The Secret Gaming of a Mr. DeSantis
October 15, 2020
Bernie DeSantis was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He holds a B.A. in Theology from the University of Dallas and a M.A. in Library and Information Science from Louisiana State University. Has been teaching, coaching, and working with IT in Catholic Schools for 11 years. He is happily married to Dr. Anna Breuer Psy. D. and has known her for a longer period of time than he hasn’t. Together they have one son, Julian.
Bernie is an active member of the Knights of Columbus Council 539. In true New Orleans style, he gives lagniappe to his students and likes to pass a good time with just about anyone. But Bernie isn’t just one of those boring types of people. Mr. DeSantis does what every kid wants to continue to do when they become adults… play video games. We sat down with him and asked him a few questions.
Q: How did you begin gaming?
A: My very earliest days of gaming started on a PC back in the early 90s. This was back in the MS-DOS days when games could easily be run from a floppy disk. My uncle Peter brought some games over to my house and I was instantly hooked. This initial passion for computer games has led to me many different paths in the diverse gaming world.
I’m also an avid board game player. This started mainly in college with the group of friends I hung out with. I’ve got a collection of about 30 or so board games and at one point in my life I used to host a game night at my place every Monday night.
I’m also into collectible card games. Mostly Magic the Gathering, but I’ve also had my hand in the Decipher Star Wars and Star Trek card games (both of which have been discontinued), and also the Legend of the 5 rings card game.Finally I have a strong passion for tabletop pen and paper RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons. Although D&D is my favorite I’ve played many other rules systems and many other styles or settings.
Q: What kind of games do you play?
A: I’ve played a wide variety of games over the last 30 years or so. I started off with games like Commander Keen,Wolfenstein 3D, minesweeper, solitaire, and free cell and later on to things like DOOM, Half-Life, Counter Strike, Portal, Ultima, Team Fortress, World of Warcraft, Age of Empires, Civilization. I’ve been on steam for 16 years. Most recently i’ve been playing Minecraft, Shadowrun, Borderlands (all of them), Civ 6, and Doom eternal. I’ve had Cyberpunk 2077 on pre-order for a while and I’m sure i’ll play that as soon as it comes out. There was a time in my life where I played a lot of card games like hearts, spades, and Pinochle.
Q: What kind of console do you use?
A: These days I don’t have any consoles. I had a Sega Genesis growing up and I logged a lot of hours on it, and I would go to friends houses and play PS1. When I was in college my friends had various consoles and we used to do tournaments with Guilty Gear, Smashbrothers, and DDR. I’ve also quite enjoyed Mario Kart in its various incarnations over the years.
Q: Do you play with people you know in real life?
A: Sometimes yes sometimes no. I try to whenever possible. These days if it’s not single player I’m usually playing with those I know in real life. Even the Dungeons and Dragons games I’m involved with right now are online, but I’m still playing with my college buddies. The biggest exception to this was when I was deep into World of Warcraft. When I was playing that the only one I knew in real life was my brother, but the rest of my guild mates I only knew from the game and being on vent (which was like discord back then).
Q: Does your family also play video games?
Q: Any other information you would like to share about yourself or your gaming?
A: I think the thing about gaming that i’m most passionate about is that it is a way to connect with people. It is this aspect of gaming that has caused me to keep gaming part of my life even as my life has drastically changed over the last 30 years. The ways in which I’ve been able to incorporate gaming into my life have had to change as grown, gone to college, entered the workforce, gotten married, and had children, but I always find ways to keep connected as would any one of focus, commitment, and sheer … will.
