Guess what’s back?  It’s the return of the Showcases!  The fabulous Twylyght Myst stepped up to make sure you guys and girls continue to get your dose of gamer showcases from the community.  She started with a squid puncher…go figure.

Big thanks to Twylyght for taking the reigns and hammering out more of these Showcases for everyone to read and get to know more on each other with.

Can you give us insight into the world that is Squidpunch? What’s your life like outside of gaming?

Well I work a full time job as a applications developer for a travel agency, I am married and have 2 kids (2 ½ years and 11 months old). Outside of gaming I keep myself busy with various programming projects, and now that winter is coming snowboarding. Though I don’t get to go nearly as much as I used to before we had to worry about who was going to watch the kids, they are still a little young to take with us.

What’s the story behind your Gamertag?

The story behind my tag is a rather long and somewhat boring story, but here goes. Many years ago I was a vegetarian and myself and other vegetarian friends used to eat a Chinese restaurant every weekend which made mock meat products – so for example you could get ’sweet and sour chicken’, but the chicken is made of soy, wheat and stuff like that. So one week the special was some sort of imitation squid meal, and my friend says to the waiter “If I ever saw a squid, I would punch it”. I just found it funny and from there on most of my various internet identities took on the name Squidpunch.

Can you tell us a bit about the LiveEye?

ZaaM IT and I are members of the XCDP program giving us the ability to get some basic information about gamers on live.  From this information we are able to compile and display them in a more pleasing way for you to view.  The LiveEye tracks what games people are playing and for how long. It logs whenever you are using your Xbox console while connected to Xbox Live keeping track of the arcade, retail, original Xbox, demo, and other utilities (like watching videos, or listening to music).

So for those of you that like to track your stats this is another site giving you the ability to look at your gaming times overall and in a daily view. We also have 100% clubs for everyone that finished a game (100% of all achievements) which will display on your profile. As you said the site (and our other site 360friendspot) is developed by ZaaM IT and me.

Can you tell us a bit more about the other services like the Friend Finder?

I briefly touched upon this on the above question.  Together ZaaM IT and I developed theliveeye.com, and also 360friendspot.com (3FS). Originally LiveEye started on 3FS, but we felt it was large enough to survive as its own beast so we moved it onto its own domain. At the original 3FS domain we still have our community forums, custom gamercards (which are based on your live eye data, as well as our new Halo 3 cards), and the tool you mentioned, the Friend Finder, which gives you the ability to search our database for new friends complete with a compatibility rating.

Has the Xbox 360 experience been a good or bad one for you?

For the most part good. Having access to the XCDP data has opened doors allowing us to take a fansite idea to a new level giving us ways to interact and integrate data from your Xbox Live gaming profile.  I spent a weekend with Trapper and Steve from 360voice.com, mostly just hanging out but also talking about the future of the XCDP program, what each of our goals are, a few gaming breaks and of course quite a few beers.

Somewhat recently I took a trip to Montreal for Deacon and got to see Army of Two before its release (and before the recent delay) which honestly I never thought I would ever get the chance to do something like that. Before that, I drove down to Washington DC for the GamerscoreBlog tour where I got to meet some Microsoft employees, and members of the community like Feelz Good from Gamertag Radio and Morgon from Mygamercard.net. That’s really more about the community based around the Xbox 360 but I guess you can group that under the full experience.

As far as the console experience itself, I am on my 4th console which is the only negative I have about my Xbox 360 experience so far. But even that has gone fairly well even though sending it in for repairs that many times sucked.  I didn’t have any of the trouble you read all over the place. Perhaps I just got lucky?

Which games is getting the most play time on your XBOX 360?

Well as I said above, I spent the weekend away and I didn’t bring my gamertag with me on a memory card (yeah I am a n00b). So not much, I squeezed in a few Guitar Hero 3 sessions this weekend. This coming week I am pretty sure my play time is going to be on Mass Effect and Puzzle Quest (it’s like crack I tell you). I also have Blue Dragon from Gamefly which I have been working on, and a copy of Skate also from Gamefly but I haven’t even put it in the drive yet, probably will give it a try this week. Now is the busy season for gaming so my head is going in a ton of directions with the older games I never got to play and all the amazing new titles on the way.

What’s your most anticipated 360 game for 2008?

That’s a tough one.  I usually just go with the flow and get interested when titles are closer to release. Off the top of my head I guess I would go with Dark Sector.  Everything I have seen on the game thus far has got my interest.

What would you say has been the most surprising title for 360 so far?

I’ll go with the Darkness. I didn’t know a single thing about the game until the first time I played it and I was hooked. Not to say that it’s the best game or the best story of all time, but I had no knowledge of it previous to playing it and it was a pleasant surprise.

Are you looking foward to GTA: IV?

Probably not as much as most people.  I mean it definitely looks interesting to me but I don’t really get overhyped about games for the most part. So many times it seems when you get yourself over pumped for a game it makes it even harder to meet your expectations and you end up being let down.  I am definitely keeping my eye on it.  To be fair I haven’t really played the GTA series since probably the originally released GTA2.

In your opinion what’s XBOX 360’s best feature?

The community surrounding it. That sounds like a cop-out but it’s the truth. I have met a ton of great people, and played online numerous hours with complete strangers. Some have become very close friends that I interact with almost every day.

All of the various blogs, community sites, podcasts, etc – none of this stuff would exist without (at least a portion of) the Xbox Live members putting an effort into creating that blog, that community site or that podcast. People complain about Xbox Live – with the “singing 12 year olds” and what not, it exists don’t get me wrong, but there are a lot of those diamonds in the rough – they are what’s the best part of the Xbox 360.

What are your thoughts about the Xbox Live Marketplace?

Lately I just haven’t been able to keep up. I tend to stick to the free downloads and the arcades but sometimes I put some points towards extra content, like the Oblivion expansions for example. I don’t really buy themes, or gamerpics. There are enough that come free with the console, with games, or unlocked as you play. The ability to get content digitally and on demand takes your gaming experience to a whole new level.

No longer do you have to drop your money and hope a game is worth it. You can at least get a taste playing the demo that (usually) is released before the game. That makes the Marketplace worth its weight in gold.

Which do you play for the Gamerscore or Achievements?

This might sound lame but for fun actually. I have been known to have a bit of an obsession with hearing that infamous click noise but when all is said and done I am there just to have fun for the most part. If I had to choose, I would probably go with achievements, even the zero point achievements account for something even if they don’t raise the number on your gamercard.

What’s the best Xbox Live Arcade title and why?

I just scanned the list to make sure I wasn’t overlooking a great game. I would have to go with Puzzle Quest. So far it’s the arcade game that has held my attention the longest and I can’t seem to put it down.  I even went out and got the DS version so I could play it even when not home in front of my Xbox 360.

Ok. One game. One Shot. You against DeaconBlade 360. Who wins and what game are you playing?

Well, me of course and any game will do. Hah, to be honest the last time I actually played online with Deacon it was Halo 3 and I got a few good shots in but I am pretty sure he ended up the victor when all was said in done.

Any last words, thoughts, etc?

Thanks for taking the time to write up these questions, and pick me for this gamer spotlight (it was unexpected to be honest). Thanks to everyone in the Xbox Community, those of you that work hard on your sites, your podcasts, or just promote a positive experience. Without the community that we have here, gaming just wouldn’t be the same and in my opinion it’s what raises the Xbox 360 above the other consoles.