JCal from
STOMPED
I aint kidding you folks when
I say we all owe a little something extra to the crew of STOMPED for
setting the record straight back in December. JCal is a very talented
individual, and having a REAL journalism background I'll let him do the
talking. . . take it away
1. How'd you get started in the WebMastering
Game and/or who was your
inspiration?
I got
started with my own site, http://www.callaham.com
(now discontinued) I didn't know a lot about HTML (still don't for that
matter) so I used Microsoft Publisher to create it.
I interviewed Walter (2) Costinak for my page and that got some attention.
I
also did a couple of articles about PC computers builders for gamers that
also got a bit of attention (more on that later). My biggest coup at the
old
web site was talking to id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead for an interview.
Mr. Hollenshead decided to announce during that id was going to release
another Quake II product before Christmas 1998 (it turned out to be the
Extremities mod pack) It was the first time in public that this product
was
mentioned and I will always be grateful to him for giving my site and
myself
an exposure that he could have given to any other big time journalist.
Around that time David "Tactic" McDaniel recurited me to do some
interviews
for Stomped, which I did. I was lured away for a few months as I worked
for
Alienware's The Hive site, but I went back to Stomped a few months later
(for reasons that I will keep to myself )
I am now working as an interviewer, writer and news poster for the main
Stomped site, and I am the main writer for our new Stomped @ E3 site,
located at http://e3.stomped.com.
We have already scored a number of E3
related scoops (such as Unreal II being shown backstage at E3 and DNF
likely
not being demoed at E3 , except as a video loop) and i'm working hard to
make sure that the new site is going to be the one stop place people who
can't go to E3 this year can turn to for coverage of the expo.
2. What's the most outrageous thing
you ever did ON your site?
I think it would have to be a tie between two events
A. The Booth Model Contest we had at The Hive for E3 1999. I would say
that
it was very successful in bringing a lot of attention to the site and it
was
also a lot of fun. Let's face it; the gaming industry is not like covering
things like politics or crime or education (speaking as a full time
reporter
for a daily newspaper who has held his job for 4 1/2 years so far) so it's
important to realize that the gaming industry is, at times, a goofy
business to cover and we are supposed to all have fun with it in the end.
The ultimate expression of that fun comes at E3 and part of E3's fun is
looking at the booth models. I'm sure some people were offended and some
didn't think it was terribly game-related but sometimes we need to take a
step back and realize that what we as web journalists are covering is
entertainment, and E3 booth models, in my judgement, are part of that. By
the way, we will have a booth model contest at Stomped as well for E3
2000.
B. Interviewing retired Lt. Col David Grossman for Stomped in December
caused a lot of people to hit the fan (and other places) judging by the
messages on our message board and others. I just finished saying that the
gaming industry is not terribly important, but some people like Col.
Grossoman are using the industry to talk about some very important things
that could, if left totally unchecked, affect all of us as gamers.
Col.Grossman talks and critizies things about the gaming industry and a
lot
of people who don't know anything about gaming hear about it through his
views, and I felt it was important to let gamers know that these kinds of
opinions are not only believed but repeated in the mass media.
I was actually quite surprised when I checked the message boards and found
that more than a few people agreed with many, if not all, of what Col.
Grossman said in the interview, Others, while not agreeing with him,
thought
it was good that these issues were being discussed by gamers rather than
pundits on TV news shows with no knoledge or connections to the gaming
industry. Although some people might have felt we gave him another place
to
spread his views, my feeling is we really gave gamers a chance to learn
about, and then formulate and state their own opinions on game violence,
That made all the contraversy worthwhile.
3.) People you admire in the industry. (
please limit your answer to 2
people and EXCLUDE me, thats a given. . )
Well since it is
going to be soooo tough in excluding you from my list, I am
going to list one from the gaming industry and one from the web journalist
community.
I actually admire anyone who tried to make a living creating video and
computer games. It's something that I, in all likelyhood, will never get
to
do. I would love to know how to make a Quake 3 or Unreal Tournament level,
for example, but I never seem to have the time or the motivation to learn
anything about the actual contruction (I guess I am waiting for a
community
college course to come my way: Level building for 3D Shooters 101 :) )
Having said that, I most admire the people who work at Valve Software.
With
Half-Life, they created a first person shooter like no other, and their
support of the mod community with projects such as Counter-Strike has
helped
everyone in this industry. If every company cared as much about their
products and their customers like Valve does, we would have a lot of great
games every year.
The web journalist I most admire is Stephen "Blue" Heaslip.
Blue's News is
not the oldest web site devoted to posting gaming news, but Blue had the
right site at the right time and learned enough about both the gaming
business and journalism to make his site indespesible for news. When I
grow
up, I want to be like him :)
4.) What's the most annoying thing to deal
with as a WebStud?
Honestly, very few things annoy me. If anything, I tend to get annoyed at
myself for making a mistake or posting news that later turns out to be not
true, even if it comes from a good source ( that's something I have to
deal
with in my newspaper job as well) But by and large, very few things
outside
of myself bother me.
5.) Does your WIFE/GIRLFRIEND still nag you to
"Get off that damn computer
before I break it" now that that your a famous WebDood?
My girlfriend Jennifer says she is very proud of what I do, believe it or
not. She is not a gamer by any means of the imagination but she reads my
stuff at Stomped every day and has even posted on the message boards a
couple of times. The sole exception is Soul Caliber. I got her a Sega
Dreamcast the day it was released, and got a copy of Soul Caliber a few
days
later. She started playing it and couldn't stop. Whenever we play
head-to-head, she beats me more often than not. She's quite proud of that
;)
6.) Tips you can give Web-Jedi in training
Make sure you spread the soy sauce on the steak while..oh sorry wrong
question :)
The key to a good web site is finding a subject or a game that you like
and
writing about it.The written word is far more important that a flashy Java
graphic or cool menu system. If you have informative content about a
subject
or a game that can't be found anywhere else but your site, people will
read
it. If you like a particular game, email the company and ask for an email
interview with one of the developers to post on your site . I have found
that most developers love to talk and write about their game and are more
than willing to give a little of their time to talk to you about it
(although this is beginning to change a tad because of some company PR
reps
insisting interviewers go through them before you can contact the actual
developers you write about. It's something that I am not really happy
about
but it's something that some web-Jedi will have to live with)
7.) Drink of Choice:
Dr. Pepper
8.) Tunes of Choice:
I like most genres of
music, with the possible exception of rap.
9.) Babe of Choice :
My girlfriend Jennifer,
the love of my life
10.) Working with Redwood, I can see why didn't you take a nickname
like
"LittleWood" or "Mini-Wood", but How did you come up
with your Nickname??
Um..My Name is John Callaham..JCal ;) Simple ;)
11.) We all know Redwood is 12ft 9in tall, how tall are you. . . . .
do you
ever stand next to him?
Not unless I want to feel really inadequate..oh
wait, I do already..never
mind ;)
AND THE BONUS QUESTION
If you could do or say one thing and NOT be held accountable for it,
it would be. . . ( please
refrain from the Tom Pabst's mom
jokes. . . she's had a hard life. . . look at her son.)
That aint putty.
I'll tell you guys out
there reading this, it sure makes a guy proud to have the WebMasters like
JCal out there, because it gives the industry a good name. I like it when
someone ELSE is bustin' their hump to make it easy for the New Guys on the
block like me.... Since I KNOW this spicy little tidbit wasn't enough. . .
. check out JCal in his natural environment at :
