Though he had been playing videogames since the original Adventure, Zak was getting a bit bored with it all until the bug bit him again in the late-'90s. Stricken by some sort of brain fever, he became convinced it all Meant Something. Unfortunately, He didn't do anything useful like build a replica of Devil's Tower in his garage. When he finally came to his senses, he had written an academic thesis on videogames and acquired a student loan to last a lifetime. Zak decided to turn his talents toward something people would actually read and, in a freak accident, applied for a job at the GIA in 2000. Finally free of that stifling ivory tower, Zak can now pursue his true dream of engaging in meaningful dialog with other gamers using all caps and frequent misspellings. But despite a thick, chitinous shell of cynicism, he remains convinced that games are poised to be the popular medium of the 21st Century (and other dumb stuff like that).