Vaiz

<forumuser name="Vaiz" /> Vaiz (also known as PunkxBlaze, though he publicly denounces the use of the name and insists if it must be referenced to use PxB.) is a regularly active member of Sonic Retro.

History

Vaiz first delved into the greater realm of Sonic knowledge on the internet at the age of 8 in 1999, stumbling initially upon Sonic HQ. It was from here that he began to slowly develop his (at the time) expansive knowledge base relating to Sonic games, Cartoons, Comics, and other merchandise. One section in particular on the site caught his eye, however, titled The Hedgehog that Never Was. This area on the website covered then-current knowledge of things such as Sonic X-Treme, and the Simon Wai prototype of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Though he had already learned a reasonable amount about the franchise as a whole, these deeper, mysterious parts of the games he'd come to know intrigued him, prompting him to eventually research the topic of Sonic prototypes on the 'net a couple of years later.

In that search, he found himself browsing sites like Area 51, SSRG, and Secrets of Sonic the Hedgehog. Eventually, these internet forays led him to find SWS2B in 2003, where Vaiz lurked off and on for the following three or so years, slowly becoming accustomed to the general environment and culture of the Sonic Community, though still too intimidated by the staunch elitism of SWS2B at the time and Sonic CulT to actually register as a member.

However, in March 2007, Vaiz found his opportunity to jump in head first to the community when Qjimbo initiated the March 25th coup, giving birth to the mirror Sonic 2 Beta site (which Vaiz perceived as much more friendly than its original counterpart), and later, The Glowing Bridge. Though still a quiet member at first, struggling to adopt community memes and fit in, Vaiz made fast friends with fellow scener Shade, and eventually came into his own as a vocal member of the Glowing Bridge userbase.

When The Glowing Bridge collapsed in late 2007, Vaiz once again strayed away from being part of the Sonic scene as a whole, still somewhat intimidated by communities such as Sonic Retro and CulT. At least, until personally approached by Tweaker in December 2007 and urged to join the Sonic Retro message boards (Tweaker's reasoning behind this remains a bit foggy). Since that time, Vaiz has grown into a frequently contributing and active member of Retro, commonly seen in the IRC, message board, and the occasional Skype chat.

In more recent history, January 2009, Vaiz began associating with Shade's IRC channel known as 'Stuff'. Though at first enjoying the uncensored environment, he distanced himself when stuff became the breeding grounds for trolls and bitches. He has since stopped inhabiting the taboo channel all together. This distancing between Vaiz and those inhabiting #Stuff (Which comprised a fair amount of prominent Retro members) led to Vaiz more or less abandoning Retro for the remainder of the year.

As of December 09, Vaiz is visiting Retro on a regular basis.

As of January 2012, Vaiz pretty much doesn't give a shit either way.

Sonic Related Projects

• Vaiz is an on-again, off-again member of the Ashura Dark Reign dev team. He was once the co-producer of the mod but has since stepped down to a strictly concept artist position.
• Notable in relation to the above is the fact that Vaiz is responsible for the now-often-circulated version of the Ashura character seen in Ashura: Dark Reign. He feels the need to point this out because god damn a lot of people draw that version now. Shit.

Fun Facts

• While Retro sleeps, Vaiz posts. While Retro posts, Vaiz watches. (He sleeps somewhere in that time, but don't let word of that get out. Ruins the mystery.)
• Vaiz is confirmed to be an armed Sex Bomb.
• Vaiz can do some amazing impressions, including the Kool-Aid man, a sheep, a goat, Vince Offer, and Shaggy (From Scooby-Doo).
• Vaiz has been known to pimp slap robot hoes for speaking out of turn.[1]
• In case you hadn't figured it out, Vaiz shoots guns.
• Vaiz generally considers most of the scene to be comprised of unpleasable cock guzzlers who will always find some insignificant thing to bitch about in any new Sonic game, to the point of being unsatisfied if they can't hate it.
• As this article suggests, being 100% self-authored, Vaiz may be a raging closet narcissist.
• Vaiz's first contact with Sonic was a commercial for AoSTH on Toon Disney, and his first Sonic game was Sonic R, closely followed by Sonic 3.
• Vaiz was once knows as PunkxBlaze and will actively hate you if you call him that. He still goes by such names at sites such as GiantBomb.Com [2], Youtube, and Deviantart. Mostly because he has no choice.
• Vaiz is definitely bros with Shade again.

Relevant Links

• Vaiz's YouTube Channel (under PunkxBlaze)
• Vaiz's DeviantArt Profile (Also under PunkxBlaze)