Meet the Reader: MtMannion

This week we have a more PC oriented gamer, of late, a certain MtMannion. If you only hang around on TSA you’ll probably know him better as Mikiyaru, but he’s oft found as MtMannion. Anyway, everyone say hello and be polite, now!

[drop2]

WHAT! Is your name?

Michael Thomas Mannion II.

WHAT! Is your quest?

To design Aerodynamics for Formula One cars.

WHAT! Is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

14.7 meters per second?

Hold on, lets ask Siri… Apparently it’s 11 meters per second.

Not far off then I suppose, for a guess.

Since I started off in that rather silly fashion, we’re now heading down the path to talk about your non-gaming and non-TSA life first. How come you’re studying Aerodynamics? Are you already studying for it at Uni?

I’m studying a course called Automotive Technology with Management at the Uni of Hertfordshire. Since I have a good history with computers and I’m a fan of Computer Aided Design, it’s simply my best choice. Has a wide job range as well so I’m playing a bit safe you could say.

Yeah, I guess backups would have you disappearing down the path to design airplanes, rockets, even road cars?

Yeah, could literally be anything, but race and road cars are my first choice. With a specialisation in CAD I could be designing literally anything.

I’m now imagining your childhood to be similar to that from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

I think I saw that film on a flight to Australia. Not the best place in the world to get very hungry.

Haha, perhaps you could design better airplane food? When not studying do you have any super cool hobbies? Or is gaming your main form of escapism?

Well I’m doing an Extra Curricular seminar for Formula Student this year. Its a competition where basically you design an open wheeled race car to compete in a series of tests at Silverstone against about 150 other universities. That takes up most of my time but whenever I’m free it’s either FIFA with the flat mates, or anything I can find on my computer.

That’s cool. Definitely still geared towards your studies, but sounds like a good tangent from the main course. Anyway, moving along to gaming, how did you first get into playing video games?

Well I vaguely remember waking up one day at my old house to find my brothers new Nintendo 64 propped up against the wall on his birthday. Pretty much been hooked from there. Can remember games like Zelda, Mario 64, Mario Party and Starfox getting me through the years, but I was only 4 years old when it came out.

So did your brother ever see the N64 or did it disappear under mysterious circumstances?

He still has it I think, still works as well. Going even further back I can confirm as of last year that our NES and SNES still work as well. Sturdy things, them Nintendos.

Ninty consoles have never had a notable failure rate, it’s true. At what point did you jump ship to Sony and other platforms?

Well I remember getting the slim PlayStation One when it came out, and after the Gamecube I got the slim PlayStation Two when it came out. I did get the fat PS3 when it came out, but funnily enough that broke on me eventually thanks to yellow lights, so I have a slim PS3 now. Never had anything from Microsoft. Wish I could play a bit of Forza 4 now, however.

I think it’s actually the lights that kill consoles. No LEDs, and they’ll live forever! You say you’ve never had anything Microsoft, but you do play PC games a fair bit too, I believe?

Yeah, its my sole love as I didn’t take my PS3 to uni with me. Paid enough to make it last me a long time and I think I’m sitting pretty comfy compared to people who spend their days waiting for the Next PlayStation or Xbox. Although my computer is worth more than those two put together, so I really hope it lasts me a long time.

Cover up those LEDs! What have you been playing recently, then?

Well I was in the Battlefield 3 Alpha and Beta but they’ve expired, so I’ve been on Dead Island with my mates from home. The most addictive game I’ve played in a long time however was the latest Magic the Gathering, me and my friends are stacking up to 1000 hours between us since it was released. Been playing all the games I got in the steam summer sale as well like Borderlands and Just Cause 2. Oh and Minecraft, but thats more like a job for me than a game.

Isn’t Magic the Gathering just an online-ified (this is a technical term) version of the card game? What elements have you based your deck around?

Pretty much yeah. After a while we looked into playing the actual card game but it was too expensive for us students. On the game I play mostly the White and Green deck, or the Lego (other squares are available) deck as I call it. One creature buffed enough through enchantments to steamroll through my friends one at a time.

Does it still have shiny “cards” online?

You have to pay 79p per deck for a shiny upgrade, unfortunately my vain side got the better of me and I own two shiny decks.

Damn those micro-transactions!

Page 1 of 2Next

11 Comments

  1. Hello!!

  2. Hi. Really didn’t understand Magic The Gathering :S Very cool indeed that your designing an open wheel race car :)

  3. But the real question is, is it an African or European Swallow? :P
    I really envy your Uni course, if I was any good at maths, that would definitely be the thing I would be doing.
    Nice to meet you anyway! :)

    • i got onto my course without any maths a level. One of our modules for our first semester was pretty much A level maths however.

  4. I tried the demo of Magic, but no matter how much I tried, I could not win, ever. Suppose I was just a n00b and didn’t know how the game worked properly. lol :P
    I’m quite jealous of the open wheel racer project, wish I could do something like that, but I don’t think my uni does it, not like they’d let someone doing natural history photography on it anyway!

    • anyone on any course can join Formula Student. Thats what they told us! :)

  5. Still haven’t managed to run into you in Hatfield yet :P

    • If i get drunk enough ill visit you in your chip shop :D

  6. Magic: The Gathering is an awesome game, hammered it on PS3 with DJ-Katy, and as we were about equal in skill it was always fun.
    Magic 2012 was pretty good as well, both enjoyable games.
    Also, nice to meet you! :)

  7. Mannion!!! Awesome stuff. Thanks for popping into the odd Left 4 Dead 2 games. Was always a pleasure. Lovely article, guys, and great to know a bit more about this man of (partial) mystery. ;)

  8. Haha that picture of Mannion is awesome! Good article as well, as usual. Meet the reader’s always awesome =D

Comments are now closed for this post.