Ranger Matthew Stevens is a local businessman who likes to play games with people. In fact, much of his life is spent in fantasy.
He owns 3 acres of property and plans on having numerous holes in the front yard, which he refers to as hobbit holes. His goal is to create a virtual 3-D gaming platform in his yard for people to stop by and play games.
When asked why he chose hobbit holes instead of ferret or rabbit holes, Stevens said, “It’s fantasy, like in Lord of the Rings. The hills have holes that people go inside of, and it’s their home.”
His favorite game is League of Legends, but Stevens also plays a lot of Dungeons & Dragons, better known as D&D.
Stevens is a big collector of Pokémon cards. He started playing with them at age 15. Pokémon cards are similar to baseball cards in that they are collected, traded or sold.
As a kid, he sold a first-edition base set of the cards valued at about $300 for another game valued at a lesser amount that he really wanted. Today, those Pokémon cards would be worth a $1 million.
When asked if he has kicked himself in the behind for letting them go. Stevens said, “Oh no, ya can’t know the future.” Stevens has been selling Pokémon cards for about 20 years and prides himself on having sold 100 million of the collectable game cards.
Stevens was born at Scott Air Force Base in 1982 as his grandfather was in the military. He graduated high school at the Gateway Institute of Technology and briefly attended college, where he took a course in business.
Today, Stevens lives in Ranger and is engaged to Christina Jack. He continues playing games at his gaming shop, Bill & Ogres, located in Murphy next to El Manzanillo Mexican Restaurant.
He had one child, a baby girl who passed away about nine years ago from sudden infant death syndrome, also known as SIDS. Little Daisy was just 7 months old. He wishes more people were aware of SIDS.
Stevens has been successful, and it appears that some folks can get by just playing games in life.