Jeremy Kauffman

Jeremy is a writer, an artist, a single father living and working in Great Falls, Montana. He has been a part of the Gamesfirst! team since 1999, and a gamer, it seems, his entire life. Lately, his enthusiasm for video games is strongest when they present a bonding experience with his son. ?The influence that video games have on our culture is fascinating to me. The power of that influence has never been as evident as my first trip to E3. That year the Tony Hawk?s Pro Skater series was at its peak, and the release of THPS 4 was on everyone?s minds. On the plane to LA, Shawn told me that due to the enormous popularity of the series, and the growing popularity of the X Games and extreme sports, you could start up a conversation with anyone at E3, or all of LA for that matter, about Tony Hawk?s Pro Skater. I tried it, and it never failed?on the show floor, in the lobby of the hotel, in the funky Thai restaurant down the street, everyone spoke the language of grinds, lip tricks and manuals. I am sure that you could strike a conversation like that anywhere in the world. It?s as if Tony Hawk has presented us not only with one of the greatest video game series of all time, but with the Rosetta Stone for Generation X.? His favorite game? It is a known fact that Jeremy cannot leave a room with a Ms. Pac-Man arcade game in it until he has the high score. But is he embarrassed? Nah, ?cause he never loses.