Interview with Luke: Xbox game tester and evangelist
Imagine playing and testing Xbox games all day, every day. Read our interview with the guy who does it for a living!
Who: Luke Oetiker
(Gamertag: Mighty Oat)
Luke (Mighty Oat), how did you become a gamer?
I started playing when I was 3 years old on an Atari 2600. I’m just so competitive and playing against my brother and my Dad, I just loved beating them.
This is like a dream job for hard core gamers. How did you land it?
In 2001 Microsoft was showing the media here what Xbox was all about but they didn’t have anyone who could play or demo games. Someone who knew I was gamer asked if I would come in with some mates and unlock the levels in these games and show off some of their goodness. It was the first time anyone had touched an Xbox. It started as 3 days, then 3 weeks and then they asked me to stay here full-time.
What’s a typical day for you?
I check my email, read all the latest news on the industry sites, check to see if there are any new versions of the games, download them, play them to death till I’ve learnt everything, and do a demo for the team…
demonstrations at consumer events, journalists, that sort of thing.
What has been your hardest challenge?
Just being able to compete with people who play the games 24 hours a day. You just get hammered.
Do you have insurance on your best assets, i.e. your hands?
No, but I am very protective of them. If someone hits or bumps me or something, it’s like no, no…not my Halo hands! If I scratch or get them cut I get really irritated…because my controller grip will be a bit different.
If you could design the ultimate game what would it be?
Probably a multi player online first person shooter legions of people fighting against each other in big groups- big army battles. Tens of thousands of people all at the same time, being able to talk to these people…issue orders- a really strategic game like that!
Do you have any controller/console preferences?
Xbox is my predominant console that I play all the time. In terms of controller, I always just go the first party controller because the original is usually the best.
I heard you eat a lot of pizza when you’re playing. Is that true?
Yeah, but I do have to tell you that I eat about my body weight in Maccas every week! (Luke weighs 55kg - and has a good metabolism).
Who has been your toughest competitor?
Probably the best player I have competed with has been Cabel on Halo 2, which is to be expected since he is the Australian Halo 2 Champion.
If you could take an Xbox and only five games to a desert island, which ones would you choose and why?
I’d take Halo 2 for the shooter, I absolutely love Top Spin. When that came out on Xbox, I was number 1 in the world before I retired. Jade Empire, for a role playing game…Forza Motorsport for a driving game and FIFA Soccer. All the genres.
What do you think is the future of gaming? What can we look forward to?
There’s this idea I’ve heard about that’ll bring Xbox and PC together online. Someone playing a strategy game on PC giving orders and someone’s on Xbox carrying out those orders. I’m really looking forward to the first game that does that. Shouldn’t be long.
