PSA: Koncsol Is Pronounced “Console”

And yes, before anyone asks, I did legally change my name to get this internship. Realistically though, I’m just using this internship as a platform to educate the population on the correct pronunciation and spelling of my name. Suggestion – rename the magazine “Koncsol Informer”. My work here is done. Let’s go home, boys.

Home for me is Birmingham, Alabama. I grew up there and lived in the same room of the same house for 18 years before attending college at Auburn University (War Eagle). In high school, one of my teachers told me I was good at writing, and I was like, “don’t you mean well?” She was not amused. In college, I picked up a creative writing minor for fun because

Writing some haikus
And fictitious stories seemed
Like an easy A.

My professors were amused, and turns out, I got really attached to my haikus and I couldn’t stop writing. Screenplays, fiction, poems, articles; it didn’t matter what I was writing, and it didn’t matter that no one but me was going to read it. I believe informative writing and entertaining writing are not mutually exclusive, and I make it a point to make my writing as amusing as possible. As I write this, I think back to all the linguistic antics and clever jokes I worked on for hypothetical audiences. It’s pretty cool to have a real audience now, so thanks for being a part of that.

My initials are JAK, so naturally I gravitated toward the Jak and Daxter series. They were the first games that made me want to integrate video games into my life. To further this cause, when my mom brought home an orange tabby kitten, I named him Daxter. Despite my parents’ vehement protest of the name, I took him to the animal clinic where I worked at the time, and listed him as Daxter in the computer. My parents, fearing unfounded litigation, conceded to the name, and will now openly admit that it’s perfectly fitting. As you could guess of someone who worked at an animal clinic, I love animals and won’t hesitate to tell everyone how cute their animal is. In addition to that, I love music and try to learn as many instruments as possible. I wear earphones a large portion of the time, only taking them out to comment on how cute passing animals are. I’m also into basketball (Go Mavs), space (the outer kind), and almost any form of media. I play a lot of narrative-driven games, but have no reservations playing anything (and everything) else.

I’ve had a lot of trouble finding a path in my life. I bought a Nissan Pathfinder because I thought that would help, but it just ended up draining my wallet with its terrible gas mileage. My collegiate career has been plagued by indecision and overcommitment as I tried in vain to ascertain a single direction out of so many interests. Basically, in the struggle to be well-rounded, I became a sphere and rolled around aimlessly for a while. Aerospace Engineering to Geology to Pre-vet to Media Studies. Finally, I managed to trace back these core interests, and discovered that they were the same reasons I enjoyed video games so much. They’re such an interdisciplinary medium that manages to entertain all of my passions, so getting to engage with and write about them seems like the ultimate conglomerate of satisfaction.

I’m really excited to be part of the Game Informer crew this summer and I look forward to interacting with the community. I’m also looking to revitalize my Twitter, so hit me up @JaredKoncsol.

Everyone, say it with me now: Koncsol!