GMZ

GMZ #2-14 – New(s), Classics, Oldies, and A Message from the Editors

Spyro revealed as new Sony Santa Monica Community Manager at E3

By M. C. Tuchmi Wii

Spyro is, for the generation of gamers now becoming adults, one of the most recognizable video game figures of their youth, along with other by-gone millennial video game icons: Crash Bandicoot, Parappa, and Alucard. The original Playstation stars have been all but abandoned by their stable. However, the age’s favorite purple dragon, has returned home; albeit, not the way many expected.

Spyro recently left the Skylanders series to join Sony Santa Monica studios in a Community Management capacity. Spyro has yet to declare a total retirement from starring in video games, but he sees the possibility of any new projects as “slim” right now, considering his busy schedule with Sony SM. When asked what prompted the change, Spyro had this to say,

“I love the Skylanders guys. They are all swell people, and I’ve enjoyed being a part of their family these last few years. The thing is though, while those are great games, those aren’t Spyro games, you know? That isn’t me. It’s like when you are in your late twenties, and you move to a big metropolitan city, and party and drink, and meet lots of cool hip friends, but by the time you hit thirty-five, you just want to move back to the neighborhood you grew up in. Because while the city was fun, and you loved it, that isn’t who you are. Coming back to Sony was like moving back to my home town.”

Spyro was excited about re-entering the company he helped build so long ago, with his early co-horts.

“Yeah, a lot of the guys at Santa Monica are from the good old days: guys from Insomniac, SingleTrac/Incognito, that group. And occasionally, since we both associate through Sony, I see a lot of the Naughty Dog guys. I’ve actually had several meetings with Crash, who now works at Naughty Dog in some advising capacity. I hear Sly Cooper might be looking into the same line of work.”

As Sony Santa Monica’s community manager, Spyro was there to field questions and interact with gamers on the show floor who were visiting the Sony booth at E3. Many asked Spyro about his career, and his time at Skylanders, and if he keeps up with the fellows from Insomniac. One question lingers on most people’s minds though: why? Spyro has the longevity most characters could only hope for. He’s like Frank Sinatra: he becomes popular, settles into a comfortable, relative obscurity again just long enough to then later pop his head out and remind the world that he still has some tricks up his scales. So, why switch to a job like this: out of the limelight?

“I had lunch with Ted Price over the holidays. I asked him how things were at Insomniac. He raved about the things they were allowed to do that they couldn’t all those years ago when we were first starting out together. The more he talked, the more I thought about it: I’m not marketable anymore, and that’s okay. I mean, look at Skylanders: it began as a Spyro reboot, and now has its own direction and audience. That’s okay! I think it’s my time to take my wisdom of this industry, and apply it somewhere else, where I don’t have to constantly be doing rolls and jumps and attacks. I’ve been in the game for a long time, and I still have a lot to offer, but eventually, you have to stop boxing, and start coaching.”

GMZ On Location: Southern-Fried Gameroom Expo

By Daniel Lamplugh

I’ve been working on a contract job in Atlanta, GA all this summer (no details; it’s secret). While here, I figured I’d hit up one of my all time favorite video game related events: the Southern-Fried Gameroom Expo. Three days of pinball, arcade cabinets, and all the moral destroying debauchery that comes with that kind of entertainment. I decided to interview these stone-age, technological heathens and see what they had to say.

 

A friendly message from your loving editors

Some of you may have noticed that many of our reporters and writers have died over the last few months. At first, we were relatively unconcerned as it appeared that we, the editors, were not targeted directly. Since our interns die all the time, we just assumed it was natural for our other employees to frequently die as well. However, as you read in our last issue, we have started receiving death threats, and now, Daniel’s Bel Air gated community mansion was vandalised and Pierre’s prized collection of civil war dildos was stolen. These might seem like isolated incidents, but in both cases, the perpetrators left a single page manifesto threatening us and GMZ directly. Here is the manifesto found at Daniel’s home:

The note found in Pierre’s home was identical, save for one additional, handwritten sentence: “Thanks for the dildos, JH”

As a result of this, we have decided to take two immediate actions. First, we are vowing to continue to produce the quality, factual, and well-researched content you, our readers, have come to expect from GMZ. We will not bow to these cowards. And second, in order to weed out the people we trusted and allowed within the GMZ family only to suffer betrayal and sabotage, we will kill every single GMZ employee and intern, just to be safe.

Thanks for reading and see you for our next issue in two weeks.

Pierre and Daniel