MIDLIFE GAMER

Our main goal is to offer a destination for all who are passionate about gaming. A site built on a strong sense of community. A site filled with interesting content. We want to deliver entertaining and informative content of all kinds. Whether it’s with written reviews, previews, news stories and features, or whether it’s through video and audio content. Midlife Gamer is a place where we can all contribute to the commentary about our passion, through site content and the forums.

THE MIDLIFE GAMER CREW

The Founders: Matt (left) and Daren (right)

Matt & I worked together for a time in 2005. We quickly discovered we shared a real passion for gaming. We’d spend hours trading past gaming experiences and entertaining each other with our gaming related stories. Events transpired and I ended up buying a house in the same town and at some point Matt left the company although we maintained contact long after Matt pursued his career elsewhere.

We kept in touch and got together once every so often and the conversation always returned to gaming. In spring 2008 we started to talk about how we could take our common interest and do something interesting with it. The discussion turned to podcasting. We both listened to a wide range of gaming podcasts and would often discuss what we had heard. We agreed that while there was nothing really wrong with what we were listening to, we had an opportunity to do something a little different ourselves. For this reason we started to plan and scope out the ways and means of recording our own podcast, just for kicks.

Our first recording centered around E3 2008. We really enjoyed recording that day despite not having a clue how it was going to turn out. We were really happy with the output at the time and immediately posted it to iTunes just to get it up there. We’ve since lost the original recording, and on reflection, that’s not a bad thing because in reality it wasn’t perfect by any stretch! Nevertheless we got a taste for it and we vowed to continue.

On 28th July 2008 we posted the first regular episode ‘Lemon Party’. We’ve recorded a show every week since, up until December 2011 where we shifted to a fortnightly schedule.

We continue to record and continue to learn. We’re not perfect, we don’t pretend to be. Some of our best material is born out of our mistakes. What we do is what feels right. If it doesn’t feel right we’ll change.

On 1st February 2010 we pressed the big button and launched the new look site. We’re very proud of it, it is nice!

Daren

You can follow us on Twitter: Matt & Daren

The Site Editor: Greg Giddens

Writing has always been a hobby of mine. I’d write short stories, I had a fascination with the English language and I loved a good book. Developing a career as a writer had never crossed my mind. I’d always seen myself as more of a shooting guns and jumping out of airplanes kind of guy, but in 2009 I took a chance and started writing reviews and feature relating to games. I discovered I had some talent; people were interested in reading my words. Things developed from there as I began writing for different sites until Midlife Gamer offered me the opportunity to become Chief Editor. I took it and found a warm community of like minded individuals and a great site where I could hone my craft. I love it here, and I hope to be producing and sourcing content here for as long as I can.

You can follow Greg on Twitter here

The Community Managers:

Adam Edwards (Adamski)

Family, gaming and science.
I’ve been gaming since my granddad brought home a Grandstand 6000 system. An early ‘Pong’ system. In colour..well, three colours as I recall.
Then it was onto the ZX Spectrum 48k for most of my youth from the early eighties up until I discovered hormones and girls.
A brief hiatus (well, there was a dabble with aMega Drive) until a student grant went towards a SNES. Uni Rally being a standout title for me.
Witnessing Wipeout convinced me to grab a PSOne which started a brief romance with Sony (PSP and PS2).
An original Xbox system found its way into my life like the dirty mistress of gaming some years ago.
Not long after that, I embarked on a long and successful relationship with the Xbox 360 that continues to this day.
Time for gaming is at a premium with family and work commitments, but it makes it all the more enjoyable when I manage to escape.
Here at your service.
Oh, and I like science stuff. And beard grooming.

You can follow Adam on Twitter here

Neale Jarrett (Baron Von Pleb)

A-Hoy-Hoy! My name is Neale Jarrett, but in most criminal organisations people know me as Baron Von Pleb. My official staff title is Community Manager but I am also involved in other aspects of Midlife Gamer. I am one half of the Late to the Party team, an intermittent guest on the Spoiler Alert Podcast and I also write reviews/articles for the site, when the wind is blowing in the right direction. An all-round busy boy.

You can follow Neale on Twitter here

The Web Developers:

Elsa Bartley

You can follow Elsa on Twitter here

John McCaul

I had a typical childhood playing Link’s Awakening on my Gameboy Colour and Street Fighter 2 on the Mega Drive. I’ve been playing every generation since.

I also enjoy watching movies and TV shows like Game of Thrones, House and Dexter but that’s mostly to appease my good lady. If it were up to me I’d rather game.

Recently I’ve been reading Sci-Fi books and comics on my android tablet (come on Amazon release the Kindle Fire)… I highly recommend Jake Bible’s Dead Mech and The Americans. I work as a Web Developer for a local company and really look forward to helping out with Midlife Gamer. The community is amazing here and they really do go the extra mile for the big meet ups we’ve had.

OUR REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS:

Adam Riley, Anthony Bate,(Antman), Mike Mason, Chris Evans, Chris Cook (BlueWolf), Dave Moran, Jason Currie (currierox), Jennifer Allen (jenjea), Mitchell Norton, Pete Willington (xeroxeroxero), Sam Turner, Simon Stevens (SiStevens), Todd Evans (GoddTodd)

DO YOU WANT TO WRITE FOR MIDLIFE GAMER?

We’re always looking for smart, funny, and insightful content that complements what we’re doing on Midlife Gamer. If your interested in creating content for us then we’re interested to hear from you.

Email Greg Giddens (greg@midlifegamer.net) to pitch any reviews or features.

Our contributors guide can downloaded below.

MIDLIFE GAMER CONTRIBUTORS GUIDE

CONTACT US

Unless you’re asking for money to be transferred by Western Union to secure the release of a wealthy African dignitary, we’d love to hear from you.

General contact: admin@midlifegamer.net

For PR enquiries and Press Releases: press@midlifegamer.net

And you can reach the Chief Editor, Greg Giddens, on: greg@midlifegamer.net

You can follow the site on Twitter here.

DONATIONS

If you want to support Midlife Gamer, you can click the button on the right.

Donations are welcome and will be used to pay for hosting the site and producing the podcasts.