Gamertag: Gronar
Superhero: Spiderman
Film: Goodfellas
TV show: The Amazing Race
Album: 2112 by Rush
Xbox LIVE Game: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter™ 2
Offline Xbox Game: Dead Rising™

Gamer Spotlight:

TriXie Interviews Gronar

Published September 10, 2007

TriXie: What's the story behind your Gamertag?

Gronar: Gronar comes from back in the good old days of paper and pencil games like Dungeons and Dragons. My friends and I played one called RuneQuest, and I had a character that was a troll warrior, and I named him Gronar Snaggletooth. I just stuck with the name and have used it as a logon, etc., for 20 years or so now.

He doesn't mean this Dungeons and Dragons. He's talking about the paper version.

TriXie: What do you do for a living?

Gronar: I help run the notebook out of warranty repair department at Dell Inc. I'll probably get hate mail after admitting that.

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

Gronar: Worst job I ever had was a roofer right out of high school working on high rise buildings in downtown Austin in the middle of the summer heat for $6 an hour. I worked there a whole one day, LOL.

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

Gronar: I've been on Xbox LIVE since the second round of beta testers back in 2002. Ah, the good old days before griefers and cheaters.

TriXie: Do you have an archenemy on Xbox LIVE?

Gronar: I don't think I have an archenemy, but I do have an archrival. XBSJason, the owner of Xboxsolution.com, and I are highly competitive with each other in racing games and shooters. Our friendship goes back to the days before LIVE was started when we anxiously counted down the days until we could play our Xboxes over the Internet with each other.

TriXie: What's your Xbox setup like?

Gronar: Got two actually! In the bedroom, I have a 32-inch Samsung HD LCD TV with a Spherix 5.1 sound system. In the living room, I have the Samsung 42-inch plasma HD TV with a, gasp, Sony 5.1 sound system.

TriXie: What's the best feature of Xbox LIVE?

Gronar: The best feature about Xbox LIVE is the friends list in the dashboard. I can always see who's online, what they're playing, if they are listening to music or watching a movie, and bug them with a message or game invite.

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

Gronar: Starcraft. No ifs, ands, or buts.

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

Gronar: OMG, where do I start? It was probably in Project Gotham Racing® 2 on Xbox LIVE the night the game came out, and someone who crashed asked, "Who put that guardrail there?"

Watch out for the guardrails.

TriXie: What is your greatest Xbox LIVE moment?

Gronar: Probably the day I came home for lunch and the beta kit was sitting on the doorstep. I skipped eating and jumped into a game of MotoGP and met all sorts of cool strangers and immediately fell in love with the service. Needless to say, I was late back to work!

TriXie: Who is your inner rockstar?

Gronar: Ozzy Osbourne, the Prince of Darkness! Plus, I sound like him when I drink a bit too much.

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

Gronar: Oh, jeez. That's one movie I wouldn't want to see. Larry the Cable Guy.

TriXie: What's your karaoke song?

Gronar: "Don't You Want Somebody to Love." When Jim Carrey sings that in the movie Cable Guy, it just cracked me up, so I always look for it.

TriXie: I'm sensing a cable guy theme. What cartoon character do you think is most like you?

Gronar: Puss in Boots, from Shrek. I have Puss in Boots underwear, LOL.

I think TriXie says it all after that last answer.

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

Gronar: The powers of The Hulk. Then, if anyone pissed me off, I could smash them to little bits. And run through brick walls.

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

Gronar: Major Nelson. I'd love to be involved with all the Xbox LIVE programming and see what happens behind the locked doors of the LIVE control room. And I'm a glutton for punishment, so I'd love to read all the hate mail and negative comments he gets on his blog.

TriXie: You'd actually probably spend most of your day looking in the mirror and trying to look busy. What celebrity would be the worst roommate?

Gronar: One of your favorites, Pauly Shore. How did that man ever make it into TV and movies? I can't live with a weasel.

TriXie: Much less chill with one. UGH, he's DISGUSTING! Hot celeb you'd like to be stranded on a desert island with?

Gronar: Can I have two? Carmen Electra and Jessica Alba. Wow. They probably wouldn't talk to an old fart like me though, LOL.

TriXie: Well, that's just greedy to pick two. If you could be any video game character, who would it be?

Gronar: The Master Chief of course! Want to touch my gun, Trix? ;)

TriXie: Funny. Kids, he's referring to this video interview I did with the Chief in Singapore. What's the worst food you've ever eaten?

We all want to be Master Chief.

Gronar: Ugh. Don't get me wrong, I love sushi. But have you ever tried the sea urchin? I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.

TriXie: I dig unagi, oddly. Because I'm terrified of snakes. I almost barf when I see them move. What's the last book you read?

Gronar: Halo: The Fall of Reach. I've been out of touch with reading for a bit, but I like science fiction and science fact. Is that considered a genre? By science fact, I mean real stories about UFOs, abductions, that kind of thing.

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

Gronar: System of a Down. Those guys are just bizarre rockers, I bet it would be a hell of a time.

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

Gronar: Hmm, that's tough to say. I think the Wii controls right now is a big thing in gaming, but it's not being implemented right yet. Probably something to do with biometrics. If a game could read your heart rate and sweating, and use that to change the story/dynamics to make it super immersive, that would definitely be a big thing.

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

Gronar: Everything being wireless. <old man voice> I remember back in the day when I had a Cat 5 cable stretched across the living room floor, you ungrateful cretins! </old man voice>

TriXie: What is the Xbox 360 Achievement that was hardest to get?

Gronar: Gold Champion in Project Gotham Racing® 3. I still don't have platinum yet.

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

Gronar: I'd love to be working in the gaming industry. Well, I do some work with my buds over at Xboxsolution.com, but I mean getting paid for it, LOL. I've been a gamer since the days of Pong and the Atari 2600 when my parents would scream at me, "Stop playing those games all the time, they'll never get you anywhere in life!" With MLG, or working for EA or some other company like that, I shouldn't have listened to them!

Interview by TriXie