Rocky "Prodigy" Cash
What's Your Job on the Podcast?:
I'm one of the hosts and the studio is located in my apartment so I'm responsible for making sure there are always plenty of beers to drink. I also produce, edit and publish the episodes, and manage the web site, podcast feed and twitter account.
What's Your Day Job?:
I'm an insurance underwriter. I specialize in oil & gas and technology based accounts.
Origins of Alias:
When I was 14 I was really into the band The Prodigy and I was signing up for an online gaming service called MPlayer. I needed a name and looked up the meaning of the word Prodigy. I liked it. It stuck.
When did you become a gamer:
I've been into video games since I was 5. I had a sega master system and got my start playing Double Dragon. I moved onto to the NES, SNES, and N64 but was always more of a casual player. Was never big on news, magazines or watching for upcoming releases. I just played what my parents would get me for birthdays & Christmas or what I could borrow from friends. It wasn't until I started getting into PC gaming on-line that I would have considered myself a true gamer. It was Quake that grabbed me and pulled me into the realm of the hardcore. I played the Quake demo off and on-line for free and got pretty good at it. Joined my first Clan and was happy being a mid level player at the age of 13. Then my clan mates slowly started to disappear and when I finally saw someone on-line one day I asked where everyone had been. "2 words" he said, "Team Fortress". Team Fortress originally was a mod for Quake which was really the birth of class based team FPS's. Not since Super Mario Bros. 3 had I begged my parents to buy me a game but I knew I must have the full version of Quake to play the new mod for this game. After buying and installing the game + mod I was instantly drawn to it. Knowing then what it would do to my school grades they probably would have thought twice but they bought me the game, and I quickly became a master of the alt-tab. My grades plummeted by the same amount my skill level in the game sky rocketed. I worked my ass off, made a name for myself and earned myself a spot some of the best clans in the world at the age of 14. Team Fortress in all it's forms made me a gamer, and it has been the one and only game I strive to be the best at to this day.
What Are Your 10 Favorite Games?:
Team Fortress 2, Quake, Super Punch Out, Zelda: OOT, Super Mario World, Metal Gear Solid 3, Metal Gear Solid 4, Mass Effect 2, Half Life 2, Assassin's Creed 2
What Games Are You Ashamed to Admit You Love?:
Wii Fit, Altered Beast, Skate or Die and Ski or Die, Wonder Boy, Base Wars, Pokemon Snap
What Can You Do Better Than 99% of Other Gamers?:
Rocket jumping & juggling in TF2
What Is Your Favorite Part About Being a Gamer?:
There's a lot of things I like about being a gamer. I like how it segregates you from other people in society, almost like you're part of your own secret club. I think we're slowly realizing that people who play games are quite often more well adjusted than those who do not. The image of a stereotypical gamer is slowly changing and I think that's a fantastic things because for those of us who have had to put up with some level of scrutiny over the years there is definitely a sense of satisfaction to it. It is bringing to light what we have all thought for years. Sitting on a couch playing a game can be more interactive, inspiring, and mentally exhausting that reading a book or watching TV. Don't get me wrong I enjoy books and I enjoy TV, but invoking your problem solving skills when watching TV is usually nothing more than a 30 second trip through the TV Guide. My absolutely favorite thing about being a gamer is how it brings people together, it truly is the greatest cultural melting pot around. No race, no religion, just text on a screen or voices over a microphone being judged on their skill and attitude. I have friends who I have known for 10 years who I have never met. I've never shook their hand, we've never high fived, in reality they're nothing more than a audio coming through a headset. But I do consider them some of my close friends. And in some cases have gone years without talking to these people and we are able to pick up right where we left off. Without any doubt I can say I'm closer to these friends that a lot of people I know in RL which really makes me realize that "real life" will be a term that we will continue to watch evolve over the next few decades.
What Is Your Least Favorite Part?:
Our acceptance of shity product. Systems and games being rushed out that aren't ready. We put up with too much shit from companies because they know they can get away with it. We need to voice our gaming dollars more responsibly. Also the abuse of anonymity that the internet allows for.
What Do Your Parents / Partner Think of Your Gaming Habbits?:
The Parents are ok with it now that I've graduated from College and have a "real job". There was a point though when I think they were a little worried about me though. They do think it's a little silly to go to the extent that I have in terms of how many systems I have, but every time I show them a console's function that they didn't know about before like media streaming I think they get a little closer to buying one themselves. The partner? She's ok with it, she's a bit of a gamer herself so we get a long as long as I play nice. She's not too fond of FPS so we don't really share in those too much but she does like Left 4 Dead a bit so there's hope for her yet. She knows that she comes first, it's all about time management!
Any Other Geeky Habbits?:
I'm a toy fiend! I consider my toy collection be fairly decent in size. What breaks my heart is the amount I have to pay now to reconstruct the collection my parents probably sold for $.25 a pop in a garage sale. The majority of what I collect is older toys from the late 80's and early 90's, but I still can't go into a store like Walmart or ToysRUs and not take a trip into the toy section. It was a bit of an addiction at one point, when the Canadian dollar was doing a little better I went a little Ebay crazy on old Marvel toys. I have boxes and boxes full of Marvel, DC, Ninja Turtles, Visionaries and other old toys, but the ones I will never, ever part with are the toys in my G1 Transformers collection. They're the only ones that are a deal breaker, the G1's and me and are package deal and will be on display in some manner no mater where I live. Yes, one day I will have the most glorious toy collection ever put on display inside a refrigerator box!
Random Gaming Facts:
I think Super Mario 64, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas and HALO are some of the most over rated games of all time.
When I got my first N64 for Christmas it was the Atomic Purple edition which came with a copy of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The game I really wanted was Turok: Dinosaur Hunter because I had never really played any Zelda games before and Turok freaking killed DINOSAURS!!! It would be 2 days before I would get to the store to exchange the games. I waited as long as I could (about 15 minutes) and then I ripped open OOT and embarked on one of the greatest gaming experiences of my life. Trading in OOT would have been one of the greatest mistakes of my gaming life. Thanks holiday shopping hours!
I have a gaming tattoo.
