TechPin: Interview with Dave Williams from Gamertrainer

We had the chance to get in touch with Gamertrainer’s President, Dave Williams, who managed to find some time and answer our 10-question interview. Enjoy reading!

TechPin: Hi, Dave! Thanks for allowing us to take you this interview! Our first question is...what is Gamertrainer?

Dave: Gamertrainer is a web portal dedicated to helping gamers of any experience level increase their skills in a fun, supportive environment. We accomplish this through our featured game tips, our forums and private, online training sessions with our “Gamertrainers”. Our trainers will create a lesson plan designed to meet a customers specific needs and then adapt that plan as they go - that’s the beauty of an interactive session, a trainer can evaluate a customers skills, assess their needs, receive feedback and teach them things they didn’t even know they needed! We currently offer training on Battlefield: Bad Company, COD 4, Guitar Hero III, Halo 2 and 3, Madden NFL 09, Rainbow Six Vegas 1 and 2, Rock Band and World of Warcraft.

TechPin: What exactly could users learn after creating an account on your website?

Dave: Once a user has created an account they get two immediate benefits. 1.They will now be able to fully interact with our forums which contain a wealth of gaming tips and guides. As an added bonus, users can find many of our trainers hanging out there, happy to answer questions or just discuss gaming in general. 2.They get access to the trainer profiles and have to ability to purchase training credits, gift certificates or book training sessions.

TechPin: Could you help a casual gamer enter the pro leagues faster?

Dave: Certainly we can prepare the casual gamer on what to expect from the pro leagues but becoming a professional gamer is a journey of years. Thing is… Most people have no idea the thousands of hours and extraordinary skill (and luck) required to become a true pro gamer. It would be disingenuous of us to claim we can transform novices into pros. Can we help people prepare to play at an MLG event or get involved with GameBattles? Sure… But our real focus is helping the gamer who wants to play online but is intimidated by the level of play or who has reached a plateau and wants to take their skills to a higher level… That could mean just increasing their win percentage in ranked Madden matches or finally being able to beat their neighbor in Guitar Hero.

TechPin: What is the experience of the Gamertrainers? In other words, what would I have to know in order to be accepted in the team?

Dave: The number one skill we look for is the patience and ability to teach… There are lots of fantastic gamers out there who also happen to be complete jackasses – if you are good person as well as being extremely skilled at the particular title you want to train on we are interested. We get tons of applications and we review each one – if the applicant feels the need to explain how they “pwn teh n00bs” every day we feel the need to hit the delete key. They don’t even make it to the interview!

TechPin: Who is your most experienced Gamertrainer?

Dave: Our trainers have been gaming all of their lives so their experience is pretty vast. They have logged many, many hours on the games they train on and have high ranks, levels, etc. Many have also won tournaments on their respective games and compete on a regular basis. What really makes our trainers different from the other talented gamers out there is that they posses the ability to communicate well with people and are great to work with. They also have a way of providing instruction which is clear and easily implemented. Finally - on a more personal note - I would like to add that many of our trainers have made gaming a fun and advice filled experience for us (as owners we play with our trainers frequently) for a long time, so in that respect, they have all been informally training for years!

TechPin: We know that users can purchase gift certificates from the website and we’d like to know more about this.

Dave: Ahhh… The gift for the gamer that has everything! Our process is easy – customers just chose the gift certificate option from our store, choose how many credit hours they would like to gift and then select where they would like the gift certificate emailed – either to the recipient or to themselves if they want to deliver it in person. If you are the lucky owner of a Gamertrainer gift certificate all you have to do is go to the site, register, select a game and trainer and use your code - pretty simple… So hey – the holidays are right around the corner – give a GT gift certificate to the gamer you love… or two… or three…;-)

TechPin: And now comes the question you are probably expecting to hear from all interviews. Many consider that $30 per hour is too much. What's the difference between reading walkthrough guides during gaming and using one of your human guides?

Dave: LOL – We do get that from time to time… I think it comes down to what is your time worth? And I know what some might say – the journey and time investment is part of the overall experience and I don’t disagree… assuming you have the time… Fact is that the age of the average gamer continues to rise and many are entering the market for the first time, short on experience and time, but long on desire to jump in and find out what all the fuss is about– I guess you could say we help bridge that gap. Plus… Any teacher will tell you people learn better from doing and I can tell you that from experience! I had tried World of Warcraft and was just overwhelmed by the myriad of choices, acronyms and assumed knowledge that was required to play – I read the guides, visited the forums but still pretty much just gave it up… It wasn’t until I had another player come in and help that I understood how to approach the early parts of the game, level up and get to the fun stuff… It was a game changer for me…

TechPin: What are the most popular games users want to learn from you?

Dave: Right now we run the gambit from World of Warcraft to Guitar Hero to Madden NFL 09 – we even had someone put in a special request for GTA IV (we do take special requests.) If I had to pick one I would have to say Madden NFL 09.

TechPin: And now it’s your turn to tell us what your favorite games are.

Dave: Hmmm… Well – I am really enjoying Castle Crashers right now – it’s on Xbox LIVE Arcade – what a blast! At least try the demo, you won’t be disappointed… I have always loved the Halo series, Bio-Shock was excellent and to go a little old school I loved the old Baldur’s Gate games on PC. World of Warcraft is still a work in progress but I’m getting there!

TechPin: We are also curious to know Gamertrainer’s plans for the near future. What new things will we find in your system during the next weeks or months?

Dave: We are always adding new games to our training roster – for instance we are adding Battlefield 2142 for the PC in the next few days and there are some biggies on the horizon in the next few months. Look for us to be offering training on Gears of War 2, Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero World Tour, Left 4 Dead and many others… Some other things on the horizon include group lessons for specific skills like sniping or knifing and crafting seminars for World of Warcraft guilds that want to get their lower level members up to speed. We are also looking to expand our support of the PS3 and Wii. You never know what might be next for us!

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