You might not recognize this week's Average Joe. BigCountry1369 tends to spend the majority of his Bungie.net time inside the safe confines of Halo 3 in the Work PLace, a homegrown group of Bungie.net slackers that spend the most of their on-the-clock moments posting on the Internet. They're getting paid to surf, so to speak. (We kid, we kid.)
And no worries about the familiarity issue - we're facilitators. All you have to do to get to acquainted with the guy who'll eat fast food right off the floor is scroll and read. You like to read, don't you? Let's get started.
Q. Who are you and what do you do?
A. Hi. My name is David (Dave, for short). I’m 26 years old and what many would describe as a BUH-BUHM (Big Unusually Hairy But Unequivocally Handsome Man). Sorry urk, wrong form.
[Editor's note: Gross. - urk]
My best friends just call me Country (along with most of my matchmaking compatriots). I work at a company that my best friend owns doing work for a few “they shall remain unnamed” cable companies in a number of cities across the US. The official title on my card is “Office -blam!-.” I’ve got my hand in a lot of different pies.
For fun I like playing video games, long walks on the beach, watching chick flicks and trying not to cry, teaching myself how to video edit, and finding unique items on eBay to add to my extensive Barbie collection (if anyone has a bead on the 1994 Forrest Gump Special Edition Ken doll, please shoot me a PM).
On occasion, I also enjoy being a sarcastic ass.
Q. Oh, you aren't really looking for the '94 Gump? Guess we'll take our dolls elsewhere, Country. Since you're not here to do business, maybe we should chat a little about your gamertag. Where did you drum it up?
A. Big Country originated from the job I had when I was sixteen working at Men’s Wearhouse. I was eating McDonald’s during break and dropped some fries on the ground. I enacted the relatively well known ten-second rule, picked up the fries from the floor, and ate them. An older co-worker saw that and said that I was “Big” and such a “Country Boy." Then he just said he was going to start calling me Big Country. It stuck. I now have "Big Country" tattooed on my right arm.
13 is well known as the “unlucky” number, but it has won me a decent chunk of coin in roulette and was my number during a few high school sports. 69 comes from…well, if I have to explain that then you should just know it is a fun number.
Q. When you're not playing roulette or otherwise having fun with numbers, what forums do you hang out in and what keeps you coming back to the community?
A. I’m really active on B.Net in the private group Halo 3 In The Workplace (H3ITWP). By really active I mean that’s where I spend ninety percent of my time. I love checking out
Hawty McBloggy on a daily basis, there is always great fun being had there. I also haven’t found an article on the
Tied The Leader blog that I haven’t liked.
The number of Halo videos available blows my mind, but I have always gravitated towards videos that do something in a unique way. There are a lot of areas of the Community that I have poked my nose into (RvB, blogging, etc.) and it’s not the fact that I didn’t like what I saw…I just have a full-time job and a serious girlfriend, so most of my free time is spent playing online and in our private group forum.
There is definitely great work out there that I just haven’t had the time to look at. Bungie has done an awesome job of providing the tools for the Community, and in turn the Community has responded with full creative force.
Q. What compels you to game with full force? Do you ever drag your friends and family online?
A. Simply put, I love video games. I’ve gone from playing Moon Patrol to Super Mario Bros. to Goldeneye to all the pieces of the Halo series. It’s amazing to see the progress that games have made from generation to generation. I have a few friends that game, my brother has always been a computer guy and not a console gamer. I do have a co-worker that has turned me onto a number of games that I wouldn’t have tried myself and ended up liking. (Braid anyone?)
I love playing online and used to be very competitive (even though I wasn’t that good). If you hear profanity in proximity chat, I’m just swearing at myself…seriously! I used to be the guy that talked trash back if someone said something to me, but realized it was pointless and that I was just egging them on. If you have been lucky enough to match up against people that realize that sportsmanship still lives on (though we seem to be in the minority), there’s nothing like playing a hard fought game and offering up a “Good Game” afterward…even in defeat.
Q. What was the first Bungie title you got familiar with?
A. Like most others, Halo: CE is the Bungie title that started whittling away at my free time. My three best friends and I had literally moved to California with not much money and lived in a hotel for two and a half months while we were waiting to find a place that would rent to four nineteen year old guys. While in the hotel we grew tired of the mini 19-inch crappy TV. So in our youthful wisdom, we all signed up for credit cards at Circuit City and pooled our collective credit together to buy this mammoth $2500 56” TV that we had delivered to our hotel room.
When we finally found a willing landlord and a townhouse, our family room had a TV in it and nothing else. We were bored with cable, went to Blockbuster and saw that the new Xbox was out, so we rented Madden, Halo: CE, and Fusion Frenzy. Needless to say, right after we returned the Xbox and the games we went back to Circuit City and bought an Xbox with Halo and three extra controllers. The rest is history.
I don’t think I need to explain what made Halo a game that sucked me in. If you’re reading this, you understand. Halo is the game that does everything well while innovating the FPS genre. For that, I say “Thank you, Bungie and all the people that make it happen.”
Q. From hotels to Halo. What about modern day? Are you surprised at all by your level of community involvement?
A. To an extent…yes.
I was in a clan in Halo 2 and initially played Halo 3 with a number of my Halo 2 clan friends. As time went on my friends started playing other games and weren’t on as often, so I hopped around with randoms for a while. That was only cool for about two weeks, so my playtime diminished.
Then one week I went to post on the B.Net forums and saw the Halo 3 In The Work Place weekly Friday thread. It was the first thread I actually read all the way through and enjoyed, so I requested to join and my community involvement has only increased since then. I humbly say that I’m proud to currently be the CEO of H3ITWP and thank all of our group members for making it the best place on B.Net, IMHO. I have met a number of the members and have never played with a better group of people.
Q. Have you branched out and become involved in any other online communities?
A. Not sure if this counts but I also run a Ty Pennington Fan Club. I was introduced to the 4-chan random boards a few months ago and haven’t gone back because I’m still scared.
Q. Oops, mention of Ty Pennington means this interview has come to a close, Country. There's only one thing left to say. "Welcome home, Big Country. Welcome home." Wait, that's not right. We meant to ask if you have any parting shots or shout outs you wanted to get in.
A. Halo 3 In The Work Place is the reason I’m here, still involved, and loving the Community. I could name and say something for just about everybody in the group. I will instead opt to throw out a generic but heartfelt "thank you" to all members of the Workplace. I have to specifically name and comment on a few of them (few being a completely subjective term). If I ever win an Oscar or a Grammy, this is where the band would start to play to tell me to shut up and get off the stage.
My GF – She puts up with me & gaming and loves me without question….I couldn’t ask for anything better. Love you babe!
Krewl Intent – I don’t care what anybody else says, I ate more at the buffet =P
Rhymetactics –A bromance that rivals Lance Armstrong & Matthew McConaughey (My most played with Halo 3 friend)
Piercingtiger – I can see the blue rock on Google Earth and where did the drunken messages go?!?
xTxVx Casualty – The man in the turret
dmg – No more video chat/pr0n/torrents = No more red bar ;)
masterchieffer1 – Send me a model truck man
db0l – I can haz laser??
Der – Have you set a wedding date with Sheila yet?
VENOM – The Work PLace founder and forever my homeslice
Liz / Froggie – My H3ITWP Angels
DH – I’m not in the club yet =P
JoeSki + Whiskey & Coke = Funnier than normal matchmaking
DaWhistlesGoWoo – I’m getting Whistle Tips on my car
Jared – For having gamertags that I don’t even want to type in public
Angel – Are those birds chirping?? Marathon all-night sessions FTW
??? ??? – For taking my sovereignty
HOSTILE – It took me two months to realize you were BANANA CLIPS
HITMAN – My best friend & boss
abacus – The most 1337 co-worker evar!
Knucks/Pat – Menudo FTW
Deej/Bullet/Los/Quanti/L/Tort – Good Game my friends
Fo – Hanging with Brangelina
Mike / Jebus / Pimpanator / Morpheus918 / The DADDYCAIN’s – It’s always been some good games
What the hell is A Ghuta???
Urk – +1
Bungie – I really just am an “Average Joe”…thanks for being you
The Community – You rock
To all those I have played and to those I will play….Good Game!
We hate to be the ones to play the music, but Country is correct, we're all out of time. Thanks to Dave for dropping in and being open and honest about his disgusting food habits, his favorite forum haunts, and how he spends some of his own free time online. If you happen to run into him and his band of merry workplacers online, make sure you tell 'em "good game," even if they do mop the floor with you or mutter curse words under their breath if they lose.