SSG Speaks – SSG MagicMike

He used to be Mad. Now he’s just Magic. As an early birthday present for him, let’s take a few minutes to get to know our self-appointed court jester, the king of sarcasm himself, Mike!

 

Tell us a story, Mikey! Tell us a story about how you found SSG!

Well it was a fall night, just like any other, about a year ago. After a long day of work I settled in to play some Black Ops before bed. It was going fairly well, pwning n00bs as per the norm, until two people with matching gamertags got put into my lobby. Just by their style of play I could tell that they were communicating together and using very good teamwork. After about 5 games of being thoroughly impressed by them they left the lobby so I decided to check their Gamer Cards out, see what the SSG in their names meant. In SSG IrishGirl’s and SSG IAmGrant’s bio was a website, Swordandshieldgaming.com. I headed there, read some of the info, made myself a profile and the rest is history.

 

History some of us would like to forget… Since you’ve joined us, has gaming been different for you?

Since I’ve joined SSG gaming has become exponentially better. Up until about three years ago I only had dial up at home so I didn’t even play online, it was all singleplayer and then sell the game for me. But once I went to college I had fast internet and discovered the “joys” of online gaming. As a random it is definitely a blessing and a curse. I had a mic but I rarely used it, and being that I enjoyed playing the hardcore gametype in Call of Duty I was routinely killed for care packages by teammates. Since joining SSG this has all changed and now I love multiplayer, unless it’s Halo.

 

It’s one of the best things ever when a random player, who never even knew that gaming communities like the Good Game Network & SSG even existed seeks us out. Transforming people’s gaming time into something so much better than it used to be is a great thing to be a part of. So, in ten words or less, what does SSG mean to you?

Family isn’t always blood.

 

You speak true. What’s your first gaming memory & what was your first game addiction?

The first game I ever played was the original Mario Bros game for NES. My sisters and I got an NES for Christmas when I was around four or five. I’ve been playing video games ever since. The first game that really got me hooked was Zoda’s Revenge: Startropics II. That game was awesome! There’s no telling how many hours I put into that as a kid, and it really got me hooked on RPGs, something I’m still heavily into today.

 

What do you do when you’re not in the pixel realm?

Usually if I’m not gaming, which isn’t very often, I’m either working or doing something with my car. I’ve always been into cars since I was a kid and that’s actually what I do for a living. My car is my baby and definitely my favorite possession in my life. I’m also a fairly good bowler and bowl on a league every week.

 

 

Now we come to the “favorites” round. Do you feel like you’re on a dating show yet? Do you like long walks on the beach? Candle lit dinners? The smell of Old Spice in the morning? Too personal? Okay, okay, how about just some good reading material?

Well I’m gonna go with three favorite book series, I loved the Inheritance Cycle, all the books where great reads and it was hard waiting for each one. I also loved the Hunger Games books, since they were all out when I started reading them I finished the whole series in less than two weeks. Finally I own almost all of the Halo books, while I may not enjoy Halo MP that much I love the story and the books are excellent.

 

You’re the second Knight to mention the Inheritance Cycle here. I’m going to have to check those books out. Beverage of choice? Favorite t-shirt?

My favorite beverage would be a Captain and Coke. It’s delicious, get’s me drunk, and is usually fairly inexpensive at most bars. As for my favorite t-shirt I recently got a Tobuscus shirt for Christmas and it has quickly become my favorite. If you don’t know who Tobuscus is check him out on YouTube, he’s hilarious and the role model for my life.

 

Man…I have terrible, terrible college memories involving “The Captain.” Never again.  *shudder*  Speaking of uncomfortable, let’s start in with the Knight submitted questions. If your car was destined to explode, would you rather: marry an unattractive, poor, 65-year old woman while making sure she was happy every night (bow chicka bow wow) to keep your car from exploding OR just let it explode?

First off I’m going to find whoever came up with this question and hurt them, badly. You don’t mess with my car. Which leads me to the question…for my car I’d have to give that kind old lady the MagicMike treatment. I could never let my baby explode.

 

“I could never let my baby explode.” So many places I could go with that statement, so few of them appropriate… Moving on, it’s been well documented that you don’t wear pants, is that because you simply do not like pants or is it more of a pants phobia? Where did the whole “pantsless” gag start, anyways?

Hey man pants are over-rated, I’m a firm believer that you should just let it all hang loose but society disagrees. I’ve actually started a pantless club in SSG, we have t-shirts (buh dum tss). I actually believe it started on accident when SSG Jayman randomly asked me one time “Mikey are you not wearing pants again?” to which I responded “Pssh, I never wear pants.” And the gag was born.

 

A gag that just won’t die. Actually, the gag is ok, it’s just the accompanying imagery that’s bothersome. I liked Omega’s suggestion of getting some SSG boxers for the pantless club members. So, if by some total failure of oversight, you were in charge of SSG for a day (we couldn’t handle more than that!) what would you do?

If I was in charge I would heavily abuse my mod powers. Edit people’s posts, change their names, that sort of stuff. Especially change Apollo Running’s name, SSG Apollo does have a good ring to it…

 

Conform Apollo! Conform! If you were going on a roadtrip across the USA and had to bring one Knight with you, whom would you bring and why?

Wow this is a hard one (that’s what she said), I’d probably bring Lee (SSG Fusion), we’re pretty close to the same age so every since we started playing together we’ve been really close. I love that kid and I think a trip cross country with him would be awesome, but I would definitely drive.

 

I miss chainsawing Locust fools with Fusion. On the subject of road trips, what’s the farthest place from home that you’ve been to?

The farthest place I have ever been was just outside of Tampa, FL (I’m from NY). My college swim team went down there for a training trip during winter break and lucky me it was a year where it was like 40 degrees in FL, and we were training in an outdoor pool. It was one of the hardest weeks of my life but it was definitely a blast.

 

Dude. The one time you go to Florida is the one time it’s actually cold? Dumb luck… So one final question, one that ranks up with the great philosophical debates of our age such as “Is there an afterlife?” or “Will the information age change the human condition for better or for worse?” Great minds want to know: Why is MagicMike the way he is?

I don’t know, I guess I was just born awesome, it isn’t really something that can be learned. But seriously I just like to have fun and keep the people around me laughing, so just about everything I do is done with that in mind.

 

Well, as us old folks always say “Do what you’re best at.” You certainly do bring the laughter to both the forums & game lobbies. Thanks for indulging our curiosity & spreading the awesome around. Until next time, excelsior & good games.