Other Xbox.com Personalities
Gamercard:
The Important Stuff:The Nomination Mail:If at any time you won't mind granting me 5 minutes of celebrity here, a couple things about me, just to convince you:
Related Links: | Gamer Spotlight:TriXie Interviews ZaaM ITPublished July 6, 2007 He's an Xbox Ambassador, blogger, podcaster, forum moderator and … probably a few other things. Give it up for our Italian friend ZaaM IT. TriXie: What's the story behind your Gamertag? ZaaM IT: Aww, nice start. I hate this story, it's pathetic, so I apologize in advance to all your readers. OK, back in the days when I used to chat on IRC on a daily basis, I had a very poor client program that didn't even want to save my nickname from one day to another. Soon I got bored of typing it every time, so I used to just press my open hand on the keyboard and hit enter. Well, you can guess the rest of the story right? I stuck with "ZaaM" and changed my IRC client.
ZaaM IT turned the tables on TriXie and interviewed her for his own site. TriXie: OMG, that was a totally boring story. Where do you live? ZaaM IT: Wrong side of the ocean. Err, I mean Italy. Near Venice, which I hope you all know and visit at least once in your life. Trust me, it's worth it. TriXie: I promise you I will see Venice before I die. What do you do for a living? ZaaM IT: I just graduated in "Web and Multimedia Technologies," here in Italy, a couple months ago so … Well, it's definitely time to look for a job. Ask me in a couple more months, please. TriXie: What's the worst or weirdest job you've ever had? ZaaM IT: I'm a tech guy, a bit of a nerd if you want, so my past jobs would sound a bit boring. No doubt. But when I was younger I used to be a rapper, or better yet pretended to be one. I was even getting paid for it so I will consider it a job. Weird part of all this? That you would never tell this long-haired, shy and all around nice guy was a hardcore rapper. Good times, good times. TriXie: How long have you been on Xbox LIVE®? ZaaM IT: I subscribed shortly after I picked up my first Xbox® console and just in time for some Halo® 2 multiplayer action, it must have been September 2004. I remember I had to do a dashboard update with the first starter kit I bought, so yeah. That was quite some time ago.
ZaaM IT started just in time to play Halo 2.
ZaaM IT: Oh my, just one? In that case I'll speak as a member of the Xbox Community Developer Program (XCDP) rather than as a gamer. It's crazy what you can achieve with the data Microsoft kindly makes available to us Xbox fans and Web developers. Many sites out there can confirm this! Xbox LIVE is hands down the best online gaming service of all times and this integration with the Web expands the possibilities even more to bring it to a whole new level. TriXie: What are you most proud of, as an XCDP member? ZaaM IT: The main project I work on is 360FriendSpot with my buddy Squidpunch, and The LiveEye is hands down the biggest and most useful project we have over there. Squid got the idea, we built it together and it turned out pretty rad if you ask me. The feedback we get every day from the community is amazing, and that's what makes our work worth it. TriXie: What do you think is the best game of all time? ZaaM IT: Diablo 2! I dreamt about a Diablo 3 release countless times and that isn't even my favorite gaming genre. Go figure … TriXie: What's the funniest thing you've ever heard on Xbox LIVE? ZaaM IT: Ah … it's always hilarious when people on Xbox LIVE can't tell where I'm from. And it's not just me: they call us Mexican, French, Japanese. They even asked me if I was British once! People should get to know that boot-shaped peninsula in the middle of nowhere, that's what the "IT" in my Gamertag stands for!
ZaaM IT chats with soccer star Alessandro Del Piero on Xbox LIVE. TriXie: People are stupid, ZaaM. What is your greatest Xbox LIVE moment? ZaaM IT: My GREATEST moment online was probably when I did a video chat with my favorite soccer player, golden ball winner and world champion Alessandro Del Piero, while he was attending the February Xbox LIVE Party in Turin. The good guys over at ClubX360.it shot a photo of the moment and a few days later I found my big face in an Italian gaming magazine too. That was pretty cool :) TriXie: What's your favorite TV show? ZaaM IT: Highlander: the Series. From time to time they put on air some reruns at 2 or 3 A.M. here in Italy and I don't miss one episode. I force myself to either come back home, stop gaming or wake up just to watch it. For real. TriXie: Who is your inner rock star? ZaaM IT: Nice one, I must pick an Italian singer here. Everybody go check out Vasco Rossi, or "Blasco" as we call him. TriXie: Meh, he looks kinda old and crusty. If they made a movie about your life, who should play you? ZaaM IT: Johnny Depp, no doubt. Or maybe I should make a movie about his life instead, countless people tell me I really look like him and they've convinced me by now. TriXie: What's your karaoke song? ZaaM IT: Michael Bublé, "Moondance." You don't wanna hear me sing that though, trust me. TriXie: Blaspheme! There is only one "Moondance" and it is Van Morrison's! If you could trade places with anyone for one day, who would it be? ZaaM IT: You! I'm jealous! And my life isn't that bad, so let me know if you're interested to switch roles. Anytime. TriXie: Dude, if I get to live in Italy, I'm never giving you your life back. What celebrity would be the worst roommate? ZaaM IT: Chuck Norris. Hey, I don't wanna wake up with a boot in my mouth. TriXie: Hot celeb you'd like to be stranded on a desert island with? ZaaM IT: Keira Knightley? Rihanna? Hilary Blasi who y'all won't know since she's Italian? TriXie: Well I tried to find a picture of her to link to, but she doesn't appear to wear clothing very often. If you could be any video game character, who would it be? ZaaM IT: Ryu Hayabusa. But from Ninja Gaiden®, not the Dead or Alive series. He gets beat up there, that's unacceptable!
Perhaps ZaaM will be in the next Ninja Gaiden title. TriXie: What's the last book you read? ZaaM IT: I love Michael Connelly as a writer. Now don't make me Google the English titles of his books, but I think I've read pretty much all of them. TriXie: If you could go on tour with any band, which would it be? ZaaM IT: Black Eyed Peas. It's not exactly my genre but they're a blast live. Ok, I was really thinking about Fergie, you can add her to that desert island question … TriXie: Your desert island is getting rather crowded. What do you predict will be the "next big thing" in gaming? ZaaM IT: Cross-platform gaming. I recently bought Halo 2 for Vista (like the Xbox version wasn't enough) and I really wish you could play cross-platform online. I hope future games will follow the example of Shadowrun™, so that console and PC gaming will look like a gaming community as a whole. TriXie: What is the Xbox 360 Achievement that was hardest to get? ZaaM IT: Unlocking all of The Elder Scrolls® IV: Oblivion™ and Condemned: Criminal Origins™ achievements was definitely time-consuming. I usually don't really go for "hard" achievements, I'm lazy. But I was also kinda proud to complete FIFA 06 100%, some of those "challenges" aren't easy at all. TriXie: What would you like to be doing in ten years? ZaaM IT: Move to the USA, buy a house, find a nice job and a fiancée. Scratch that. Find a job and a nice fiancée. TriXie: I don't know why you'd want to move here, but whatever floats your boat. Any final words? ZaaM IT: Thanks so much for this interview TriXie, it's been real fun and I bet it's been great fun for you to fix my poor English grammar. Thanks to everybody that helps the Xbox community grow and keeps it going. And can I also make a couple shutouts? First: Squidpunch, cause I wouldn't have done half of the stuff I do for the community without him. Second: DeaconBlade 360 for his awesome effort at his site U360 and in the community itself, you've inspired me several times. Third: TR1GG3R MAN, who used to be our one and only leader on the Italian forums and has done an awesome job for months to keep the place together. It's a pleasure to work side by side with you now. Speaking of which … thank YOU TriXie, once again, for giving me the opportunity to do a bit more everyday for the official Xbox.com forums which I totally love. I'll see y'all online, game on! |
