Christopher Bowen, 31, is a local Internet personality who just launched “GamingBus.com,” a news site covering the video game industry.

Bowen lives in Derby. He’s originally from Seymour.

The video game beat is an ethically-challenged assignment in journalism. Advertisers put pressure on websites for positive reviews for video games. A Gamespot reviewer was famously fired a few years back, allegedly for giving a bad review to a game pushed by a company that was a major advertiser.

Bowen, doesn’t have formal or informal journalism training. He’s background is in IT and Web security — but the recession put one of the companies he worked for out of business. Another job was outsourced overseas.

So now Bowen hopes to build a following — and some income — from gamers by using traditional journalism ethics. The plan is to attract advertisers once he establishes credibility.

  • Note: We’re calling Bowen an Internet personality based on his frequent posting on our Facebook wall and on Twitter. Deal with it, people!

Valley Indy: GamingBus.com — what’s with the name?

Christopher Bowen: “I was originally going to call it ‘Insightful Gaming,’ but a developer I’m working with said it made me sound like a guy wearing skinny jeans in a coffee shop talking about bands no one listens to. He rode me enough to the point I was like ‘All right, all right, I’ll change it.’”

Valley Indy: And your nickname is “Superbus?”

Bowen: “Right, Superbus is an online moniker I’ve been using for many years.”

Valley Indy: How did you get the name?

Bowen: “I joined the Navy after graduating Emmett O’Brien in 1999. The name was given to me in boot camp by my recruit division commander (RDC). I was one of the bigger guys in boot camp. One day my RDC came over and said ‘Look at you, Bowen, you look like a (feces-filled) sandwich. You’re so big we’re going to ride you to the chow hall. You need the exercise. We’re going to ride you like a bus — no, you’re a SUPERBUS. It stuck.”

Valley Indy: Have you always been obsessed with video games?

Bowen: “I really don’t like calling it an obsession, because there are other things in life that I’m into. But I’ve always been very big into video games. I started playing when I was a baby — on an Atari. Mom had a 2600 and I used to play Pac-Man, Maze Craze, all that. I grew with Nintendo, I grew up with a Genisus. I got my first NES (original Nintendo game system) at 6 years old. Twenty-five years later, I still have it.”

Valley Indy: The site has a ton of content — reviews, industry news. What’s your specialty?

Bowen: “I’m focusing in on industry news about the companies. I have no training in reporting or financial reporting, but I’ve been writing about the industry for about 10 years. I’ve been able to analyze the tea leaves financially and predict where a company might be going. I still play the older systems, so I’ll be writing a retro column about older systems and older games.”

Valley Indy: I run a website — people ask me if I collect unemployment. How do you plan to generate revenue?

Bowen: “Revenue will be based on advertising. I hope to attract advertising that is not based on video game advertising. I want to keep a line between myself and the companies I’m reporting on.”

Valley Indy: What are the top five video games of all time?

Bowen: “This is personal opinion, not some kind of metric that I’m using: 1. Super Mario Bros. 2. NHL ’94 for the Genesis — and it has to be the Sega Genesis version 3. Final Fantasy 6, 4. Suikoden 2 . . . and this is where I start running into trouble . . . 5. Ice Hockey for the Nintendo Entertainment. I’ll get a lot people flaming me because I didn’t include Blades of Steel.”

Valley Indy: WHY NOT ‘BLADES OF STEEL?’

Bowen: “I just prefer Ice Hockey. Everybody likes ‘Blades of Steel’ because you can fight in it. Both are Nintendo games from the 80s. It’s a gamer debate over which ones the better game.”