Trixie360 Interviews XanthViper
Published February 4, 2009
He's a gamer, husband, and Dad near Phoenix, Arizona who loves Left 4 Dead™, Heroes, his Great Dane, and Xbox LIVE®. Say hello to XanthViper!
trixie360: What's the story behind your Gamertag?
XanthViper: It comes from some of my exploits during the AOL 2.0 days, but that isn't something we will talk about here. It does however originate from the Xanth series by Piers Anthony. Sadly, I have no magical powers like every inhabitant of the world of Xanth.
XanthViper.
trixie360: Where do you live?
XanthViper: I live in a town outside of Phoenix, AZ. Buckeye is one of those small farming communities that was sucked into the real estate boom and transformed into a large suburb. It's nice, but the smell from the dairy farm has yet to be desired.
trixie360: What do you do in Buckeye?
XanthViper: I am a senior software developer for an insurance company in the area. It's probably the most boring stuff I've ever worked on, and it uses code from the late 90s. But, considering the current economic climate of the country, I'll take it. On top of that, I run my own Web servers that host my wife's business as well as my "play site" dedicated to all things video game related, JoystickWidow.
trixie360: What's the worst or weirdest job you've ever had?
XanthViper: I would have to say when I first started working, it was all about working at the local Burger King. The first week all I did was stuff frozen meat patties into the broiler and insert them into the buns on the other side. I moved up in the world the next week because Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was big and they needed someone to stand outside as one of them to bring in traffic. What made it worse was the fact that I had to stand around as Donatello. If you had to be a Ninja Turtle, at least be Leonardo so you could have some Katanas in hand. Instead, I had what looked like a painted broomstick for my bo to wield against the little kids that kept kicking me.
Playing Donatello outside a fast food restaurant doesn't sound like fun.
trixie360: Yeah, Donatello was kinda lame. How long have you been on Xbox LIVE?
XanthViper: The day Xbox LIVE was created, I had myself an account. From there it's been full of win.
trixie360: What's your Xbox setup like?
XanthViper: I have a Pro with a 60gig drive along with the HDMI port in the back which is nice. It sits in the entertainment center underneath all of my audio components that drive out all of that lovely Dolby 5.1 sound. The eye candy that comes out of it is displayed on a 55-inch flat screen hanging on the wall. Add in a keg-orator, leather couch, and my Great Dane; my playtime couldn't get any better.
trixie360: What's the best feature of Xbox LIVE?
XanthViper: Probably the best part of Xbox LIVE is the ability to chat with your friends and its integrated messaging with MSN. Getting invites to join in games at any time is sweet while being told to take the dog out from your wife who is downstairs over Messenger can be a bit of a drag at times.
trixie360: What do you think is the best game of all time?
XanthViper: When I really started to get into doing any sort of gaming, it had to be StarCraft. Instead of working on some real estate billing software, myself and a few others would break out into intense matches against each other. It was pretty bad, because at one point we ended up getting this really cheap wrestling championship belt from the toy store for the winner to have hanging in their cube.
trixie360: What's the funniest thing you've ever heard on Xbox LIVE?
XanthViper: Funny is always in the eye of the beholder and usually funniest at the moment it happens. However one of the funnier things I've heard was during a rather intense Halo® 2 multiplayer game with a few friends of mine and a group of teenagers. One person kept destroying one of my friends in particular, and my friend yelled out "I hope one day a van with heart-shaped tinted windows comes by and snatches you." At this point the kid on the receiving end didn't understand what that really meant, showing that a 30-year-old man showed his age and had essentially been beaten by someone half his age.
Heroes is the favorite TV show of XanthViper.
trixie360: What is your greatest Xbox LIVE moment?
XanthViper: Getting a friend request from you.
trixie360: Awwww! What's your favorite TV show?
XanthViper: I like how things work and when I was younger, I used to watch The Electric Company and, I believe it was this show, they would show how a light bulb was made. So now, with the Discovery Channel, it's all about watching How It's Made or From the Factory Floor. I'm usually so busy I don't have time for anything else, and because I usually watch these while in bed, I never see the finished product anyway so I only know how things are made half way through. On top of that though, I live for Heroes. It keeps getting better and the fact I can chat with a few of the characters now via Twitter makes it all the better.
trixie360: If they made a movie about your life, who should play you?
XanthViper: Chevy Chase, most likely. Just seeing him play Clark Griswold in the National Lampoon's Vacation movies pretty much sums up how my life is. I try to do the right thing and typically end up stumbling all over the place before it finally gets done. If Chevy can pull that off with ease, then he's the one to play me.
trixie360: What cartoon character do you think is most like you?
XanthViper: I bounced back and forth between Thundarr the Barbarian and Bugs Bunny. In the end I went with Bugs because he's a laid back type of guy who has been around town his share of times, yet still keeps the values his Mom taught him. I get along with most people and so does Bugs.
Chevy Chase in National Lampoon's Vacation series would play XanthViper in the movie.
trixie360: What superpower would you like to have?
XanthViper: After watching Heroes the past few seasons, you really get to see what it may be like to actually have a power. There are a lot of them too, like being able to fly, because I could just get past driving 60 miles one way to work each day. Also that whole shoot lightning from the hands thing would be a sweet effect to scare the kids on Halloween. So in order to compensate, I want a power that I could add powers to myself. If I think of it, I should be able to apply it. Kind of end up like Sylar from Heroes.
trixie360: If you could trade places with anyone for one day, who would it be?
XanthViper: Bill Clinton. Even though he no longer is the leader of the most powerful nation in the world, the man has style. He's smart, likable, has interns doing crazy things, and still commands attention when he's around. Who wouldn't want that?
trixie360: I love Bill. I will always love Bill. What celebrity would be the worst roommate?
XanthViper: Spencer from The Hills. For one, I'm not even sure if he is considered a celebrity, but the pure thought of seeing his creepy flesh-colored beard every day would be enough to wanna punch yourself repeatedly in the neck. Listening to him act like he is something would get on my nerves. One of the things I hate about people the most is an inflated ego. Their head gets so large that it can't fit out through the door. It's sad and shows they're lacking someplace.
trixie360: I have never once seen that show, but the fact that Spencer breathes on my planet pisses me off. Hot celeb you'd like to be stranded on a desert island with?
XanthViper: Fergie would be fun to sit back and just watch move around the island. I'd let her fret a bit thinking it was the end, but with my superpower of being able to add any superpower I'd ever want to myself, I'd be able to make fire with a flick of a finger, slay wild chickens with ease, and pluck coconuts from the trees with rubber-handed ease. She would surely see the value of such an individual as myself, that once we flew back to civilization, life would be supreme.
trixie360: See, if you are stuck on an island with her, you don't have to impress her. That's the point of the question. It's a more PC way of saying which celeb would you do if they had no say in the matter. Yeesh. If you could be any video game character, who would it be?
XanthViper: Sam Fisher, for sure. He has it good. Just being able to silently walk up on my dog in the middle of the night without him noticing would be sweet. He attacks me at night by running around the corner when he sees me coming up the stairs. He's 200 lbs. so having Sam Fisher's skills would totally be advantageous.
Sam Fisher of the Splinter Cell series gets a vote for best video game character.
trixie360: What's the worst food you've ever eaten?
XanthViper: There was this chili cookoff that was taking place at work once. People would come in, bring their special sauce for all to try, and then get judged to win something lame like 20 dollars to the local thrift shop. Anyway, I was feeling rather adventurous and decided to try this one chili that looked reasonable, until I took a bite of it. The soft cold texture of chunky seedy tomatoes exploding in my mouth in between elbow noodles was enough to bring on a gag reflex. Thankfully, the lady who made it wasn't watching as I just let it all drop out of my mouth, into the bowl, which ended up right in the trash. I've never seen chili made this way, and to this day, I still wonder why I actually tasted it.
trixie360: What's the last book you read?
XanthViper: The most recent one was looking over some programming techniques with C#. But for personal use when I actually had time, was Jenna Jameson's book. It was decently written and had some pretty interesting tales in there. Except for that whole conversation with her brother and Dad, that kind of killed the flow and mood of the book.
trixie360: It does make excellent reference material. If you could go on tour with any band, which would it be?
XanthViper: Lords of Acid. Something tells me I would see things that would make be blush.
trixie360: What do you predict will be the "next big thing" in gaming?
XanthViper: 3-D gaming. It's probably the next thing that is going to wow a lot of people. Then again, who would have thought that the Wii would have become as popular as it has on such a simple idea?
trixie360: What do you think is the best thing about Xbox 360®?
XanthViper: Without a doubt, the LIVE service. The ability to easily chat with friends, download content for my games, and the matchmaking are very well done. Marketplace is especially nice since I can download movies using my Netflix account.
XanthViper doesn't want to live with Spencer of The Hills, but what about these ladies?
trixie360: What is the Xbox 360 Achievement that was hardest to get?
XanthViper: I really don't have the time anymore to spend and get every achievement in a game. Some of that had to do with trying to get all of the Skulls in Halo 3. I spent so much time trying to do it, that I just finally threw the controller down and said, "Forget it." Actually I didn't say forget it, but I think most will understand I said something else.
trixie360: What would you like to be doing in ten years?
XanthViper: In ten years, I see myself still working, gaming, and spending time with my kids. Most importantly though, I expect to be having fun with my wife. She has just finished a battle with breast cancer and she needs to be around to teach my two sons how to be appropriate in life. My values so far have been how to surf the Web for Cars videos on You Tube, and that the 5-second rule is really just a guideline. Obviously in my mind, these values will take you far in life.
Interview by TriXie
