Member of the Month April 2017 (Jeffmomm)

Just to let everyone know, I'm sorry to announce this is the last MotM interview due to lack of community involvement, so please give a warm welcome our last MotM.

If you want to talk about hardcore gamer then look no further than this gamer who wanted to pass the torch of gaming to his son so badly...well I'll let him finish that story and if that's not enough then let me tell you how he completes his games....er..well maybe I should let him tell you that too. You know the old saying, "April showers, bring May flowers."? Well let me tell you how that relates to this interview... First, it's April and we all know what the first day of the month brings right, Yup the newest Member of the Month! Its also supposed to be rainy in April so that would bring out the flowers growing in May and thus spring begins. It also happens to be April Fools Day, so in May you'll get another Member of the Month.... No, I'm not cancelling it. (hopefully I got someone with that) Well let me stop babying and you can start reading...er...continue reading.



Name:
Jeff Mommaerts

Where do you live?
Green Bay, WI, USA (Go Pack Go!)

What do you do for a living?
Director of Software Engineering for a tax automation company. We do business taxes like sales and use, or motor fuels - not personal taxes.

Tell me about your Gamertag?
Jeffmomm
lol Well, it is just the combination of my first name and the first 4 characters of my last name. Way back in the late 90s, I needed an ID for my AOL account. (WOW! This is really dating me!) And this is what I came up with because it couldn’t be longer than 8 characters. It then went with me to Yahoo! and to Microsoft. Back in the 80s when I was big into BBSs, I used MaskedAvenger. I've looked into making that my gamertag, but the variations I want are all in use.

When did you start playing?
I started with the Atari 2600 back in the early 80's, then moved onto the Commodore 64/128 for my gaming. Once I got to college, I was too busy to game much anymore. I played some PC games in the mid-90's here and there but really hated that my machine was always underpowered for the new stuff coming out. So, really didn't play a whole lot. Then in 2003, my fiancee’s parents bought me an Xbox for Christmas. I have no idea why - it wasn't on my Christmas list or anything. And I was hooked again. My wife is probably still unhappy with her parents. :-)

What's your play style? Ex: booster? Completionist? How often and long do you play?
I am a completionist. Depending on the game, I will play until there is nothing left to do or I have all the achievements. An example of the former is Skyrim - I kept playing even after I had all the achievements just to do the quests. I got to the point where every quest giver I could find was just repeating the same stuff. An example of the latter is Despicable Me: Minion Rush. I got to level 332 or whatever it was for the last achievement and the game went away.

What’s your current gaming setup like?
As an "experienced" (meaning: old) gamer with 3 young kids, I have a couple different setups. My main one is an Xbox One with Kinect hooked up to my 65" TV, with surround sound and our cable box. This one gets used daily for watching TV and sometimes games. If I game here, it usually means I need to ask my wife to move to a different room to watch TV. My second setup is our game room, which was our old dining room. It has my son's Xbox One S which he received for selling enough Cub Scout popcorn. I am proud of him for earning that. It is hooked up to a 60" TV with surround sound and a cable box. This is where I usually game after the kids go to bed. The 3rd area is in our finished basement. It had an Xbox One (until it broke last month) and an Xbox 360 hooked up to a 40" TV - no surround sound or cable. This is where I go to hide and game when the rest of the house is crazy.

Tell me a good gaming story or experience? ex: Epic win/fail, marathon, accomplishment, a time you visited a game convention or met someone...or anything.
So, this definitely falls under epic fail. In 2005, we were expecting the birth of our first child, and I was hooked on Morrowind. (See favorite games below.) On Wed., Aug. 10th, 2005 we had been to the doctor for my wife's checkup - our baby was due in about 2 weeks. The doc said she saw no signs of the baby coming and we would likely have to induce, but we could talk more about it at the next appt. in a week. So, Sat., Aug. 13th, I am playing Morrowind around 10pm or so and my wife is sleeping on the couch next to me. She wakes up and says she feels contractions are starting. Now, I've let my guard down b/c the doc said nothing will be happening for a couple weeks. So, I tell she's probably having some false labor pains and we'll see how it goes. After 20 min or so, she still feels it is the real thing. So, I pause my game, write down the start/end time of the contraction and then go back to playing. I'm a little frustrated b/c I still don't think this is the real deal. After about an hour of pausing/writing down times/resume playing, she says she's going to take a shower. Of course, I just keep on playing. When she gets out, she informs me her water broke. Oh crap - this *is* the real deal. So, I grab the bag and get her to the car and we're off to the hospital. Our daughter was born at 8:14am on Sun. To this day, my wife still gives me a hard time for playing games while she was going into labor. So, lesson for all the young men reading this: when you're about to have a baby, put down the video game and pay attention to your woman. :-)

Do you have a special shout out to anyone in particular in the gaming community?
Even though he is not on the site, a shout out to NxxDefiant. We met boosting some AC game, Brotherhood, I think? And then really hung out a lot after boosting Bioshock 2 MP. We've met in real life and have become close friends.

What's your favorite game genre?
RPG's

What’s your favorite game on 360? ONE? Of all time (any system)
On the 360, I would have to say Skyrim. On the One, I really liked Quantum Break. And of all time, I would say Morrowind, although a strong honorable mention to an old Commodore 64 game named One on One with Dr. J vs. Larry Bird, if you dunked just right, the backboard would break and the janitor would come out and yell at you. I used to play with my friends to see who could break the most backboards.
I actually found a YouTube video (of course there's one) showing the game and a broken backboard at the 1:20 mark:


What is your worst game and Why?
I would say any kind of platformer is my worst. I am just not good at them and they frustrate the heck out of me. Guacamelee!, I am looking at you.

Are you looking forward to any new releases?
2017 is kind of a down year for me in games. I am using it to raise my completion percentage. I've gotten it from 78% up to almost 86%. The one game I was really waiting for this year was Scalebound. Oh well... But another one that may be a little more under the radar is Kingdom Come: Deliverance. I am a Kickstarter backer of this project (the only Kickstarter campaign I have helped fund). I am really looking forward to the realistic RPG and Act 1 is scheduled to come out in 2017.

Do you collect or not so much?
Related to gaming, not so much. When I complete a game, I generally sell it or trade it in. I have many other types of collections though. My favorite is a collection of replica baseball helmets. I have around 300 distinct styles from all the MLB teams. I haven’t been active in this hobby for a while but would like to get back to it.

What else do you do besides gaming?
I play volleyball and then some softball in the summer. Mostly nowadays it is running the kids to various sports and activities. When we have some downtime, I am usually watching TV with my wife if I am not gaming.

What's your favorite feature on GTN?
This is super trivial, but I love the badges - esp. the mystery badge. When a new one comes out, I spend hours on the site trying to find it. lol

What would you tell people about GTN if you were trying to get them to join?
That the community is the most friendly and helpful community I've met on any site. Some other gaming sites are full of trolls and selfish individuals, but GTN users genuinely want to help wherever they can.

GTN on Facebook

One on One is right up there with 4th and Inches. Played a ton of both when I was a kid. Congrats on MotM

Great read! Welcome to the MotM club!

Jeff (B8), I'll take over the MotM if you want.

Congrats on MotM.

Awesome read always nice to know more about the members of GTN

Great read! Welcome to the MotM club!

Jeff (B8), I'll take over the MotM if you want.

Originally Posted by porschephiliac

Just to let everyone know, I'm sorry to announce this is the last MotM interview due to lack of community involvement, so please give a warm welcome our last MotM.

It also happens to be April Fools Day, so in May you'll get another Member of the Month.... No, I'm not cancelling it. (hopefully I got someone with that)


Thanks for the offer and who knows maybe I'll enlist your help, but ultimately it was my bad attempt at an April Fools Prank. It was a hard balance to not over shadow the interview and I apologize to you Jeffmomm if thats what happened.

As for favorite games, Yes I loved Morrowind and did everything in that one too.. unfortunately I lost my memory card with my epic save on it...

Just to let everyone know, I'm sorry to announce this is the last MotM interview due to lack of community involvement, so please give a warm welcome our last MotM.

It also happens to be April Fools Day, so in May you'll get another Member of the Month.... No, I'm not cancelling it. (hopefully I got someone with that)


Thanks for the offer and who knows maybe I'll enlist your help, but ultimately it was my bad attempt at an April Fools Prank. It was a hard balance to not over shadow the interview and I apologize to you Jeffmomm if thats what happened.

As for favorite games, Yes I loved Morrowind and did everything in that one too.. unfortunately I lost my memory card with my epic save on it...

Originally Posted by B8TINGU

Sheesh! Glad to be a victim of your prank, I totally didn't even see that!

Morrowind is the only reason the OG box is still hooked up, although I'm not a fan of Oblivion and Skyrim...go figure, eh?

Jeff M, how do you successfully manage your sons time on his console? We are having difficulties lately. My son will just wake up early before us to get more time in... what works for you? And if you haven't already, join the Gamerdad group ( link in my sig).

@B8TINGU - I do not feel overshadowed at all. I actually thought it was pretty good. I was thinking, "Cool - I am the last one ever!" And then I read further and had a good chuckle. So, April's Fools prank was successful I'd say. And thank you for selecting me as MotM. :-)

@porschephiliac - for the most part, the kids listen to our rules that there is no computer, tablet, phone before school. (Their phones are Wi-Fi only for games, Netflix, etc.) I have them set up as children accounts to my parent account and I've shown them the emails I get showing their activity, so they know I am watching. :-) I do have my son's account set up with the hour limits in family settings. Not because he played too much, but just as a test for the settings. You can set certain hours the kids are allowed to play as well as total number of hours. If you have questions on that, PM me and I would be happy to share some screen shots and more info.

@MarvzMitts, @Dvader83 and @xLil SheWolfx - thanks to all for your kind words.

That was fun to read! Thanks for the shout-out. BTW look at that registered date. lol

Congrats on MotM! Always nice to get to know more about people on this site

@Joe - thanks, bud!

@EddieM1974 - thank you for reading

Jeff M, how do you successfully manage your sons time on his console? We are having difficulties lately. My son will just wake up early before us to get more time in... what works for you? And if you haven't already, join the Gamerdad group ( link in my sig).

Originally Posted by porschephiliac

Take the controllers away after he goes to sleep and hide them. That's what my sister does with her son. He was waking up in the middle of the night to play games while every one was sleeping.

Good read, congrats on MotM!

Thanks @DomeJohnny

Take the controllers away after he goes to sleep and hide them. That's what my sister does with her son. He was waking up in the middle of the night to play games while every one was sleeping.

Originally Posted by MrGompers

Hey doesn't play before school, just watches videos. He like science stuff on YouTube. However, all the advice is greatly appreciated.