Meet the Team: Zack Stern

by Zack Stern { May 15th 2008 at 12:30PM }

In the world of professional game blogging, the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important groups: the bloggers who investigate the stories and readers who make silly comments. These are the first group's stories.

Name: Zack Stern
Job Position: Contributing Editor
Past Experience/Education: I worked as an editor at Gamers.com in its (brief but glorious) 2000 heyday, and have since contributed to dozens of technology and gaming publications. Recent articles have appeared in PC World, PC Gamer, Maximum PC, Official Xbox Magazine, Mac|Life, Wired Test, Make, and many more.
Life outside of the 'Stiq: I'm an improviser, photographer, videomaker, and cook. Those all blend together into a delicious, sometimes metaphorical hooch.
Why I'm blogging: I'm entrenched in old media but want to maintain a presence online. The two styles inform each other; knowing their similarities and differences makes me better at both.
First game experience: I used to play Chinese checkers at my grandparents' house growing up, and the pinball machine at my mom's ad agency was better than day care.
Favorite games: Prince of Persia, Myth, Deus Ex, Pikmin, Kururin Paradise, Portal, Rock Band
Compact Flash or SD? Compact Flash.

There's more to come every Tuesday and Thursday.

Tags: bio, meet-the-team, meet-the-team-08, zack-stern

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Fernando Rocker @ May 15th 2008 12:32PM

Why is Rose Miller posting this instead of Zack Stern?

ViagraFiend @ May 15th 2008 12:39PM

Who is Rose Miller? Does the Joystiq team have a new female member?

xFenixKnightx @ May 15th 2008 12:41PM

Viagra

Lol, that is all.

Fernando Rocker @ May 15th 2008 12:42PM

*Ross

=(

fischju @ May 15th 2008 12:34PM

Baltar?

Alahmnat @ May 15th 2008 12:54PM

@fischju (in case the reply system breaks)

That's what I was thinking, heh...

UDH @ May 15th 2008 2:32PM

Seriously, that was my first thought as well. Spitting image.

FOXHOUND @ May 15th 2008 12:37PM

salud', Zack!

though... if you have a moment to answer, why CF over SD? :o

Gun Barrier (=Gamer Tag) SSBB: 3952-6696-7009 @ May 15th 2008 2:40PM

my guess is, since hes a photographer, he prefers the CF since it is faster for taking pictures.

BPM [SSBB: 5026 4120 1186] @ May 15th 2008 3:45PM

I guess that's possible...

I prefer SD since it's smaller in form factor (Compact Flash is hardly compact anymore...) and cheaper (looking on Newegg, I can get a 1GB SD for $5 and a 1GB CF for $8).

Zack Stern @ May 15th 2008 4:26PM

Not a big deal in the difference between Compact Flash and Secure Digital. (Although the pro-DRM buzzing surrounding SD made me initially dislike it; that stuff fizzled out.) The biggest reasons I like CF is that my DSLRs use it, and it's bigger than SD. CF is small enough for me--especially relative to a DSLR--and I don't want anything smaller.

FrankTheCrank @ May 15th 2008 12:37PM

No way! that f*cking mustache is not real, right?

That's like a porn mustache.

xFenixKnightx @ May 15th 2008 12:47PM

Dude, thats a Niko mustache all the way.

FOXHOUND @ May 15th 2008 1:21PM

Vlad*

NATO_Duke @ May 15th 2008 12:39PM

What was your first video game experience. You dodged the question! C'mon, give up the goods!!!

xFenixKnightx @ May 15th 2008 12:45PM

Whats your Duke? Mine is Super Mario Bros/Duckhunt. I remember my friend getting the NES when it first came out and I fell in love. Deep love, lol. I guess thats why I will forever be a Mario whore. 4-EVERRRR :(

ViagraFiend @ May 15th 2008 12:47PM

Mine was pitfall on Intellivision

xFenixKnightx @ May 15th 2008 1:07PM

My brother and I BEGGED my parents for an NES, but Noooooo. We got a used Atari 2600 from a garage sale and box full of games. I still enjoyed hits like Popeye, pacman, pong, frogger and there was a shmup I loved but dont rmember the name. Later on that year on Christmas we got the NES with Mario/Duckhunt and Track and Field with the pad. MY GOD it was glorious...

NATO_Duke @ May 15th 2008 3:42PM

The ones that standout from the start for me are Adventure & Breakout on the Atari 2600 as well as Astrosmash, Pitfall, Tron and Stampede on the Intellivision. Those are the games I started with playing a whole lot of.

I've got the machines and most those games now too.

Yet my fondest memory was when my dad got me a NES when I got ill. I played the heck out of Duck Hunt & Mario.

SWAT Kats are back! @ May 15th 2008 5:42PM

Makes me feel young, my first experience was Super Mario 64, and that was three years after the fact, in 1999

Martez @ May 15th 2008 12:52PM

Ah, a Compact Flash man! You have my heart, good sir.

Snipermike @ May 15th 2008 12:57PM

I wonder if the kid playing the DS knows theres a guy with a pedofile stash standing beside him

GaryM @ May 15th 2008 1:27PM

Pick out the oxymoron in this sentence fragment:

"professional game blogging"

Booxatron @ May 15th 2008 4:16PM

They get paid to blog about games...that makes it a profession.

Shmil @ May 15th 2008 1:36PM

*obligatory who gives a fuck about these people statement*

Shmil @ May 15th 2008 1:37PM

*obligatory reply to the "who gives a fuck about these people question." Who gives a fuck about you?*

Shmil @ May 15th 2008 1:39PM

*obligatory 3rd person agreeing with the reply and commenting on what ludwig's picture should be*

DangerMouse @ May 15th 2008 1:56PM

FERNANDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BUUUUUURRRRNNNNNNNNNNN

DangerMouse @ May 15th 2008 2:00PM

Wow, that was meant for above. I lose. :(

BrandynQ @ May 15th 2008 1:40PM

Somebody get this man a crowbar!

embassy @ May 15th 2008 2:14PM

ok, it's a official--

Ross Miller and Zack Stern must have a "freeman-off".

BPM [SSBB: 5026 4120 1186] @ May 15th 2008 3:46PM

THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!!!

[jumps off a cliff]

Dig @ May 15th 2008 3:08PM

Make magazine? What an excellent publication! I'm kinda interested in which/what kind of articles you wrote for it.

BPM [SSBB: 5026 4120 1186] @ May 15th 2008 3:49PM

1) PHOTOSHOPPED! (and Simpsons did it)

2) Kururin Paradise, huh? I think I played that before, but wasn't it only released in Japan? I know the first one was released in Europe, but I don't think the sequel was. Fun game, though.