phatmuther
05/Apr/07, 12:17 AM
http://www.gamertagradio.com/vbportal/forums/showthread.php?t=3322
This Monday we have Anthony from 360monster. they have become one of the best sites to get 360 gaming info in the UK! Here is there story. * sound effect*
Tell us about yourself. It’s what’s important, right?
Now that would be a long story! But let’s keep it short yeah…there’s gaming to get on with after all!
OK so I’m Anthony, a Creative Director of my own media company- Bright AI (www.brightai.net (http://www.brightai.net/)) and I run 360Monster.com in my spare time, or you could interpret that it has become more of a hobby for me. I was previously a Freelance Designer who was first employed to design 360Monster and after three months I became the soul owner of the website. I’ve been an avid gamer for more than I can remember; I guess I would say my first gaming memories would have been in as early as the 1980s with the Sinclair Spectrum/C64 and the Nintendo Game & Watch days. I’ve owned quite a few platforms over this time from a Sinclair Spectrum, Commodore Amiga 500,Super Nintendo, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, GameCube, GameBoy, GameBoy Advanced and after many years of PC gaming I finally landed on the Xbox 360. You could say I skipped a few platform generations along the gaming timeline, but with the help of my friends I had the ability to play most of the others from the likes of Amstrad, NES, Master System, Mega Drive, 3DO and the Xbox.
Away from gaming I enjoy extreme spots and urban culture and lifestyles. I snowboard when I can, very little snow falls here in the UK so I hit Europe and the French Alps to get that fix each season.
Favourite game right now.
Hmm…favourite game, well that changes on a weekly basis. I don’t have much time to get sucked into many games recently but one game that did bowl me over recently with its gameplay, graphics and sound would be Gears of...no, it would have to be Rainbow Six Vegas. I wasn’t much of a fan of GRAW, and the single player is still uncompleted today, but since playing the R6V demo the intuitive gameplay really gelled with me and I found it a great gaming experience on the 360. Being more of a causal gamer now, I enjoy what appears on Xbox Live Arcade with its pick up and play titles. I’m enjoying Heavy Weapon at the moment and looking forward to Worms, Sensible Soccer and Castle Crashers this year.
Your site even offers an achievement section. Are you a Gamerscore whore? Its ok, you can tell me.
Sadly gaming has now taken a back seat in my busy working lifestyle. So keeping up with those people who have the time to unlock all those achievements is practically impossible for me now. We have a Gamerscore Ladder currently running in our 360Monster Forums that shows a list our member’s scores. It’s interesting to see that there is a clear line in the Gamerscores between the hardcore and casual gamers. The hardcore gamers in the ladder are in the 10,000-15,000’s were as the more casual gamers, like myself, tend to sit in the Gamerscore boundaries of the 6-8,000’s, there is quite a visible gap between the two groups…
So yeah, hats off to those Gamerscore “whores”, they put a lot of money and effort into achieving those scores and well done to Microsoft for introducing such an addictive, and for some, a competitive feature on Xbox Live.
I have 10k, are you saying that makes me a gamerscore whore? Oh, who I am I kidding, I AM ONE! Back to the interview-
Why the name "360 monster"?
We like to think we are a Monster Resource of 360 Gaming. The term Monster is a reference to huge, large or more to the point Monstrous! Get it? Maybe it’s more of a UK/British slag or term, but that’s how we like to see ourselves and the message we are trying to put across to our visitors.
Tell us about your staff. Any slackers?!
If I’m honest we’ve had some good and some bad staff come and go through the site, but they have all added their mark on the site and made it what it is today, and I can’t argue with that as we’re doing pretty well!
A few staff members have stuck around since we first started, which is great, it’s a tough job keeping track of the latest news, media as well as writing up reviews and previews for the site. We have a team of around 12 staff now, from the ages of 18 to 29 years old that all help out in their own little way, from posting news through to reviewing the latest releases and arranging tournaments through the site. Any slackers…hmm…Well 360Monster is a site run by gamers in our own spare time. So we do our best to get content released on the site in good time and our ever growing community of members appreciate our take on 360 gaming, whether it’s hot off the press or released in our own time schedule.
What does your site offer?
360Monster offers its visitors a friendly and relaxed atmosphere to gaming news, reviews, previews and we also supply the latest media we can get our StreetFighter-blistered hands on. The website is focused towards our community and we urge our members to give us feedback as well as contribute to the site in their own way. Our forum holds a growing community of friendly members, mostly UK based, but we have an increasing list of members from the US and Europe to as far as Australia. This broadens our international status and it is great to see people of all ages and different backgrounds talking the international language of gaming.
Since when has your site been up and running?
We’ve only been running for a little over 15 months now and in that small short space of time we have risen from being nobody to a website that is among the best Xbox 360 websites in the UK. How have we achieved this…I haven’t got a clue, but I must say, if it wasn’t for our warm and friendly community and dedicated staff that put in all their spare time to contribute to the site we wouldn’t be where we are today. So a large manly hug goes out to those guys and girls!
Have you considered any Podcasting?
We have indeed. We started our own Podcast at the end of last year (2006). It’s in its early days for us at the moment; we are still testing the waters, finding the right format for the show, as well as the right people to take part in it. We are currently three episodes in and we have had a few interviews with gamers and people in the industry as well as staff discussions on 360 gaming. James our host has done a great job with being the host and anchorman on the Podcast as well as editing the show to a professional level, so it’s great to have James on the team. But it is baby steps for us right now and we see ourselves only get better once we are all comfortable and settled in as well as having a good format for the show.
What is your goal with 360monster? Take over the world? eat babies?
To be a Monster…*growl*
In all seriousness, we hope to continue to do our best in the time we individually give towards the site. We have plenty of new features up our sleeves yet to be released this year. We have a new design coming over the next few months as well as two sister sites coming; Wii Monster, PS3 Monster and a hub for all three coming under the name of Console Monster. Each sister site will contain the same members of staff as well as some dedicated individuals to those platform sites. These guys will bring you the same dedication as we do for 360 Monster - bringing Wii and PlayStation 3 news, reviews and previews to our UK and International readers. My aim with 360Monster, in general, is to create a fun and friendly atmosphere to the general gaming website, letting the community get more involved and create a website that people will warm to and treat as one of their own.
This Monday we have Anthony from 360monster. they have become one of the best sites to get 360 gaming info in the UK! Here is there story. * sound effect*
Tell us about yourself. It’s what’s important, right?
Now that would be a long story! But let’s keep it short yeah…there’s gaming to get on with after all!
OK so I’m Anthony, a Creative Director of my own media company- Bright AI (www.brightai.net (http://www.brightai.net/)) and I run 360Monster.com in my spare time, or you could interpret that it has become more of a hobby for me. I was previously a Freelance Designer who was first employed to design 360Monster and after three months I became the soul owner of the website. I’ve been an avid gamer for more than I can remember; I guess I would say my first gaming memories would have been in as early as the 1980s with the Sinclair Spectrum/C64 and the Nintendo Game & Watch days. I’ve owned quite a few platforms over this time from a Sinclair Spectrum, Commodore Amiga 500,Super Nintendo, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, GameCube, GameBoy, GameBoy Advanced and after many years of PC gaming I finally landed on the Xbox 360. You could say I skipped a few platform generations along the gaming timeline, but with the help of my friends I had the ability to play most of the others from the likes of Amstrad, NES, Master System, Mega Drive, 3DO and the Xbox.
Away from gaming I enjoy extreme spots and urban culture and lifestyles. I snowboard when I can, very little snow falls here in the UK so I hit Europe and the French Alps to get that fix each season.
Favourite game right now.
Hmm…favourite game, well that changes on a weekly basis. I don’t have much time to get sucked into many games recently but one game that did bowl me over recently with its gameplay, graphics and sound would be Gears of...no, it would have to be Rainbow Six Vegas. I wasn’t much of a fan of GRAW, and the single player is still uncompleted today, but since playing the R6V demo the intuitive gameplay really gelled with me and I found it a great gaming experience on the 360. Being more of a causal gamer now, I enjoy what appears on Xbox Live Arcade with its pick up and play titles. I’m enjoying Heavy Weapon at the moment and looking forward to Worms, Sensible Soccer and Castle Crashers this year.
Your site even offers an achievement section. Are you a Gamerscore whore? Its ok, you can tell me.
Sadly gaming has now taken a back seat in my busy working lifestyle. So keeping up with those people who have the time to unlock all those achievements is practically impossible for me now. We have a Gamerscore Ladder currently running in our 360Monster Forums that shows a list our member’s scores. It’s interesting to see that there is a clear line in the Gamerscores between the hardcore and casual gamers. The hardcore gamers in the ladder are in the 10,000-15,000’s were as the more casual gamers, like myself, tend to sit in the Gamerscore boundaries of the 6-8,000’s, there is quite a visible gap between the two groups…
So yeah, hats off to those Gamerscore “whores”, they put a lot of money and effort into achieving those scores and well done to Microsoft for introducing such an addictive, and for some, a competitive feature on Xbox Live.
I have 10k, are you saying that makes me a gamerscore whore? Oh, who I am I kidding, I AM ONE! Back to the interview-
Why the name "360 monster"?
We like to think we are a Monster Resource of 360 Gaming. The term Monster is a reference to huge, large or more to the point Monstrous! Get it? Maybe it’s more of a UK/British slag or term, but that’s how we like to see ourselves and the message we are trying to put across to our visitors.
Tell us about your staff. Any slackers?!
If I’m honest we’ve had some good and some bad staff come and go through the site, but they have all added their mark on the site and made it what it is today, and I can’t argue with that as we’re doing pretty well!
A few staff members have stuck around since we first started, which is great, it’s a tough job keeping track of the latest news, media as well as writing up reviews and previews for the site. We have a team of around 12 staff now, from the ages of 18 to 29 years old that all help out in their own little way, from posting news through to reviewing the latest releases and arranging tournaments through the site. Any slackers…hmm…Well 360Monster is a site run by gamers in our own spare time. So we do our best to get content released on the site in good time and our ever growing community of members appreciate our take on 360 gaming, whether it’s hot off the press or released in our own time schedule.
What does your site offer?
360Monster offers its visitors a friendly and relaxed atmosphere to gaming news, reviews, previews and we also supply the latest media we can get our StreetFighter-blistered hands on. The website is focused towards our community and we urge our members to give us feedback as well as contribute to the site in their own way. Our forum holds a growing community of friendly members, mostly UK based, but we have an increasing list of members from the US and Europe to as far as Australia. This broadens our international status and it is great to see people of all ages and different backgrounds talking the international language of gaming.
Since when has your site been up and running?
We’ve only been running for a little over 15 months now and in that small short space of time we have risen from being nobody to a website that is among the best Xbox 360 websites in the UK. How have we achieved this…I haven’t got a clue, but I must say, if it wasn’t for our warm and friendly community and dedicated staff that put in all their spare time to contribute to the site we wouldn’t be where we are today. So a large manly hug goes out to those guys and girls!
Have you considered any Podcasting?
We have indeed. We started our own Podcast at the end of last year (2006). It’s in its early days for us at the moment; we are still testing the waters, finding the right format for the show, as well as the right people to take part in it. We are currently three episodes in and we have had a few interviews with gamers and people in the industry as well as staff discussions on 360 gaming. James our host has done a great job with being the host and anchorman on the Podcast as well as editing the show to a professional level, so it’s great to have James on the team. But it is baby steps for us right now and we see ourselves only get better once we are all comfortable and settled in as well as having a good format for the show.
What is your goal with 360monster? Take over the world? eat babies?
To be a Monster…*growl*
In all seriousness, we hope to continue to do our best in the time we individually give towards the site. We have plenty of new features up our sleeves yet to be released this year. We have a new design coming over the next few months as well as two sister sites coming; Wii Monster, PS3 Monster and a hub for all three coming under the name of Console Monster. Each sister site will contain the same members of staff as well as some dedicated individuals to those platform sites. These guys will bring you the same dedication as we do for 360 Monster - bringing Wii and PlayStation 3 news, reviews and previews to our UK and International readers. My aim with 360Monster, in general, is to create a fun and friendly atmosphere to the general gaming website, letting the community get more involved and create a website that people will warm to and treat as one of their own.