Beasley back in school, gaming

Instead of giving up when everything falls apart, Matt Beasley decides to take his future into his own hands.

“I’m not a gamer because I have no life; I’m a gamer because I’ve lived many (lives),” said Beasley, 38, after explaining the layout of Halo 4’s Grifball gameplay and rules.

Grifball is played by a group of amateur and professional gamers who Beasley and his group compete with on a regional, national, and international level.

Beasley is enrolled in Mt. Hood’s broadcasting program. He was initially looking to join the video game development program, but changed his mind after finding out that they focused on areas he wasn’t interested in. He realized he was looking for more than just gaming logistics. “I want to be drawing the player into the game and creating objectives that keep gamers involved with the story,” he said.

Beasley has also done voice work for Machinima’s product that is produced utilizing Halo 4’s forge component that is part of the theater aspect in Halo.

But each story has an end, and a beginning. In April of 2013, Beasley was hit by a car while riding his scooter in Portland. He suffered a snapped spine and multiple fractures in both hands and his foot was almost completely torn off. “Got some really fun scars,” he said, revealing scars that were clearly once much more than just scratches. He now has metal running through to the top of his leg.

Beasley was hospitalized for three weeks and was unable to walk for about 8 months. “I had to have my foot  above my heart for 23 hours a day,” he said.

He still cannot run, but, on the bright side, he is still able to skip.

This forced break was where Beasley discovered his gaming abilities. “All I could do was play video games. I turned out to be pretty good at it,” he said. And this was what impacted his decision to study gaming at MHCC.

There is more to Beasley than one might guess. For about a decade, he was a DJ at venues around the country and spent a summer internship shadowing several DJs that toured with BBC Radio One’s music festival.

Beasley pegged the name DJ Blue, because of his blue bleached hair while performing. His audience and fans gave him the stage name, and he was not one to argue. Beasley ended leaving the DJ business when the party scene got a little too wild, but he definitely still feeds off the energy of others.

“I am powered by people. A large part of why I play video games is the social circle that I have with other gamers,” people he now calls close and personal friends, he said.