We have a very interesting edition of Meet The Gamer to bring you this week. Our gamer is Xbox’s Dave Prien. Dave is the Principal Program Manager at Xbox working on the Elite Wireless Controller and other exciting projects. In the interview Dave talks about his gaming memories, the issues that they came across when designing the Elite controller and his thoughts on the future of gaming and the industry as a whole.
What is your Gamertag and the reason for choosing it?
Currently my Gamertag is XB1 1337. I changed it during the big Gamertag open period last May. I meant for it to represent the Xbox One Elite controller but have gotten some feedback that I am not really not an “Elite” player anymore. I might have to change back to my old one, Platypus98 (I had it for 12 years). Platypus was based on my nickname in the past for being “messed up” like a Platypus, 98 was just my jersey number in college.
What is your favorite genre/s of game and why?
Lately I have been playing more FPS than in the past but overall I would say RPG games are still my favorite. The best thing about gaming to me is losing myself in a game, good day or bad day, 15 minutes or 15 hours. I want to be somewhere other than where I am when gaming. It does not matter if I have played it a hundred times or for the first time, I want to feel that I am truly my character and I think RPGs can do that by letting you decide how your character is shaped, how they respond to each situation, as well as a near limitless environment where I can go and do what I want.
What is your favorite game so far? (Doesn’t need to be an Xbox title!)
Dating myself but my favorite game is still Decathlon for Atari 2600. It was the first game on which I really felt I was my character on the screen. Most modern gamers will never know what it was like to have blisters on your hands and how tired you arms and shoulders would get when running the 1500 meter race. I am still amazed at the amount of physical exertion just to play the game, it was great to think I was in an Olympic event but I was sweating and sore as if I really was!
What is your most memorable gaming moment?
Now this is REALLY dating myself but it was the first time I beat my dad at anything. Back in 1975 my dad brought home an Atari Pong Console for the family of which I was the youngest. For years I would watch my dad and older brother play for hours but I was too young to keep up. It was not until about 1980 when my brother had already moved on to the 2600 and ColecoVision that I got full time on the Pong system and my dad would now play against me. My brother had moved on to the new systems never having beat my father on Pong so after enough practice I beat my father and became the top gamer in the house.
Which achievement has been the most frustrating to obtain? How long did it take you?
In Destiny there is a “Flawless Raider” achievement where you need to complete a raid without anyone in your fireteam dying. I’m not sure why this was so difficult for my clan but no matter what, someone would die, usually by mistake (falling off ledge or missing a jump) as opposed to getting shot. It took me about 9 months to get this achievement (and several clans).
What is your gamerscore and how long has it taken you to get it?
After having my account hacked 3 times over the years and having to forfeit score and credits, I am up to a massive 22K in the last 2 1/2 years (when I arrived at Xbox). To be fair, even if I had not lost points I would not have a big gamerscore, probably like 50 to 75K. It’s quite hard to rack up tons of gamerscore being an RPG player.
What is your gaming guilty pleasure?
Has to be Uno, I have the trial version on my BETA XB1 but I have had to keep an Xbox 360 in every location I have an XB1 until now. My wife constantly tries to get me to scale back on systems so it was hard to justify keeping so many 360s to play Uno but thankfully the XB1 version saved me from that.
If you could pick a video game character, who would you be and why?
Well if I can’t be Rob Gronkowski from Madden 17′ it’s a tough call between Commander Shepard from Mass Effect or Geralt from Witcher. Based on my situational choices the two are pretty similar to what I think makes a great protagonist based story. If you read my favorite genre answer it’s these characters that help me feel I am in the game as they are designed by me.
If you could pick a location, from any game, to visit, where would it be and why?
I would love to visit all the locations of Destiny – I know it’s based on our own solar system but the backgrounds are amazing. I really love how they can make Earth or the Moon seem like a distant world but somehow familiar. The graphics of how the world looks when at the tower looking back over edge with the Traveler in the distance still blows my mind every time I turn it on.
You’ve worked on the Xbox elite controller. What was the biggest challenge when designing and making the controller and what can gamers look forward to in terms of hardware in the future?
Well I can’t comment on the future as we are always thinking of new ideas and nothing is locked in. I would never want to share too soon but as for the Elite controller we did have a few items that were tricky. The top issue was probably the paddles, it was a very fine line of obtrusive vs useful. If we made them too rigid and out of the way people had to change their grip to use them. We found that if it was too close to the current grip it might be too easy to misfire. Well, after numerous rounds of testing we found that most preferred the latter (easier to hit) as we found little to no issue with misfire during game play (though some did during random handling of the controller like picking it up) whereas placing the paddles in another location led many to complain of hand fatigue or that they would not use paddles as they to had to change grips. Overall, I think it was a great compromise, especially as they can easily be removed if still obtrusive. We can assure you that we are always working on better versions.
Finally, where do you see gaming heading in the next decade?
This is a good question. I know here at Xbox we have a relatively new strategy of Play Anywhere, but this is something I felt had been coming for a long time. We all have multiple platforms (phones, TVs, PCs, consoles, etc..) but yet everything seems so differentiated. Do they have to be? I think between the world of hardware and software we need to find alternatives that make all platforms a great experience, I think Xbox Play Anywhere does a great job of console and PC but what about mobile or TV? To be clear, I don’t think a phone or TV will be capable of what a high end PC or console can do, but what if the studios started creating side missions or bonus levels for phones that would let me truly play anywhere, independent of hardware capability. I just think we will start having more options as an industry, play where we want and how we want.
Special thanks to XB1 1337 for taking the time to answer our questions. Keep an eye on the website and Twitter for information on how you can feature in the next Meet The Gamer.
Mike is a games journalist, host of 1080Players Gaming Radio. They contributed 62 articles to ICXM between 2015–2016, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: operates 1080Players Gaming Radio on the Boost Radio Network; ICXM published cross-content from his outlet.