People Playing Games

Veteran host and producer Joshua Gray talks about his storied esports career, his love for Mortal Kombat, his new life in Seattle, and his big plans for the future.

The Daily Show writer Devin Delliquanti talks about his history in TV and comedy, his love for classic LucasArts adventure games, and his process for writing for and hosting the annual New York Video Game Awards.

Comedian and Hard Drive editor-in-chief Jeremy Kaplowitz talks about what it takes to make great gaming satire, discusses the creation of his wildly popular Lizard People of New York blog and dishes on his favorite games and comedy inspirations.

Blind competitive gamer Carlos Vasquez talks about crushing his Mortal Kombat opponents by sound and tearing up the drums for heavy metal band Distartica, all while giving advice for anyone struggling with setbacks.

Entertainment critic Sean Chandler talks about turning his passion for movies and TV into a thriving YouTube channel with more than 80,000 subscribers.

Mike sits down with his good friend and tech/wrestling writer Henry T. Casey to talk about fighting games, pro wrestling and the ever-growing parallels between the two.

Game critic and motion designer Yussef Cole swings by to talk about breaking into games writing, covering big gaming topics from fresh angles, and balancing design and writing work.

LowSpecGamer is a popular PC gaming YouTuber who pushes the limits of what kinds of games you can play on underpowered systems. He joins Mike to talk about what inspired his channel, what it's like to do YouTube full-time, and the challenges of trying to keep over 400,000 subscribers happy.

Gaming/Esports videographer Esteban Martinez talks about capturing some of the greatest moments from events like Capcom Cup and Evo, making a documentary about the fighting game scene, and joining the Noclip family.

Yahoo's Daniel Howley talks his gaming history, his love for the Switch, and how he's keeping gaming coverage alive on an ever-evolving website.

We chat with the creator of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds about the game's massive success, his gaming origins, and how he wants to find the next PlayerUnknown. Highlights: 1:45 - Brendan's gaming history 2:25 - Getting into modding 3:35 - Major PUBG milestones 4:33 - Typical day of working on PUBG 6:06 - How Brendan spends his free time 7:00 - Thoughts on Twitch community & TwitchCon 7:45 - Current state of PUBG & what's coming next 8:30 - Photography and design work & how that influenced PUBG 9:15 - Brendan's inspirations 10:30 - Finding the next PlayerUnknown & advice for fans

EA Sports Creative Director Mike Young talks about his gaming inspirations, his photography career, and how he brought emotion and storytelling to Madden with the new Longshot mode. Highlights: 4:30 - How Longshot came to be 9:05 - Working with actors and developing the characters 19:40 - Games that inspired Longshot 24:00 - The Future of Longshot and Madden story modes 27:00 - Mike's gaming career origins and inspirations 34:00 - Fun tidbit about an NBA Street story that never saw the light of day 35:00 - How Mike's photography influences his games 41:10 - Advice and closing thoughts

Games PR veteran Valerie Turpin talks about finding the cool stories behind games, writing a sci-fi novel and the challenges of balancing your career with your passion project.

Geek rapper extraordinaire Mega Ran talks about his gaming origins, how his teaching career made him a better artist, and his new album Extra Credit.

Esports photographer/reporter Chris Bahn walks us through his journey, from cutting his teeth at NYC arcades to capturing some of the biggest fighting game tournaments in the world.

Esports veteran Chris "Chhopsky" Pollock talks about his gaming career, the parallells between music and esports, and, most importantly, how a silly meme about sporks became an internet phenomenon.

Jake "Mustard" Neal talks about his passion for fighting games and how that led him to a career as a professional commentator at ESL.

Harold Goldberg is a veteran games journalist who's traveled the world, authored a book on the industry and founded the New York Video Game Critics circle. Here's his story.

Mike sits down with PCMag Senior Editor Jeffrey L. Wilson to discuss breaking into journalism, starting a website and the joys of fighting games.

Twitch PR manager Erin Fan stops by to talk about breaking into games PR, making video game parody songs on YouTube, and the surprising connection between the two.

Geek.com Senior Editor Jordan Minor sits down with us to talk about his gaming history, how he got into journalism, and the amazing story of how he singlehandedly changed the history of Street Sharks using internet lies.

Dorkly Managing Editor/Head Illustrator Julia Lepetit sits down with Mike to talk about art, video games and how her love for the two led to a career at one of the most beloved gaming comedy sites around.

Chase went from reviewing games while running a record label to running PR for Twitch: the biggest video game livestreaming platform in the world. Here's his journey.

In this bonus episode, host Mike Andronico talks about his journeys through video games, journalism and becoming an editor at a major tech site.

For the first episode of People Playing Games, Mike sits down with Yahoo Esports' MIchael Martin to talk about what it's like to go from freelancing to becoming a full-tiime fighting games reporter.