Although Matthew Weise was born near Chicago he grew up in a small town in central Illinois where the only way to buy a game during the 80's was to have his parents drive him to the "big city" of Champaign/Urbana. He never cared much for sports or generally what other kids were into. Rather he spent his time drawing, painting, exploring the countryside, and, naturally, playing videogames. Buying a Commodore 64 for "writing" was his parents' first mistake, and it just snowballed from there.

When he was 12 he saw Aliens and was convinced that he wanted to be a filmmaker. He spent the next decade making movies—which were occasionally entertaining but mostly really silly—on his home video camera while amassing a collection of Nintendo Entertaiment System and Super Nintendo Entertaiment System games from which he drew, uh, inspiration. After finishing High School back in the Chicago suburbs he enrolled in the film program at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, only to drop out a few semesters later so he could focus on creating his own major which involved elements of cinema, digital media, and pop-culture studies.

Currently, Matt is a Graduate Student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Comparative Media Studies. There he studies videogame theory and is a research assistant at The Education Arcade, an experimental game design group which draws upon both cognitive learning theory and commercial trends in videogames. He is one of the lead designers of Revolution, a community-oriented multi-player simulation of the American Revolutionary War.

Top 10 All-Time Favorites 10. Silent Hill (PSX) 05. Chrono Trigger (SNES) 09. Suikoden II (PSX) 04. River City Ransom (NES) 08. Fallout (PC) 03. Gunstar Heroes (GEN) 07. Ultima VII: The Black Gate (PC) 02. The Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask (N64) 06. Thief (PC) 01. Super Punch-out (SNES)

Current Favorites 05. Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (PS2) 04. The Last Express (PC) 03. Viewtiful Joe (GCN) 02. WarioWare Inc.: Mega Microgame$ (GBA) 01. Sky Odyssey (PS2)