Welcome gamers, fans, and all the like. It brings me great joy to introduce to you and welcome you to the launch of the Press Start website!
So how did we get to this day? Press Start began as a creative outlet for me, Jeremy Culver, back in 2014. While working in local TV news for a small market in west central Illinois, I wanted to create content and discuss my passion for video games and the video game industry. Making this content for over the air broadcasts was not engaging for our viewers. So I turned to the next best thing…..Tumblr (as well as YouTube)!
Here is the first video I uploaded to the channel.
Press Start As a Hobby
While I really enjoyed making content on video games, I continued to see it as a hobby and didn’t put a lot of focus into it. Eventually life got in the way and I placed Press Start on the back burner, planning to return to it at some point. That return took a lot longer than anticipated.
As time went on, I continued to occasionally publish videos on YouTube, but not consistently and I never returned to Tumblr again. The TV news grind ate at me and I felt little to no energy after work to put any effort into Press Start like I did at the beginning. Eventually that daily grind caught up to me and I faced something I never planned for in my career, burnout.
“Eventually that daily grind caught up to me and I faced something I never planned for in my career, burnout.”
News Burnout
Burnout can be extremely hard to overcome. I tried to work through the struggles, hoping my weekends and vacation time would rejuvenate me, but it never worked. As each day passed, my sense of dread grew returning to work. The satisfaction and accomplishment I felt with my work dissipated more and more. Eventually my wife and I decided in the best interest of my health and well being, I needed to walk away from news and begin a new career path.
This eventually led me to become the Event Business Coordinator for Gaming Generations. While operating several retail stores in Wisconsin, Gaming Generations provides equipment and services for video game events and competitions all over the United States. My role saw me traveling all over the country working these video game tournaments and establishing contacts with people in the industry to grow the business. Instead of just watching the events on Twitch.tv like I had for years, I now attended and worked at Combo Breaker, CEO, Pokemon Nationals and more. The job allowed me to see so many places I never dreamed of visiting and I met a lot of great people.
My first event I worked was Combo Breaker 2019 and felt like a dream come true. 
This photo is from Pokemon Nationals 2019 in Columbus, Ohio. 
A photo from my seats at Fyter Fest which took place at CEO 2019 in Daytona Beach, Florida. 
A rushed photo I took with Austin Creed, also known as Xavier Woods, at EVO 2019. 
My view of the Tekken 7 Finals at EVO 2019
Burnout Strikes Again
Once the honeymoon phase of the new job subsided, this too became a struggle. I spent a lot of time away from my fiancé, now wife, along with our dog. I worked long hours with little sleep. Though I truly enjoyed the job, I knew it wasn’t a long term solution. Again, with the support of my wife, I stepped away to find something new.
Which brings me roughly up to this point. Since December 2019, I work as a freelance writer. Some of my writings has been published over at Dot Esports and I also made two videos for their YouTube channel, which you can find my video on TSM’s Bjergsen here. I renewed my focus to the Press Start YouTube channel and started several social pages for it, which are linked to the social icons above. During all this time I kept looking for consistent work to supplement income. Once Covid-19 hit, that all went out the window. So I began to think, what do I do? How do I find what I’m looking for in this current economic and world climate? That’s when I decided to take a chance.
The Beginning of Press Start The Website
Starting today, Press Start will take steps toward what I’ve always envisioned it to become, a gaming news outlet. This website marks this beginning. From this point on, Press Start will truly work to bring you gaming news you want to know and care about. The YouTube channel will bring you content to enhance the articles written on here. The videos may include gameplay demos, reveals, interviews, and the like. I will still put up content that you’ve come to expect, just with additional videos to boot. I hope to turn Press Start into a platform that features more writers than myself. A place where writers can come to grow their skills and list it first on their resume as they go to move on. While adding writers to the staff will not be my focus immediately, I created a contact form for those interested in volunteering their time.
I am excited to take these initial steps toward realizing this dream. I hope you are excited as well. You can support this endeavor by continuing to check back on the website, read and share the articles posted, and potentially donate to help me grow. Thank you for stopping by Press Start and remember, as always, your gaming news STARTS here!
