Xband was a meritable achievement for the 16-bit era, giving console gamers their first true, multiplayer online experience. I personally remained an active part of the network for approximately a year, mainly engrossed with the SNES Super Street Fighter 2 community. Eventually, the network was forced to shut down its operations, victimized by bad timing and a gradual lost of interest (not to mention, the 16-bit generation was on its way out).

Undoubtedly, the XBand was ahead of its time, now succeeded by the respective online networks developed by Xbox and Sony respectively. And unlike eight years ago, the options and availability is a lot more appealing and successful by a substantial margin.

Most of TNL's editorial personnel are active members of the community (or eventually they will be by the time upcoming games like Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, Dead or Alive Online and Halo 2 make their debut. But, you get an adequate degree of input enough from us as it is. That's when we decided to turn to our readers, regulars of our existing community (yes, that's you). The hardest part perhaps was getting players away from their consoles (or the forums) to sit down with us for a bit. After promising to shower them with gifts, several persons came forward. To kick off our inaugural first edition, we sat down with Robert Warners (aka Hot Like Wasabi) to document his insight and aspirations for the existing online phenomenon and then some.

Bahn: (Breaking the ice) What do you do for a living?

Robert: I [work] am a goverment employee; I am for Mr. Bush

Seriously?

Robert: I don't actually work for Bush. Any goverment employee can say that.(laughs).

I see. Can you elaborate on what you actally do - or is that classified?

Robert: I work for a military base. I am in charge of setting up events such Air Shows or any kind of event the deals with the military.

So how did you come up with the name Hot Like Wasabi?

Robert:It goes back to the era when Fox Family was on the air. They featured anime on Sunday mornings and they featured a hot (possibly underage) Japanese girl in a segment called "Hot Like Wasabi". It outlined the top 5 games, movies, albums in Japan; I thought it was kinda catchy and decided to adopt it.

Approximately how many hours per week would you say you play either?

Robert: Appoximately, 5 hours.Currently, it's football season (in the U.S)., so thats where all my online time is devoted to.

So...you prefer soccer?

Robert: (clarifies) No, but I know TNL has a number of users from other countries.

Do you have any online rivals, players which you enjoy playing from time to time?

Robert: Not at the moment, but I am always on the look out for [new challengers]. I believe having a rival is always fun, the winning goes back and forth plus it keeps on the top of your game, always trying to get better.

What particular games of interest do you play online?

Robert: Madden 2004 (PS2), Amplitude (PS2), and every so often MechAssault (XBOX) and Tetris Worlds (XBOX)

Which game would you say is your favorite, and why?

Robert: Out of what I play online? ProbablyMadden 2004. There are always plenty of people to play and the competition is really good. Some games I will just get whuppped on and others it will go down to the last play which makes it fun.

Phantasy Star Online for DreamCast was probably the best online game I have ever played (I stopped playing right before hackers pretty much took control of it.) I used to play with three other buddies, chatting and fighting together - it was fantastic.

Now that online gaming has finally reached the console foundation, what are your feelings about it?

Robert: I think it's about time and am glad I can play online, but I don't think companies are taking full advantage of it yet.

(Re: Xbox Live and PS2 online network) What features do you feel they respectively lack?

Robert Some sort of general user location would be cool. I'm sure some games have it for each console ,but a listing of users who have signed up for Live or has a network adapter for PS2 be listed under a list by city and then.

If you want, contact through an email or something and set up matches and what not.

What games do you often play offline?

Robert: Anything and everything. Lately it has been Star Tropics (NES), Disgaea - Hour of Darkness (PS2), F-Zero GX (GCN), and Intelligent Qube (PSOne)

Any existing or future titles which you envision to have online multiplayer capabilities?

Robert: Wrestling games for sure. Why that hasn't been done yet is beyond me. I think we will see more fighting games go online and I am waiting for the Tigers Woods series to have online play.

Where do you see console online gaming going over the next few years?

Robert: More than likely it's going to gain popularity. I think with broadband being available in more and more places, more people will pick up online gaming. I don't see anything other than online cheating that will stop online gaming to be a mainstay in current and future consoles.

· · · Bahn