Hello! My name is Jason Venter and I am a gamer. As it happens, I'm also a writer. You can find my reviews, guides and other content all over the Internet and often referenced here at my home base. This site is both a blog and a professional portfolio, because I'm efficient like that.

See what I'm all about by reading my posts and checking out my work, or use the contact form and offer me an assignment!

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Take your software piracy metaphor and stick it in your tank...

Recently on Facebook, a very satisfied little software pirate said that piracy isn't theft and compared the act of software piracy to a situation where a man magically copies the gas in your fuel tank. The pirate said that since you still have the gas in your tank, piracy is not theft. The implication was that no one is hurt, so why do people with sticks up their butt insist that piracy is some sort of issue?

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My 6-Year Plan for Nintendo

I've been a fan of Nintendo's games for a long time now, and I've also appreciated many of the company's efforts, even when that wasn't popular. I looked forward to the possible success of a dual-screened handheld. I saw the promise in Wii while other people were busy making pee jokes and writing it off as a certain failure, and I was on board when the 3DS launched. I knew that the system would become something special.

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Roger Ebert passes away at age 70

On April 2nd, Roger Ebert shared with Twitter a link to a blog post announcing that he would be taking a “leave of presence.” He looked back on his career with the Chicago Sun-Times and he thanked his readers for being “the best readers any film critic could ask for.” He also expressed his intent to decrease the frequency of his output, following a year wherein he wrote more than 300 movie reviews (the most he ever wrote in a 12-month period throughout a career that spanned forty-six years).

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I can see. It's a miracle!

Sometime around my sophomore year in high school, I started noticing that my eyes weren't working as advertised. I'd be walking down the hallway in school and I couldn't make out the faces of my classmates from a distance that presented no such issues for them. My eyes felt slightly strained compared to what they perhaps should have, and redness started creeping in along the edges (to the point where I'm pretty sure one of my coworkers at my first job suspected that I was using marijuana).

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Write retro reviews for HonestGamers!

This post is meant to announce something that I personally find exciting: the expansion of retro coverage over at HonestGamers and the possibility that you can earn money writing about the old games you love.

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Games I'd Like to See Reviewed at HonestGamers Soon

So, you may or may not know that I pay freelancers to write reviews at HonestGamers. That has been the case for some time now, and it includes reviews for retro video games. The pay isn't great (it's only $20 per review), but this is a relatively uncommon chance to get paid to write about really old games and I figure that should interest a certain group of people who might be able to contribute awesome stuff to the site.

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JRPGs I Have Reviewed

With news surfacing today that Kat Bailey is transitioning to the game development side of the aisle after making a name for herself covering JRPGs as a freelance game critic, my first thought was "Woah, congrats to her" and my second thought was that there really aren't enough people covering JRPGs in the industry.

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My 50 Favorite NES Games

I'm sometimes asked to name my favorite games for various systems, and often that system is the NES. To save myself some time and perhaps even start some reminiscing, I've put together a list of my current 50 favorite games for that platform. Keep in mind that I haven't yet played some NES titles (though I really have played quite a few by now), and I also put this list together from memory without looking up lists of games... which is probably the best way to assemble a list of my favorite games, don't you think?

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Wanted: talented freelancers to write about video game imports!

I'm looking for truly talented freelance writers who regularly buy and play import games but who don't yet have an outlet for their writing. If you're qualified and interested, I'd like to make HonestGamers that outlet for you. I'll even pay you!

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Wayne LaPierre Addresses Congress on Topic of Gun Control

While I was participating in a brief debate on Twitter, my attention was directed to a hearing today wherein Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association addressed Congress on the topic of gun legislation. I'm embedding a video from YouTube that captures his speech.

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