Community Spotlight:

TriXie Interviews 911 Geezers

You've all heard about Geezer Gamers; they were featured in a Community Spotlight in 2005. What you may not know is that there is a group within Geezer Gamers called 911 Geezers—all the members are either police officers or firefighters. I got the skinny on these hard-working hero gamers.

TriXie: Put your hands where I can see 'em and surrender your gamertag stories.

txcountymounty: I'm in Texas, "tx," and "countymounty" is what the truckers call us when they see us running on the highway.

A Thin BlueLine: I thought of tags that would let my profession be known and came up with, A Thin BlueLine, which I thought made it pretty clear that I was a cop. Turns out, it's not clear to some. I have been accused of being a hockey player, and when I play Call of Duty® 2, some think I am trying to spoof the movie, The Thin Red Line. I'm still working out the kinks but I will be A Thin BlueLine as long as I play. It is supposed to represent the line between chaos and order that law enforcement stands for, although I find myself walking that tight rope at times.

TriXie: It's also a great Errol Morris movie.

Firemedic41: I chose mine mainly because I'm a firefighter/paramedic (a "firemedic") and our engine designation at the time I created my tag was Engine 41.

Hoganator: Hoganator is a nickname I've had for about 10 years now. I figured it would be easy for my friends to identify me by.

TriXie: Okay, so where are y'all from and what do you do?

txcountymounty: I'm a Deputy Sheriff in Austin, Texas.

A Thin BlueLine: I'm a police officer in San Antonio, Texas.

Firemedic41: I'm a firemedic in Colorado.

Hoganator: I'm a firefighter/paramedic in Waco, Texas.

TriXie: What's your best work story?

txcountymounty: I once found some incriminating evidence in someone's pocket and he actually said those were not his pants.

A Thin BlueLine: I was on routine patrol toa local Federal Express office. They had a package that was supposed to be delivered to a local auto shop. Every time they tried to make the delivery, none of the employees would sign for it since the boss was out and they didn't want the responsibility. This went on for a week andFedExdecided to return the package. There was no return address listed on the box so they opened the package to see if there was an address inside.

Inside the box was two huge bricks of marijuana, and they called the police. While I was weighing the pot and doing the paperwork, the front desk clerk came back where I was and said a guy was up front to pick up the package. We quickly boxed it up and I called for another unit in case the guy got stupid. I told the clerk to give him the package and I would be waiting outside for him. When that guy saw me waiting when he walked out the door the look on his face was priceless. He immediately dropped the box and said "I didn't know what was in it," and I hadn't said a word. Stupid people belong in jail. :)

TriXie:It'd be easier to just lock up the smart ones. Oh wait, I think that's the Microsoft Prison.

Firemedic41: There are a lot of stories.While I see a lot of pain, I'm also fortunate enough to be able to see a lot of happy endings, and I can honestly say that's why I do what I do.

Hoganator: I have a lot of good work stories but confidentiality laws prohibit me from telling them.

TriXie: Dang it! So someone tell me how 911 Geezers got started. First one to roll gets a deal from the DA.

txcountymounty: 911 Geezers is a combination of two clans. Afriend and I started a police geezer clan (1 adam geezers). One day while rummaging through the Geezergamers.com site I ran into Firemedic41 and Hoganator, who had started a firefighter/ems clan. After a while we decided to join forces as 911 Geezers.

Firemedic41: Once we merged, we became the single Emergency Services clan on the Geezer site. While most clans there are regionally or idea based, ours takes our natural sense of family in the firehouse, police station, or crew quarters, and brings it to a virtual home on Xbox Live®.

TriXie: Let's talk games. What was your first game console?

txcountymounty: I had a Pong console back in the early 80's. The one with the paddles that detached from the sides.

A Thin BlueLine: My first console was probably the original as far as I know, it was called Telestar. My mom got it for me in the mid or late seventies. If I remember correctly the whole system had like four different variations of Pong on it, nothing else. It was great. Since then I have probably owned every major console on the market at one time or another.

Firemedic41: The Atari 2600. That was seriously good times. I had just a huge library of games. I remember the gradual improvements in graphics. Although there were development limits to what they could do, they really pushed to create more detailed graphics. I was completely engrossed with that system.

Hoganator: Atari 2600 when I was 4 years old.

TriXie: What's the first game that you were really good at?

txcountymounty: Super Mario Brothers on the NES.

A Thin BlueLine: I was probably 10 or 11 and I used to have my friends over on the weekend and we would play Break Out on the Atari 2600, no one could beat me,it used to frustrate the hell out them.  I would get in a zone and it was game over for my buddies. Good times.

Firemedic41: I was and still am a masterat Defender. That was clearly one of the best games ever made. Note to Xbox Live Marketplace folks … give us Defender in High Def!

Hoganator: Combat on Atari. I kicked my Dad's rear on that regularly (he may have been letting me win though, I was only 4).

TriXie: Best game of all time?

txcountymounty : I'm bracing myself because people will throw stuff at me, but I'm gonna go with Dead Rising™. I love killing zombies. Before Dead Rising launched I'd have given it to Halo® 2 for the community it built.

A Thin BlueLine: Gotta be Halo 2, unrivaled in my opinion. I have yet to play a game that moved so smooth. The game play is great, yes, the campaign left me wanting more, but the Xbox Live play is something I have yet to tire of.  I've played many great games on my Xbox® and Xbox 360™ but I always have to get in one more game ofHalo® on Xbox Live before calling it quits for the evening.

Firemedic41: I'd have to say that the Halo games are probably the best games to date. I don't think that any one game has been able to do more for gaming than what Bungie did with Halo and Halo 2. I couldn't specify just Halo or Halo 2 though, because both did awesome things. Halo 2 brought a fantastic online experience and was so well done, that we rate other games' online experience relative to Halo 2. If that's occurring, then you've definitely made a positive impact.

Hoganator: The original Command and Conquer.

TriXie:Do you have any good Xbox 360 launch day stories? That won't break any confidentiality thingy will it?

txcountymounty: No, I didn't get an Xbox 360 'til this past March. The purchase order got held up in the finance committee (wife).

A Thin BlueLine: Like most fan boys, November 22 was marked on my calendar the day it was announced. One dayinlate October I received my department's list for overtime events, which I had been working diligently to save up fora premium system with all the extras: Games, controllers, and such. Well I didn't pay attention to the dates and in mid-November I realized that I had signed upto work a basketball game on Nov. 22. Time stopped. I called the wife and after making several promises, she agreed to wait in line for me until my event was over.

The day came and I spent my morning work hours calling the local WalMart to see if a line was forming yet. At 1 P.M. the clerk said there were 6 people waiting. I called my wife and yelled for her to get to the store. The kids were off on vacation, so they joined her in line until I got off work around 4 P.M. and I went to relieve her so she and the kids could eat. Then I left again to work the basketball game. I returned about nine to finish the wait. My wife had made friends with the others in line by the time I arrived back at the store, and everyone in line was quite impressed at the sacrifice she made for me. I still hear about it to this day, but I got number eight of only 25 premium systems on hand that day.

Firemedic41: Yeah, it's a pretty involved story, but I'd have to start by saying that I probably have the best wife, and one of the best friends a guy could ever truly ask for. My wife handed me some money at the last minute that she'd been saving so I could get one, and a buddy who wasn't even buying one went out with me to find a line and hang out with me. We were finally able to find a line to get in after about three hours of driving around. My friend was offering people cash for allowing us their place in line. It was crazy, but it was a good time. It was pretty cold out that night, too. There are some pretty good pics.

Anyway, the store that I won't name, but whose initials are C.C., wouldn't honor the list of names that we had created to keep ourselves orderly throughout the night, and they also changed their posted system availability. That morning they announced that they took a couple of premium systems (one of which was to be mine) and made them part of some credit card promotion or something. We were ticked off, and so we left and ran over to a place with the initials ofB.B., and by a miracle I ended up getting lucky at the very last minute when some guy couldn't complete his purchase for whatever reason. Believe it or not, that's a much summarized version of the events. Sometime we'll sit down, and I'll spill out the whole story. It really is a good one.

TriXie: Oh, I see how it is … I gotta get you liquored up to spill the whole story. Some quick ones then: Best Film, Best Album, Best TV Show. Go!

txcountymounty: Anchorman; I like all kinds of music, I don't think I could pick just one album; Cops because they filmed with me and someday my segment might air.

A Thin BlueLine: The Empire Strikes Back; Ratt, Dancing Undercover; Family Guy.

Firemedic41: Ladder 49; Pink Floyd, The Wall; Saved.

Hoganator: The Shawshank Redemption; Nine Inch Nails, The Downward Spiral; Rescue Me.

TriXie: What would you like to see made available on Xbox Live Marketplace?

txcountymounty: Free gamer pics and themes for games you own. You'd think they could at least throw that in. I'd also like to see Yie ar kung-fu ported to Xbox Live Arcade.

A Thin BlueLine: I think it would be great if you could sign up for some kind of account that would let gamers transfer either gamer points or Microsoft points to each other. Got a friend who's a little short but you want to play UNO® with him? Let him borrow a few point till payday. But the best part of course would be a game of UNO or Texas Hold 'Em among friends, with a little online wager thrown in.

Firemedic41: Defender. Really I think that the Xbox Live Marketplace is reshaping how we look at, and how we participate in, gaming.I anticipate some really innovative things down the line with the Xbox Live Marketplace, and I hope Defender squeaks in there.

Hoganator: More free downloads!

TriXie: What's the best thing about your job?

txcountymounty: It's like a sandbox game, for the most part I can go and do whatever I want (within reason). I'm not tied to an office, and I get to see some really cool stuff that other people can't, "move along citizen, nothing to see here," I get to say that. Also I realized that "the man" everyone talks about, that's me. HA HA!

A Thin BlueLine: I like the fact that you rarely have a day that was just like the previous one. You get different callsfor service everyday and even with the same type of calls the circumstances are alwaysdifferent. If you like a routine when you go to work, this job isnot for you.

Firemedic41: I get to actually be part of a positive thing in people's lives. I'm in a position to be able to show up when something has gone wrong, and try to help make it better. There's no greater gift than the feeling you receive when you feel like you'vereally made a difference to someone when they needed it.

Hoganator: Getting to actually help someone every now and then.

TriXie: If there was a game of your life would it be RPG, FPS, sports, or something else?

txcountymounty: It would be an action RPG, like a cross between The Elder Scrolls® IV: Oblivion™ and Condemned: Criminal Origins™, but with less psychopaths, less killing, and no demons or oblivion gates.

A Thin BlueLine: Definitely RPG, so many unexpected things have happened for me to end up where I amtoday. Someone has got to be playing my character and just rolling dice because this is not at all what I planned. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but a 20-sided die has to be involved.

Firemedic41: I've always played sports, but I'm going with an FPS RPG, which would also be massively cooperative. Everything's a little better with some friends by your side.

Hoganator: I would have to say a FPS. Not that I shoot people in real life, but I'm constantly on the go with one project or another looming over me or I face certain doom. I have to run and gun a lot in life.

TriXie: Finally, and most importantly … Who's cooler: Shaft, Dirty Harry, Kojak, or Sipowicz?

txcountymounty: Shaft by far, none of the others have a song.

A Thin BlueLine: Dirty Harry, best one liners and a .44 that never runs out of bullets.

Firemedic41: I'm going with Columbo.Columbo always had such a cool demeanor, and everyone always underestimated him. He didn't have the biggest gun or the meanest attitude and he still managed to make society a safer place to be. Columbo had wicked style.

Hoganator: I would have to say Dirty Harry; best catch phrase from a movie in my opinion.

TriXie: No love for Kojak? Thanks a lot for your time guys and thanks for keeping us all safe!

A Thin BlueLine: Thanks for having us TriXie, keep up the good work. I will trade jobs with you anytime!

TriXie: Thanks Blue, but I like to break the laws when I'm in Texas. ;)