Devin C. Griffiths

Writing is in Devin Griffiths' blood: he began creating stories for himself (and anyone else who'd read them) in second grade. When asked by his teachers to keep a journal, all his entries centered around a character undertaking some sort of adventure-usually perilous. And while his peers were learning to type using instruction books and teaching templates, Devin taught himself the keyboard by composing stories on his dad's manual typewriter, an old blue and white Smith-Corona with faded keys. At 15, he began writing professionally, as a ghost writer for internal publications for IBM and Pitney-Bowes. The college years found him in western Massachusetts, pursuing a science journalism program at Hampshire College. After graduation, he worked at various jobs throughout the state before finally going freelance in 2000. Since then, he's written brochures, newsletters, ad copy, website content, feature-length articles and training scripts for clients across a range of industries--high-tech, education, retail, manufacturing, legal, marketing, fine art, and financial services among them.

Devin is also a lifelong gamer. He grew up during the first video game boom of the late '70s/early '80s, and spent more time than he cares to admit dropping quarters into a dizzying array of arcade games-including favorites like Joust, Defender, Stargate, Tempest, Major Havoc, Spy Hunter, Pac-Man and Rolling Thunder. He also owned the first Atari 5200 on his block (more Defender), and-in celebration of true geekdom-was known to host regular D&D or Top Secret campaigns. His family's purchase of an Apple IIe opened up the world of computer games (Zork, Lode Runner and the Ultima series rapidly became mainstays). The introduction of Doom post-college exposed him to first-person shooters, but it was the game's deathmatch mode that really hooked him: after his first (very) late night fragging session, there was no turning back.

In 2007, Devin caught his first glimpse of the real power of video games: a chance conversation led him into the bizarre realms of professional video gaming, gold farming, virtual economies and games for health. Further investigation revealed that video games were infiltrating virtually every aspect of society-and it seemed that no one over the age of 35 knew about it. He chronicles his subsequent trip down the rabbit hole in Virtual Ascendance: Videogames and the Remaking of Reality.