The man they call Shopmaster (short bio)

Ok, I know people really don't care about me or who I am; but I think you need to know just a little about me to understand my point of view on things in the gaming world. To say I am passionate about gaming may be a little too much. I don't live, breathe, or eat gaming I just love it more than most casual gamers do. And I guess that's where I am, I'm more involved than a casual gamer but not enough to be a fanatic. Although my wife would strongly disagree.

I own and run a Madden website called Madden Wars and am part of the EA Community Leaders Program. What is EACL? EACL consist of people who operate, run, or participate in communities that are centered around various EA Sports titles. This doesn't mean that everyone who owns a EA Sports fan site is in the EACL and it doesn't mean that you have to have a community site to even participate in this program. There is a guy who justs sits on EA's message board and is a part of the EACL. Being a part of this program has been so rewarding that I can't even begin to tell you. I receive early copies of games, free games, trips to play the game early and more. I even have been on a reality show; Madden Nation - Season 1, and have gone to the 2007 ESPY awards thanks to being in this program. Now all the perks seem great but don't think that you don't have to work for it; actually I don't work for it. It's my hobby and I'm getting rewarded for it. You have to be very active to get to do some of those things and that's not just sitting back and running a forum. I post content, videos, previews, and more.

I'm not a fanboy either, I'm very critical of EA Sports but do not go out of my way to bash them when they put out a less than par product. I'll be the first to say I was not happy about Madden 08 and was very disappointed in some of the things I saw and experienced in the game. 3 man nanos, spectacular catch, lack of online options; all were outlined in a email I sent to EA. At the same time though I continued to run my site, create contests, leagues and more to get people involved and excited about the game. It's not hard to keep playing the game because guys like football and Madden is the only football game out with the NFL license. I think competition between game developers is a good thing but I'm not going to jump into that.

So that's about all I'm going to bore you with today. Oh, I guess you should also know I'm 34, married and have 3 great kids who are all affected by my gaming life. It just comes with the territory.