What better way to kick off our celebrations than with on of our founders? I've been hasslin' staffer for their background, personal stories and views on C-E, Nintendo and games sites en general. Tim's the first...

1. Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself and how you joined Cube-Europe?

I am Tim Symons, the owner and co-founder of Cube-Europe. I am 20 years old and study Informatics & Economics at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. I will be getting my bachelor degree in 2003 (if all goes well) and after completing that I will begin a program for my master's degree. Rotterdam is not only my college-town but also where I live; it is then also the town from which Cube Europe is managed. Right now I live in a rented-out room on the top floor of a big house, together with Gerben (former co-owner of Cube-Europe) and a fellow student who both have rooms across the hallway from mine. I expect, however, to move into an apartment with my girlfriend soon, in Rotterdam.

How I joined Cube-Europe? Well, Gerben and I founded it January 2001. This did not happen out of the blue though. We started a few years before that with our very own N64 page hosted on Geocities (free internet community). This was hardly what you could call professional; it was just a hobby on which we spent maybe a few hours a week, not more. We started to enjoy maintaining the website more and more and wanted to bring it to a higher level. That is how we started our first real site, N64 Europe (www.n64europe.com). The site grew into a pretty big site with an average of 2500 visitors a day. After a while Nintendo introduced their new system, the Nintendo GameCube. Gerben and I saw this as the golden opportunity and launched, after much preparation, the website currently known as Cube-Europe. The site was a success from the beginning because we already had the knowledge how to run it and we already had a good visitor base from N64 Europe to start off with.

2. So what exactly do you do at Cube-Europe?

Currently I wear a few different hats at Cube-Europe, including General Manager, Manager of Public Relations, and News Reporter. Most of my time is taken up by the management roles. You cannot imagine how much time and work it is to keep the site running and turning out quality content. Thankfully Cube-Europe has a team of professional people who help me; some even run their own team, such as Reports and Editorials. Also very important for a site like ours is to keep in constant contact with game related firms as well as make new contacts. The thing you readers will mostly see me do is reporting news. It is a fun and sometimes very exciting activity, especially when there is big exclusive news to report. Besides these main activities, I also attend press gatherings and game shows throughout Europe. These unfortunately do not take place as often as I'd like

3. What is the best part of what you do?

The best part of what I do is attending press events at which I get the opportunity to try out upcoming games and talk to game producers. Gerben and I have experienced quite a lot at shows like Milia in Cannes, France. Not only would we talk to people from the industry but it was also just lots of fun hanging out at these events where you'd normally not even get access.

4. What is the worst part of what you do?

To be honest I do not find any activity at Cube-Europe not fun to do. But if I would have to pick the most annoying one I'd say it is monitoring the forums to prevent people from abusing them. Like any big website we suffer from the usual group of spammers, attackers, and generally obscene visitors now and then. Fortunately we have good banning and tracking tools so we can get rid of them and even report them to their ISP when it gets out of hand. I am happy to say this is only rarely needed�

5. What have been your personal highs and lows for the past year?

My personal high for the last year definitely was the Milia show, which Gerben and I attended in Cannes, France. While in town we stayed at a friend's place, the webmaster of CubeNation.com. We had loads of fun playing SSB till early in the morning as well as hanging out on the show floors. We met a lot of nice and interesting people. My personal low of the last year was a deal-gone-very-bad with the media company Haignet. They offered us a free server as well as some other services in exchange for some advertising revenue. The only thing we got though was downtime, crappy service, and lies, and we are still waiting money owed us. Make sure you stay out of their way...

6. How do you think the last year has been for Cube-Europe?

The last year has been tremendous for Cube-Europe. Of course we had some lows, like the server downtime/switching because of Haignet. But in general I think there was a positive atmosphere at Cube-Europe. During 2002 we grew from a mediocre site to one of the leaders in the Internet industry. This was made possible because we offered a big load of content, contests, specials and exclusives. Also, we have a fast growing community in the forums and chat.

7. How do you think it has been for games sites in general?

Last year was not good for every gaming site. Quite a lot of our friends had to close down their websites because of the Internet crash. I know it has been very tough for some sites to keep their head above the water. Believe me, there were also some times at which we almost had to shut out doors. Thankfully this did not happen!

8. How do you think it has been for Nintendo?

Last year was good and bad for Nintendo. The good thing is they launched a great console and have been doing very very well with the GBA. The bad thing I have to admit is the position Nintendo currently holds in Europe. The GameCube is not doing too badly, but Nintendo really needs to think about their strategy against Sony and Microsoft. I think they will be able to cope and kick them out of the way though� just wait and see

9. What does the next year hold for you and Cube-Europe?

The next year holds me becoming 21, a legal alcohol drinker in the States, and hopefully moving in with my girlfriend. For me personally it will be a big and important year. Cube-Europe will thrive throughout 2003! We have some big plans that you will find very interesting but unfortunately I cannot tell much about at the moment. We will also of course continue covering the Nintendo GameCube, doing our best to provide you with quality content. Things will only be better and better!

10. Finally, any last words to the readers?

It may sound a bit cheesy, but it is the truth: Cube-Europe is what it is because of you, the visitors and fans. You are the people who drive us to be so insane that we sometimes spend hours and hours in a row working on the website. Besides that cheesy stuff I also would like to encourage you to support Nintendo in Europe! Tell your friends about Nintendo and let them tell their friends about Nintendo. Together we can help Nintendo through the console wars.