy dispensers, posters. At some point I will most likely get a Flash tattoo, though I’m not sure of what. Probably Flash on one leg and Reverse Flash on the other, or there’s a pretty rad Pikachu in the old Jay Garrick costume. Decisions, decisions!

3: Favorite console?

This is a tough one. I was born in 1981, so I was definitely a child of the NES. It was my gateway drug, you could say. My babysitter got one for her son the year it came out and I became enthralled with Super Mario Bros. I sucked pretty hard though — it took me a week to beat the first stage.

My babysitter loved The Legend of Zelda and she was a stay-at-home mom, so I’d sit on the couch watching her adventure through Hyrule while everyone else was outside doing outside things. I’d even pretend to be sick so I could stay home from school and watch her play. When The Legend of Zelda 2 came out, she even came over to my house to help me beat a boss that I was stuck on.

So nostalgia tells me NES is my favorite, but I’m not 100% sure.

Throughout my late teen/early adult life I had a lot of fond memories with the original PlayStation. Final Fantasy Tactics/7/8/9, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Xenogears, Street Fighter Alpha 3… I could go on and on, just like I could with the NES.

It’s definitely a toss up between the NES and PSone (which I’d show my age with and called it PSX)

4: Favorite video game?

I’m frequently asked this, and every time I respond the same way: The Legend of Zelda and Metroid. I can’t choose one or the other, and I don’t feel I have to. This decision is even solidified on my body, as my first tattoo was a Zelda triforce being drained by the titular Metroid.

5: Favorite video game character?

Luigi. I’ve been an introvert for my entire 34 year existence, and I also struggle with depression on a near daily basis. I know there’s not much story to Super Mario Bros., but I always felt that Luigi struggled with a bit of an identity crisis, living in his brother’s shadow, and for whatever reason this self-diagnosis of a fictional character resonated with me.

Whenever I played Super Mario Bros. I purposefully started a 2-player game and let Mario die so I could play as Luigi. When Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA) released, I *only* played as Luigi. Even in Mario Kart and Smash Bros., I always pick Luigi. I played New Super Luigi U more than the Mario variation, and my first Gamecube game was Luigi’s Mansion.

6: Favorite film?

The Goonies, seconded only by Big Trouble in Little China. I used to watch The Goonies every day growing up. Being an only child, an introvert, and anti-social, it allowed me to live out this awesome adventure with a bunch of friends, but without leaving my comfort zone.

Other favorite films are Can’t Hardly Wait, Hackers, Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, The Blair Witch Project, along with the entire series of Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm St films. I live and breathe horror.

7: Favorite book?

Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker. Her entire Clockwork Century series, really, but Boneshaker is what got me in to her stuff. She’s an excellent author, and I love how she blends horror, history, and steampunk together with clever writing and fantastic character development.

If you’re a fan of those genres, I highly recommend her novels.

8: Favorite non-gaming pasttime?

Pro-wrestling. I loved WWF growing up, and watched it any chance I had. I remember my first wrestling pay-per view (Wrestlemania 5), and even got to see a bunch of 80’s legends wrestle live in Baltimore once. Andre the Giant, Ravishing Rick Rude, Mr. Perfect, Ultimate Warrior, Jake “the Snake” Roberts, and Koko B. Ware were on the card, so it’s okay to be a little jealous!

I have an on again/off again relationship with wrestling now, as anyone who watches it will tell you it hasn’t been the best as of late, but I still love it. If I’m bored, or just want background noise, I’ll launch the WWE Network app and put on classic matches from the 80’s and 90’s.

Outside of gaming, wrestling is the only thing I love more than baseball. I’m a diehard, life-long fan of the Baltimore Orioles.

9: Favorite thing about blogging and your blogging goals? (snuck in two!)

I really just enjoy talking about video games, and it just so happens I love to write as well. My goal has always been to be a game journalist, and that dates all the way back to my childhood. I’d thumb through issues of Nintendo Power like it was the Bible, and I wanted to be the person who wrote those articles.

But alas, I’m 34 and in my 2nd year of college, so who knows what’ll happen?

10: Favorite thing you find most inspirational in life?

My mom. I’m a mama’s boy, and I’m not ashamed to say that. I grew up with a dad who wasn’t really around much, he got in to a lot of trouble, and he wasn’t the nicest person in the world, so I can only imagine what that did to her.

He and I patched things up pretty well over the last few years. I quit my job and moved in with my parents after he was terminally diagnosed with emphysema. Unfortunately he passed away about a month ago on May 10th, but I’m glad I’m here for my mom. She’s a strong, strong woman, and my inspiration to be something in life so I can take care of her the way she took care of me.

11: Favorite thing about The Well-Red Mage? (shameless, hehe)

As someone who loves to write reviews, I’d definitely say the reviews. Well Red reviews all sorts of stuff, from Downwell to fucking JAWS on the NES (which I played an embarrassing amount of, by the way).

Overall a rad person that keeps my comment section lively, which I appreciate immensely.

11 random facts about myself:

1. I’ve never played Red Dead Redemption.
2. I’ve only beaten the original Super Mario Bros. once or twice in my life.
3. I think Final Fantasy 8 is better than 7.
4. I think Persona is the best RPG series on the planet.
5. I have a really, really bad The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker tattoo that a friend did (who was just getting in to tattooing). Unfortunately it’s a big tattoo as well.
6. I prefer Pepsi to Coke.
7. I only got in to handheld gaming recently (within the last 2 or 3 years), though I’ve owned nearly every handheld from the OG GameBoy to rare stuff like Wonderswan and Neo-Geo Pocket Color. They’ve never been my thing though, until I got my 3DS and Vita over the last few years.
8. I used to be really, really good at Street Fighter during the Alpha 2/3 days, but I was fucking AWFUL at the Marvel vs. Capcom series.
9. I paid $800 to import the PS2 the day it released in Japan, nearly a year before it arrived in North America. No regrets.
10. I’ve never really gotten in to the Metal Gear Solid series, outside of the original on PSX.
11. I could eat fried chicken every day, but I don’t because I don’t want to die in my 40’s.

In no particular order, these are some blogs/sites you should follow:

• The Buttonsmashers (disclosure: I freelanced a review for them in the past)
• Drakulus
• United We Game
• Comma Eight Comma One
• Counter Attack Games
• CheapAssGamer

Thanks again for the nomination Red!