Gamer Spotlight:

Trixie360 Interviews COMMANDER JC

Published March 27, 2008

He's a student in London who loves Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® Vegas 2 and is not so crazy about Hannah Montana or snails. Say 'allo to COMMANDER JC.

trixie360: What's the story behind your Gamertag? 

COMMANDER JC: Well, my initials are JC so I decided to stick them into my Gamertag. Then, I thought of another word to put in my Gamertag and "COMMANDER" popped into my head. I think "COMMANDER" is quite a powerful word, so I thought it would fit perfectly. I then stuck the two words together and "COMMANDER JC" was born.

trixie360: Where do you live? 

COMMANDER JC: I currently reside in London, England which is in the United Kingdom. Great place to be and "home" of the fantastic and friendly UK Xbox Forums!

The Commander says "Thumbs up!"

trixie360: The UK forums are much nicer than the US. UK gamers are very polite! What do you do in London?

COMMANDER JC: I am currently in year 11, or my third year of secondary school (high school in the USA). I am also taking major exams this summer called GCSEs, which will require a lot of revision, but hopefully the revision will not reduce my gaming time too badly.

trixie360: What's the worst or weirdest job you've ever had? 

COMMANDER JC: Hmmm … that is a tricky one. I haven't had too many jobs but the worst one was working in my Uncle's garden a few years ago, during the summer. It was boiling hot and there was a dreaded heat wave. It was so mucky and the heat made the work even worse. That was not a good summer at all …

trixie360: How long have you been on Xbox LIVE®? 

COMMANDER JC: I joined Xbox LIVE in February 2007 and have been a Gold member since. One of my best friends got an Xbox 360® for Christmas 2006, and after that I went to his house nearly every day to play Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® Vegas and Gears of War®. After two months of going back and forth between my house and his, I decided I needed a 360 of my own, so in February I went out and bought one and have never been happier.

The game that started it all for JC.

trixie360: Do you have an archenemy on Xbox LIVE?

COMMANDER JC: I have a few school friends that I enjoy gaming with such as Kretty. Though we're not enemies, we do enjoy finding the competitive streak within ourselves. Although, I do have a "Gamerscore race" enemy in the shape of ShoppingTub.

trixie360: What's your Xbox setup like?

COMMANDER JC: I have a 32-inch Sony Bravia HDTV with 1080i. This accompanied with my Xbox 360 Pro looks great! Though, I don't have any external speakers, I may need to get some of those this summer …

trixie360: What's the best feature of Xbox LIVE?

COMMANDER JC: It's been said many times before by others, but I will say it again, the Gamerscore system rocks my socks. Fact. It's a great and intuitive feature and really extends the life of all my games as I backtrack to scoop up achievements here and there. The Gamerscore system really puts the 360 in a league of its own and that is why I love it!

trixie360: What do you think is the best game of all time?

COMMANDER JC: When I was much younger I played Crash Bandicoot on the Playstation 1 almost daily. It was such a good game and I still think it is one of the most original and exciting games I have ever played. Even though now the graphics look terrible, I can still pick up the original Crash Bandicoot and play it for hours.

trixie360: What's the funniest thing you've ever heard on Xbox LIVE?

COMMANDER JC: In Call of Duty® 4: Modern Warfare™, I was playing an online match with a few of my friends and we were discussing the difference between biscuits and cookies. It was me and another English mate arguing with my US friends about what the difference was between them. We were going on for ages and other people in the match were asking what we were on about, which just added to the hilarity of it. I think we ended up losing the match due to our biscuit/cookie argument, but it was definitely the funniest thing that occurred on Xbox LIVE. Happy times indeed …

Biscuit or cookie?

trixie360: What is your greatest Xbox LIVE moment?

COMMANDER JC: My favorite Xbox LIVE moment would have to be whenever me and a few friends would gather and do some Terrorist Hunts together on Rainbow Six Vegas. We sometimes played until the early hours of the morning and it was great fun, we had to use teamwork and work together, and I think there is nothing more fun than chatting with good friends and playing co-operatively on a game you all love.

trixie360: Who is your inner rock star?

COMMANDER JC: John Farris, the drummer from INXS. He's a fantastic drummer and I have had the pleasure of meeting him in person. He's a great guy and very funny. After seeing him play the drums, I was inspired to learn the drums, and have been doing so for a few years now. I even got a signed pair of drumsticks from him!

trixie360: If they made a movie about your life, who should play you?

COMMANDER JC: I think Alan Cumming would play me as he was great as Boris, the computer geek, in the movie GoldenEye. I wish I could spin pens like he can …

trixie360: What superpower would you like to have? 

COMMANDER JC: The ability to teleport, which would be so cool! No airline fees would be awesome.

trixie360: If you could trade places with anyone for one day, who would it be?

COMMANDER JC: The Mayor of London, a lot needs to be done to my home city. Don't get me started on the perilous bendy-buses …

trixie360: I don't know what a bendy-bus is but they sound terrifying! What celebrity would be the worst roommate?

COMMANDER JC: Hannah Montana aka Miley Cyrus is the most infuriating person. She would be the worst roommate.

trixie360: Hot celeb you'd like to be stranded on a desert island with?

COMMANDER JC: Jessica Alba. Beautiful and still manages to keep a clean image in Hollywood.

trixie360: If you could be any videogame character, who would it be?

COMMANDER JC: I would be Samus from Metroid Prime. Her suit is awesome and she is an ace fighter.

The Tour of Duty achievement in Rainbow Six Vegas was tough.

trixie360: What's the worst food you've ever eaten?

COMMANDER JC: I went to Paris a few years ago and had snails. Let's just say I won't be having them again …

trixie360: It's the rubbery texture that makes escargot so gross. What's the last book you read?

COMMANDER JC: Flood by Richard Doyle. It's about a worst-case scenario of London flooding. Saw it in my local bookshop and it looked good, just finished it a few days ago and the ending was rather poor, but overall a decent book. I think there is also a film adapted from the book that was released a few months go, might check that out too.

trixie360: If you could go on tour with any band, which would it be?

COMMANDER JC: I would love to go on a world tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I saw them live in the summer and they were great, going around the world with them would be amazing.

trixie360: What do you predict will be the "next big thing" in gaming?

COMMANDER JC: Perhaps a world with no game stores. You would buy the games off the Marketplace and they would download straight to your hard drive. It would be pretty cool, though you would need a massive hard drive! I really do think this is the future. I mean there are already XBLA and Original Xbox games on sale on the Marketplace so proper Xbox 360 retail games may be next.

trixie360: The best thing about that would be not having to breach the insidious shrink wrap and those horrible stickers! What do you think is the best thing about Xbox 360?

COMMANDER JC: I think the Xbox 360 console itself is a genius piece of design and it looks really sleek and modern. It is definitely prettier than the Wii or the PS3. I also think the Xbox 360 Community and the Xbox.com forums are wonderful. Most members are really friendly, kind and helpful.

trixie360: What is the Xbox 360 Achievement that was hardest to get?

COMMANDER JC: Tour of Duty on Rainbow Six Vegas was pretty challenging, though it was fun as well.

trixie360: What would you like to be doing in ten years?

COMMANDER JC: Hopefully, I would like to be finishing up after a few years at University either here in the UK or possibly in the US. Then maybe take a gap-year, somewhere exotic and exciting. Or maybe I would have a job by then … who knows? My future seems undecided.

Interview by TriXie