Gamer Spotlight:

TriXie Interviews Knuckles Dawson

Published July 25, 2007

He's famous for being the guy that has earned an achievement every day since the launch of Xbox 360™, and for blogging on Xbox360fanboy.com. I met him last year at PAX and promised him the Gamer Spotlight. Almost a year later at E3, he reminded me I still hadn't followed through. So here it is at long last!

TriXie: What's the story behind your Gamertag?

Knuckles Dawson: I came up with the name/character in 1997. The "Knuckles" obviously is from the character of the Sonic series, who was the "badass anti-hero™" of the canon when introduced in '93. So, that was my choice for the first name, but I needed a last name, and my girlfriend at the time suggested "Dawson," because it was a good juxtaposition, and sounded cool with a British accent. I'd like to point out that "Dawson's Creek" premiered in 1998, a year after I started using the alias on the Net. Although, my mother grew up in the real Dawson Creek in British Columbia, so you can make a connection to that if you must.

TriXie: Free Katie. Where do you live?

Knuckles Dawson: Vancouver, BC, Canada, eh?

TriXie: What do you do for a living? Besides earn achievements …

Knuckles Dawson: I work full time at a print company as a Prepress Technician, while writing for Joystiq's Xbox 360 Fanboy news site and co-hosting our weekly Fancast with Richard and Dustin.

TriXie: What's the worst or weirdest job you've ever had?

Knuckles Dawson: I did a two week stint of quality control at a label company the summer before senior year in high school, which entailed me watching a roll of labels scroll by for 8 hours a day. When I started at the print shop, my boss made me clean out a clogged pipe from the urinal. That was ... not fun.

One of Knuckles' first games was Whacked!

TriXie: Ew. How long have you been on Xbox LIVE®?

Knuckles Dawson: I got Xbox LIVE on November 15th, 2002, with this Gamertag. Whacked! and MotoGP demos for the win!

TriXie: Do you have an archenemy on Xbox LIVE?

Knuckles Dawson: There are gamers that I compare Gamerscores to in a competitive fashion, or others that I have a hard time getting along with, but if I had to pin down one guy, it'd have to be Woundless Knack. We always butt heads on everything.

TriXie: Describe your Xbox® setup.

Knuckles Dawson: 56-inch Samsung DLP HDTV, and a JVC 550 Watt 5.1 Dolby® Digital Surround sound. I also have an HD PVR, Wii, 360 HD DVD Drive, and a Blu-Ray player that just so happens to play PS3 games. All complemented by 5 Sumo lounge chairs as ultimate comfort for whoever is playing or watching TV/movies.

TriXie: Nice. Except for that icky Blu-Ray thing. What's the best feature of Xbox LIVE?

Knuckles Dawson: Private Chat. Cross-game, even cross-platform with Vista, I can shoot the breeze with friends regardless of what I'm doing. I've even watched TV shows and movies on DVD with friends over Private Chat. It makes you feel connected at all times.

TriXie: What do you think is the best game of all time?

Knuckles Dawson: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time had a major impact on the gaming industry (as did Super Mario 64), and deserves recognition for that. It was a huge title for me, too. Great gameplay, graphics at the time, story, and music. It revolutionized 3-D action titles.

TriXie: What's the funniest thing you've ever heard on Xbox LIVE?

Knuckles Dawson: Unfortunately, the funniest thing I've heard on Xbox LIVE isn't fit for print, but I'll be happy to tell anyone who asks. The next funniest thing was an impeccable Arnold Schwarzenegger impression by a guy from Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® 3: Black Arrow™. Incidentally, his gamertag isn't fit to print, either, so we'll have to leave it anonymous for now. Rather than just doing common Arnie lines, he could use the voice to say anything you'd throw at him. I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe.

Hearing the Guvernator in Black Arrow would be a hoot.

TriXie: What is your greatest Xbox LIVE moment?

Knuckles Dawson: The first cool one was waaaaay back in 2002, when Xbox.com did the "Top 25" leaderboards for Unreal Championship, MechAssault®, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, and MotoGP. In November and December, I made UC's Deathmatch list 4 weeks in a row, 15, 10, 7, and 15. Nowadays, any time I meet someone on Xbox LIVE who knows who I am beforehand, that's always cool. The recognition, like from the OXM article on me, to getting my name in the Shadowrun™ credits, to Peter Moore himself giving me props to the crowd at the Fall Showcase '06, it all boggles my mind when I stop and think about it.

TriXie: Who is your inner rock star?

Knuckles Dawson: Mike Patton. The guy oozes "badass," and love him or hate him, he can do some amazing things with his vocal cords.

TriXie: If they made a movie about your life, who should play you?

Knuckles Dawson: If we went with similar looks, probably Brendan Fraser or Orlando Bloom, depending on my hair length. In terms of personality, probably Adam Brody.

TriXie: Adam Brody has a personality? What's your karaoke song?

Knuckles Dawson: "Audio Blood" by The Matches.

TriXie: What cartoon character do you think is most like you?

Knuckles Dawson: Glenn Quagmire. If only because my impression is nigh flawless.

TriXie: Giggity. What superpower would you like to have?

Knuckles Dawson: Omniscience.

TriXie: If you could trade places with anyone for one day, who would it be?

Knuckles Dawson: Joseph Staten. Work on Contact Harvest, consult the Halo Universe Bible, throw in a couple lines for the Grunt voices in Halo® 3, it would be pretty sweet.

TriXie: What celebrity would be the worst roommate?

Knuckles Dawson: Probably Paris Hilton. Always getting in trouble, but a perk would be being able to get a nice penthouse suite to live in.

TriXie: Hot celeb you'd like to be stranded on a desert island with?

Knuckles Dawson: Keeping it local, Kristen Kreuk.

TriXie: If you could be any video game character, who would it be?

Knuckles Dawson: Well, the cliché choice would be to say "Knuckles the Echidna," but I'm going to mix it up. Tommy Vercetti from GTA: Vice City.

Knuckles takes a ride.

TriXie: What's the last book you read?

Knuckles Dawson: Revelations, the Mass Effect prequel, on the plane trip home from E3.

TriXie: If you could go on tour with any band, which would it be?

Knuckles Dawson: Probably The Dandy Warhols, as they have pretty cool music, and are probably a blast to hang out with.

TriXie: What do you predict will be the "next big thing" in gaming?

Knuckles Dawson: Cross-platform play. The sneak peek given in Shadowrun shows the potential it has, but if that happens in an MMO (outside of FFXI), or more developers start implementing it in their multiplayer experiences, it could unify the PC and console gaming markets and networks. Like if the PC version of a cross-platform game is real-time strategy, but the console version is a first-person shooter for the ground troops, it could be intense immersive gameplay. We're on the cusp of some major changes in the industry and should start to see them this generation as well as the next.

The cross-platform play of Shadowrun is a harbinger of the future.

TriXie: What do you think is the best thing about the Xbox 360?

Knuckles Dawson: Well, the expected response out of me would either be the Achievements or Gamerscore aspects of one's Gamercard. While those are in my top three, I'd have to put the integration of LIVE into the console itself as a big deal. On the original Xbox, LIVE was in its infancy. I remember how awesome it was when I could play single player titles like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time™ or The Chronicles of Riddick™: Escape from Butcher Bay and be connected with "Live Aware." Or when I got a text message in Burnout Revenge™ on the original Xbox from a friend on Tiger Woods. A cross-game message? Amazing. Now with Xbox 360, that kind of functionality is almost taken for granted.

TriXie: Your claim to fame is getting an achievement every day. Do you freak out when Xbox LIVE is undergoing downtime?

Knuckles Dawson: Whenever possible, I like to try to get online and get the achievement after midnight but before the servers go down. Remember that October 17th, 2006 maintenance that was supposed to be 24 hours (but turned into 27)? I got an achievement in Saints Row on that at 12:03 A.M. on the 17th. Xbox LIVE shut down at 12:05 A.M. So that was close. As long as I get some lead time to prepare for any maintenance, I usually can manage.

TriXie: What was the achievement that gave you the most satisfaction to earn?

Knuckles Dawson: I completed Gears of War® on Insane with my best friend, APKJester, on day 365 (November 21st, 2006). That netted me three achievements at once: Completed Act 5 on Insane, Commando, and I Can't Quit You Dom. That was a good way to cap off unlocking achievements each day for the past year.

TriXie: What would you like to be doing in ten years?

Knuckles Dawson: Well, that'll put me at 32, so I'd like to have settled down with someone who appreciates my love for media, though she doesn't necessarily have to be a gamer. In terms of work, I already got my foot in the door with my X3F job, so hopefully that'll lead me to something more lucrative down the road. That, and I'm pretty damn sure I'll have stopped getting achievements every day, having stopped on a cool day number like 1000 or something to that effect.

TriXie: Good plan. Thanks Knuckles, and sorry you had to wait so long for me! :-)

Interview by TriXie