Old school throwback interviews - Throwtopia

On July 4th, 2004 I made a thread on a different Utopia website talking about interviewing Alliance leaders and sharing it for the Utopian world to see. I thought I’d post a few of them so people can have a read. The thread was very popular and after a while, several people came in to help me.

Enjoy my 2004 nubness.

Episode 1 - Ulrick, leader of the Civilisation Alliance (CiV)
Date: 06 July 2004


Since the re-creation of Civilisation it has attracted a lot of new members and attention on a whole how do you think CIV is doing thus far and compared to when it was first created?

I might say firstly Civilisation when it was first created was just a concept that being said I was never apart of any alliance, you might say that I have done what other people have tried and failed and that being said it is still standing now so I am more then pleased.

As any new alliance, or an alliance of our age I believe we are doing well. I implemented a few things that other alliances may not have done at the start of things.

I created controversy before we were even know as an alliance, intentional or not it was all publicity and as a whole the publicity has served the growth of civ well.

Sure I would like certain aspects of the alliance to change, but as a machine I would say with out a doubt we are well known as a mid sized alliance. Right now we are strong and confident, without confidence and purpose alliances fail.

Now, compared to the early stages of the alliance I would say we are more stable as a unit. I trialed a few things and some of those things failed. I’m not going to name names, but you get the drift.

Times change people, people move on, people come through. The council I have now is by far the most loyal to me then at any stage of our existence.

What urged you to re-open Civilisation? Was it friends, power etc?

Quite the opposite...
It was personally in honor to everyone that helped me learn this game

My work mate, Andrew and my first monarch who spent countless hours teaching me angel and the basics to the game I have grown to love.

I know I come off at times as power hungry that comes with the territory, as much as alliance leaders don’t wish to say there is a percentage dedicated to having some form of power in the alliance community. But the greater percentage is there to help those who want to be helped, to teach those who want to learn. That is the major driving force for me. I do not feel I would be good at this job....

You were the creator of CIV and the first member, how long did it take to open to the public?

Civilisation was a concept in the back of my head for about 2 years. It was implemented over a period of two months

It was public after those two months; I started to use utopiatemple and other IRC chat rooms to get to know people. I was rather new to the scene. I eventually came up with my first council. Peterbald, and Sharz


Have you ever been a member of another alliance/s if so name them and you position in them?

I have never been apart of any other alliances. The only thing to note was that the only alliance I have ever applied to was UA. I was not accepted because my ideals were not the same as there’s


Where do you see CIV heading towards in the future?
I am not a foreseer, and I do not wish to guess, one of the reasons is I cannot predict the future. ....

At this point in time we are in the back ground are programming a more user and public friendly website.
Hopefully that should be up in the near future


At this point in time we are in the back ground are programming a more user and public friendly website.
Hopefully that should be up in the near future


Could you ever see CIV becoming an invite only' sort of alliance?

Most definatly yes. With the upmost certainty. Over the past few ages we have been caught in the trap of
1. Accidentally messaging tagged kingdoms
2. Receiving spies from people who claim to be looking for an alliance
Particularly in the last age or so we have been subject to spies, and people who want to know what’s going on in the walls of Civilisation.
In which case we have revoked our previous methods and are infect leaning towards the invite only. Will it stunt our growth. In the short time yes. But at least our private stuff will remain that, Private.


CIV is liked by most other alliances, has there ever been an alliance in which CIV has frowned upon and or gone to war with?

Ben, oh yes we have, oh my the publicity from that not so good. We all know the going to our friends help of HUN in there war against MF and shortly after that nearly became the target of Muaddib. Other then that there was the misunderstanding of war games with the confusion of thinking it was a full on war. All has been resolved I believe and friendships have grown from these conflicts

How is CIV coming along with ambassadors and embassies?

Slowly. We have a hand full and we have sent out a hand full. I have myself filled the embassies at the more important alliances myself as I feel that, it’s a better way to get in the door and show respect for that alliance.

On that note we do invite alliances to send their consul's to our site http://civalliance.2.forumer.com


Lastly is there anything you wish to say or set clear to the Utopian world at this time?

I think what I really want to say is that I could be that bench mark for those people willing to create an alliance. I was never apart of an alliance. I never had many friends from other alliances. And you can be sure I didn’t know half the things I do today on the topic of alliances. But anything is possible if you set your mind to it. Everyone can change their stars.

Anyone can be somebody in utopia if you put the time an effort into the creation of your project. Many times at the start I heard you won’t be successful. Give up. And to this day I still hear these things. I don’t pretend to know everything about alliances and that’s why I believe I was lucky. The nights I spend writing in my notepad. The late nights I stayed up to talk to new members that we....
recruited has paid off.

If someone had tapped me on the shoulder and said to me you will make it I would have laughed and said "yes, that would be nice". In the end I have to thank my members past and present. For they are the bricks and cement that has made Civilisation, they are the ones that have shed there virtual tears and blood for my alliance. To those who helped in the creation and the building of the alliance...
I thank thee the most. All I had was a concept and they believed in it and I went ahead with it. Blind and ware full that this could make or break me. 3 ages on and well while some people say your averages are crap. We aren’t in it for you to go wow look how big they are. We are here in the essence of the people who started me on this road. To those people I shouldn’t have to name names, but I salute each and every one of you.

And now I just want to play Civ 5

Really enjoyed this when you first published it.

Sad the alliance side of utopia collapsed after y2k

The story of one of the most famous provinces to ever exist. This wasn’t written by me, I just thought some newer players might be interested

Hel of Dim Forest (HoDF)

Hel of Dim Forest is probably the most famous province to ever exist. Hel of Dim Forest, or as was often shortened, HoDF, was a human province who resided in the kingdom of Ragnarok (10:9) on the World of Utopia server in Age 10. It was owned by the monarch of said kingdom, Queen Diana. She is infamous for creating the largest ever province, as well as suffering arguably the greatest ever gangbang and the highest ever landgrab.

Players from latter ages cannot even comprehend how she got to such immense finishing statistics, and are even more staggered when they hear she was almost twice that size a week prior to the end of the age. However, achieve it she did, and this article is intended to cover some of the information regarding how.

The growth of Hel of Dim Forest was based upon a loophole. However, it has to be said that the loophole was not obvious until this exploitation. The loophole was based around the calculation of fame for attacks; fame gains were based around relative land size. However, raze attacks (which then only destroyed some buildings) gave fame, but didn't alter the land size of the gaining province. Added to this, the fame system was quite different; for every 500 fame gained beyond the initial 1,000, a province gained the following bonuses: +2% population, +2% military strength, +2% income, +2% thievery effectiveness, +2% magic effectiveness, +1 vote for monarchy. To further imbalance things, humans in that age had doubled bonuses from fame.

The stage was set for the exploitation of this loophole. Hel of Dim Forest started the age by beginning to raze other provinces around her size, complimenting this with some growth, until she was at 1,000 acres. As she razed provinces around her, her fame grew. However, her land did not. The bonuses from the fame meant that she was able to raze larger provinces, causing even larger fame gains. This cause and effect circle continued for a while, until she had such a large fame she could raze anyone for fun, four times.

At her peak in this stage of her growth, she was at approximately 2 million networth on 1,000 acres, with something close to 200,000 fame. This huge fame meant she had immense bonuses; it is believed that at her peak for fame she had +5016% to population, income, military strength and magic and thievery effectiveness.

With these huge modifiers protecting her, and safe in the knowledge that she was untouchable, she abandoned her fame raping and entered the second phase of her strategy - the growing phase. Each day she explored acres and attacked provinces larger then her, until she had outgrown all the other provinces on the server. She then concentrated solely on exploring. At her height her province had over 100,000 acres, and simultaneously touched 100 million networth; the only ever province to break these two landmarks.

Now, many would have expected her to grow off into the distance, breaking even more milestones. However, army losses were also calculated differently back then. Provinces lost troops based on the number of troops defending as well as the number of troops attacking, biased more towards the former. With Hel of Dim Forest's immense number of troops (she had over 600,000 archers, and near to 6 million knights), this meant she lost huge amounts of troops for each attack on her.
Soon top provinces realized how to exploit the land gains formula, and a campaign grew among the top 100 for provinces to send 1 soldier attacks against her. Hundreds of attacks were launched against her on a daily basis, with each one killing thousands of knights. Her networth began to drop as a result; the top provinces thought that if they kept it up until the end of the age, she might be within their range. Efforts were redoubled to attempt to get as many provinces as possible to attack her, to lower her defense.

Soon her province was within range of the second largest province, Hully. Hully had copied her strategy and, unlike many others who simply kept concentrating on fame, Hully had also grown in size like Hel of Dim Forest. The two provinces did have an NAP agreement between them. However, Hully could see the chance of gaining acres and possibly even the top spot, especially with the added benefit of the surprise attack. His offensive bonuses were similar to those of Hel of Dim Forest, due to similarly large amounts of fame.

The resultant attacks were the largest Utopia have ever seen. The first attack was for over 16,000 acres; the second was for 9,000 acres, followed up by further grabs of 6,000 and then 5,000 acres. Overall, a grand total gain of 36,000 acres in under 5 minutes. I can safely say that grabs of this nature will never be seen again. The resultant fame gains were equally immense; over 100,000 fame changed hands due to these attacks.

However, it soon became apparent that Hully had effectively suicided, leaving his province with a minimal defense. The retals came in quickly, first from among Hel of Dim Forest's own kingdom, rocketing one of the provinces to finish twelth in the fame charts as a result of the fame gains from the grab. As other provinces noticed Hel of Dim Forest's sudden loss in acres, information was quickly spread about Hully's suicide. Provinces from throughout the world sought to gain from this, and Hully lost many of his acres, and with them a large amount of his fame. The resultant fame loss led to the loss of the bonuses, and for the rest of the age he was struggling to recover and keep his province together.

Hel of Dim Forest was untroubled for the rest of the age. The other provinces who may have been within her reach, Dream of Rain particularly, who ended up top of the fame rankings, did not attack her. Hel of Dim Forest explored back some of the lost acres and spent most of the rest of the time recovering and rebuilding her province. She ended the age top of the chart for both networth and land, and fourth for honor.

Hel of Dim Forest was one of the first leading provinces who didn't finish the age at her peak networth and land. The troop loss formula exploit affected her province to such an extent that others were able to breach the vast gap she had created between herself and the second placed province. To many, it would appear clear that if this bug had not been programmed, she would almost certainly have explored away into the distance, and reached 150 million networth, maybe even 200 million.

Here’s a SoT (formerly a crystal ball - CB)
http://i63.tinypic.com/vzy2t.jpg

If zoot would have been a better mentor I'd have beat her nw many ages ago T_T

Throwtopia

Chapter 2 - redwingsfan, leader of the Divine Titans (DT) alliance
Date: 09 July 2004

In recent years alot of alliances have been known to come and go, on a whole how do you think DT are going?

well, in my opinion many alliances come and go for the reason that they do not supply themselves with a solid base before they go public. We at DT had a member base before we started so it gives us a leg up. With the growing competition for recruits, we can use that to our advantage. I think DT will be here longer than most new alliances.


Where you the sole creator of Divine Titans?

No. I had a lot of help in the creation of Divine Titans. It originally started with Cicero inspiring the idea of forming a new alliance out of the ashes of MF. I then talked to Morgana about it along with SoulStalker. The four of us spent many hours working out the details


How did the fall of MF come around was it heirachy, inactivity or something else?

The MF downfall was due to a major mistake made on the part of Muaddib. He had lost his temper and declared a rather unfair and unjust war on HUN at the end of age 23. Many ran to the rescue of HUN as they saw it as a completely wrong action by Muaddib. This caused alot of internal strife within the alliance as few alliance members would participate in Muaddibs war and many left. (we lost about 18 Kds at EoA.) Many that stayed were beginning to go inactive and MF made a slow topple... A VERY slow process that lasted an entire age... Unable to pull it from the glory it once enjoyed, i began looking at options for active members of MF. It was decided best to disband and create the new alliance.

Can you ever see DT becoming as big as MF?

I can see it yes, but it will not be done through the means that MF grew. I am not much for mass recruiting and i prefer quality over quantity. We are still in the baby phases of being an alliance, but we are growing surely and steadily. Only time will tell but i am fairly confident we will become a truly great alliance one day.


MF got itself into a predicament that it couldn't get out of, What sort of measures are you going to take so that that kind of thing never happens again?

MF at the time was a one man show. Muaddib felt that he could do everything and he did have the time to do most of the work. I was later brought in to work on external affairs while he handled internal affairs. The main measure that i am taking is that i do not get my alliance involved in personal matters. Muaddib caused the war after an arguement with Flutterby. Another thing that DT has that MF
did not have was that we have diplomats to handle situations while MF again was the one man show that is Muaddib.

can you ever see DT becoming an 'invite only ' kind of alliance?

I do not see it no. I am the kind of leader that caters to the average utopian. Charts are not my fancy, but the relationships with people are what makes me continue on. I am a helper by nature and i do not see how i could do that by becoming invite only. Perhaps if need be, we may look at the option but i highly doubt it at this time.


How long have you been playing Utopia?

I am currently in my 20th age at the moment


Apart from MF have you ever been in any other alliance if so which one/s and what positions did you hold?

I have been apart of many alliances.. my first taste of the alliance world was apart of TDL (The Dragons Lair) while i was a member of a TDL kingdom. We ended up leaving the TDL alliance at the end of the age. That was during my 3rd age of Utopia... I stayed away from the alliance aspect until later when i met Flab (ex- SoS) and i joined SoS... most of my experiences good and bad were from SoS...I was a Server Leader, and later a diplomat. I however was a bit confused back then and regrettably left the SoS alliance for MN. I never held any rank there and was merely there because i was a friend of Quietus. Unbeknownst to most, but i then joined the opposition of MN in SoA with no special rank there either... they disbanded and i joined a few small alliances over the following age. I then met Darkhold again who was second in command of SoA and joined his alliance HiD.... I was the BF server leader there. I wanted to do more though for my alliance, and created the alliance GW which merged into MF when we were 9 kingdoms strong.

If you could name 3 people (screen names) that you would call a lifelong friend that you have met through Utopia who would they be?

I would have to say Terri from SoS.. even though we have the odd disagreement now and then... another would be Dark Honor also known as Dark Void... He was with me in SoA, HiD and was one of the few people willing to show me the ropes early on in my alliance days. He taught me the basics of being a diplomat and ambassador when few would give me a second look. A third person id call a lifelong friend would be Bryan of IHJ... We met in the 2nd Genesis age and he helped me start GW and has been a good friend ever since then.


Is there anything else that you would like to say or state to the Utopian world, anything at all?

Id like to say that other people trying to create alliances should look at their options a little bit more. It is probably wiser to look at everyone elses goals first and see if you fit in to that group. There is no use wasting everyones time and more importantly your own if you are suitable somewhere else. Many new alliances pop up but it is only through long tedious hours of work that success will come... Why waste the time trying to create something that likely will fail when someone else has already done the work to get there. Give all you have for that alliance as if it were your own and you will probably enjoy the game alot more.


Anything else?

VOTE REDWINGSFAN FOR PRIME MINISTER?

Pretty soon (in these old interviews) Piro starts helping which helps lead into the alliance rankings website etc

A lot of things spawned from this original thread... so old it makes me laugh. I was actually in DT at one point!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DM_Benjamin

Pretty soon (in these old interviews) Piro starts helping which helps lead into the alliance rankings website etc

A lot of things spawned from this original thread... so old it makes me laugh. I was actually in DT at one point!

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Hah I used to be a reporter for Alliance Rankings. That site was dope, and I def was not anywhere near one of the better reporters

Lol Muaddib ...... what a freaking ego ..... I first bounced into him and RAT on the training grounds server ...... then I found out he was from geelong and that explained everything.

Hard race between him and DragonMage for biggest Aussie egos in Utopia.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hurlin

Lol Muaddib ...... what a freaking ego ..... I first bounced into him and RAT on the training grounds server ...... then I found out he was from geelong and that explained everything.

Hard race between him and DragonMage for biggest Aussie egos in Utopia.

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Ewww Geelong, although I once lived in Point Cook and then the concrete jungle, Docklands.

Carn the mighty Bombers

Chapter 3 - Merciful Fate, leader of the Asylum Alliance
Date: 09 July 2004

1: How long exactly has ASY been around for?

ASYLUM didn't start out as ASYLUM orginally. I left HaJ in Age 18, which in the long run could have been avoided since it was a huge misunderstanding, however, badblood would have prevented my return. After leaving HaJ, 40 or so members left with me and we formed something called "Project: Abaddon" (Read Revelations ##:## for information on who Abaddon is.) Project: Abaddon fell through when the Magistrate of Development up and left and caused an uproar... 90% of the alliance was still intact and we ran under the name and tag "In the Shadows" (ItS) for the age before becoming Regnum Imperare ex Phoenix (Royal Empire of the Phoenix), however, HaJ continuously blasted the site with spies and used BelJin Yong to attempt to set a fixture to cause an internal collapse. This was avoided and we packed our bags again, this time to form ASYLUM. So in a nutshell, the foundation of ASYLUM has been around 7 or 8 ages, however, we have been active about 4 ages as ASYLUM, the last two (23 & 24) being the most productive and noticable.


2: On a whole the alliance world in some peoples eyes are on a downward spiral, how is ASY coming along in recent ages?

ASYLUM went from nothingness to a Top 10 alliance in two ages. Our average networth last age on Battlefields was about 7 to 8 million, and on World of Legends, we were averaging 10 million networth per kingdom. However, in the last three weeks, approximately 12 of the kingdoms left with Cessna (former Head of Orientation) to form SOLACE .


3: Where you the sole creator of ASY, if not who else helped you create it?

I am the sole creator. I had assistance from Loki the Trickster (LokiTT in UT) back in the Regnum Imperare ex Phoenix & early ASYLUM days.

4: How is ASYLUM coming along in terms of an expanding member base?

At the moment, despite the loss from the break off and formation of SOLACE, we are gaining a number of notable utopians, as well as concentrating on gaining kingdoms that are much like the current kingdoms that regardless of power, strength, and worthiness to be in alliance that could possibly better suit their needs, feel that ASYLUM is their true family and they wouldn't have it any other way.


5: Can you ever see ASYLUM becoming an 'Invite only' kind of alliance?

We generally are an invite only alliance, however, that's not to say we wouldn't consider a kingdom that comes to us.


6: Where did you get the idea to call an alliance ASYLUM?

I've always been a fan of alliances with one word for their name, for example, PROPHECY (an alliance I had lots of respect and admiration for when they were around). What is actually quite humorous is that my current job, Security Officer at Greenville Memorial Hospital, is that my main post on 3rd Shift is the Behavioral Annex, which is basically a Psych ward. However, an asylum is not just a place to house people with mental illnesses or disorders, but it is also a place of sanctuary or a safe haven. ASYLUM the alliance is a sanctuary for the most zany Utopians.

7: Has ASY ever been involved in an alliance war, if so please explain?

We fought Shire of Secrecy (SoS) in Age 24. At this time, there is no bad blood between ASYLUM and Shire of Secrecy as far as I know. Lady G's kingdom was declared by Animal Instincts, after some insults thrown at AI by Lady G, they proceded to PK her. A ceasefire was established, Lady G refused to apologize, AI redeclared and continued to pick at her kingdom. A few more hostiled declared here and there... Saruman of SoS told SoS to prepare for war... and after seeing that, I declared open war on SoS. ASYLUM was not fighting for a win, thus Salinthos accomplished mutual peace.


8: Were you ever in a previous alliance before ASY if so please name it/them and the position you held in it?

Let's see here... I was Overlord of Solitary Divine Intervention (SDI); a friend's n00b alliance... I was an Assassin of Corsov in Vanguard of Corsov (VoC)... I held every from of military officer rank in HaJ and before leaving was incharge of all military forces on both servers... I was an Admiral in the Nation of Hope (NH)... and I am the leader of ASYLUM.


9: How long have you been playing utopia?

Since Age 8, or something like that.

10: Utopia is renowned for making life long PC friends if you could name three who would they be? (screen names)

You ask a question so that I can have the other friends I don't mention hate me for not having them in the top three... charming.

Without a doubt, first and foremost would be Sassy. Sassy and I have been side by side since Age 12, a friend had formed an alliance and had me co-lead it. She happened to join and I appointed her my assistant. Late on in Age 15, I traded her into my kingdom and we played side by side ever since. For the record, I am no longer with that kingdom. Secondly, Snarko, my former co-monarch of Badass MFers when they existed. Snarko and I have been together since Age 12 until About Age 21 or 22 when he left the kingdom during my long absence. Thirdly is a tie, Glorfindel, and Mr. Fear. Both served under me in the military command, and both are extremely down to earth guys, and are extremely close friends of mine, and no matter what insane bull**** I want to pull them through, they are always right there with me.

Honorable mentions: Salinthos, Kryosis, Raiden, skraz, Harkonia, Flutterby, Nemesis, Angel Eye San, Rock, Mordor, Ganja, Riox, STYX, Ivy, dalle, Edgecrusher, Sossy, Loki the Trickster, GodsHammer, Jaco, Lord Delta 9, Stormwind, Strifer, Wyndrake, and many others .

The forums were being difficult when I was trying to post the above interview. No boldened q’s will continue

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DM_Benjamin

Ewww Geelong, although I once lived in Point Cook and then the concrete jungle, Docklands.

Carn the mighty Bombers

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Yep inbreed Geelong numbnut and DragonMage worked as a pizza delivery boy in carlton ..... when he ****ed Imperials over I knew who the cockhead was (lived in coburg at that stage) and was very tempted to visit him.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DM_Benjamin

The forums were being difficult when I was trying to post the above interview. No boldened q’s will continue

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that explains so much, i had the displeasure of running into mauddib a few times as well :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by skraz

that explains so much, i had the displeasure of running into mauddib a few times as well :(

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You still in tassie ,?


Im In Germany at the moment the food here is freaking amazing and each "state" the flavours and dishes change .....
You would love this place ..... last night I had smoked beer ... o.O weirdest beer I've ever drank

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hurlin

You still in tassie ,?


Im In Germany at the moment the food here is freaking amazing and each "state" the flavours and dishes change .....
You would love this place ..... last night I had smoked beer ... o.O weirdest beer I've ever drank

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nice thats awesome, i want to to a food tour of europe at some point, would be freaking epic.

Still in Tassie, probably even still working at the same place as last time we talked, due for long service for about a year now lol

Hurlin m8.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by skraz

nice thats awesome, i want to to a food tour of europe at some point, would be freaking epic.

Still in Tassie, probably even still working at the same place as last time we talked, due for long service for about a year now lol

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its well worth it .... loving every moment ............ except the bali belly in Barcelona but 5 euro meal with a pot of local beer seemed even dodgie for there =)

I'm not going to the top of the chain food restaurants mainly local places staying the hell away from the tourist traps but to put it into perspective I've been in europe for 80+ days got three weeks left :'( and I've spent roughly 5k euro on food.

There's local dishes that are great such as in Dresden they do a potato soup with vegis and thinly sliced sausage .... taste brilliant ........ took heaps of notes =)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Syntico

Hurlin m8.

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Hey Syntico =) still in QLD ?
think I might have bounced into you in CS:GO awhile ago ?