Why Did You Start Your Blog?

I’ve been playing games since the 1980s, when I was defeated by the very first Goomba in the original Super Mario Bros. Over the years, my passion for storytelling and for gaming merged together, leading me to play and enjoy many titles.

I have so many memories of precious moments throughout my time as a gamer. Both inside the games I’ve played, and involving friends and loved ones along the way. I was also a big time collector of various gaming magazines when those were a popular thing: Nintendo Power, EGM, Game Informer, Xbox Magazine… I must have bought hundreds of those over the years. It was even a gaming magazine—an issue of Nintendo Power in the early 90s—that lead to my discovery of my favorite game of all time, Final Fantasy IV. (Back then it was known as Final Fantasy II).

Story Mode Gamer is my attempt to catch those memories in print and preserve them. And to create and present my own virtual take on the magazines I loved from childhood into my early 20s. I want to help connect people with their next favorite game, and share my most beloved gaming memories with the world.

On my blog you will find:

Reviews of various games I’ve played.

Lists on a variety of topics ranging from my own gaming history, to recommendation lists for various genres and subgenres, to tips and tricks for games I’ve enjoyed or to help you enhance your quality of life as a gamer. For example, we’re all dealing with a monstrous backlog on some level or another, aren’t we?

Articles on a variety of gaming topics like: should games have easy mode? Should you try to game outside of your comfort zone? How can people prepare for the Nintendo Switch 2 launch?

News, trailer previews, reactions to presentations, and other games industry info. I want to check things out and then report on what has grabbed my interest and, as such, what I think will be worth my readers’ time. I know I’m only one person, and I don’t expect to cover everything. But I’m confident there are others out there whose tastes align with mine, which means I have an opportunity to make a difference.

My primary goals are to reflect on the games I’ve played, and to help other gamers find great games to play via my reviews, impressions, and other coverage.

The limitations that come from my disabilities allow me to examine games from a perspective most players will never experience. When I am the active player, I am testing the games I play from a set of parameters that the developers had no hope of being able to really predict or prepare for.

And when I am observing a game that Jay is playing, my reviews are discussed with Jay and reflect both his experience while playing and mine as an observer who assists with solving puzzles, coming up with ideas, voicing my preference on choices, etc. It can, at times, mean that I catch things he doesn’t since games where we do this are usually due to them being very puzzly and full of visual cues, or very action heavy and beyond my physical skill level.