Dylan Duarte, Contributor (San Fransisco, CA)

Dylan Duarte is some sort of man-child whose shirts are too small and hair is always unkempt. In December of 2007, Ripten founder Chad Lakkis brought him in from the cold one night with the promise of food, then chained him to a desk and forced him to write. He’s lost track of the days.

From what he remembers of his life, he knows he’s been playing videogames for years. Dylan’s gaming days began when he was a wee child, when he used to visit his cousins’ house to ignore them while playing Mario Bros. on their Atari. Before he knew it, Dylan had acquired a Nintendo Entertainment System through some sort of black magic. He still recalls the days when he would try to shoot the sassy dog in Duck Hunt, only to fail miserably and roll up into a ball, crying. Nevertheless, he rose again. Gaming was no longer a pastime, but an addiction - Nay, a requirement; a prerequisite to life! And so was born a lifelong tradition of pushing everything that he loved aside in order to play more video games. He neglected his studies; put puberty on hold. He climbed the gaming ladder, evolving with the systems. He currently games on the Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360, as well as the PC.

He still hears the dog laughing in his nightmares.

He’s been freelancing writing since early 2006. He started at a small network of informational websites, writing for their video games site, as well as editing their watch site and buyer’s guide site. Eventually he picked up a few more gigs writing about games, the most notable of which is an ongoing job for Gamepro, which he still holds.

When he’s trying his hardest not to do any work, he plays video games, watches television and movies, reads novels, and writes fiction. He also runs a collaborative webcomic at www.inner-nut.com with his longtime friend Jeff.

If he can ever break free of wherever Chad has trapped him, he hopes to write a novel.