Shawn Snider Executive Editor

Shawn Snider is the founder and Executive Editor of GamingExcellence. Shawn brings nearly a decade of industry experience to the publication. He is an expert at late night update marathons and coding sessions, a pizza connoisseur, and likes to think he's good at Company of Heroes (when in fact he's truly terrible).

Rick Poulin Senior Editor

Rick has learned a lot from games over the years, and most of that time involved PC real-time strategies. The likes of Warcraft 2 and Starcraft laid the groundwork for basic financial management early in high school, followed by a lesson in Command and Conquer politics combined with a very long stretch learning team dynamics and project management from the Age of Empires series. Intersperse a racing game or two for drivers' ed and you've got a nearly complete picture. Remember kids, red lights are optional, and you get bonus points for driving on the sidewalk.

Andrew Sztein Senior Editor

Andrew Sztein has been gaming since he was six years old, in an attempt to learn AI patterns such that he is prepared to fight back when the robots rise up against humanity in a bloody, albeit very cool coup. Thanks to gaming, he is also prepared and looking forward to a possible zombie apocalypse.

Daniel Acaba Managing Editor

Gaming for the past twenty years Daniel Acaba has put in plenty of time into video games. Time enough for them to become a huge part of his life although one has to wonder what else he could have been accomplished with all that time if he wasn't gaming it away. But he prefers not to think of such trivial details and enjoy the games as they come.

Liana Kerzner Senior Producer

Liana K, called "Canada's Ultimate Fangirl" by the Edmonton Journal, is a prominent voice in the world of all things geeky as a writer, panellist, cosplay pinup, and convention/award show participant. She is the "Red" half of Ed & Red's Night Party!, Canada's longest running comedy series, and is staying true to her nerd roots by offering full episodes of the series free online this fall via Joost. She has been a gamer since the age of three and has been an advocate for video games and gamer culture on television for the last 3 years. Her extensive superhero toy collection has also been featured frequently on national TV, and she has also exposed the broadcast world to phenomena such as tabletop gaming and LARPing. She is the writer/producer behind hit Ed the Sock TV projects such as Smartass: The Ed the Sock Report and the legendary Fromage series.

Nicholas Bale Associate Editor

Nicholas Bale has been playing games ever since he laid his little hands on Super Mario Bros, and has been talking about them ever since anyone would bother listening (and sometimes when they wouldn't). Though role-playing games are his thing, he'll play anything that takes input and can often be found whittling away his free time trying to complete one of the many, many games left on his shelf.

Ania Kwak Associate Editor

Atari raised Ania Kwak long before geeky girl-gamers could turn on more than their consoles. She's used the first gargantuan floppy discs known to man, has epically battled in text-based combat, and personally suffered through the great depression, aka Atari's demise with the Jaguar CD. Having studied 3D Game Design and used every console available to date, she has a strong appreciation for all games and continues to pay tribute by playing them and creating fan art on the side in its freehand and pixilated glory.

Chris Moore Associate Editor

Chris Moore has let gaming take over his life. When he was in middle school, He spent the night with his friend to see who the statistical best at Street Fighter Alpha 3 was. (Chris is by 62%) It has also almost gotten into trouble at times. In high school he almost got grounded for being out around town after midnight. In actuality, he was with his best friend playing Metal Gear Solid at his house. His entire existence is pretty much measured in video games. And while some out there only hear bleeps and bloops he hears incredibly constructed video game music.

Christopher Seal Content Manager

In an attempt to avoid a cliche biography, Christopher Seal wants to avoid stating how long he's been playing games or what system he started on. Rather, Christopher wants to express his enjoyment of all genres, regardless of platform, and his appreciation for all facets of gaming, from beautiful art work to amazing sound design. In his spare time Christopher enjoys sports, travelling, ranting about issues of little importance and a tasty brew on the patio.

Lindsay Steele Copy Editor

Naomi Brown Senior Staff Writer

Unfortunately, Naomi Brown still misses her Atari, badly. And the original Genesis given away by her evil hunchbacked, beer guzzling stepfather with the harelip and wandering eye. But knowing that those happy times are long gone, Naomi consoles herself with realizing that there's no way she'd ever get to play her lovely, mind screwing survival horror on an Atari. Or blow zombies heads off in such beautifully rendered bloody tones on the Genesis. So while the glory days of Centipede and Aladdin are long gone, she's still got her Fatal Frame and L4D to keep her company.

Ben Abbott Staff Writer

Michael Joly Staff Writer

Michael Joly is pretty much 'awesome' personified. He's an avid Pokemon master and savior of the galaxy. Ok... Not really in real life but with video games the way they are these days, who can tell? Ok, where was I? Oh yeah, Michael is a video game enthusiast and writer, he also likes long walks on the beach and saving the princess.

Avi Krebs Staff Writer

Avi Krebs has been gaming for as long as he can remember, and has the honour to declare he's not only played through the one-hundred plus games in his collection, he's finished most of them to absolute completion.

Matthew Pollesel Staff Writer

Matthew Pollesel can't think of a clever bio. Apparently playing video games for over twenty years really can rot your brain. It also explains why his list of favourite games includes the likes of Captain America: Super Soldier, Batman Begins and Lord of Arcana.