INTERVIEW: Sadira sits down with Maugrim

Good morning Utopians! With the smell of baked goods, look who ventured onto my stoop. Its Maugrim!!

Morning Maugrim.

Mmmm cookies. Hello!

Lets get some generic questions out of the way then we will pick your brain later. Tell everyone who you play for currently.

Currently I play/lead in Barcoloco. I helped form it with a few others back in.. 2017?

What exactly is a Barcoloco?

Haha, good question! The name comes from one of our founders, Cappodocians, who once owned a bar named Barcoloco. We didn't have a kd name for a while, so we just used that and it kind of stuck after a while.

That is actually rather cool. Its hard to come up with good names anymore. How long have you been playing Utopia?

Too long. I first got a taste in Grade 8 Socials Studies class, so either late '99 or early '00. I don't recall exactly. Those early years are a bit of blur.

You were young. Were you hooked right away?

Not right away, no. I played solo for a little while and didn't care too much. I was more into Earth 2020 I think in the first years or so. I would just make big exploring/dicing provs, but eventually I kept getting farmed so I decided to try some more offensive strats and that's when I started talking in the forums more and then getting over to ICQ and then really getting hooked once i found out about warring I was definitely hooked by my final year in high school, because I remember staying after school to use the computers to hit during war.

So basically you have been playing since the start of Utopia. Are there any other games you play? You mentioned Earth 2020. What else piques your interest?

These days I mostly just screw around with friends on a bunch of games. League, Tarkov, CSGO. I played AoE II since about the same time as utopia, so that's probably another one I was pretty involved in and still play quite a bit of. I just finished the new FF7. That was alright I suppose. I guess I buy lots of random games and play them. I invest more time into utopia than all the other games combined though. So she's number one in my heart.

I think the game doesn't allow you to casual play if you are monarch and serious about winning. Plus the community makes it fun. Do you have a significant other or friends you have tried to get to play Utopia?

Haha, significant others and utopia haven't always worked together for me in the past. I always look forward to that first conversation about the depths of my utopia depravity when dating someone new. As for friends, one of my closer friends to this day was in that same Grade 8 class, and he played pretty heavily in the early days and then kinda came back off and on as I really needed players throughout the years. He's currently on again. There have been a few others that played early on i've tried to bring back, but no luck. A few years ago we created an IRL only ****** kingdom, and we won a few times with that. That was a nice experience.

Would you like to give a shout out to any past kds you have played for in Utopia?

Ohhh. Lets see. andn00bs, Zenobias Zealots, FAITH/IC, Reunion, Pandas, and Barcoloco. I played in lots of others, but I think these are the ones I spent the most time in. I hope I'm not forgetting any!

Oh you played in ZZ? I didn't realize that. Talk about a blast from the past. Who do you think you learned the most about this game from or do you feel self taught?

I did. I played with the legends Delm and filip and co. But then I also kinda rebooted it long after they had left. I've definitely had mentors over the years. To name a few people I really respected and learned a lot from.. Doccy, Delm, CGG, and hesus. I would often encounter some sick players though who I would always try to pick up tricks from: Twit, martin, kneten, Trekdrop, jordy probably a million others. There's a certain bit of self taught too, just being around so long and having done everything so many times i think leaves its impression.
It also speaks volumes if being around for a long time, you actually care to learn more instead of going through the motions.

Let's talk about your current kd, Barco. How would you describe your kd and kdmates?

Well, love for everyone there. There's a solid 15 of us who have been together now over 3 years so you really get to know people after that long. Especially with the amount of time we spend together on here. It's kind of like a family. We've had our ups and downs, both in game and as a team. We had a player pass away not too long ago, Sonny, who was a big part of our team. That was a bit rough. Then you have your successful ages and your not so successful ages. I look back to all the kingdoms I've played in over the years and I can't really take away the same love from any of them as I do for Barco. It's just a different experience than the rest. Probably because I am older and super emo now. Shout out to Eleu, my uto queen. As for Barco itself, I mean, the only quad crown in uto history!! COME ON. We just love to war and have a good time, and typically we try not to stress too much. But sometimes this game can be frustrating!!

Congrats on that! Is that your kd goal every age?

Well, yes and no. We certainly don't play to whore and go for land every age. We are a warring first kingdom and if we do well at that early, we typically will push for the quad or triple or something. Today's kingdom landscape is pretty lacking, so the days of whoring and warring coexisting are kind of over. We definitely like to set the bar pretty high and see what we can do. It's hard to turn off the competitive drive. We also take into account irl things. I recently took a new job so it's been harder to play the way we want, and yeah, sometimes things fall during an age and you kind of adjust accordingly. It's nice to relax a bit, but like I said, it's hard to turn that competitiveness off completely!

Its ingrained. I have tried casual ages, it doesn't work for me. To what do you attribute the successes of your kd to?

That's a good question. I'm not really sure. I think we've been pretty innovative over the ages which has definitely led to some success. I think a big part of it too is the group of people we have. Most of us have all played together for so long we all just kind of know the routine. Organization and micro are a result of that which can be all the difference needed between two kingdoms. Truthfully, we don't have a lot of veteran players. We have a healthy mix of new and old and I think that keeps things fresh for everyone and there's always something to play for.

Is there a particular race combo that you love and find yourself always wanting to play?

I'm a smash and grab guy myself. I love the heavy hitters. Avian has always been a favourite. When I was solo, I think I played dwarf every age, so there's always been a soft spot for that. I've done the whole TM thing many times, but I always miss farming acres.

Do you have any suggestions to potential new players or existing players that might find themselves lost?

Get out while you still can! I think the utodiscord community is always willing to help if you are looking for it.

That is mean! Alot of us 'quit' and look, we are back at it.

Haha yep, uto is a cruel mistress.

If you could go back in time and give the 'newb' you one piece of advice, what would it be?

Other then to run? 40% TG is not a viable strat and releasing wizards DOES NOT help overpop.

I am trying hard not to laugh right now.

HAHA

Describe any funny or peculiar incidents that made you either laugh hysterically or had you wanting to throw your computer or phone out the window.

Oh jeez, there are many. When I went to sleep thinking the age was over and settling for a triple crown but waking up to see the kingdom who was #1 WW at the time declared war on someone and dropped enough points to give us the WW crown also. That was funny. A certain kingdoms war spoils wave on us then farming them. That was funny. Back in Identity Crisis when noh0 scripted a province into Glitter(?) so we could farm them again then all getting deleted. That was funny. I pretty much want to throw my computer out the window every war start between oops and unnecessary bounces. Oh the time I cast blizzard on someone and bounced him. That was funny too. There are plenty of kingdom discussions that have me laughing hysterically which make this game so much fun.

I think that is why I play this game and the people I play with. Anytime you can laugh at a screen and people around you wonder WTF, always makes me chuckle.

Do you want to talk about this last war against Hipmunks and what pushed you guys in the rankings?

In the early days I played this game for the game itself and trying to outplay people. Now I play the game more so for the people. Everyone in utopia nowadays have something in common in that we all share a love for this game. Whether we get along or not, we're all pretty similar in that sense. I love that about this game. There's usually a certain respect for one another, even through all the flaming.

Yeah, Hipmunks were the obvious choice for our next war. They had been sitting OOW for a little bit, but they were interested. We had already been planning to make a push, so getting that war was essential. We ended up playing quite well and having some good gains both land wise and honour wise.

Hipmunks has been doing super well the past few ages, many people were shocked the war wasn't a little tighter. What do you think was the advantage your kd had over Hipmunks?

Well, truthfully I thought it would be closer myself. I guess a few things come mind. We were just coming OOW so BE was nice and all that. They also suffered from some classic utopia bug at war start which left them without war ops right at the start and a normal relations dragon on us. I guess the rest of it came down to our strat of high def and not allowing them too much room to maneuver at the start. Then our avian attack time and better chaining range took over.

If you could sit down and have a drink with DavidC, what would you be drinking and what suggestions would you like to mention?

I think DavidC hates me because I msg him all the time about things i am frustrated about. I'd probably want to keep it light, maybe a Guinness, or a nice craft sour. If we start to get into it, i'd like maybe some gin cocktails or a negroni or something. I'd ask him to be more proactive with age changes and communication with the community. I have lots of concerns about this game, but simple communication is easy and it shouldn't be a problem we face continuously age in and out.

Anything you would like to add or any shout outs to any players?

I guess I'd just like to say thank you to everyone for making this game so enjoyable over the years even if it's lost me jobs, sleep, girlfriends, time, money, sobriety, etc. Shoutout to everyone in Barco and everyone else i've played with over the years. Cheers to many more ages of frustration and lack of sleep (at least, some part of me hopes this game continues in some form, i can't imagine life without it!)
Oh, i'd also ask DavidC to make another war tournament server. I've asked this a bunch of times already though!

Bonus question, and I hope you haven't cheated on this seeings I ask it in every interview and so far no one has gotten it correct. What is the airspeed of an unladen swallow?

56 mph?

Good guess but Wrong! -=tosses him off the bridge=- Thanks Maugrim for taking time out to talk to me. I wish you and Barco lots of luck in the future.

Thank you! This was fun!