Well, Let Me Explain What a LeetBeatMeat Is

By Paul Hunter

I've been asked on numerous occasions about my euphemistic gamertag, and whether I'm aware of it's insinuations. People also seem interested in it's origin, just how does one become a LeetBeatMeat? Let's start at the beginning.

For starters, if it's not already obvious I have little, or no shame. I mean honestly, just look at the crazy things I do. So while many people would not choose to have an edgy gamertag, I have no such reservations.

Now, as far as the birth of my gamertag, here's the backstory to fill you in:

I jumped into the next-generation consoles back in November '06, right around the time of the Wii and PS3 launch. At the time, the video game I was wholly addicted to was none other than Elite Beat Agents for the Nintendo DS. You know, cover bands playing an eclectic mix of 80s, 90s and top 40 hits, tacky black suit wearing Agents combating an evil alien race known as Rhombulans, and plenty of groin-numbing leg splits.

So anyhow, I was hanging out with fellow NGPer Andrew Green when I was brainstorming gamertag names, and I told him about my fascination with Elite Beat Agents. I further elaborated and mentioned that if I was ever to become an Agent myself, I would want to be called Agent Meat. For some reason Agent Meat conjured an image of a burly, hulking Agent capable of kicking some serious Rhombulan ass.

Well, one thing lead to another and the name Elite Beat Meat was tossed out as a potential candidate for my gamertag. It was close, but not quite as stylish or absurd as I would have liked. So, I clipped out the spaces, swapped out Elite for Leet (I've always this peculiar fascination with leetspeak) and LeetBeatMeat was born. Viola! See, not nearly as interesting as I'm sure you imagined or I lead you to believe.

Oh, and for anyone wondering why my PSN name (LeetBeetMeat) has a slight spelling variation to it, well, let's just say that Sony implemented a filter into PSN that doesn't allow users to have "beat" and, umm..."meat" in their gamertags. No wonder iNiS decided to partner with Microsoft.