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This week I chose RedStarRocket91. I haven't seen him on in a while but one of his posts recently reminded me of how great he really is for this community. RedStar's posts are the gold standard for what a quality post should be. Please welcome this week's Star: RedStarRocket DD: "First off RedStar, what inspired your username?" RSR: "One of the first games I really got into was 'Pokemon Red', way back when I was a kid. I named my character 'Rocket', because I thought it would be funny if I ever had to fight against Team Rocket. I used the name 'Red Rocket' on online forums for a while after that, and eventually that turned into 'Red*Rocket'. When I signed up for XBL I discovered they didn't allow asterisks in usernames, so I added the 'Star' and stuck my birth year on the end, and now that's what I use for pretty much everything!" DD: "That's just the answer I expected from you Rocket, very detailed. Now I've always admired your signature because it truly reflects the quality of your posts: detailed and meaningful. What does quality of posts mean to you on this site?" RSR: "The quality of posts here really does mean a lot to me: if someone is very clear about what their opinion on a given topic is and why they hold it, it's much easier for other people to agree with it or disagree with it in a constructive manner. Giving a well-written post also makes things much better for other users, who may be particularly young or non-native speakers of English. If they're faced with an unbroken wall of text, or one which is difficult to read, that can be very off-putting, and might make them feel less comfortable responding. Plus, if you offer posts which are hard to read, contain poor language, or very light on content, people are less likely to take you seriously when you do offer up something valid - and that's a shame for everyone involved!" DD: "Fantastic, and I absolutely agree with you there. I know that when I get a like on a post from you, it means I made a good one haha. What do you look forward to most when coming on to the forums?" RSR: "As The Director says, 'Don't forget to like people's posts'! What I like most when I visit the forums is the sense of community: it's something that, sadly, you don't really get on a lot of websites these days. There are so many things up for discussion at any one time, especially in the run-up to a massive release like Halo 4, and everyone's got an opinion on what all of the changes are going to do to the way the game is played. And yet even though we have users at both ends of the love-hate spectrum for pretty much any piece of information we've been given, there's very little in the way of personal abuse or flaming when someone offers their two cents. If someone disagrees, they're much more likely to explain exactly why they don't hold the same opinion than just say 'stfu true halo fans would never think that', or whatever. I think it makes people a lot more comfortable in speaking up, and so you get a real diversity and breadth of opinions on various topics, which makes for more interesting reading - there've been a few times where I've read a post from someone who's relatively new and it's completely changed the way I look at something." DD: "That's awesome, smart kid that relatively new member . And you're dead on about the community part I mean I feel like I really know a lot of people on this site just from typing to them every day. Alright on the subject of Halo 4, how do you judge the new Halo material we've seen recently from E3? Or what are your thoughts on it I should say haha." RSR: "I like a lot of what's been shown in Halo 4 so far. It's good to see that they're bringing back old favourites in the weapon department, and I'm very excited to see what the new toys can do - the Railgun is particularly exciting for me, I don't remember seeing one of those in a game since the days of Quake. The maps are looking great too, and I'm sure I'll get used to the new loadouts system after a while, even if I'm a little hesitant about how they're going to keep everything balanced with all the possible combinations. After all, everyone initially hated the fact that you had to choose an Armor Ability at the start of games in Reach, and yet now that's just second nature. One thing that worries me is the so-called 'join-in-progress' feature, which I worry will lead to unbalanced teams or reduce the skill gap in order to prevent just that. It's a component of matchmaking which has really ruined some games - such as Gears of War 3 - for me, and I can honestly say that I prefer to end a match with half a team over having people dropping in and out throughout." DD: "Yea the join-in-progress feature is something that definitely has me skeptical along with instant respawn because that could have a huge effect on some things. How do you think Halo 4 is coming along competitively?" RSR: "I think as a competitive game, it's looking quite good. Provided the three primary spawning weapons are properly balanced, it could actually provide a fairer platform than previous games - after all, someone who's a significantly worse player overall than another might beat them if they get a DMR start because the second player is weak only with that weapon, or two players of equal skill might end up performing completely differently in a game with an Assault Rifle spawn whereas in a DMR start they would be roughly equally placed. I'm definitely not a fan of news that players will have to rank up to get certain items, however. Restricting access to equipment is anathema to competitive gameplay, no matter how well balanced it may be: while one player may get their perfect setup from their first spawn on day one, another may not get his until two or three months later. That doesn't make the first player better, it just discriminates against certain playstyles: think what Team Fortress 2 would have been like if you had to start out as a Demoman. It doesn't make any difference that the classes are perfectly-balanced, it still sucks if you're the kind of person who plays well as a Sniper. The news that we're getting maps purpose-designed for competitive play is however a huge relief: while Forge World maps like Synapse and DLC maps like Anchor 9 have helped, the original maps shipped with the game just weren't good enough in a lot of cases." DD: "Great analogy using Team Fortress 2 that's totally true. So it seems you like what you saw so far which is great. I hope everyone did haha I thought it was spectacular. Alright so off the topic of Halo 4 then, it looks like we have not one but TWO winners of the Heads Up Tournament Singles bracket. A lot of people might not know this but you and theorix TIED for first in the tournament. Would you mind giving some insight on the game you and theorix had today to tie for the Heads Up 1v1 Tournament?" RSR: "Theorix and I actually ended up playing a total of three times, and they were by far some of the most difficult games I've ever played in Halo - the guy is incredible! the first match we played was in Round Three, and he beat me easily. After that I dropped down to the loser bracket, and the winner of that was back to playing Theorix in the final. If he won, that was it as I'd already lost one, while if I beat him he got to play another game as he'd been unbeaten throughout the tournament, and it was a 'double elimination' setup. I won the first game a few seconds from the end - I got lucky and heard him pick up the Energy Sword, so I rushed the Shotgun and went after him - that was the kill which kept me alive in the tournament, as we were drawing at that point and I would have been out if we'd stayed level. The match today was even closer - no matter what I tried, Theorix countered it perfectly, and I was trailing by two kils at one point - that doesn't sound like a lot, but in a 1v1 match where it's hard to force your opponent out into the open, it's a really big difference. In the end, we were both sat with Sniper Rifles pointed at each other's heads, just waiting for the other one to move out from behind cover - it's probably the single tensest moment I've ever experienced in all my gaming career!" DD: "Shouts to theorix once again for being the most mentioned member in my interviews haha and that sounds fantastic. I know that intense feeling when you're waiting for each other to come out worried about what happens next. Sounds like a truly great match. So what's an achievement you want to accomplish on the site?" RSR: "There's a lot of thing I'd like to accomplish here - I'm not far off my thousandth post now, so that'll be something exciting, there's a couple of Awards I'd really like to get my hands on, and I'm hoping at some point in the future to earn a custom member rank - no idea what I'd ask for though, so maybe it's a good thing I'm not sure how to go about earning it! Long-term, I think I'd eventually like to join the Community Mod team - the forum and its users have been good to me so far, and I'd like a chance to really give something back to them in thanks." DD: "And you've been great to the community RedStar, that's why I wanted you here. I think you have a sure shot at becoming a Mod someday and I can't wait to read what you'll have in store for your thousandth post milestone. That will be quite the read . How about now? What do you feel most accomplished of that you've done already?" RSR: "That's a good question! There are a lot of things I've done so far that I'm proud of - joint-winning the tournament with Theorix was very special, and I've really enjoyed all of the playdates that I've been able to get involved with - the first flag I captured was a great moment, we were about ten seconds into sudden death and I got sniped at almost the exact moment I reached the flag return: I wasn't sure if I'd actually scored the point or not until the scoreboard appeared! Probably my favourite achievement so far, though, was correctly guessing what kind of weapon the Railgun was going to be from the cover image of Xbox 360 magazine a few months back - I'm not often very good at guessing the future, so do get it right in public was a rare pleasure." DD: "I remember when you said that in the OXM Magazine Cover thread! The gun looks awesome. Recently you've been busy with exams lately you've said. When can we see you back to making your excellent posts?" RSR: "I'll most likely return to posting regularly within a week or so - now that the exams are over, I have to pack my things up and get ready to move home again. Once that's done I'll be spending a lot more time here - no more revision to keep my time filled!" DD: "Great! I'm looking forward to it! Now RedStarRocket, what advice do you have for the newer members on the site to achieve good post quality such as your own?" RSR: "It always helps to use the 'Like' button beneath other people's posts - if you don't have a lot to say, or someone else has already summed up your opinion, it's often better just to press 'Like' than to post five words: this will also get you a reputation for being kind, which means people are more likely to listen to you when there's something you can make a bigger post about. That said, don't be afraid to add your own thoughts if you feel you have something to contribute! Spelling and grammar are also quite important, it's not the end of the world if they aren't your strong point but do your best to make your posts legible. Most modern browsers have some form of spell-checking extension available, so you can even use one of them to check as you type. Lastly, when creating a thread, try looking around to see if something similar has already been made recently. We really don't need any more threads asking for certain things to be included in Forge, Pelicans to be flyable, Scarabs to be driveable, or 'Halo is turning into CoD'/'Halo is NOT turning into CoD'/'Stop making threads about Halo vs CoD' threads. If you do find a thread which is on your topic, if it's been 'dead' for a while, then it should be okay to start a new one." Thank you RedStarRocket for staying up late to complete this with me, you had to have been exhausted after. Thank you 343i Community Forums for just being the best one out there. Sorry for the late interview, we DID do this yesterday but it got done late so I decided to wait until this morning. Tune in next TUESDAY! -Bows-