About oprainfall

Here at oprainfall, we are a group of fans who are passionate about games. We  love Nintendo, Japanese gaming culture, and spreading the word about good games that deserve a bit more of the spotlight. We got our start on the IGN boards as a campaign, called Operation Rainfall, to promote localization of a few games, and from there we grew into a decent-sized fan-following on Facebook, and now we have our own website. Our campaigning days are behind us, and even though we kept part of the campaign name, we are only this website. This website was built by fans for the niche gaming community. Stick around and check out the site, or contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

oprainfall STAFF

 

Site Admins/Editors

oprainfall Jonathan Higgins Jonathan joined the Oprainfall Staff a few months before the US release of Xenoblade Chronicles. He began as a dedicated editorial writer for the site, but over time was recognized for so much more than just that. He is now a co-owner of the oprainfall website, helping to maintain the site itself, as well as ensure its content is given proper quality control. Motivated primarily by philosophy and “knowing his roots” as a gamer, Jonathan spends his time playing games for their stories or creating his own.
oprainfall Richard Ross Richard joined the Operation Rainfall Campaign back when the campaign first started, but didn’t actually know he was one of the admins until he was told he was.  Now he is a co-owner of the oprainfall website, runs the YouTube channel, and has made a lot of content for Oprainfall.  Rich swears he has no allegiance to any company and likes games of all genres.  He spends most of his time figuring out what game he wants to play.
oprainfall Ryan Tyner Ryan is a co-founder and co-owner of the oprainfall website. He currently manages various aspects of the website including the training of new staff. His gaming interests include mostly RPGs; both Western and Japanese. Ryan has an undergraduate degree in psychology and is currently in a graduate degree program. Ryan is currently looking for opportunities in the gaming industry.

Editorial Heads

oprainfall Charlotte Buckingham Charlotte joined the Operation Rainfall Campaign just after the campaign started, but didn’t get actively involved until a couple of months later. She is currently a moderator on the forums, and one of two Editorial Heads for of the website. Charlotte loves RPGs and adventure games, especially any with an element of fantasy. She spends a lot of time playing, discussing and reading about games, and hopes to one day be an editor for a localisation company.
oprainfall Jeff Neuenschwander Jeff has been a supporter of the website and campaign since the beginning. He is the chief Editorial Head, and has probably had a hand in anything you see published on the website. Jeff has a wide variety of tastes when it comes to gaming with his favorite genres being Action, Platforming, RPG, and pretty much any game that is quirky. Jeff is a musician by trade, being trained as a trombonist for Jazz and Classical music as well as holding a degree in Sound Recording.

Managers (Heads of Projects or Positions)

oprainfall Chris Stollings (Youtube Manager) Chris is a 28 year old gamer who joined Operation Rainfall in the Fall of 2012. When he’s not writing articles or working on video content for Rainfall, he spends his time creating Let’s Plays for his personal Youtube channel, and filling in the last few missing titles of his vast (in his mind) game collection, preferring RPG’s. But he wont turn down a title of another genre if it looks interesting!
oprainfall Crystal Baltimore (Training Manager) Crystal is a diverse and crazy gamer girl who can be found playing all types of games. Including plants VS zombies which is her current obsession. When she first got involved in the Operation Rainfall Campaign, she volunteered to help out with anything that needed to be done. This lead to her doing a little bit of everything and loving every moment of it.
 oprainfall David “Lazy_Penguin” Fernandes (Community Manager) David is an assistant admin and community manager at oprainfall. He joined the Operation Rainfall Campaign at the beginning, and became one of the staff as the first wave of new volunteers were needed back in mid June.  He is an avid video game collector, and lover of most game genres. David spends much of his time going through his video game backlog.
oprainfall
 Jared Cyhowski (Website Manager) Jared is a recent graduate from Fitchburg State University where he studied communications, video production, and English. He enjoys playing video games, watching anime, writing, and of course pizza. His favorite games are Shadow of the Colossus and Final Fantasy IX, but he can’t possibly choose a favorite anime. Jared enjoys following the games industry and observing what will happen next, and he puts out an invitation for discussion on these topics. He loves a great story in these mediums and prefers a stronger narrative design over most features. Jared is personally responsible for creating and managing the Anime section of the website, and hopes to inspired and entertain with everything he writes.
 R Thompson Randy Thompson (Downpour Podcast Managing Editor) Randy is just a normal nerd who loves his computer, video games, anime, manga, and the like. He graduated from the Art Institutes for animation so he could bring his drawings to life. He is known for his love of Megaman, and also has a pet obsession with Dragon Ball (the subbed version).
oprainfall Scott MacDonald (Review Manager) When a call for new writers was issued at the beginning of August 2012, Scott readily answered. The Editing Team immediately took notice of his talents and brought him on board. From there, he went on to become one of many who help oprainfall keep in contact with publishers for press assets and the like. Infamous for his Games of the Past Reviews (which he is responsible for maintaining), Scott enjoys the games he grew up with, as well as current games destined to become classics later on.
oprainfall Steve Baltimore (Reporting Manager) Steve Baltimore a 33 year old gamer joined the Operation Rainfall Campaign shortly after it moved on to Facebook from the IGN forums. He has always loved Jrpgs even from way back in the day when Dragon Warrior was released for the NES. He is the Reporting Manager for the website, sifting through tons of Japanese and American press emails for the latest and greatest content. He helps to spread the word of niche games to everyone.

Editors

A. Hinck Angela Hinck (Assistant Editor) Angela signed on with Operation Rainfall in response to a call for mobile game reviewers in 2012, but she had been following the project long before that. Her dream localization miracle would be to see Fatal Frame 4 released stateside. Until that happy day, she’ll fill the hours playing games, consuming unhealthy amounts of anime and manga, and finding ways to write professionally about the things she loves.
oprainfall David ‘Rawky’ Rawlings David Rawlings, or ‘Rawky’ as we  like to call him, joined the Operation Rainfall Campaign at the beginning. He’s British and found solace with us as he was able to understand our pain about Nintendo and their localizing faux pas. He’s a big fan of the letter ‘U’ and refuses to remove them from words, even though we constantly ask him to. He also believes it’s about time Princess Daisy got kidnapped. Currently, Rawky is living in South Korea where he is teaching school children all the wrong forms of English and copious amounts of British slang
Devin Kotani (Assistant Editor) Devin is a Canadian, and as such, plays hockey (no he doesn’t) and drinks maple syrup (not really) while riding a wild moose (he’s never seen a moose). When he’s not perpetuating cultural stereotypes, he’s playing videogames, which has been, on occasion, very bad for his mental health, problems with which have plagued him for years. Now he’s getting his mental health issues under control, and he’s trying to decide what to do with his life. He’s currently debating between journalism and trying his hand at the dramatic arts.
E Chetkauskas Eric Chetkauskas (Assistant Editor) Eric has been a life-long gamer since the Atari 2600 days. He began a life-long quest toward JRPG fandom with the original Dragon Warrior and hasn’t looked back. He took great interest in the Operation Rainfall movement when it started up and is happy be part of the team.
G Rainey Guy Rainey (Assistant Editor) Guy is a hardcore Nintendo fan, a PC enthusiast, and a Sony sympathizer. He also prides himself as an amateur/aspiring game creator. He loves any game that puts story as the main focus of the game, so that means JRPGs are his favorite genre almost by default.
O Tong Oscar Tong  Oscar joined Oprainfall late September 2012 in response to a recruitment drive. He quickly discovered his job was much harder than he had anticipated. Despite the constant challenge, he has come to enjoy his responsibilities. When he is not scrambling to meet a deadline, Oscar enjoys story-driven games with a strong narrative. He is especially fond of computer adventure games, role-playing games, and visual novels. He hopes the world will one day awaken to the power of video games as a storytelling medium.
R Dwyer Raymond Dwyer (Assistant Editor) Raymond is an architect in Chicago who has been playing video games for as long as he can remember. For all that the city offers, he mostly prefers sitting down to a good game when he can spare the time. Buildings look better rendered than they do in real life anyway.
R. Weitz Rose Weitz (Assistant Editor) Rose has been following Operation Rainfall since she first heard about it, sometime in 2011. She started writing for them fall of 2012 and loves what she does. Her life as a gamer began before she could even read, and it shows no signs of stopping. Rose loves RPGs, Japanese-influenced or otherwise, and is a huge Legend of Zelda fan.
W Whitehurst Will Whitehurst Translator Will joined the Operation Rainfall Campaign soon after news broke of that infamous French interview about Xenoblade. Subsequently, he got actively involved and became a staff member in July/August 2011. He is currently an Editor on the website, and loves to play, discuss, debate and learn more about games. Will gravitates towards unconventional action games (such as bullet hell shooters) and RPGs, but plays pretty much anything except Madden.

Staff Writers

A Na Andy Na Andy was a member at Operation Rainfall since the beginning of its campaigning days. Though something of a… rebel at the time, he is now dedicated to contribute for Operation Rainfall, and share his love for all things gaming and the visual arts. His favorite games include Xenoblade Chronicles, Kid Icarus Uprising, and No More Heroes. Andy currently holds a Bachelors degree in Cinema, and he pursues his dream to become a filmmaker.
 A. Yates Arik Yates Arik (yes, its with an “A”) is an aspiring journalist who enjoys video games of all genres, minus sports. His favourite games include: Chrono Trigger, Secret of mana, and anything related to Goichi Suda’s Grasshopper Manufacture! In his spare time, he partakes in various long jam sessions in his band, Is It Happening?, and gaming up a storm as well as partaking in pen and paper RPG’s.
Ceruleath Ceruleath Noreleth Ceruleath is a ”girly” gamer that likes long walks on the beach and vanilla flavored ice cream. She collects weapons and pwns newbies on CoD. And if she put as much time into studying as she has put into gaming, she would have cured every disease in the books, and then some. She is a closet nerd, a gamer, and a fan of everything out of the ordinary.
J. Langford Jodie Langford Translator Jodie joined the Oprainfall Staff as a translator during the winter of 2012. If you see an article on the website with an entirely Japanese source, odds are she’s had a hand in bringing the information to you! She enjoys most RPGs, especially Monster Hunter and Pokemon.
J. Speer Josh Speer Josh is passionate about gaming, as one would expect from someone who is almost 30 years old and who still finds time to clock in around 30-40 hours of gaming a week. He found out about Operation Rainfall when he was avidly following the pending localization of the Big 3 Wii RPGs. He enjoys SHMUPS, Platformers, RPGs and Fighters such Street Fighter. He is also an unashamedly giant Mega Man fan, and has been playing the series since he was eight. He even draws his own Mega Man characters in his spare time!
J Graham Justin Graham Justin joined the Oprainfall Staff through…belligerence. (Note to others: This is not a good way to get noticed. This sort of thing only works once.) When he’s not writing about games or waxing nostalgic about anime older than a large portion of the site’s audience, he can be found playing JRPGs or beating up lots of dudes in Dynasty Warriors.
Kyle Emch Kyle is a gamer who has been writing user blogs on Destructoid on and off for almost a year. Outside of that, he has been studying music at college for about three years now. He’s played the piano since he was 6 years old and has been recently been learning how to write music. He has followed the Operation Rainfall movement on Facebook since it started and was happy to volunteer for the website.
P Schipper Phil Schipper Phil joined the Oprainfall Staff to review Android games, but soon fell in love with writing news articles and Games of the Past. His dream is to make a living writing sci-fi and fantasy novels, which is why he leads the Obscure Authors Alliance in his free time. Still, even in his stories, which usually involve insane people, video games are one of his strongest influences. He describes himself as “a Mr. Nice Guy with a horrible, horrible dark side.”

Contributors

ABOUT 009 Anthony Arviso Anthony joined the Oprainfall Staff in January 2013. A Los Angeles native, he is a lover of all cultures, film, comics, gaming and the odd and obscure.
B. Williams Brad Williams Brad’s love for gaming began over thirty years ago on the IBM PC1, and is an avid PC and console gamer. Living in rural Vermont, Brad enjoys video gaming, target shooting, and backyard astronomy, as well as spending time with his wife, four cats, and four rats. He is finishing his Bachelor’s degree in Business Management at Johnson State College this year, with a desire to move on to non-profit management.
B Rose Brandon Rose When he isn’t pretending that he’s a passable writer, Brandon primarily helps the Operation Rainfall by providing them his expertise as a graphic artist. Brandon’s love of gaming was officially cemented by titles like Blaster Master, Pokemon Blue Version, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Since then he’s branched out into multiple genres and franchises across several platforms, but feels right at homes in games rich in lore and atmosphere such as Dark Souls, La-Mulana, Metroid Prime, and especially the Zelda and Fire Emblem series’. If he wants to let off a little steam, however, nothing’s keeping him from breaking out the shooters, fighters, or hack-n’-slashers.
Clinton Nix Clinton started following the movement back when it was still being hosted on the IGN message boards and with the Amazon push of Monado. He’s also an audio engineer, studying in Seattle and waiting for his big break into the world of audio (but not to the detriment of video game writing, of course).
D Gulyas Daniel Gulyas Daniel is a third year business student from Texas who got his start in JRPGs with Final Fantasy 8 and has loved them ever since. His three biggest passions are video games, technology and baseball, with anime being a growing fourth. He occasionally Let’s Plays on the side as a hobby.
D. Trapold Daymon Trapold Daymon joined OpRainfall because he has a deep, nerdy love for niche games – basically anything Atlus/XSeed/Aksys/NIS related. An obscene collector of such games (some may call it obsessive), he is also a part-time bassoonist, and a full-time dork.
J Williamson Joey Williamson Joey is a summer 2012 graduate of the Studio Art program at Florida State University, where he focused in illustration and sculpture. He’s currently employed part-time at Toys”R”Us, sitting on that job to buff up his resume while applying for other jobs more relevant to his degree. Things that you might catch him doing on his time off include frequent trips to the movie theater, throwing down some new sketches for project ideas that will never see the light of day, or crying about having to go to work the next day. To break the lull of his tears, he likes to watch anime and try out new games, particularly MMOs. He’s a huge Sailor Moon fanboy, but also gives a 10 out of 10 to shows like Arakawa Under the Bridge, Katanagatari, and Kids on the Slope.
K Winata Karli Winata Karli is an avid gamer with a taste for a little bit of everything. Except for sports games. And racing sims. And definitely not hidden object games! …Maybe everything is too broad a term. Suffice it to say that he has been known to play hours of Call of Duty multiplayer in between bouts of Persona fusing and Star Coin collecting while saving the world/galaxy through sensibly bald space marines or plucky teenagers with impossible hairstyles. Where does he find the time to write about them?
Steven Boaz Steven Boaz Steven was one of the founders of the Operation Rainfall Campaign. He designed the oprainfall website. A passionate fan of all things Nintendo, Steven spends the vast majority of his time playing, writing about, and discussing Nintendo games. He also likes crappy 90′s pop punk, carne asada burritos, and long walks on the beach.
Ben Clarke
Brodie Dayton-Mills

About the Author

The official Administration account of oprainfall.