We are a Team

Mark Johnson - Senior Writer & Content Researcher

Occasionally known as 'Young Mark' (because he is under 50) or Mr Wonderful (for reasons unknown), when Mark is not writing about video games he is getting his one hour and 43 minutes a day of sleep. Once a month he is allowed to leave his chair for a toilet break. He is what you might call a tank. His favourite game is usually the last one he played or whatever in the office has the darkest picture, enabling him to best see his face reflected in the screen. He is partial to comics and inclined towards throwing himself off mountains with a piece of hardwood and fibreglass attached to his feet.

Michael Fox - Staff Writer

Greg Platt - Staff Writer

Shunned from society for having a fourth eye protruding from the small of his back, Greg has taken up residence in a small shack in the woods just outside the Los Angeles borders. While technically labeled as a 'Mercan, Greg has chosen to eschew democracy and has formed his own country, Quadroctica, from which he submits game reviews via carrier pigeon.

He is currently accepting applications for various positions of the Quadroctican parliament as well as someone to man the counter at the Starbucks

Joseph Mitchell Chagan - Staff Writer

Jo is about the craziest person on SPOnG's staff, and that's saying something! He's also a hardcore gamer, and a prolific writer. Better to have him on your side, if you know what we mean!

JoMitch (as he would doubtlessly be known if he was a Walton) is another 'Mercan. Can we see a pattern developing here? What is this? You let one foreigner come work for your company, and before you know it they are bringing their friends, relatives, and complete strangers with a similar accent to the party. Soon, their pets will be walking round the office stinking up the place leaving their little "presents" in the corner behind the pot-plants (that's plants in pots, we don't grow pot in the office, for God's sake, this is a place of work).

Marcus Dyson - Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer

One of the old-skool wild men of gaming, Dyson paid his dues editing the magazine/doorstep that was Amiga Format - in the days before editorial values flew the coop.

He then spent time hardening his liver at Team17 Software, where he first thought up SPOnG. He used to claim to have started SPOnG to prevent him ever having to wear a suit again - but more recently, in acknowledgement of the increasing corporatisation of gaming (and all the awards ceremonies he is forced to attend) he has actually bought some rather nice bespoke suits, which make his big scary bald self look somewhat like a bouncer.

Dyson likes snowboarding, skateboarding, mountain biking, Harley Davidsons and AC Cobras, and loud music with guitars. He's quite scary.

Gareth Edwards - Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer

Gareth was standing close to Marcus when he thought up this whole monstrous thing. Instead of discouraging him, Gareth encouraged him, and even took a share of the company. The fool!

Aside from "doing the back-end" and coordinating reviews, Gareth is especially responsible for testing the vehicle deformation dynamics for screenshots of driving games, and is a world grand master at GTA3, Vice City & San Andreas. His fastest GTA:SA "speed run" comes in at under 3 minutes 37 seconds. He's taken to measuring the playability of the "real world" by spinning cars at high speed at busy intersections, driving toward oncoming traffic, and watching how people react to his drive-by shooting antics.

Gavin Dodds - Technology Consultant

Gavin was also standing nearby, and being a games freak of the highest order, and some sort of registered computer genius, he wanted a piece of the action too. Gavin does the bits that are very very hard, and technical. He is a wizard who knows about Unix!

Amanda Cook - Art and Design

We thought we could do this all in wurdz, but it luckt bad, so we had to get an experienced crayon wielder in to draw some pictures. Amanda used to do the pictures on Mega! Magazine, Amiga Power, GamesMaster and some others, probably.