Sam has been playing video games since his earliest years and has been writing about them since 2016. He’s a big fan of Nintendo games and complaining about The Last of Us Part II. You either agree wholeheartedly with his opinions or despise them. There is no in between.
A lifelong New Yorker, Sam views gaming as far more than a silly little pastime, and hopes though critical analysis and in-depth reviews to better understand their artistic merit.
Twitter: @sam_martinelli.
Amanda Tien, Editor
Amanda Tien likes video games that make her cry, laugh, low-key fall in love, and pet dogs. She joined The Punished Backlog in December 2020 with a salty essay about Cyberpunk 2077. Since then, she has been much happier writing about detective games, indies, and strong femme protagonists like Commander Shepard. Her work can be viewed at www.amandatien.com.
David Silbert, Lead Editor
David is the creator and lead editor of The Punished Backlog. His favorite game is Final Fantasy XII, and he won’t let anyone tell him otherwise. When he’s not covering entertainment, he’s either listening to Dear Evan Hansen on repeat or watching the Boston Celtics hoist banners in TD Garden.
Follow him on Twitter at @David_Silbert to keep up to date with all things The Punished Backlog.
Kei Isobe, Writer
Huge video game, comic book, and anime fan. Spends way too much time watching things he doesn’t like. Hates Zack Snyder. Mains Falco.
PJ Manning, Writer & SEO Specialist
PJ has played games for the better part of 16 years. His earliest gaming memory involved going to his neighbor’s house to play GTA Vice City way too young. His second was being thoroughly unamused at a demo in Target. It was weird and hard. You had to keep swinging on ropes. That game was The Wind Waker, his favorite game of all time.
He speedruns. He writes about speedrunning. He plays music. He writes about music. He Tweets. Find it here: @HashtagPManning
Eric Tate, Writer
Eric Tate started playing video games back on the N64. His favorite franchises are The Legend of Zelda, Dark Souls, and Devil May Cry. Eric loves to play and write music and dreams of writing music for video games one day.
Jason Toro, Writer
Jason is a college student at Northeastern University for English and Game Design. For him, video games are not just an art form, but one of the greatest mediums to tell a story. When not perpetuating the game journalist stereotype of being awful at a game and blaming the game for it, Jason likes writing short fiction novels that never get past chapter two or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
Past Contributors
Shane Bond Mark Bowers Theo Ciccarelli Colin Doyle Geron Graham Anna Hickey Jack Linnehan
Jayne Martin Sam Moore Cody Powell Dylan Roy Genesis Sandoval Luke Vennall Augustine Villanueva
Shane Bond Mark Bowers Theo Ciccarelli Colin Doyle Geron Graham Anna Hickey Jack Linnehan Jayne Martin Sam Moore Cody Powell Dylan Roy Genesis Sandoval Luke Vennall Augustine Villanueva