Today we’d like to introduce you to Roger Howard.
Hi Roger, we’d love for you to introduce yourself.
I am originally from the State of Georgia. There is where I grew up. I was born in Atlanta, GA, went through grade school in Columbus, GA, and then attended Albany State University in Albany, GA. I was always a gamer. The 1st video game I played was Ms. Pacman in a bowling alley arcade. Since then, gaming has been all I ever did when I had spare time. But I never stuck to just one hobby. I was into dancing; I was a member of a few choirs, played musical instruments, and was a drum major in the marching band. I did a lot. A few years after moving to Albany, GA, I became the choreographer for the Albany State Golden Passionettes of ASU, the South GA Wildcats, and the Albany Panthers arena football teams. I taught dance at Fuzionz and Pink Slipper Dance studios and founded two Hip Hop Dance Teams. I did all those things for a few years, but when my mother passed away, I felt lost and didn’t know how to go. I felt like I was being pulled in so many different directions. I had way too much on my plate at one time. I needed to strip down and start all over. I was returning to Atlanta, but my sister allowed me to move to Texas. I remember visiting the river walk here and loved it, so I took a chance and moved to San Antonio. And that was about 12 years ago.
When I moved here, I got a job doing technical support for internet and cable. I wanted to figure out what it meant for me to dance here, but after visiting studios and watching teams here perform, the dance scene here seemed so different from Georgia. I remember watching a high school dance team perform. I won’t say which one because I don’t want to disrespect anyone, but I remember my sister telling me that I should become their choreographer because they could be doing much more. So she jumped up to speak with their sponsor to say to them about my experience and how I was willing to help. She considered it an insult because she said she did all the choreography herself and didn’t need help. Almost as if she felt threatened.
After focusing on working to pay the bills, I came across a small group called the San Antonio Fighting Game Community, or as we call it, the SAFGC. At the time, it wasn’t called that; it was just a group of guys who got together at each other’s homes to play fighting games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. I showed up to play with them and asked why no one was streaming these matches or putting them on YouTube. They never thought about it or even knew how to begin doing it. So I became the content creator for the SAFGC. I was live streaming them and posting gameplay footage to YouTube, and then more and more people became aware and wanted to play with us.
We quickly became too big to fit in apartments, so we started partnering with local businesses that would allow us to come and play there because they could sell us food and drinks. I was also holding gatherings at my home to allow more people to play. I was doing a lot of the organizing for all the meetups and creating the content so the rest of the world would notice us. We traveled to Georgia, Vegas, Chicago, California, and Florida to represent San Antonio in fighting game tournaments. Players from Japan, Korea, and other countries traveled to compete in these events.
Eventually, I felt like I was putting too much on my plate again. So when I saw my friend Eric De Hoyos stepping up as a community leader, I gladly took a huge step back and told myself I would support the community and him when it was right. I transitioned into being my content creator on YouTube, so I could create content at my own pace and not feel bad when I needed to focus on my nine-to-five job, neglecting the content. Eric has been doing an amazing job organizing gatherings and events. I have taken more of a mentorship role for people who like fighting games and want to get better at playing them. I also recently started a new YouTube channel with my friend Michael Figueroa (DevilMayCare4), where we primarily react to and discuss music from video games. The channel is doing great, and fans love to find music for us to review. The channel is called DMC123Reactions.
I don’t think I will ever “out-grow” the fighting game community because of the good I have seen it do for people. I have seen people who deal with social anxiety, depression, or feeling weird or alone come out to gatherings, make friends and completely beat whatever they were battling internally. Some so many people’s first time leaving the state of Texas or getting on an airplane only did so because of this community. When our late friend Anthony Garcia passed away, the fighting game community came to his funeral. I remember standing outside because so many of us were there, and we could not fit in the venue. His family was so moved because they didn’t know Anthony had many people who knew and loved him. Things like that make it more than us just playing video games. It’s necessary for its members to feel they belong to something. The SAFGC now meets on Wednesdays at Otaku Cafe, and for people 21 and up, we also meet on Friday nights at the Mineshaft Saloon. For more details about the times, games, or directions, you should inquire on our discord at discord.gg/sanantoniofgc.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The road could have been smoother. Not even a little bit. I mentioned stripping down and starting over when I moved to Texas. I was able to do it because I was already forced to do it before. My mother passed away when I was away in school. I lived in Columbus, GA, but I went to school in Albany, GA, about 2 hours away. I immediately drove home, and my sister, who was in Texas, came home shortly after. We handled the funeral arrangements, had the funeral, and grieved. Then I went back to school in Albany, and my sister returned to Texas. That left my father alone at home in Columbus. I called him a few times weekly to check on him, and we were getting used to our new normal.
Then one day, he stopped picking up. I thought he was just busy. But then, one day, I called, and the phone was disconnected. So I drove home. I walked up to the house and noticed all the windows were blacked out, go to put my key in the door, and the knob was broken. I push the door open, and everything is gone. We thought we were robbed of furniture, TVs, and a refrigerator, but there was a metal trash can in the middle of the living room. All my clothes and video games were gone. But when I went to my mother’s bedroom, nothing was touched. So that was a huge red flag for me. Then I found out my father was in the hospital, and the landlord who owned the house was evicting us. To clarify, the dorms I lived in at school were only there for us to sleep in when classes were in session. We had to go home on holidays and breaks, and they closed down the dorms. At that point, I had no home to go to.
I found out what hospital my father was in and went to find out what was happening. He looked like he was scared to see me. He knows I am intelligent, and he could not lie to me because I could see through a lie easily. I told him I knew we weren’t robbed and asked where all of our stuff was. I knew he had done something because everything in my mom’s room was untouched. He eventually told me he sold everything for drugs. He didn’t do anything to the stuff in my mom’s room because her death impacted him that much. From there, the conversation went south. The doctor came in and told me I had to leave because I was increasing his patient’s blood pressure. I told the doctor I was his son and needed answers; he said, well, I feel bad for you, but my priority is the patient’s health, so you have to leave. That was the 1st time I had to start over.
5 years later, I wanted to come to Texas because my father moved here to be with my sister. He had gone to rehab. He was clean, had a job, and was doing pretty well. In the days leading up to my move, I found out my father had left my sister’s home. He heard an argument she had with her ex-husband, and apparently, a part of the argument was about my father. He was upset, so he packed everything in his car and left. I called my father and asked him why he had left and that I was moving to Texas. He said he didn’t know I was coming, and if he did, he wouldn’t have left and that he was already gone and wasn’t coming back. That was the last conversation I had ever had with my father.
7 years had passed. During those 7 years, we discovered he was in Columbus because bank statements still being sent to the home showed transactions there. We called around Columbus asking for him, and some people said they saw him but didn’t know where he went or where to look for him. We drove 14 hours to Columbus looking for him and could not find him. We immediately went back to Columbus to see him. Eventually, after 7 years passed, we got messages about my father being in the hospital on Facebook.
When we got there, it was horrible. He had what was expected to be a stroke because he was mostly paralyzed. He had pneumonia in the summer. He had severe dementia; his mouth would not create saliva, which meant he couldn’t eat, so he was on a feeding tube. He also needed a respirator to breathe, and the muscles in his arms and legs had retracted because whoever was carrying for him at home was not working his muscles. He had bed sores that would never heal due to him not being put on his sides. Also, the people who messaged us on Facebook were nowhere to be found. We wanted to meet them and discover what was happening, but they never came to the hospital. My father was there, barely alive, just making random loud noises in pain with no one by his side.
The doctor then came to me and said he didn’t know my father had children and wanted to know where we were. We explained that we didn’t know where he had been for over 7 years, and someone had just reached out to us. We still don’t know the full story, but it seemed to us since those people would not meet us when we came, they knew they weren’t doing what they were supposed to do taking care of him, and they were taking his retirement money he was getting every month from the military. The doctor told me that I needed to make a decision. He was never going to recover. His mind was utterly gone; he didn’t even know we were there. If he were aware of anything at all, it would only be the pain he felt from his muscles and the bed sores. He was suffering, so I decided to take him off life support.
He didn’t pass immediately. So we stayed with him. But we no longer had a home there, so we had to get a hotel. Eventually, it reached a point where if we stayed any longer, we wouldn’t even be able to afford to make it back to Texas. So we had to make another difficult choice to leave, knowing he would eventually pass with no one there. He ultimately passed away maybe a week after we returned to Texas and reported to work. That was one of the worst times in my life, and if I didn’t have the SAFGC, then I don’t know where I would be. Many of them didn’t know everything I was going through at the time but just being there helped me get through it. Those are just some of the things I went through in my private life.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
I have done so many things in my life. On top of being an ex-dance teacher and choreographer plus a tech support specialist, I was also a movie theater manager, and I have a Commercial driver’s License. I once drove tractor trailer truck cross country and in the oil field. What I do now is entirely different. Now I am a licensed insurance agent. I work for a company called United Medicare Advisors. Every day I help seniors by educating them on how Medicare works and helping them decide on the best health plan for their situation. I love my job because I enjoy teaching and helping people. Unfortunately, health insurance is a challenging thing to understand. Most people are used to just signing up for whatever coverage their employer provides, not knowing how it works. Medicare sent out a 180-page book about Medicare, and seniors left to figure it out on their own.
Imagine your parents or even you turning 65 and getting letters saying you need to sign up for Medicare to avoid a penalty. Then you have every insurance company and independent agent in the United States sending you stuff in the mail, calling you, and knocking at your door, telling you that you need to sign up for whatever they offer. How do you know who to trust? How do you know it’s not a scam? I get to educate people on how Medicare works in plain English so they can understand, and I get them to a point where they feel confident in whatever they choose. Then I sign them up for it, and I am always there for them to call when they need help understanding something. My clients thank me for my confidence in choosing their healthcare. It’s one of the most fulfilling jobs I have ever had. Of course, I would love to become a full-time content creator, but I also have a calling to help people make the right decisions on the healthcare they will use for the rest of their lives.
If you or anyone you know is starting Medicare or is already on Medicare and want to be sure the right choices are being made in the coverage, give us a call. 866-282-5797. And if you are serious about starting Medicare and would like to speak with me, you can ask for me and give extension 1349. All our licensed agents are highly qualified and licensed in about 40 states, so that we can help almost anyone in the USA.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
My favorite childhood memory was being 8 years old, and my parents were a part of a bowling league. We would go to a bowling alley in Ft Benning, GA, and they would give me 1 dollar, and they would go bowl for about 4 hours. I would take that dollar and get four quarters which was enough for 2 games of Street Fighter 2 in the arcade. Then soldiers, since they were on a military base, would line up to try and beat the 8-year-old kid. I would be there for the whole 4 hours beating everyone. The only reason I would need a 2nd game is when I had to stop playing to use the restroom. And I remember my parents would be so proud, not necessarily because they liked that I was good at a video game, but because all the soldiers would tell them how good I was. Especially my father is a retired veteran. He liked that they were making a big deal about it, so he had something to brag about.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.youtube.com/@DMC123Reactions
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrhoward123/
- Facebook: https://twitter.com/DMC123Reactions
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/MrHoward123
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MrHoward123
