What exactly is The Astringent Gaming Journal? It’s merely a network of friends who love to play, share and keep up with the video game scene. Are they being payed to write articles or play games? Of course not; they do this for the fun of it. The purpose of The Astringent Gaming Journal is to provide news to the gaming populous….by the gaming populous- no corporate influence, just “from one gamer to another”.

Eden Wirefly-

A tad on the enigmatic side, a lot of you may know Jordan Schilling as “Eden Wirefly” or “[TAGJ] Eden [AO]“.

Jordan is an alum of C.F. Brewer High School in White Settlement, TX. He was a member of NHS, a marching band section leader, multi-instrumentalist for jazz band, and graduated in the top 5% of his class. He also earned a blackbelt in Kihido karate at 15.

Currently speaking, he is a Music-turned-Business Major at the University of North Texas in Denton, TX. He is a proud member of Mu Epsilon Kappa, the UNT Green Brigade, and one of the founding members and lead guitarist of the instrumental rock/fusion band “Working Title”. He plays tuba, trombone, bass, electric and acoustic guitars, and a little bit of piano. Jordan is also a composer for the independent game development company, Grey Chamber Games.

Jordan Schilling’s favorite video game genres are fighting, racing, action-adventure, and FPS, but he thoroughly enjoys getting his feet wet in other genres . Though he personally leans toward the classic, older games, some of his favorites include Starcraft, Serious Sam II, Guilty Gear XX #Reload: The Midnight Carnival, Metroid Prime, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, Ikaruga, Soul Calibur II, Diablo II, Prototype, Jet Set Radio Future, Star Fox 64, Sonic Adventure 2, Vectorman, Shining Force, Secret of Mana, American McGee’s Alice, Burnout: Revenge, Wipeout 3, Comix Zone, Galaga, Actraiser, Contra, Battletoads, The Legend of Dragoon, Dynasty Warriors 3, Twisted Metal 4, Extreme G 2-3, Resident Evil 4, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Lineage II, Super Metroid, Team Fortress 2, Megaman X, Megaman Battle Network 2, Pokemon: Silver Edition, SNK VS Capcom, Dead or Alive 4 and NFS Carbon.

OriginOfBob-

OriginOfBob has too many other names to list, but you’re allowed to know about Luke the Tatum.

He graduated from a high school in a state which may or may not be Texas. He was involved in a handful of things, but the only one that’s been declassified is his involvement with the marching band.

Currently, OriginOfBob is an English major at the University of North Texas in Denton, TX. He is a member of a few groups and organizations (none of them recognized by the university). He is also mastermind and founder of Grey Chamber Games, an independent game development company, of which Astringent Gaming is a part. He plays drum set and is learning bass guitar.

Rumors lead us to believe that OriginOfBob’s favorite video game genre is strategy, both real-time and turn-based. He considers himself a “zen” gamer, however, and is open to any innovation in any genre. He’s been playing games for very nearly the entirety of his (natural) life. Some confirmed favorites of his are Starcraft, Half-Life (all of them), Advance Wars, Contra, Metroid Prime, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, Shogo, Star Fox 64, Unreal Tournament 2004, Megaman 2, Megaman X, Raiden (I and II), Cave Story, Shadow of the Colossus, Chrono Trigger, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Doom, Tetris, Fallout (1, 2, and 3. Tactics can suck it.), Dwarf Fortress, Team Fortress 2, Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2, Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, Command and Conquer: Generals, XIII, Jets’N'Guns, Baldur’s Gate (1 and 2), Beyond Good & Evil, and The Longest Journey.

MasterOfOrigami-

MasterOfOrigami a.k.a. [TAGJ] Dark_One2012, or [TAGJ] MasterofOrigami, has gone by many a name, although nowadays most just settle on Steven Gibbons.

High school is where he met the great Luke TheTatum (Origin) in the band. He is currently majoring in Engineering at Tarleton. Later he plans on focusing on biomedical engineering. Steven can play the Trumpet, some Piano, and Fruity Loops. He dabbles in writing music with a funky techno feel. When he’s not writing for the site, he enjoys a good piece of paper. Ever striving to be different and find unknown awesome things, he is TAGJ’s Indie specialist.

Steven’s favorite games are in the category of Adventure/Story and include, but are not limited to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, Psychonauts, God of War, God of War 2, Katamari Damacy, Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, Monster Hunter Freedom 2, Metroid Prime, Cave Story, Team Fortress 2, Portal, Half-Life 2, Shadow of the Colossus, Dwarf Fortress, Patapon, Loco Roco, and pretty much any Indie/Rhythm game.