Update: Yikes, looks I’ve been somewhat remiss in keeping this page up to date, so for now have a look at my LinkedIn profile to see what I’ve been doing recently.

I have been involved in computer games in the UK since joining Ziff Davis in 1998 as IT Manager, and becoming a regular contributor to PC Gaming World, Gamespot UK and PC Magazine. In 1999 I joined the team at BarrysWorld, taking over responsibility for community management, the BarrysWorld website, dealing with customer website hosting issues and day to day support. I remained with BarrysWorld from it’s beginnings as a volunteer-run organisation through to the initial VC-funded commercial launch in early 2000.

After leaving BarrysWorld and forming AlienPants in 2001, I have been heavily involved in online and mobile games services in the UK and Europe, including creating a live television program (Game Guru on the Game Network) that integrated mobile texting with a live presenter giving PC and console games cheats, designing and launching a Games Service Provider for British Telecom in direct competition to BarrysWorld, as well as launching several SMS-based products and services aimed at the PC and console games mass market, including the popular GTIP premium SMS hints, tips and cheats service for PC and console games.

I have also spoken at an ELSPA conference on Profitable Online Gaming on the business case for providing world-class community management and customer support for online and massively multiplayer games (you can download my Powerpoint Slides from here (261Kb PDF), a subject I returned to in contributing a chapter to the recently published Massively Multiplayer Game Development 2 (if you purchase a copy, I earn a small royalty…), and on Cross Platform Gaming (Using Existing Markets to Create New Ones) to a group of Finnish mobile game developers as part of a DTI trade visit to Helsinki in 2004.

In 2001 I joined the team running the world’s largest IRC network, QuakeNet. QuakeNet is home to more than 450,000 of Europe’s hardcore online games players, with more than 200,000 people online every night, and is rapidly becoming the home of online gaming in Europe.

Since the beginning of 2005 I have been working as a Technical Architect and Systems Architect for the University of Salford, on their Identity Management project and on the University’s Integrated Information Infrastructure initiative.

In the middle of January 2006 I started contributing to The Mobile Weblog, a weblog devoted to the mobile industry.

You can email me by sending an email to cro at alienpants dot com, or send me a connection request through LinkedIn.