Sup peeps,
I’m Josh, and as you may have heard, I’m thrilled to announce that I’m the newest community manager at Harmonix. I wanted to take some time out of my second week here to tell you a little about me, where I came from, and why I’m so excited to be working here.
Like every cool kid, I was born in the 80s. I grew up on a healthy diet of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teddy Ruxpin, and (the staple of any household) my NES. My hometown is in the suburbs of Boston, only about 30 miles away from where I am today. I first got my mitts on a Harmonix game when Official PlayStation Magazine came with a demo disk featuring a little game called FreQuency, and I instantly fell in love. I didn’t have enough money to buy the game at the time, so I would play the demo songs over and over, annoying anyone close enough to hear the TV. I even invited friends over one night to pass the controller around, sharing my new obsession with them.
Eventually I saved enough money, bought it, loved it, played the hell out of it, and became a part of the community on FreQ.com (RIP), where I went by the name DJ Panik. I stayed active through the release of Amplitude, where I was mostly playing competitively for posting single-player high scores, although I dabbled in multiplayer as well. I picked up Guitar Hero on day one, and by the time Rock Band came out, my parents were thankful I was about to move out for good, just so they didn’t have to hear me rocking out on plastic instruments anymore.
I’ve been around the gaming industry for a little while now, doing some community management work at Destructoid and spending a few years in Seattle at Amazon doing marketing and community management on their video games team. Some of you may know me as /u/AmazonJosh on Reddit (FYI, Esteban has followed me across the country to remain on my desk at work).
So, that brings me to today. I’m back in Boston with my Aussie wife and non-Aussie cat. I’m a movie snob, an obsessive trophy chaser, and my two unrequited loves are puns* and chocolate chip cookies. I only started at Harmonix last week, but it already feels like home. I’ll be working closely with the rest of the team here and you lovely folks. My goals are to share messages from the team with you, bring your thoughts and concerns back to the team, and above all have fun hanging out together.
One thing I’ve learned about the games industry is that it’s always exciting. Let’s be excited together.
Stay gold,
Josh
*What do you call a creep that watches people from their entryways? A foyer.
