Larry Hryb
| Larry Hryb | |
|---|---|
 Hryb, also known as Major Nelson, holding the Emmy Award that Xbox LIVE won in the category of Outstanding Achievement in Technology and Advanced New Media |
|
| Other names | Major Nelson, Crazy Larry |
| Occupation | Director of Programming for Xbox Live |
| Known for | Host of "Major Nelson Radio" podcast |
| Website | |
| http://www.majornelson.com/ | |
Lawrence "Larry" Hryb (
/ˈhɜrb/), also known by his Xbox Live gamertag Major Nelson, is the Director of Programming for the Microsoft gaming network Xbox Live. His blog "Xbox Live's Major Nelson" provides an "inside" look at operations at Microsoft's Xbox division. He picked the gamertag Major Nelson after a character by the same name on the 1960s U.S. television comedy I Dream of Jeannie after it was recommended to him by his TiVo.[1] Prior to taking the position at Microsoft in 2004, he was a former programmer and on air host with radio broadcaster Clear Channel Communications.[2] Hryb graduated from Syracuse University in 1989 with a degree from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications with a minor in Education.
Contents |
[edit] Work at Microsoft
[edit] Professional
Larry Hryb worked for Clear Channel Communications in Hartford, Connecticut for WKSS prior to Microsoft. Larry joined the Xbox team in early 2004 as the Xbox LIVE Director Of Programming. Hryb has been instrumental in the development in the Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE and the 'New Xbox Experience'. He was also one of the small team of people at Xbox who came up with the concept of 'Xbox 360 Achievements' a popular feature of Xbox 360 games. In addition, Mr. Hryb has done much forward thinking community work, and has advised numerous gaming and non-gaming companies on how to best manage their communities and social network.
[edit] Podcast
Hryb is most known for his popular weekly podcast "Major Nelson Radio", available on iTunes, Zune Marketplace, and from his site. Direct from inside the Microsoft Xbox team, Hryb and his colleagues including regular co-hosts Laura Massey ("lollip0p"), and Eric Neustadter ("e") discuss Xbox, Xbox Live, Xbox 360, Kinect, Zune, gaming, technology, other next generation consoles (including the PlayStation 3, and Wii), among other subjects. Wil Wheaton and James Pfaff ("litheon" or "lith" for short) also regularly appear on the show. His show regularly hosts interviews with people in the gaming community, and offers prizes to listeners through his "Name the Game" contest, where he plays a short audio clip from a game, and a winner is drawn from the correct entries. Additionally, regular features of the podcast include "Xbox 101", a segment devoted to various features on the Xbox 360 or Xbox Live, Gadget discussion where they discuss the latest and greatest gadget. Recently, as convergence take place with the auto industry, they've also started looking at vehicles that use technology in a new and exciting ways. There is also an after show, an easter egg where Hryb talks about random topics. Hryb and Neustadter regularly joke about each other's Xbox Live gamerscore and gaming habits. Xbox 101 is also a series of "Inside Xbox" videos on Xbox Live.[citation needed]
Originally, Hryb produced the podcast by himself. The podcast used to consist of him giving a monologue and breaking to play prerecorded interviews. On November 6, 2006, he celebrated his '200th' podcast, which was marked with a nearly two and a half hour show. Hryb openly admits that he added to the show number and the figure doesn't accurately reflect the number of shows made. Hryb switched to a #1xx numbering around July 18, 2005, when he did show #136 after the previous '7/10/05 Blogcast'.[3] Major Nelson was interviewed on the Video Game Outsiders Podcast (show #50), where he commented "About a year and a half ago, I started numbering my shows at 100...it makes it sound cooler, bigger numbers are always better."[3]
[edit] Other media
In addition to his podcast, Hryb hosts a weekly one-minute segment titled Major's Minute. Every week on Xbox Live, Major's Minute recaps new content and news related to the Xbox Live Marketplace. At of January 2012, over 45 million Xbox LIVE Members have access to Major's Minute on Xbox LIVE. Hryb was also a regular on the defunct Sirius Satellite Radio program "Level Up", designed for the casual video gamer.[citation needed] Larry is also on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/majornelson. Currently he is one of the most followed personalities in the gaming industry and has the most active/followed account at Microsoft. Larry joined Twitter in 2006, and has often used it in ways that have gone on to become Twitter standards. Examples include live 'Tweeting' of events (like CES or E3) and using Twitter as a contest mechanisms like Free Code Friday. Today is it commonplace to see Twitter used as a contesting tool.
[edit] Personal
Hryb is married and lives in the state of Washington. He enjoys photography, Xbox 360, and many other gadgets. In 2006, Next Generation Magazine named Hryb one of the "Top 25 People of the Year" in video gaming.[4] Also, in 2009 he was featured on Wired.com's "100 Geeks You Should Be Following On Twitter".[5] Hryb has worked with multiple Fortune 500 companies, advising them on how to use social media to better connect with the community. He Revealed that his guilty pleasure is KFC mashed potatoes.[6] Larry Hryb has admitted to having Coulrophobia[7] and Claustrophobia after waking up from a dream involving the 2010 Copiapó mining accident.[8] He also stated, that he does not like Halloween because it doesn't qualify as a holiday, since a normal holiday commemorates a certain event such as the signing of the Declaration of Independence, whereas Halloween does not.[9] Hryb also mentioned that he has a special stapler that was given to him by his father. He has had this stapler since he was in college.[10]
[edit] References
- ^ Hryb, Larry (2008-05-25). "Show #280: XNA, DRM and more". Majornelson.com. http://castroller.com/Podcasts/MajorNelsonRadio/249731-Show%20280%20XNA,%20DRM%20and%20more. Retrieved 2011-07-17.
- ^ Hillis, Scott (2008-01-03). ""Major Nelson" emerges as face of Xbox". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0265215120080103?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true. Retrieved 2008-05-18.
- ^ a b Hryb, Larry (2006-11-09). "Now serving over 100,000 comments". Majornelson.com. http://majornelson.com/archive/2006/11/09/100k-comments.aspx?sidebar=1&PageIndex=5. Retrieved 2008-05-18.
- ^ Campbell, Colin (2006-12-13). "Next-Gen's Top 25 People of the Year". Next Generation Magazine. http://www.next-gen.biz/features/next-gens-top-25-people-year. Retrieved 2008-05-18.
- ^ Denmead, Ken (2009-05-13). "100 Geeks You Should Be Following On Twitter". Wired.com. http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/05/100-geeks-you-should-be-following-on-twitter/. Retrieved 2009-05-24.
- ^ Hryb, Larry (2008-03-01). "Show #351: PAX East, SXSW and Battlefield Bad Company 2". Majornelson.com. http://majornelson.com/2010/03/01/show-351-pax-east-sxsw-and-battlefield-bad-company-2/. Retrieved 2011-07-17.
- ^ Hryb, Larry (2009-12-30). "Show #345: Last show of 2009". Majornelson.com. http://majornelson.com/2009/12/30/show-345-last-show-of-2009/. Retrieved 2011-07-17.
- ^ Hryb, Larry (2010-10-24). "Show 375: Call of Duty: Black Ops MP, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, Fable III". Majornelson.com. http://majornelson.com/2010/10/24/show-375-call-of-duty-black-ops-mp-star-wars-the-force-unleashed-ii-fable-iii/. Retrieved 2008-07-17.
- ^ Hryb, Larry (2010-11-01). "Show 376: The one before the dashboard update and the Kinect launch". Majornelson.com. http://majornelson.com/2010/11/01/show-376-the-one-before-the-dashboard-update-and-the-kinect-launch/. Retrieved 2011-07-17.
- ^ Hryb, Larry (2011-01-31). "Show 386: Dead Space 2, Crysis 2 and COD Black Ops First Strike". Majornelson.com. http://majornelson.com/2011/01/31/show-386-dead-space-2-crysis-2-and-cod-black-ops-first-strike/. Retrieved 2011-07-17.
