Fan of the Month

When not gathering and disbursing information for a certain French Oddworld website, he's on the forums tossing out Oddworld tidbits to ravenous fans like an ointment salesman at a skin disorder convention. Providing images for whoever needs a hi res version of this or that, as long as they say "thank you". Xavier from Belgium is our fan of the month. Whenever Alf needs to know what's going on with Oddworld, he checks out Xavier for the low down. How does he find this stuff? Congrats and salute to Xavier for a job well done! Name:   Xavier Age: I was born on 12/20/1986, may you can calculate it? Location:   Belgium Occupation: Student and hardcore Internet surfer. Favorite Film:   The Holy Grail (Monty Python) and The Wall (Pink Floyd) Favorite Food:  Steak with salad and French fries with a lot of bearnaise. Favorite video game?   The Oddworld series, and also the GTA and Rayman series. Hobbies?  I like swimming and diving. I like to play Oddworld! and to be on the Internet. When did you first become aware of Oddworld? Xavier:   Begin 1999, a friend told me about it. At first, I didn't expect I would like it so much. A few weeks later I borrowed Abe's Oddysee and I was even more enthusiastic. It was the French edition and I made a copy for me (shhhht). But later I bought the original (so, you see, I'm not a bad guy). Now I have got: Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, French and English. Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus, French and English. Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, English. And they are all original ones! When did you first become a "true" Oddworld Fanatic? Xavier:  When I got Internet: from this moment I saw all those images, videos andÉ other fans. When I began working for "Oddworld Maniac" I became really fanatic! How long have you been reporter for the French fan site? Since March 2001. I appreciated the site Oddworld Maniac, because it was the only one in French and I could understand everything. Psykobee, the webmaster of Oddworld Maniac, asked for help because he couldn't run the site alone: and I reacted. So Psykobee picked up the most interesting and interested people who replied to his message: I was one of them. Now Oddworld Maniac has changed several times of server. And the only ones who stay in the Staff are Psykobee and myself. Now we only have a small site called Oddworld News, but Psykobee is working on something bigger. How do you track down information about Oddworld? Xavier:   Yes, good question... I'm always amongst the firsts to find some new things about Oddworld on the Internet. The key is: I spend my life on search engines. What is your favorite Oddworld character and why? Xavier:  Abe, I know it's not really an original answer. I like his story, he is a complex character, he is not particularly intelligent, but wins against the Glukkons. He is a friendly guy who loves his brothers, he is sometimes too naive but that makes him funny. Favorite bad guy? Xavier:  Molluck of course: the stereotype Glukkon, who wins every time, except against Abe, and who has the power to control more than only one factory. He isn't probably the wealthiest Glukkon, but one of the most powerful Gluk. I like him. pleasure! What's your favorite environment? Xavier:  The two I like the most are the Stockyards and the FeeCo. Depot. The Stockyards because of the shadows on the big blue sky and the FeeCo. Depot because of all the trains hanging there and the architecture, very much in steel, but not too much. Have you finished Munch's Oddysee? Xavier:  Best game ever! I finished it with an Angelic Quarma and waow! these graphics are beautiful, the gameplay amazing good, the movies sublime and the story totally crazy: typically Oddworld, just as we like it! If you could ask Oddworld creator, Lorne Lanning one question, what would it be? Xavier:  Why did you cut your hair? Anything you would like to say to your fellow Oddworld fans? Xavier:  Psykobee, Goldy, Epeire and myself are preparing something BIG for the next Oddworld Maniac site. Here are some features Psykobee told me about: · a chat ·a huge image database ·a download center ·a domain name ·a universe section ·a news section (in French, as usual) ·a forum (http://oddworldforums.multimania.com/) ·and lots of other stuff Thereby, Oddworld News will become a subsection of Oddworld Maniac and will publish the same news, but in English. Check end June.