Note that this list is necessarily incomplete due to demands on our time and also the sensitive nature of a few of our contributors’ professions. The only fixed roles are those of the founders, whose titles are more or less equivalent to ‘we got here first’; everyone contributes as best as they are able in an excessively socialist fashion.
Founders:
Karl Parakenings
When asked what exactly it is he does, Karl tends to answer with a strained chuckle and a glance at his bare wrist as an attempt to stall for time. He has worked as a freelance writer, graphic designer, editor, academic, game designer, comic letterer, and grocery stockboy. He is Medium Difficulty’s Editor in Chief and Chief Operations Officer.
Kyle Carpenter
Kyle Carpenter is a founding member of Medium Difficulty, and its co-Editor in Chief and Submissions Editor. He is currently pursuing a PhD in English literature studying Lacanian psychoanalysis, posthumanism, and digital humanities. He grew up in his basement rec room, passing the controller to his brother and other friends.
Dinosaur McDowall
Like the other founding members, Dinosaur is familiar with game criticism, having spent the last decade or so constantly talking about them with Karl. She runs Medium Difficulty’s transmedia projects, including podcasts and video content, is the site’s Community Manager, and is currently completing a diploma in accounting.
Nico Dicecco
Nico is another one of the founding members of MD, and yet another fool pursuing a PhD in English lit (what? books are awesome). His hobbies include oh-god-I-wish-I-had-time-for-hobbies, playing guitar, and curmudgeonliness.
Contributors:
Mattie Brice
Bill Delisle
Jasmine Elliott
Jasmine Elliott is a freelance editor and occasional poet pursuing PhD candidacy in cultural studies. She doesn’t know much about video games, unless by “video games” you mean The Elder Scrolls series, but her passion for tabletop roleplaying is matched only in her obsessive attention to comma placement. She blogs over at
Bob Goodrich
Ben Hallett
Adam Harshberger
Brendan Keogh
Brendan Keogh is a freelance videogame journalist and critic who works for a variety of outlets including Edge , Hyper , Kill Screen , Ars Technica , and Paste . He is also commencing a PhD at RMIT University, Melbourne, looking at videogame criticism. He is known to blog sometimes at http://critdamage.blogspot.com and tweet too often at @.
Lindsay Meagher-Swanson
Lindsay Meagher-Swanson also writes the low-art culinary blog Painfully Enamored with Food , is working on some books, and has an academic background in conducting human-subject scientific research with emphases in health psychology and cognitive neuroscience. She currently works as a behavioural counsellor/coach for an addiction hotline. She assures you that her “researcher” persona is considerably more formal and objective than her “writer” persona is.
Matthew J Perez
Matthew James Perez is a nice young man, who likes to travel, enjoys pizza, and lives with his girlfriend and her cat. Years later, he took to the ashen skies of America and began writing. You may read his conversations with America at
Steven Sukkau
Kaitlin Tremblay
Kaitlin Tremblay recently received her Master’s in English Literature from Wilfrid Laurier University, where she studied Canadian literature, gender theory and all-things grotesque. She will be moving on to the Creative Book Publishing program at Humber College in the summer. She blogs at http://www.thatmonster.wordpress.com
Megan Townsend
Meg is a PhD student, teacher, and Canadianist scholar. She has been playing video games since she was tall enough to plug the NES into the family’s televsion set. She hasn’t gotten much taller since. Meg’s interests include gender studies, genre, socks, cats, Gingers, RPGs, Horror, and cursing like a sailor.
Valerie Valdes
Valerie Valdes has a BA in English literature with minors in creative writing and motion pictures, and yet, miraculously, she is gainfully employed. She specializes in not finishing games, especially when faced with a tough moral quandary, like whether to kill a stranger to save your son’s life.
Andrew VandenBossche
Cameron Walker
