Behold. An ever-growing list of F.A.Qs. and a significantly smaller list of U.A.Qs.
Q1: UAQs?
A1: Unfrequently asked questions.
Q2: A/S/L?
A2: Mid 30s. Cis-Male. Kentucky, USA.
Q3. What was your first video game?
A3: My parents already had an NES when I was born. I distinctly remember trying my best at wrecking Crew, Super Mario Bross, The Legend of Zelda, and Contra before entering pre-school. The first game I remember knowing about and being excited to someday get was a Pokémon game. For Christmas one year my brother and I got 2 GBCs (Atomic Purple + Yellow) along with Pokémon Silver (mine) Pokémon Yellow (him) and Pokémon Blue (Shared). That was when I flipped from “Kid who happens to play video games” to “Gamer who happens to be a kid”. (Unrelated fun fact. I have distinct memories of various family members telling me that Pokémon was a fad that would go away but that memorizing my 2nd grade math tables would be useful forever because I would not be able to carry a calculator for the rest of my life. Boy did they turn out wrong on both counts.)
Q4: What does NP Sage mean?
A4: Many years ago, there was a magazine called Nintendo Power. I saw a section were there were a group of people Nintendo selected as “Sages”. At roughly 8 years old I decided my life ambition was to become part of this group. For reasons I cannot recall I thought they were exclusive to the magazine and thought of them as the “NP Sages” A few years later when I finally started joining various sites and hobby forums, I picked the username “NP Sage” on a whim. It stuck. Oh boy, did it stick. Nintendo later shut down the program and the magazine. So far they have not shut me down. Yet.
Q5: What is your favorite game / game system?
A5: Game wise I could not possibly choose a single title. I would say the two series that have meant the most to me over the longest periods of time would be Halo and Pokémon. Kingdom Hearts would come up as a distant 3rd. Systems would be GBA SP for handheld and Xbox 360 for home console. My red GBA SP was my lifeline through some exceedingly difficult later elementary and middle school years. The Xbox 360 (and its online play) allowed me to make friends beyond my birthdate and geographically limited peer group and led to a massive growth of confidence and self-realization of who I was and who I wanted to be and maybe more importantly not be.
Q6: Favorite Pokémon?
A6: It’s Eevee. No question. It has been since Gen 1. The fact that he became more of a mascot for the series annoyed me at first (I liked him before he was cool!) but then I realized that this led to so much more Eevee merch and now I am more than fine with it.
Q7: PC Master Race?
A7: Not really but somewhat. PC is where I do most of my indie stuff. Given the current fiasco that is “Graphic card prices and availability” as well as “Less than stellar PC game optimization” I tend to stay in console land for the AAA stuff just because if it works on a PS/Xbox it will work on my PS/Xbox. On PC performance is more wildcard and I would rather spend my gaming time gaming, not debugging. That said Steam deck is giving lots of devs a baseline to stick to I would love to see something like that work for more than a handful of years.
Q8: Favorite drink?
A8: If me and iced tea are left alone in a room together it’s getting drunk.