Words with TomCruzMomShoes

On social media, Twitch, YouTube and so on it is easy to find people who are mean, nice, sarcastic, and every other type of person. Depending who you are as a person you’ll be attracted to one type or another for better or for worse. Sometimes you are lucky enough to just simply find great people.

TomCruzMomShoes is a creator and person who has been a part of my content/influencer/whatever-you-call-me life and has been a huge support since the start. He is a streamer on Twitch and has an excellent set of videos on YouTube. I am extremely honored to have him be a part of this project and I hope you enjoy his answers as much as I did!

Who is TomCruzMomShoes?

My name is Gabe, I’m a 40 year old married father of a 15 year old daughter, and I live in Northern New Jersey. I stream part time on Twitch and create unscripted and unedited YT videos about streaming and other topics for fun and engagement with the gaming community. Also, I grew up in NYC, a place that the Division community knows all too well.

What is important for people to know about you?

It’s important that people know that gaming, and on a lesser note, streaming, are important to me, but they’re not the primary focus of my life. I think sometimes folks that are trying to “make it” in the live streaming/gaming world lose focus of what’s really important, like friends, family, health, and “me time” and struggle to find that balance (I have struggled with it myself). Being friends with so many streamers, and having engaged with so many streamers at Twitchcon has shown me that everyone struggles with the same thing and not to beat yourself up about it.

What are your favorite things to do outside of gaming/streaming?

I absolutely LOVE binging on a quality TV show with my wife, and catching up with some of my oldest IRL friends. Over the past year I’ve enjoyed teaching myself simple Photoshop graphic design and have tinkered with overlays and sub badges for friends, as well as worked on my own channel graphics a bunch. I also have a habit of creating “to-do” lists which keep me somewhat productive. True story, this interview was on one of these lists, right after “Create a living will/power of attorney/healthcare proxy”. Always gotta be prepared…

What is your favorite game of all time? Why?

Well I can answer this in 2 ways. I spent the most amount of time and have been the most involved in the community surrounding The Division. However my favorite (most fun) game of all time was COD: Modern Warfare 3, mostly because it’s the game I spent the most time playing with my IRL friends, one of who is no longer with us. It gave me the fondest memories.

“Having that 1st stream and enjoying the interaction so much actually inspired me to start researching streaming…”

What inspired you to start streaming?

Strangely enough, it was a spur of the moment decision to stream from my console one day, mostly because I was bored and wanted to try it. Having that 1st stream and enjoying the interaction so much actually inspired me to start researching streaming as “an art/science”, or looking more into the process of streaming from a holistic point of view vs. just being the guy turning on games and broadcasting (interaction/social media/networking, etc). As far as outside inspiration, there are several streamers, such as Macho, Puj33, and TacticalIntern that inspire me to be a better broadcaster. I was lucky enough to meet them in person recently!

What has surprised you about it?

Once I had that “spur of the moment stream”, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It added a second layer of communication, outside of the communication with your teammates that I completely enjoyed. It felt like hanging out at a bar with folks watching you play games and talking sh*t.

What is the dumbest thing you’ve seen people get mad about with video games?

It’s actually a fairly common occurrence to get DM’s from someone who you just fought in the Dark Zone and killed. I DO rage from time to time after a PvP encounter but I can’t imagine ever getting that angry at someone in a video game just because they killed me in a game mode that includes PVP.

What initially interested you about The Division?

Initially, I was interested in the urban setting, the depth and variety of the builds you could make, and the combat, which looked awesome. I started playing with some of my IRL friends who left fairly quickly once they reached end-game because they couldn’t dedicate the time needed early in the life cycle of the game. It definitely was not casual friendly in the beginning.

What has been your greatest moment in The Division?

I have a few! In no particular order:

• Completing Falcon Lost for the first time (legit of course).
• Completing Falcon Lost during 1.3 with Michalsnake while NOT cowering under the left stairs on smart cover. We split into 2 sides and stood on top — this was quite an accomplishment with no checkpoints and those dirty 1.3 shotgunners.

• Being part of the 1st (recorded) group on console to complete Clear Sky in under 5 minutes (The MarcoStyle challenge). It was really cool, and I wish The Division had more of a prominent speed-running community. I did this with Syvix23, PyroDragon, and Michalsnake before there were even classified builds. It literally made zero waves though.
• Lastly, the lasting friendships I’ve made playing the game, as well as being recognized as someone who went out of his way to help people complete content on various LFG discords. People STILL come in my stream from time to time and say “hey, you’re that guy that helped me complete xyz a few years ago.” That always feels good.

Worst moment?

Meeting FateFromFiction

What is the make or break feature/thing that The Division 2 needs in your opinion?

Well I can think of 2 make or break things:

1. The Dark Zone, which is the most unique feature in the Division in my opinion, needs to work in regards to value gained for time spent (i.e. loot drops, difficulty, variety of activities, fun, etc.) It needs to be a place that people look forward to entering and CONTINUALLY experiencing, not a place where a majority of the player base cringe at it or just go in for some completion of the week/month.
2. I hope The Division took inspiration from Destiny in how they scale their enemies in regards to power. Another reason some of my IRL friends didn’t bother is because once you’re a few levels higher than them, they are essentially useless in an encounter. No one wants to be FULLY carried through content where their weapons just don’t do any damage at all because their teammates are at a higher level. The damage dealt/taken should scale based on a player’s current level, especially throughout the journey from 1–30 (at minimum).

Having a good anti-cheat on PC and NOT having some of the game breaking bugs and exploits we saw in Division 1 would be super helpful as well, but I know the developers have learned from the 1st game.

What games have your attention now or what games are coming that you’re interested in?

I am currently getting my looter shooter fix with Destiny 2, my PvP fix with Black Ops 4, and just started Red Dead Redemption 2 for some solo campaign fun. Obviously I am looking forward to Division 2, but having recently attended Twitchcon inspired me to try out different types of games, so I’m looking forward to trying strategy based games, maybe Total War Arena or something like that.

And last, Tom Cruise and yourself are in a fight to the death, what weapon do you summon to defeat him and why is it a pair of his mom’s shoes?

Well I’d clearly summon Katie Holmes as my weapon, Tom would be forced to couch jump after that.

I want to thank you all for checking this edition of #WordsWithBaun out and thank TomCruzMomShoes once again for being willing to participate! There are plenty more of these coming and I advise you to keep an eye out!

Until next time.