loonygames' Community Profile: JT

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volume 1, issue 35

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Community Profile:
JT

By Stephanie "Bobbi Bergman

There are some people, who no matter what they’re talking about, will make you laugh. JT’s one of ‘em. I read GameStats as much for the humor as for the news...there’s just a goofy quality about everything over there that I love. Goofy, with serious news and reviews, of course. Anyway, when someone is this nuts, they just are screaming to be profiled. So...JT!

Name/rank/serial number? Before I answer this I'd like to point out that the Geneva convention states that this is all that I would be compelled to answer in the event of my capture by the combatants. Further since I am in the USA I would like to suggest to you that according to the Miranda decision and others you are compelled to offer me counsel before during and after questioning at your expense. The fact that you are holding sharp instruments near me and have a set of thumbscrews in this room leads me to believe that you intend not to fulfill your duties and obligations under said convention and...

Oh geeze Stef! Sorry flashback.

Flashback? I sense a story there...Well...when I was in the Battle Of The Bulge General Patton gave us all a set of C-rations that had these very strange mushrooms in them. They were freeze dried and tasted very strange but we ate them anyway. It turned out that they were peyote and I did the hallucinogenic thing long before Carlos Castaneda and Timothy Leary... of courzs it duz hhhavee itts xide efkts all deeze yearxs laytor.

Okay seriously now: I am Justice T I was recently promoted to the position of Director Of Operations / Editor In Chief of The GameStats News Network. Serial number 650-766-7966

Who were you before you were the grand wizard of GameStats? Oh I must demur the title Grand Wizard. I may have a Southernish moniker but I gave up white sheets when I was moved from my baby crib to a "big-boys Bed". :-) ... Not to mention the real GW of GameStats, Imperious Rex wouldn't want me to be thought of as the final authority here. :-) Thank the stars above that is for him alone.

Seriously, I have done and been a lot of things. I have always worked at least 2 jobs at once.

I have worked in the computer industry since 1982 andhave been on the net since it was ARPA-NET and you could easily name every single Usenet group.

My training and experience are so varied that we'd need about 5 pages just to cover the different topics.

What is GameStats? An addiction!

That’s a very tiny question with a simply huge answer. We cover so much it is hard to wrap up in a few words! :-)

GameStats is (in my personal estimation) the very best gaming news and information network online. We provide an incredible amount of daily news, information, reviews, interviews, and support for the gaming community. We like to think of GameStats as a 'destination resource' for any member of the community looking for information about the computer gaming experience or the industry as a whole.

GameStats provides our readers not only with daily news about the gaming industry and computer gaming, but also with a plethora of fantastic resources for those looking for specific information. A few examples of this are:

* Weekly contests and drawings where readers can win great free stuff.

* A listing of _net-wide_ reviews for thousands of titles

* Of course our very own reviews, previews, and interviews

* A Tips & Tricks section of cheats, walkthrus, & 'god codes'

* A superb career resources section for anyone looking for a job in the gaming industry

* The very best listing of game companies pages anywhere online

All of the above is just part what we offer on the GameStats-Main Anchor site. We also have well over 40 affiliate sites such as GameGirlz.com, The AOE Heaven Gaming Sites, Apolyton, The Westwood Underground, Sega Post, The Power VR Revolution, and dozens more who specialize in a unique area of the computer gaming experience.

The affiliate sites are not an ugly-stepchild to GameStats they are indeed our heart and soul and make GameStats a very friendly and very information rich resource. All of the webmasters on our sites have access to each other via internal mailinglists and affiliation with GameStats truly makes them part of a family.

For the public this means that they can come to us for an incredibly helpful view into almost any aspect of the gaming world and GameStats and our hosted affiliates will have what they are looking for.

What kind of Stats about Games do you offer? :) *JT Grins* Well, that’s a question I am asked quite a lot. I won't bore you with the short answer which would be a dodge anyhow (Our reviews show ratings! Are those not stats?)

The real answer is that GameStats is the name that the site started with before it became what it is today. It was conceived of as a ladder site where players could come and be ranked against each other. Their stats in the games they played were shown and they would win prizes and other things.

While we were doing the rankings it was decided to offer bits of news now and then. As the news grew and the ranking system declined we slowly had a metamorphosis from being a ladder type site into the resource we are today.

The name was well known in the industry at that point and we were what PR folks call 'branded'. We did discuss changing this some time back, but decided that it would be counterproductive from a business standpoint to do so.

You have a pretty heavy review policy...tell me how you really feel. :) Why? If I am nderstanding your question right, the reason that we have adopted the current 5 point review policy is multi-fold. The bottom line is that it is to protect us legally as well as to be fair to each and every company that would like us to feature their product in a fair review. It also protects our readers from what I will politely call 'influenced' reviews.

Without adhering to those rules we could not offer as in depth and honest reviews as we do. In addition the nightmare of shipping and product control would require us to hire a person that did nothing BUT that.

The current policy allows us the leeway to do an exceptionally fair job and to be exactly the same with each and every company and product we deal with. From 19 dollar software to multi thousand dollar hardware.

Readers benefit from the knowledge that we don't 'owe' anyone any favors.

What's with the multiple nicknames...Justice T...Rectitude... *snicker* Another question I get asked a lot. It's actually kind of silly really. First off my email address is rectitude@gamestats.com. The pen name I go by is Justice T or JT.

At one time I played a mud under the name "Tenarius - The Druid Of Rectitude". Since I was hired by John Hoskin who had originally met me through the mud, the T in my pen name is a tip of the hat to the name I used on the mud "Tenarius" and indeed as a little bit of respect to John Hoskin for hiring someone he met on a game. (It really should be stated that our friendship continued long after we both left the mud - so we knew each other very well and had a good feel of each others business sense and ethics before we agreed to work together.)

Justice is actually an old southern proper noun. Since I was going to be reviewing games with an even hand and managing people it seemed appropriate.

Who is the king of the world? Oh my... Now see this is like the age old "Do I look fat in this dress" question that no man would dare answer.

Since I dare not leave anyone out I guess I better make a pragmatic attempt at defining king of the world depending on the subject:

* King of the world of interviewers - Stef "Bobbi" Bergman

* King of the world of female gamers - Vangie "Aurora" Beal

* King of the world of GameStats - John "Imperious Rex" Hoskin

* King of the world of bad puns - Ralphabet (one of my editors)

* King of the world of interns - okay okay no Clinton jokes.

hahahahahaha I like. :)

And what is Gubble king of? Oh Sheeeeesh! One of my affils has been talking behind my back! Gubble is the king of getting me into trouble! That is what Gubble is!

I did a review of Gubble when I first started doing reviews at GameStats and ... well... it was well... err...

I see that one of my affiliates has been talking out of school! Okay damnit. I admit it! Not only do I like first person shooters, but I loved Gubble too! Okay there I admitted it in public!

My wonderful affiliates won't let me live this down! I know… I know it's not macho its not blood curdling, and loving this game is not the way to make you well known as a man's man in this community. It is regularly the topic of a large amount of kidding directed at me. It's a simple little maze and puzzle game like pac man in some ways.. and it is *gasp* CUTE.

That's okay... I'll even call Gubble as I see it!

What are your favorite games? I can appreciate almost any game, though I must admit to my absolute love of anything in the FPS (first person shooter) genre. I started really getting into games that didn't cost quarters when Wolfenstein 3d came out. I never looked back.

I truly loved Half-Life, Shogo, and Doom, but my all time favorite is of course Quake 2.

I also very much enjoy fighter aircraft games which are a cross between arcades and simulations. That is to say I enjoy moderate realism, but I'll be damned if I have the time to do a full preflight check and pull the little rocks out of the tread of my virtual landing gear. At the same time having 2341 missiles for each mission would also not excite me in a flight genre game. I am still waiting for a good helicopter game with this balance.

Don't tell anyone, but I still play Wolfenstein now and again. :-)

What are your favorite websites? Aside from GameStats which obviously is my pride and joy, and ignoring those of our affiliates I really enjoy a huge number of sites on the net.

In the world of Gaming Sites I like Lilith & Eve quite a lot. The fact you are producing it and doing this interview honestly has nothing to do with my answer either!

I also have a lot of respect for Blue, Redwood, sCary, and some of the other well known names. What I like best though are some of the smaller sites. I have literally hundreds of them in a special bookmarks folder. You really miss out if you stay with only the C|Nets and OGR's of the world. Tiny sites won't have the best all the time, but places like Gameslog, Ozone Games Face To Face, and the tiny fan sites that you can find on any number of webrings, are sources of neat little stories and homey atmosphere.

For non game websites I don't miss a day without hitting abcnews.com and altavista for searching for stuff. I also make frequent visits to several specialized websites having to do with hobbies and recreation. Frankly I keep so busy at GameStats 12-14 hours a day I really don't have time for surfing nearly as much as I'd like to.

And just in case you missed JT’s link list above, GameStats is at http://www.gamestats.com!

- Stephanie "Bobbi" Bergman is an associate editor at loonygames. We retract any prior statements about her being normal.

Credits: Community Profile logo illustrated by and is © 1999 Dan Zalkus. Community Profile is © 1999 StephanieBergman. All other content is © 1999 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is just a bad idea. We have lawyers.