30/05/2004 Interview with Kyle webmaster of Game Freaks 365 (Handheld Freaks).
Tell us a bit about yourself Kyle
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to talk about myself and my site. Let’s see, I live in South Bend, Indiana as a webmaster of Game Freaks 365. Aside from doing the daily site work, which consumes hours of my day, I play games, visit with family/friends, play sports (i.e. basketball and tennis), and as some of you might know, I’m active in politics, writing op-ed pieces on the internet, some of which are published in American newspapers.
What's the purpose of Game Freaks?
The purpose of Game Freaks 365, like PDA 24/7, is to inform the reader of what goods are worthy of their money. I also like to report some unethical behavior in the industry, especially when it affects consumers in a negative way. An example of this would be an investigation we did into which companies would provide hardware repairs after the warranty had expired. We found that Sony had the best policies in place, planning on repairing free of charge, and Microsoft had the worst, charging outrageous amounts of money for what I like to call their “hunk of junk” (i.e. Xbox). Sure, I love Xbox games, but the hardware is not made very well.
What PDA do you use and why?
If the Zodiac counts as a PDA, that’s what I use. I’m not a business man at the moment, so I don’t have much use for a PDA, aside from address book and MP3’s. The Zodiac gets everything that I want done, and more (i.e. quality Zodiac enhanced games). The price is out of my league, but thanks to Tapwave’s generosity, I got a free one for my site’s use. If it had not been for Tapwave, Game Freaks 365 wouldn’t have a Zodiac/PDA section right now.
How many PDAs have you owned so far?
I’ll keep this short and sweet. The Zodiac is my first.
What's the best book you have ever read and the best song you have ever heard?
That’s quite the comical question for a gaming guru. It might come as a surprise to some that I do actually read a lot, including books, magazines, newspapers, and internet articles. On the other hand, it won’t come as a surprise that most of them are politically or gaming related. If I had to pick a favorite (notice that I am indeed an American; *laughs*) fictional book, I would say Hamlet at this point and non-fiction would be a tie between Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right by Al Franken and It’s Still the Economy, Stupid by Paul Begala. My favorite song would be Imagine by John Lennon. Call me a liberal if you want, but by definition, that means open-minded and I’d prefer that over the alternative.
Name your 5 favourite web sites?
I’ll name gaming related websites, since I’m sure no one is interested in the mainstream news site that I visit. It should be said that PDA 24/7 would have made the list: 5. IGN 4. Zodiac Gamer 3. Cube-Europe 2. GameSpot 1. Game Rankings
What's your favourite PDA game and application?
I really do despise questions like these, for one straightforward reason. All consoles, handhelds, and PDA’s have dozens of games that would make my list of top games. The Zodiac is no different in this regard. The different genres have top games in their own respect and they all deserve credit. If I had to choose just one, it would be Puzzle Bobble v2.
What one feature would you like to see in a future PDA?
If PDA’s expect to expand, they need to attempt to reach a new market. The one, in my judgment, that is most likely to succeed is the gaming community. PDA’s are going to have to adapt ergonomically to the needs of gamers. The only PDA that addresses this that I know of is the Zodiac. Online wireless gaming would be great though.
What's your favourite game from a non PDA platform and why?
Shaun, you are asking the impossible of me. *laughs* I literally have hundreds of games and it is fair to hard to decide which ones are the best. If I listed a top ten, which I did on my site early last year, I’d always regret adding or not adding a specific game. Here’s a nice way to do it; let’s go by platform: DC – Virtua Tennis (Sonic Adventure 1/2 come in a close 2nd) N64 – Golden Eye PS2 – Jak and Daxter GCN – Eternal Darkness Xbox - Halo
Anything you would like to add?
Other than thanks again for giving me the chance to get my story out, I don’t think so. I appreciate all the viewers out there that have been visiting my site lately for our PDA/Zodiac coverage. I promise that I will continue to provide quality content and one of the things that I’m looking forward to most, are more contests. I’ve decided that all contests will be held through the forum (http://gf365forums.proboards18.com/index.cgi) and members will be eligible to receive free products. Until next time, my PDA friends, adieu.
Thanks to Kyle for taking the time to answer my questions. If you want to see what Game Freaks 365 is all about just take a visit:)