Stephanie DeCleene

Stephanie DeCleene has worked in games journalism since October 2020, which is when she’d decided that three years of working as an editor in unrelated, soul-sucking fields was quite enough. Despite the distaste for her previous positions, Stephanie has gained invaluable writing and editing experience by working as an editorial coordinator, a developmental editor, and a content marketing specialist before stepping into games journalism.

A career path in games journalism was a life-changing discovery for Stephanie. Since she was a child, she’s been obsessed with video games. While Pokemon, Banjo-Kazooie, and Diddy Kong Racing were some of the first games she fell in love with, her top three games today include Fire Emblem: Three Houses, The Legend of Dragoon, and The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.

Considering Stephanie didn’t have many friends who were into gaming through most of her life, she now treasures the opportunity to write about games, as it’s akin to sharing her passion with an entire community. Stephanie has published news, features, reviews, and interviews—her favorite piece being the interview with Skyrim Grandma, Shirley Curry.

Stephanie is particularly interested in mental health and gaming, and she’s written numerous pieces exploring the impact games have on anxiety and depression. The panel she participated in for EGX Rezzed, in which she discussed gaming burnout with Doctor Chun Chiang Sin Fai Lam and Sachin Shah from Gaming the Mind, is still one of her most treasured experiences since entering the industry.