Following on from our birthday announcement on Thursday and interviews with members of the 1001-Up.com team, it’s now Phil’s turn to be interrogated under the spotlight. Many people may think he’s the quiet one of the gang but you wouldn’t believe it if you heard the songs he makes up.
Far from being a hot-shot hip-hop star, Phil is a single white thirty-something bloke who is particularly bad at rapping. He can usually be found either practising his chat-up lines, making up stupid songs about nothing in particular or checking out the latest PC releases.
Here are his answers to our questions…
Describe yourself in five words.
“Geeky, picky, quiet, resourceful, thoughtful.”
What do you do in ‘real life’?
“As an IT Team Leader I organise a bunch of lazy computer engineers into doing as much work as possible while also taking on responsibilities well above my pay grade (which I’m not compensated for). While it sounds like I should be doing something better, it’s actually pretty easy and pays enough to live the life I have.”
What do you do in your spare time?
“Nothing much other than gaming and writing for 1001-Up.com. I’m a very competitive person when it comes to multiplayer shooters and have been known to shout at my television screen when I come across idiots on my Battlefield 4 team. Other than that I’ve been learning guitar for the last four months thanks to the amazing Rocksmith 2014; I’ve had proper lessons in the past but this software does everything you could possibly need.”
Where did you grow up and what were you like as a kid?
“I grew up in a little village in Hertfordshire, UK where my childhood was spent riding bicycles, making camps (and death traps for trespassing kids), getting chased by small dogs, getting tricked into breaking into people’s houses (not as bad as it sounds), and listening to cheesy 90s pop music. I also spent a lot of time playing video games when I should have been doing my homework and studying. It’s surprising I’ve managed to achieve the career that I currently have.”
How did you get into gaming?
“My dad bought an Amstrad PCW and used to type up the code for video games from magazines. My family didn’t have much money so I missed out on what would be considered true retro gaming (Atari and ZX Spectrum). My first consoles were the Nintendo Game Boy and Sega Master System (with Alex Kidd in Miracle World built in) followed by the Mega Drive and PlayStation. It wasn’t long after that when I first played Half-Life which secured me a dedicated PC gamer for the rest of my life.”
What’s your favourite video game and why?
“There are way too many to choose from, but my earlier gaming years were dominated by Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario Kart and Zelda followed by PlayStation titles such as Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid and more recently PC games such as PlanetSide and the Half-Life series. Anything that invokes some kind of emotion (happy or sad) will grab my attention; this means that cookie-cutter single-player stories such as those in first-person shooters turn me away instantly, but if it tells an interesting and moving story you’ll find I’m hooked. This explains why Final Fantasy VII and onwards means a lot to me. There were some very moving stories told in those games that has kind of made me scared to play anything that could make a grown man cry such as To The Moon.”
We’re still trying to convince Phil to play To The Moon.
How did you get into blogging?
“I’ve always had a finger on the pulse when it comes to online presence, except I’ve never really delved into creating my own except for a fairly successful YouTube channel. When Kim presented the idea of reviewing 1001 video games, I jumped in head-first and was able to quickly help create the first version of 1001-Up.com based on the blogging knowledge I had picked up but never used. We’re now one year into our little website and it has come a very long way thanks to the dedication and diversity of skills in the team.”
Do you think it has changed you in any way?
“It’s definitely changed me as I’ve always been capable of writing technical documentation and formal communications, but I struggle with putting my opinion and feelings into words. The past year of writing for 1001-Up.com has been an excellent experience that has educated me somewhat in this area; I’ve also met some amazing people that I would have otherwise never known. Most of the people in my life so far have never been gamers, so finding out both Craig and Kim were big gamers all along was amazing and has helped me be a bit more open about my hobby. I now know that when it comes to dating, I should stop suppressing the gamer in me and find myself a gaming girlfriend!”
Which of your articles are you most proud of?
“I find writing reviews difficult as explained above: I had trouble getting my thoughts and ideas written on paper in a way that would make sense to others. My earliest reviews were pretty bad as they were more fact than opinion (thanks to Kim being very upfront by telling me!) so I’ve been working on that since. Therefore my most favourite article is my most recent review of Half-Life because it’s the first time when I’ve been completely happy with the content I’ve written, it’s also one of my most favourite games of all time.”
What has been your favourite moment in your blogging career so far?
“My favourite moment is getting to hang out with the amazing 1001-Up.com team, I can only ever be my real self with these friends as I’m usually very guarded with people I don’t trust to know the real me. The best times we’ve had were at events such as Rezzed and Eurogramer expo where we can represent the website and get to meet other games and amazing indie developers.”
What are you most looking forward to over the coming year?
“Our 24-hour gaming marathon for SpecialEffect next month and Rezzed in March, so pretty much anything that makes my gaming addiction more social than sitting at home.”
Describe each member of the 1001-Up.com team… and you don’t have to be nice. Really.
“Ben: An amazing writer who expertly manages to get his point or opinion across.
“Craig: Has a brilliant imagination that can make anything humorous and has created some of our most popular content.
“Kevin: He’s all about variety in the articles he writes and the games he plays, I can’t wait to see what he comes up with for 1001-Up.com.
“Kim: Pretty much the keystone of 1001-Up.com, without her our website wouldn’t exist. She may seem bossy but once you get to know her there’s no going back.”
If we can’t find Phil a gamer girl, we’ll just have to get him Lara Croft.
So that’s it: you’ve now met all the members of the new-and-improved 1001-Up.com and we hope our collective weirdness hasn’t put you off! We’ve got one final treat for you tomorrow as part of our birthday week and that comes in the form of an outtakes video made from all our antics over the past year. If you thought we were strange already, you ain’t seen nothing yet…
