SmashBoards Presents: Interview with PushDustIn

Today’s post is a little different than normal. Instead of highlighting or talking about some interesting factoid about Smash we are showcasing SmashBoard’s interview with PushDustIn. With the addition of Source Gaming’s YouTube channel, and new writers it’s important to reflect before we can properly move forward. As with our guidelines in the Quoting vs. Plagiarism post, I’ve only quoted a part of the interview. The full interview can be read here.

Thirdkoopa: Tell us a little bit about yourself!

PushDustin:Well, I guess it’s best to start from the basics. I’m 27 years old, male currently living in the Kansai region of Japan. Originally from Connecticut, I have lived in Japan for over five years and I consider it my “second home”. Originally, I went abroad in high school…for a full year, without knowingany Japanese. It was also the first time I was away from home for more than a day. I encourage everyone to spend some time abroad…it really expands one’s perspective and understanding of the world.

Anyway, I started playing video games at a very young age with one of my earliest memories is playing Super Mario Bros. 3 on the NES in a hospital (I was hospitalized due to surgery on my right kidney). Even though my first home console was a Sega Genesis, I always had a strong affinity for Nintendo games and products. My favorite game of all time is actually Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. I consider myself a Nintendo fanboy, which is how I first got interested in the Smash Bros. series in the first place. Battling as my favorite characters, and some I didn’t know at the time (Ness, Captain Falcon) was the most fun I ever had.

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Thirdkoopa: How did Source Gaming start?

PushDustin: Source Gaming originally started because I wanted to build up my own translation resume. I saw a lot of sites like Kantopia and Legends of Localization, which were posting fan translations. I decided that in order to get better at translating, then I would need to actually do something…and well translate it. Originally, I was going to compare the English and Japanese versions of Majora’s Mask. After a couple of posts on it, I got distracted by all the rumors and hype of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/ 3DS. Since I joined the leaks group and kept up with SSB4Dojo.com, I started to get very familiar with a lot of various aspects of Smash.

Source Gaming didn’t really find itself for awhile. After the 3DS and Wii U versions were released, Idatamined the files to see what I could uncover about the development, or plans for DLC. I uncovered quite a bit of stuff. After finishing the datamining project, I kept hearing rumors about Wolf being planned for Melee and other things. I decided I would track down the original source so I could see if there was anything else missed in those articles. To my surprise (and everyone else’s) those articles simply didn’t exist — they were fabricated information. After completing the Definitive Unused Character List I decided to cover various aspects of development and speculation as I felt there was a big need for it.

For awhile Source Gaming was just me. However, around March…I decided to expand the writing and translation staff with @Aeris being the first full time member if my memory serves me correctly. The Source Gaming team has been incredible and instrumental to its’ growth.

Now, I’m managing a team of 19, with people involved in articles, translations, social media and videos. We try to maintain a single post every day, and have recently achieved over 100 posts in succession. It’s a lot of work, and it’s due to everyone’s effort. Source Gaming wouldn’t be half as good as it is now if it wasn’t for everyone else. Furthermore, the fans of the site have been very supportive and a pleasure to interact with. I’m incredibly grateful.

Again, these are just two questions from the full feature. The full interview can be accessed here. I will be interviewing other members of the Source Gaming team. Let me know who you would want to be interviewed first in the comments below.