Josh Fabian would be a different person were it not for video games and the lessons and relationships that came with them. Now, being able to give back to that very community is paramount to his own future relationship with the industry. Following the recent close on a $25 million Series A capital round for Metafy — the Pittsburgh-based video game coaching platform he co-founded in 2020 — Fabian declared that $1 million would be set aside to have Metafy support and sponsor video game-related events around the world to help foster the same types of relationships and experiences he’s benefited from for most of his life.
Do you remember the first video game you ever played and what drew you to it?
I’m pretty sure the first game I ever played was either Pong or Pac-Man on the Atari. My grandma actually had an Atari, and I don’t even know why she had an Atari, actually, but she had a ton of games with it, and she would sometimes let the kids play, not often. It was definitely one of those two or maybe even Space Invaders, but definitely an Atari-age game, and the biggest thing that drew me to it was this was a whole new thing. Video games were a very interesting new technology to me that was just so fundamentally different than the board games that I had been playing before that.
What do you find to be the most interesting part about the video games of today and the ones you first played? Does anything bother you about them compared to the ones from decades ago?
What I find most interesting about video games today is just the level of a social fabric that there is to them. We’re looking at games today (and) the biggest games on the planet are inherently social, so games connect us together in a way that couldn’t have been possible in the past. They allow for these deeper connections with other humans who we may never meet. And I think that’s incredible. Video games, I think, have really changed the way we interact, at least for the generations that have followed my generation, especially. When I was a kid, I might spend a couple of hours on a call with a girl I liked or friends I had and just … chat. But that’s not really the case anymore. Now you’re spending a couple of hours playing Among Us with your friends or you’re playing Fortnite or any of these other games and you’re still chatting, right? You’re still communicating, still venting about your problems, talking about the things that excite you. But you’re engaging more of your brain while you’re doing it. So I think that’s fascinating, and I’m really excited about that.
But what upsets me is just how commercialized the industry has gotten. And I get how rich that is considering I’m running a … business around it. But so many games now do generally just feel like cash grabs, and I guess that’s a natural progression. It just feels a lot to me like many folks are getting into games not for the reason of creating interesting challenges or new ways to test ourselves against ourselves or others, but instead they’re creating games that prey on our psychology for profit, and I worry a lot about that. I worry about that for my kids. I worry about that for the greater industry outside of gaming that is looking to gaming for inspiration on how to better essentially abuse human psychology for their own personal gains.
How do you see Pittsburgh playing a role in the growing esports industry?
I think that’s a hard one, and the reason I think that’s a hard one is because gaming and esports as a whole is so remote; it’s a globally remote experience almost by default. I think anytime a city wants to be involved in that, what they really need to be doing is investing in the infrastructure around major events; setting up esports arenas, funding esports teams that are local to the city. And while we do have some esports teams in Pittsburgh, there’s still a long way to go, I think, before Pittsburgh is seen as a hub for competitive gaming. I think the most prominent team we have currently is the Pittsburgh Knights.
Why did you decide to launch the $1 million Metafy Community Fund?
The Community Fund is deeply personal to me. I grew up in the gaming industry. I spent so many weekends sitting in smelly card shops playing fighting games or trading card games, so many all-nighters spent with friends on the internet who didn’t have the best life at home like I didn’t, and that was their outlet and they accepted me for me, and they never judged me for that and I never judged them. And it was a friendship as genuine as I think one could have because you’re not really hiding anything. The reason I say all of that is because the gaming community has, in a lot of ways, made me the person I am today. There’s a part of me that feels a little bit gross to be profiting off of that, profiting off of something I care about so, so deeply. The Community Fund is how we keep our soul.
Where is your favorite place to eat? What do you usually order?
I don’t know if I have one favorite place, but I will say my favorite food is probably ramen and I will eat at any ramen shop. I love shoyu and tantanmen. That would be probably my go-to.
Do you have one particular favorite artist or type of music?
No, I can say with certainty that I do not. I love music. I’m obsessed with music, but I listen to so much music that it would be just impossible for me to pick one. But I love a lot of different genres. I’ve got a playlist, for example, that I call Bad Kid Music, and it’s things like The Fratellis and Slaves and Frank Carter and a lot of the grungier kind of punkish-type music. But then I’m also into the old-school rap. I listen to a lot of the old-school rap and I have some love for the new-school too, probably not as much. One of my favorite artists of all time, though, is MF Doom of DANGERDOOM, who passed recently. I think he was a phenomenal artist.
BIOBOX
Age: 32
Title: Co-founder and CEO, Metafy
First job: Grill cook, Wendy’s
Current residence: Blairsville
Family: Children Isaiah (12), Elijah (11), Noah (10), Sloane (5) and their wonderful mother, Ashley
Hobbies: Video games, of course!
