I am Shane Weaver, a journalistic writer in the video game industry from the great white north of Yellowknife, NT, Canada. As a typical kid of the late 90’s and early aughts, I found video games to be an enticing hobby throughout my childhood. But as the early internet spawned a huge boom of content creators and video game reviewers, I began to pay the medium more interest. By the time I was in high school, I had been mesmerized by the industry; the marketing cycles, publisher’s business strategies, hardware manufacturers, and of course, the software developers and game studios that make it all possible. It swiftly became a fascinating scene to be a part of and spectate, and I decided that I wanted to get involved in it somehow for my future career.

While my initial aspiration was to become a video game designer myself, I found I was less of a creative visionary and generally more enamoured by the industry at large. I wanted to get out there and meet the people I admire from afar. I decided that the best way to get involved was to follow the same path as those that lead me to the field in the first place – the journalists that reported on these games and captivated my interest.

My decision was reaffirmed after making a 2,400km trip south to Seattle and attending the video game convention PAX Prime in 2014, where I got to toss myself directly into the industry for the first time and loving every moment of the four-day event. I wanted to spread the word on all the new, exciting games coming out and share the stories of the developers presenting their latest works. While I was certainly passionate, writing was not my particular forte, so I decided to enroll at SAIT Polytechnic in Calgary for the course in journalism to improve my written English skills and give me credible qualifications.

Now that I have graduated and paid off my student loans, I’m eager to begin writing in earnest and help share this wonderful medium with the rest of the world.