This week's member made me do my fair share of work; payback for all of the questions I suppose. Whenever people see our names together some will remember The Great Avatar Escapade of 2010, welcome Tornado to the Member of the Week madhouse!
1. First and foremost, you're officially the Member of the Week so what were your thoughts going into this and how does it feel to be recognized amidst the hundreds of thousands of other members here?
I'm not entirely sure I'm not already recognized by the hundreds of thousands of members. Just... probably not in particularly high regard.
2. What brought you to GTPlanet and what keeps you coming back?
The entire first page of posts results is Photomode pictures from GT4, but then I stopped talking about them entirely; so I have no idea why I actually joined. My memory is screwy like that.
3. There's a lot to do around the forums so I have to ask: what sub-forums/threads do you frequent most often and why?
Everywhere but Online Events. I see something I find interesting on the index, and I post in it. Though I post in that dumb HOERS thread a lot.
4. What was it that sparked your interest in Gran Turismo?
I played the hell out of R4 and NFS III back in the day, so I wanted something to move on to and alternate with. I had a rather terrible racing wheel, and GT2 supported it, so I decided to pick it up. Still remember the day and store I bought it, and how much I paid for it. My memory is screwy like that.
5. How did you come up with the name "Toronado" and what made you change it?
It's this:
And has roots in the online name I chose when I joined my second forum in 2003 (a Sonic that I'm still a member of that had a ban on using proper names from the show, and that was a way to circumvent that rule). After I took it, I changed my name on my first forum to that and they've been the same on both forums ever since. But somebody had already taken that name on GTP and then never used it, so I added an O. Only (years) later did I make the connection to the fact that a car I was already aware of and quite liked was called that exact name, so I occasionally claimed that's what I meant all along.
I changed it because people were finally starting to consistently realize that the second O was there to begin with (and commenting to that effect), so it seemed like the perfect time to change it to what I wanted it to be to begin with.
6. Controversial question time: Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsport or both?
Forza 4, GT2. I'm set...
7. Because it's finally occurred to me that the question above doesn't allow enough freedom, do you play any other racing games that you perhaps enjoy more than GT or FM?
...Except for the older NFS titles, particularly Porsche Unleashed, which I still play on occasion. rFactor is pretty cool too, I guess. At least since Sports Car GT won't work on new computers.
8. Can you blend?
I quite like margaritas, yes.
9. Mechanical or Membrane keyboard?
I had a Model M for years and loved it, though I currently just use my laptop keyboard. I have a Logitech G15 connected to my laptop docking station, though.
10. What do you think of people that blend for a living?
You really shouldn't live off of a milkshake and alcohol diet.
11. If you could live in any video game which game would it be and why?
Poker Night 2. ZOMG, I could hang out with Brock Sampson, Strongbad, The Heavy Weapons Guy and a guy doing a crappy Bruce Campbell impression! Except for the whole "crappy at poker" thing, it'd be great.
12. If you could create your own motorsport series what would it entail?
An American equivalent of JGTC, using the old 90's rule sets (before they turned it into a stupid spec series) using modern cars from various manufacturers. Maybe have it 600 and 400 HP limits instead of 500 and 300, due to how many new cars have that much anyway.
13. Tell us something interesting about your hometown.
There is nothing interesting about my hometown.
I even made a thread about how not interesting it is.
14. Let's say GTPlanet was another persons brainchildand there's really no way to know this for certainbut could you see the community being as prominent?
Well, if the other person was, say, Famine, I'm sure it would be fine and maybe even be the same as now. If it was, say, Poverty, the situation would probably be a bit different. And we all know how few members there would be left if Cody was in charge.
15. Do you have any hobbies we should be made aware of?
I think it's against the AUP to answer that question...
Though seriously, I enjoy golf quite a bit. Bowling too, but I can't do it as often.
I think it's against the AUP to answer that question...
16. Are you driving anything special at the moment?
The Blazer running on 5/6ths of the cylinders after throwing a rod but only getting 3/6ths the mileage (I don't see the benefits of multi-displacement engines, really) led to it being permanently retired last year. Currently I'm mostly driving
dad's Cabrio, which now has all of the rust fixed and been repainted.
17. What's your favourite video game, currently?
At the moment, I've gotten back into Minecraft in a big way. So much stuff to do. I've gotten sidetracked from things by things that I was already doing instead of what I should have been.
18. What songs have been on repeat for the past few days?
19. Why did you choose that avatar, and why is it not a monkey? (Don't ask me, I had nothing to do with this.
)
Because Greg and me like doing themed avvys to screw with people. It's not a monkey because a monkey is not a HOERS.
20. Games, how do you like them?
a) Pre-Order, I want them on day one.
b) Sealed at first price drop.
c) Used.
If I'm looking forward to a game enough that I actively want it, I preorder it. Yes, that included the $100 Balls of Steel version of Duke Nukem Forever; so I'm not gonna take any crap over buying used games otherwise.
If I don't, then I wait until it's cheap, or until I first learn about it. For example, I just realized last month that I always wanted to play the newer Project Gotham games, and I have owned a 360 since November, and the Project Gotham games are on the 360, and that the latest one (PGR4) cost like $4 at Gamestop on the 360. A few days later I connected the dots.
21. With the PS4 coming in the holiday season this year, is it the right time to consider moving up to the next generation?
> implying I can afford those "next-generation" things
22. Manual or automatic?
Manual goes 201 mph. Automatic only goes 196, and you can't do the 4-1-4 kickshift to slide it in the 3rd turn.
23. Desert island disks - what 3 albums would you take to a desert island?
The Best of Both Worlds, The Ozzman Cometh and The Spirit of Radio. Yes, they are all greatest hits albums. No, that's not violating the spirit of the question. It's called being pragmatic. Wanna fight about it?
24. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being likely to go to the nut house, how crazy would you rate yourself?
Oh... probably 7 out of 10. Crippling amounts of OCD and a sociopathic lack of empathy. Damn murder simulators messed me up.
25. Who is your favorite race driver and why?
Always really liked Takuma Sato. He brought an element of risk taking that was pretty rare during the "Everyone lines up neatly behind Michael Schumacher" era of F1, and I really thought it sucked that he got replaced by
Sebastien Bourdais of all people. Granted, it rarely
paid off, because his reach usually exceeded his grasp, but was still great to watch.
Glad he's been doing pretty well in IRL since then, and last year's Indy 500 (attempted) pass towards the end was one of the coolest fight for victory I've seen in a while.
26. Where and when was your very first post here and how does it differ from your posting style used today?
Here it is.
Main difference I can see is that I actually appeared to have
liked the GT games then. Can you imagine?
27. How many of your controllers have died because of heavy physical abuse whilst playing a PS3 game?
I've never broken a
PS3 controller.
28. Have you ever accessed the website during an unusual time and/or place?
I'm answering these questions in bed at
12:30 1:15 2:30 3:45 (God this interview is long) in the morning with
the last good episode of Family Guy last season episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia on in the background.
So no. Normal behavior for a twenty-something browsing the internet.
29. What's the longest you've gone without logging onto GTPlanet since joining: Years, months, weeks, days, hours?
I actually left for... 6 months? 9 months? A year? One of those. It was a good amount of time. My memory is screwy like that. My first post when I came back was the thread about dad's car.
30. Who (in your own opinion) is the most inspiring person / people here on GTPlanet?
Akira AC. He's had a really hard life, especially in the past couple of years, but every time something goes wrong (and it seems to go wrong every time he tries to enjoy himself) he just picks himself up, dusts himself off and tries harder next time.
31. Is your body ready?
My body is Reggie.
32. Now it's time for the "Daniel Special": If you could cross a hippo with any other animal - what will the animal be, what will it be called, and why? (Bonus points for creativity! And it can't be another hippo because that's incest)
I'd combine the hippo with a platypus, because I don't know what the hell would come out of that and it must be tested. What I'd call it would depend on what it turned out to look like.
Also, strictly speaking, incest is relative.
33. What's the funniest thing you can remember from all of your time being a member here?
Damn it why are you making me remember stuff. I'd say Scaff's expose on
The World's Most Evil Murderer.
34. Have you ever participated in any of the racing series' found here?
Yes. I took place in the Weekly Race Series qualifier back in the GT4 days, then did one race, then never took part again.
35. Have you ever considered developing your own racing series, and if you have where can we find it?
I did a weekly race series that stopped being "weekly" by the 3rd event. 450pp, 540pp and an occasional outlier thrown in.
Took pictures for the first handful of times we did it too.
36. Anything else you'd like to say?
Why was this interview so long? It took me 4 hours to respond to. I forgot answers to questions that I thought of before actually getting to the questions. Why do you people possibly want to know more about me than my family?