Interview: Q&A With Pro Gamer sWooZie

One of my favorite things about gamer culture is watching it grow. From watching the hit first season of WCG Ultimate gamer, to seeing the excitement that revolves around the world of pro gaming on YouTube or basically any other venue possible. Among it all, I have recently become a big fan of pro gamer Adande Thorne a.k.a sWoozie, a very talented and highly entertaining pro gamer. He specializes in fighting games as well as telling some very funny and captivating stories on his YouTube video logs. I recently got the chance to have a chat with sWooZie and see what he had to say about many recent developments in pro gaming and the industry itself.

First, I’d like to say I’m a very big fan as you know, and thanks for the Q&A!

No problem man. Any excuse to chat about gaming or the industry, sign me up!

Q: What are you up to these days besides winning tournaments?

Male modeling. Trying to decide if I want to do more runway or print haha. Kidding. Still traveling, still gaming and still video blogging. One of my new goals for 2010 is to take the YouTube videos up a notch.

Q: After attending this year’s CES event, what are your impressions on 3D gaming? Do you think it will appeal to any audiences or maybe just particular types of gamers?

The first game I played in 3D was Burnout Paradise on a PC and it blew my mind; that was in June of 2009 but I personally don’t know how it’s gonna work when you wear those glasses for long hours. It was mind blowing for an hour, but everyday for 3 hours plus… I’m not sure if the general public can handle that but we’ll have to see once it starts making it’s way into households. Can you imagine being a 3D game tester? Their eyes after an 8 hour shift? If our eyes can take the long hours, then it’s gonna be UH-MA-ZING.

Q: How about XBOX’s Natal and Sony’s motion controller? Do these types of new input seem like just new things for the sake of being new, or could they hold potential in the professional gaming world?

I am a HUGE fan of innovation; especially in gaming but I personally don’t think you’ll see too many serious Natal/Sony motion tournaments. Natal has a better shot but they’d have to come up with a REALLY awesome game before we see that peripheral appearing in the pro scene. I have been wrong twice before in my life though (I blame the fact that I was very drowsy both times).

Q: The majority of the console professional gaming world is dominated by XBOX. What do you think is the cause of that?

I’ve noticed over the years– when you don’t support the community, the community (in this case the pro communities) don’t support you. Sony should start changing up a few things because I’d love to see some faces attached to that system. Same with Nintendo. I think it’d be very cool to see Nintendo spotlight some of their die-hard fans. PS3 has their ‘Tester’ show about to start but other than that, they seem to have zero interest in showcasing or spotlighting the gamers that play their systems. No disrespect to either of those companies because I embrace all three but take Samsung for example. They don’t even have a gaming system/platform on the market and they seem more enthusiastic about tapping into individual gamers than Sony or the Big ‘N’. They created opportunities for 12 gamers on the XBOX last year (not to mention a number of other gamers getting exposure through year-round WCG events that Samsung sponsors). As long as Sony and Nintendo don’t show interest like that, you’ll continue to see more love toward XBOX games at tournaments.

Q: What are your most anticipated games of 2010? What games will you focus most on when competing?

Well for me, I compete more for love as opposed to monetary gain. When “Hello Kitty Adventure 3″ drops, itsa WRAP though! Wait did part 2 drop yet? It doesn’t matter… I’m so going pro in part 3 haha but I’ve gotten the opportunity to play Split Second, Super Street Fighter 4 and Splinter Cell: Conviction so far and already love all of them. The levels of destruction in Split Second had my mouth open while holding the controller. Also got to see a game coming to XBOX LIVE Arcade called Toy Soldiers, it’s a mix between Battlefield 1943 and Command & Conquer… definitely watch for that one cuz it looks like it could be hours of fun; Google it.

Q: I very much like how you promote gamer culture in our YouTube videos. There is certainly more to gamers than just simply playing the next hot game all night upon release. What do you think is necessary to expand the appeal of gamer culture?

In Dead or Alive, the top players understand something very well– do as much damage with as few moves and as quickly yet safely as possible. To expand the appeal of the gaming culture, I suggest the same. Like you mentioned, I’m doing that on my video blogs but I’m also working toward something behind curtain number two so I can’t get too descriptive yet but you’ve got MLG players on Dr. Pepper bottles which is a good step; also projects like WCG Ultimate Gamer season one (and soon to be season two) are perfect examples of steps in the right direction.

Q: I’m sure I am among many others that really enjoyed the first season of WCG Ultimate Gamer. Can you let us in on any new details?

I’ll tell you EVERRYYYTHING about season two! Okay, okay check this out. In the first episode, there is a mid air batt… errrr hold on– I almost forgot that ‘big brother’ is monitoring my internet activity. Well… ummm for the time being, I can say it will be absurdly awesome. People who saw the first season already have expectations set up and the writers/producers have some stuff planned that even took me by surprise and I have a pretty creative mind. What I can also say is you will see 12 new faces, there will be 8 one hour episodes and snowmobile chases… lots of snowmobile chases if they get the rights to use Modern Warefare 2. haha j/k.

Well, it’s been a great pleasure to get to ask you a few questions. We hope to see more great things from you on YouTube and in the pro gaming circles. Thanks for your time! And readers, make sure to visit youtube.com/swoozie06 to check out sWooZie’s videos!

Tagged as: ces, pro gaming, swoozie, ultimate gamer, wcg