He’s a fellow Texan and he’s been a friend for a long time.  It was great having him sit down with Twylyght Myst to get to know more about him.

Sit back and travel to Houston with U360’s latest Showcase.

Da Rafsta, can you give us an idea of what your life like outside of gaming?

It’s pretty simple which is something I like very much.  Sunday’s I attend a Christian congregation and after that I spend the rest of the day watching football. Big surprise, huh?  I’m a big football junkie and have been since a very early age like 7 if I’m not mistaken. The instant I laid eyes on it, I fell in love with the sport.

Monday through Friday it’s wake up early, drop one daughter off at school, the other at the babysitter’s, go to work, pick the kids up, get home, eat supper and whatever else there is to do at home.  Oh and watch football on MNF.  If there’s time in the evenings on those days, I’ll game yet again! Saturday it’s hang out with my girls and other family and if that’s not happening, then the 360 is who I turn to.

I’m a family man, an extremely happy family man at that, with my gorgeous wife and two beautiful daughters.  I’ve got to be the most blessed guy in the world with them. My wife’s grown to adapt to my gaming addiction. At first it wasn’t anything pretty. I say adapt because when I met her I spent of lot of time with her. Then my gaming was in the back-burner. Once we got married and started living together, gaming hit her by surprise. She knew I would play video games, but not at this extreme. It’s almost an every day thing if I can get away with it.

Your Gamertag, how did you come up with it?

My Gamertag has street slang. I don’t think the “Da” is hard to discern. I’m sure most have heard of the Chicago Bears being referred to as “Da Bears”, in which almost in all cases when “Da” is used, it’s for the word “The”.  I’ve seen many gamers use this in their tags. Now Rafsta gets mispronounced and misunderstood much too many times. I also have the number 79 in my GT which denotes my birth year. Who didn’t see that coming?

Some gamers get the impression I’m Jamaican, ala “Rafstafarian” but no, no, no I’m far from that. Far too many other mispronounce it calling me “Roughastuh” and to be honest with you, I hate that more than being misunderstood with a Jamaican. I mean, can folks not read correctly? Me personally, don’t know about the rest of you, but when I go to call someone that’s gaming with me by their Gamertag I try my best to pronounce it correctly. C’mon, you don’t want to pronounce anyone’s real name incorrectly.

It’s just not right and if you can’t pronounce it correctly, you discretely ask them how it is that it’s pronounced…..same goes for Gamertags, I believe. You’ve gotta respect people’s Gamertags folks.  (see 360 Law #12)

Anyhow back to the “Rafsta” part. It has to deal with my real name. My first name is Rafael (yes like the Ninja Turtle). LOL, it’s the reference every single person in the world can relate to. That takes care of the “Raf” part. Now the “sta” is derived from “ster” as in “pimpster” which can also be pronounced in slang as “pimpsta” or ganster in slang form can be pronounced as “gansta”.

Well…instead of saying “Rafster”, I prefer “Rafsta”.  So here’s the equation: Da = The; Raf = short for my first name; sta= ster IMO, that’s much better than “The Rafaelster”.

You are part of the U360 community, what keeps you coming back?

Exactly that, the community. I know a whole lot of these guys from way back since late 2003 when I joined the old Xbox.com forums. That’s where I met Deacon and that’s when he invited me over to a previous site he had named XGP Gaming, where I spent lots of my years with the same group of guys I enjoyed over at the Xbox.com forums. I was kicked out of Xbox.com forums then, along with a handful of other guys from the U360 community, for talking NFL football.

Back then there was no sports forum or a Madden forum for those discussions and that’s when there was conflict.
I like the crowd Deacon attracts.  He’s got a real knack for that.  He’s extremely creative in what he does and I think he does a tremendous job of keeping things interesting. The community feeds off that and it makes for a wonderful combination. Most of the folks at U360 are new to me, but man I’ve had no problems getting acquainted with them all.

It’s a great crowd and thus far, for me, it’s the friendliest and most well-mannered gaming community I’ve been apart of.  I mean, it’s not like every now and then there isn’t going to be some friction.  That’s inevitable.  But for the most part this community is very warm and amicable.

What is your favorite Xbox 360 game to date?

Call of Duty 4. Every aspect of the game has delivered for me. The single player was criticized for it’s shortness but having played the game in veteran, I felt it was long enough. I just know I spent more than 6 hours to beat it on veteran. Multi-player…need I go on? It’s everything one would expect from an online MP shooter.

I love the depthness and customizations available. It’s a complete game, IMHO. I’ve got nothing but great things to say about COD 4.

What types of games do you enjoyed playing the most?

I’m not what you’d consider a very diverse gamer. I don’t do RPGs. I’ve given them a chance more than once and they simply don’t appeal to me. I’ll play just about anything else. What I tend to play the most though is sports and shooters. I wish I could play more racers, platform-like, musical and more sports games but the funds just won’t allow it. There’s tons of games I’d like to get around to playing but again, the funds aren’t there and time.

When you’ve got a family, there isn’t enough time to give all the games that pique my interest the time of day as they deserve, even if the funds were there.  I accept my circumstances for what they are and play what I can, when I can.

One of the Xbox’s newest accessories is the Chat Pad. What are your thoughts on it?

Oh man…I simply couldn’t wait for the Chat Pad to hit stores when it was announced. It’s hell trying to send a text message without it. If you ask me, there’s simply no other way to send a text message on Live aside from using the Chat Pad. You wouldn’t consider IMing on a PC with a virtual onscreen keyboard right? The same is true with the Chat Pad. It comes with an extra headset and the price is extremely reasonable, all things considered. I strongly recommend it and will go as far as saying that you’re doing yourself a disservice of not using one to send messages via Xbox Live, including the ability to IM others that aren’t signed in on Live but on IM itself, on a PC or cell phone.

With the recent dashboard update, what new features do you like the best?

You know, I would have been okay without this update. Nothing really stands out to me as far as what I’m really liking out of it. I won’t second guess MS in saying it wasn’t needed and that it wasn’t helpful. I’m sure it is and there’s no doubt others are happy with it. I guess there’s nothing I’ve exploited from it just yet to really pinpoint anything. The previous ones on the other hand I’ve really come to appreciate.

Texan against Texan. You against DeaconBlade 360. What game are you playing and who wins?

Name the game and Da Rafsta comes away the victor!  Since I’m limited to certain games, unlike Mr. DeaconBlade himself, I’d have to say Madden NFL 08.  He runs with his Cowboys, yours truly runs with the Texans.  Da Rafsta wins in a blow out.  I’d have to go with Madden 08 since we’re both football heads and follow the NFL passionately.

With that said, I really think Deacon would try his hardest to beat me in a little game of football.

Any final words?

Sure. I’d like to send kudos out to Deacon and his staff in striving to make U360 what it is. The community deserves praise too because without them and the continuous feedback, things wouldn’t be where they are today. In case a wanderer happens to stumble across this piece, I’d would like to go ahead and let them know that if they’re in search of a site that offers the latest in the Xbox 360 buzz and also a community forum with friendly and knowledgeable gamers, then look no further.

Unscripted 360 fits the bill and then some. Stay a while, kick back, and enjoy! And last but not least, thanks for having me on this segment of Gamer Showcase. It was an honor.