Member of the Month August 2014 (Kaens)

Community Interviews

Found 29 posts - Go to Last Post


The start of a brand new month means a new MoM interview and this month we get one of our more vocal and helpful members, hailing from Virginia and a most extreme badge hunter (he currently holds the #1 spot for badges on GTN) as seen on this leaderboard: http://www.gamertagnation.com/leaderboards/site/badges/



Name:
Lee Atkins, aka Kaens

What do you do for a living?
I’m a Tech Manager at AOL where I run part of Mail Operations. I’ve been with AOL for 18+ years, prior to the CD mass mailings, so I’ve been there for the rise and fall to wherever you feel like we are now.

Tell me about your Gamertag?
Kaens
So I’ve been using Kaens since my Everquest career started in late 1999, so for nearly 15 years now. I used to play this MUD called Darkness Falls, which was a premium game on AOL. Back then people had to pay $2.99 an HOUR to play online games, but since I was an employee it was free and I was hooked. Eventually that game became Dark Age of Camelot, which is when they lost me. In that game I played an imp class (which was the rogue class) named Sneakiest. Once I joined Everquest, that was taken, shortened it to Sneak, which was also taken, so I reversed it - Kaens.

When did you start playing? Games?
The first console I owned was a Pong system my mother brought home from the Thrift Store. I don’t even remember if it worked or not. Charlie, a kid who lived across the street from me, was the only person in the neighborhood to have an Atari so that was my first home console experience. Up until then, it was just trips to the 7-11 or Chuck E. Cheese’s so I could get play arcade games. Ms Pac-Man, Galaga and Zaxxon stood out to me back then.

Not long after I got an Intellivision, which was my first home system and I played that through high school! My step-brother got a Nintendo, and I bought my sister a Genesis for her birthday so that was the house. As much as I loved my Intellivision, I became a huge Nintendo fan with the first console I bought with my own money - SNES! I ultimately ended up with nearly every major console, Playstation was okay (gave it away), Dreamcast I like a lot, but no matter how tough things were I always had a Nintendo system. I was one of those defending the N64 controller (still do) and stood in line for my Gamecube.

What's your play style? Ex: booster? Completionist? How often and long do you play?
I’ve been gaming so long, I’ve been all of those at one time. I was hooked on Achievements just from the announcements. “Wait, I can have ALL my gaming experience recorded online?!” That’s when I dropped Nintendo and converted 100% to Xbox. In the early years I was one of the first people to import a console. I shared how exactly to do it, about the games, etc over at another site’s early days. I was 8th in the world to reach 100,000 gamerscore. Granted this is completely based on my own Gamesaverless Leaderboard, but back then, it was recognized at the most legit board. Yes there WERE some cheaters on there, but eventually it was all sorted and MGC closed anyways. I only removed people if they had completely unobtainable achievements, stuff like glitching Gears did not get you removed.

Tell me a good gaming story or experience?
How in the world can a gamer of 30+ years boil it down to a single good story or experience? Should I talk about my first experience when I played Super Mario on the NES? Everquest comes to mind, so many great stories there. How about my PC days typing out BASIC from books borrowed from the public library on my Tandy Color Computer 2? Oh man, when I first played Ultima Underworld 2 and realized I could look UP & DOWN! Final Fantasy 7 was an amazing experience because I love RPGs. Hmm, when I won practically single handedly the first cross store gamerscore challenge that Bozack hosted? (That netted me over $600) Oh man, all those epic moments in EQ! Having a UK magazine use my Gamesaverless leaderboard for their rankings, that was cool. Gaming has given me so much happiness and so many stories to share with other gamers I don’t know how I could possibly tell just one.

This interview has made me realize I have had so many amazing times and memories with gaming, but my favorite gaming experiences have to be the time I spend with my son and now my daughter. Sharing the fun with them is truly precious. I want them to love my hobby as much as I do.

What's your favorite game genre?
JRPGs or really any RPG that reminds me of playing AD&D when I was a teen. So much fun painting those pewter figures! What got me into the Xbox in the first place was Splinter Cell. I became a huge fan of stealth games. I like exploring new worlds. RPGs always give me that exploration feeling, sometimes good campaigns in FPS do, often open world games do. That’s what I like, exploring and sneaking up on people!

Both RPGs and stealth games reward my personality - patient and persistent. I have this insane belief in myself that I can out will/outlast anyone. It’s obviously a good trait to have in somethings, like when my best friend and I competed on who could lose the most weight dieting. After I refused to eat for three days straight he just gave up. It’s a mental strength that helps me a lot in gaming. There is nothing I think I cannot do. I will quit on things, like that last CoD4 achievement, because the payoff isn’t worth the time investment, but I know in my heart I can get it done. Probably not true, but belief is often more powerful than skill.

Whats your favorite game on 360? ONE? Of all time (any system)
Ugh, these questions are so hard. That’s like asking my favorite child. Let me give you a list, starting with Microsoft consoles...

Xbox: Morrowind & Splinter Cell
Xbox 360: Tenchu Z & Oblivion (single player) & Splinter Cell: Conviction (multiplayer).
Xbox One: Child of Light and Valiant Hearts

Arcade: Q*bert, Millipede & Ms Pac-Man
NES: Super Mario 1-3
SNES: Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
N64: Super Mario 64 & Zelda Ocarina of Time
Playstation: King’s Field, FF7, and Resident Evil
Playstation 3: 3D Dot Game Heroes
Dreamcast: Sonic Adventure & House of the Dead 2
PC: Everquest & Everquest 2 hands down
Gameboy: Pokemon (all of them!), Chu Chu Rocket

If you were a Video Game or game character who and why?
I have to go with Sam Fisher. I’d love to do it as I try to play, in and out, never being seen. Most of the games I love I am playing as Kaens, since they are RPGs.

Are you looking forward to any new releases?
The only ones that really get me excited are RPGs like Witcher 3 or Dragon Age. Those look really good to me. I like the artsy platformer games so Ori looks good to me too. I didn’t really care for Halo on the Xbox, but I came around on it for the 360 so the MasterChief Collection is exciting. Overall, I just have too many games in my backlog to feel excited about new games. New games just mean more stuff I can’t get to and that’s depressing.

Do you collect or not so much?
I’m a serial collector. I’ve kinda done a lot of self reflection and tried to figure out why I am like this way. I think growing up extremely poor turned me into something of a hoarder, not in the TLC sense, but I do collect a lot of things (like badges). I had huge collections of cassette tapes, cds, dvds, then moved to digital and had big collections there. Right now though, I only have three collections - hardback books, comic books, and video games.

Video games is the weirdest one because take a game like Qix for the original Gameboy. I have probably bought and sold that game eight times. I go through phases where I’m sick of games and just don’t want all that crap in my house and sell it all. Naturally, I lose money every single time I do this so I’m convincing myself that I’m not selling anymore, just collecting. If you want to look through my games (or comics), I have them all catalogued at Collectorz.com. My favorite items in my collection are naturally my Intellivision games because that was my first console. Oh I have an unopened Famicom, that’s pretty sweet.

Bonus tidbit: my Hulk #181 is the comic I’m most proud of. It’s the most I ever paid for a comic, around $200 and now I think it’s worth about 10x that much. Plus Wolverine is my favorite.

What's your favorite feature on GTN?
I anyone who is active on the site could tell you that I love badges. It is exactly why achievements hook me so much, why I love Pokemon, and why I hoard stuff I love. Each and everyone one gives me a hit of happiness and I just want to get more.

What would you tell people about GTN if you were trying to get them to join?
The best thing about GTN is the community. I prefer a small active community, even if it is more like a dysfunctional family with people going at each other. I read or heard somewhere that studies have been done that show that humans operate best in societies of a maximum of about 300 people. A little smaller than my high school class. It’s good because you get a nice mix of different people and we can all learn from one another. But it’s small enough that you can feel like you are a part of it. So that’s the best thing, if you take the time to join the community, you will be a part and not lost in the masses. Now you might be the crazy uncle no one wants to go near, but at least you’ll be a part.

Is there anything you would like added to the site?
Oh I think I’ve left many posts about my feedback on the site. Hell I think if you look at all of the posts I start (I mostly pile on, rarely initiate threads) they are either feedback or bug reports. At a high level, I would like to see a slight redesign so GTN is easier to navigate, this extends into the forums as well. Eric does a great job doing what he can in this passion project and I trust his instincts. So I recommend to everyone, leave your feedback, Eric listens.

And just for fun I’m including some pics that go along with my rambling stories above…

you can find this interview and those pics here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...OxPZ9ZcVU/edit
Last edited 01-08-2015 at 02:30 PM by B8TINGU.
Great read! Everquest is still one of my favorite games of all time.
Nice writeup... Nice to know more about the sneak. Glad to see this feature come back. Did you steal that game rack from Gamestop?!
Serial collectionist here also, you are not alone.
Good read, now your gamertag makes sense. Funny how it seems so obvious when you point it out... 8)
Great read! Everquest is still one of my favorite games of all time.
Originally Posted by Zombie In PJs
If I HAD to pick one game as my favorite of all time, I have to say Everquest.

Nice writeup... Nice to know more about the sneak. Glad to see this feature come back. Did you steal that game rack from Gamestop?!
Originally Posted by Fshguy
Hell no, I overpaid for that rack over at boltz.com. Really solid stuff, but you pay for it.

Good read, now your gamertag makes sense. Funny how it seems so obvious when you point it out... 8)
Originally Posted by Buckswana
You know, that's what everyone says, and it's probably still under 10 people who have ever figured it out (and said something to me).
Sweet, another badge for Mr Badgeman lol

nice read.
Excellent read!!! I always enjoy reading these interviews.

That is some serious dedication to your gamertag having it on your license plate. I would totally rock "pTart" on my plate but the state of Michigan charges quite a bit extra for custom plates Frown
Thanks for sharing & being a big part of this community. I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who gave up on the mile high club achievement in CoD4. My reasoning is the same too- just too much time.

Congrats on the member of the month badge! Thought the MoM interviews were all gone..
Thanks for sharing & being a big part of this community. I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who gave up on the mile high club achievement in CoD4. My reasoning is the same too- just too much time.

Congrats on the member of the month badge! Thought the MoM interviews were all gone..
Originally Posted by diseased maniac
I have to admit, I was surprised as anyone when B8tingU sent me the email! I will probably have to go back to that CoD4 achievement now thanks to Fshguy & Buckswana trying to push up on me in the badge leaderboard. It's not a lot of points, but every point counts!
I have to admit, I was surprised as anyone when B8tingU sent me the email! I will probably have to go back to that CoD4 achievement now thanks to Fshguy & Buckswana trying to push up on me in the badge leaderboard. It's not a lot of points, but every point counts!
Originally Posted by Kaens
You can get the Mile High, it's all about using those flash bangs right and a little luck =) repetition (won't be hard) is the key also. If you decide to give it a try again, let me know and I will try to give you some solid pointers. I finished it pretty quickly.
Congrats on MotM Kaens, Cazic Thule!
Originally Posted by MarvzMitts
You guys make me miss EQ too much lol
You can get the Mile High, it's all about using those flash bangs right and a little luck =) repetition (won't be hard) is the key also. If you decide to give it a try again, let me know and I will try to give you some solid pointers. I finished it pretty quickly.
Originally Posted by Zombie In PJs
Kaens, don't you hate those guys that say, hey, that was easy, I got it on the second try... I've spent a few hours on this one myself... Maybe I just need some of those tips...
Kaens, don't you hate those guys that say, hey, that was easy, I got it on the second try... I've spent a few hours on this one myself... Maybe I just need some of those tips...
Originally Posted by Fshguy
I can be your personal guide =p
Congrats on MotM Kaens, Cazic Thule!
Originally Posted by MarvzMitts
I solo'ed my rogue to ~38 before I ever joined a guild, so Cazic Thule was out of the questions. Eventually when I was high enough, I used to go down to the basement and farm black silk something.. oh man, I can't remember!

You guys make me miss EQ too much lol
Originally Posted by Zombie In PJs
Exactly, I want to go play right now so I can remember!

Kaens, don't you hate those guys that say, hey, that was easy, I got it on the second try... I've spent a few hours on this one myself... Maybe I just need some of those tips...
Originally Posted by Fshguy
Yup, I think I spent a good hour on it, back when I actually played CoD. So being years removed from it and trying to jump back into the hardest achievement in the game sounds like torture.
Yup, I think I spent a good hour on it, back when I actually played CoD. So being years removed from it and trying to jump back into the hardest achievement in the game sounds like torture.
Originally Posted by Kaens
That's okay, you don't have to play this, sit on that 200 point cushion..

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