Meet the Reader: Death_in_Flamez

We’ve an interesting one for you this week. He thinks he’s a fictional character! He only joined TSA fairly recently in February, but has been taking part rather enthusiastically in Motorstorm: Apocalypse and SARBPC meets. I thought it was about time we met someone new, so say hello to Death_in_Flamez.

As usual, we’ll get started with: who are you, how old are you and where do you come from?

James T. Kirk is his name, he is 16 years of age, and he hails from the beautiful town of Beckenham, Kent.

Wait, the James T. Kirk? I thought he was from the 23rd Century, and lived in Iowa…

Hmm. those guys must have gotten something wrong in the scripts for Star Trek.

So do you have a humanoid, yet purely logical alien and a doctor as your two best friends, then?

Um well not really, the closest I can get is a friend who wants to become a behavioural psychologist and a man who’s infinite wisdom knows no bounds.

Interesting. Last Trek question, I promise, since you must get billions of them, how comes you ended up being named after a fictional character?

Promise accepted! James, is my Dad’s middle name, Thomas is the name of my Mum’s sadly deceased biological Dad and Kirk is the family name. Although my parents have confessed that when they saw the opportunity, they really had to take it!

Disappointingly you didn’t go with Star Trek for your screen name. Where did that end up coming from?

Well before Death_in_Flamez, my PSN account was and still is Beserker35. I wanted a change as I’d spelt Beserker wrong, and I didn’t want a number name. So i looked for something cool, kinda bypassed Star Trek and thought Death_in_Flamez was a good idea because I was spelling Flames with a ‘Z’. Because it’s cool. And I totally do cool.

The letter ‘Z’ is very cool, I agree. Plenty of people will be wondering who you are, since you’re fairly new on TSA, I’ve only met you very recently with the Motorstorm: Apocalypse meets, but you’re also really enthusiastic about the site. How did you first come across TSA, and why did you decide to sign up?

Well I first came across TSA the same way as many other have, looking for store updates. I had never considered looking on the actual PS Blog. After checking out the update I looked up the main page and was very impressed by the news coverage. I bookmarked it, hung around for a week, before deciding I should sign up to the forums. It wasn’t until the recent Motorstorm: Apocalypse challenge against OPC that I got fully involved with the site and it’s fabulous community.

Everyone seems to come for the store updates! Aside from the news, though, do you have a favourite feature on the front page?

Well I for one love these Meet the Reader columns as it gives me a good laugh. I also implore Tuffcub to get his Massive Poll out more often. They are excellent.

You didn’t actually manage to take part in the TSA vs. OPC battle, but we did have a good laugh in the Motorstorm: Apocalypse meets on either side of it. Do you think we’d have won if you’d been there? Just stirring the pot of simmering rivalry.

Well… One can ponder.

In addition to MS:A, you’re also mixed in with the Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars
(SARPBC) meets springing up courtesy of it’s release on PS+. You’re obviously a fan of arcade and action racers, but tell me, where and when did you start off with gaming?

Well, my first gaming experience could be considered an excellent starting point as it was Sonic The Hedgehog on the Sega Megadrive. I also tried out Sonic 2 and the infamous Ecco The Dolphin. As well as that I had a one day go on the Dreamcast when I was about 6 I think which was very enjoyable I remember.

And how did you progress from there to the PS3? Did you get a PS2? Do you own more than the one console?

After the Mega Drive, I transferred to the Game Boy Advance to play Pokemon Gold and Silver. Then in 2000 we got the Playstation 1 with the game which started my love of racing, Gran Turismo 2. We then traveled to the Gamecube and soon onto the PS2 where I got into shooters through the medium of Star Wars Battlefront. To shorten the story we then got the original DS, a PSP, then a Nintendo Wii and finally my PS3, although I don’t intend on stopping there!

We still own all consoles said, although the Playstation One has met a grim end with it’s lid snapping off. It was sad, but thankfully the PS3 has PS1 backwards compatibility, so Hogs of War lives on!