For those who don't know, Palem is a forum moderator and the founder of The Faery Circle. Please enjoy the following interview.
Ok, thanks for agreeing to an interview. The first question may be the most important: What is a Palem?
lol. A Palem isn't anything. I used to go by "Pale Mccoy", but the old Utopia logins only allowed 8 characters, so that got shortened to palemcco, and eventually I decided to make a new name out of that and just shortened it to Palem.
Haha, that's awesome. Speaking of the old days, how did you discover Utopia?
My buddy introduced me to Earth 2025. I played that for a while. Eventually I got curious about Utopia so I tried it. First time I played, I absolutely hated it. Went back to Earth for a bit but got bored eventually and quit.
What led you back to Utopia?
After that another buddy of mine started playing Utopia and that awful thing that drags you back to Utopia got a hold of me, so I tried it again and luckily I landed in a KD with a friendly monarch who was patient enough to teach me the basics. And so it began...
Nice. That leads into my next question: Was there any one player, or perhaps a kingdom, that helped you in learning the game?
Eh, I learned a bit here and there, but my real mentors weren't anyone "famous" in Utopia. The first was a monarch named "Fuzzimus". He helped me solidify the basics of the game and he was the first prov I had every played with that hit 1 mil nw. After that was a monarch named "Duncan" and really the whole KD. They taught me the finer points of warring like chaining and such. I played with them for a long time until Duncan just went inactive one day and after that I tried to take monarchy over, but the KD fell apart.That taught me the importance of a real leader.
Well I think we all know you as a real leader of The Faery Circle (TFC) now, but were you ever a consistent part of any other established kingdoms throughout your career?
Well, I was part of the quasi-known Mythos for a while, but other than that not really. I've always been a casual player. Before trading was legalized I had always refused to cheat, even if it was socially accepted. But since then it's just a matter of me not really caring enough. Maybe one day I'll join a serious KD and make a crown run, but for now I just like enjoying the game from a couple logins a day.
Well will we be seeing TFC make a crown run?
Very unlikely. On top of all Faeries just being a terrible setup, we're just a fun casual KD. I was incredibly pleased with our 6/5 finish and that's about as good of a finish as TFC could prolly muster. At least with me at the wheel lol.
That was impressive... will you be accepting Humans into TFC anytime soon?
Not unless they sprout wings.
So I don't think we have to get into what your favorite race is, but if you had to pick your favorite between Thief and Mage, what would it be and why?
Prolly Mage. When I originally signed up for the game, I chose Faery (shocking) and I wanted to be a mage.
What do you do when you're not playing Utopia, in other words, who is the RL Palem?
Eh, I'm just a simple college kid. I like my friends and music...and Utopia.
How did you become a forum moderator?
Eh, just a very active forum troll. When Bishop was asking for volunteers, I threw my name in the hat. I suppose just the fact that I was pretty active and mostly sensible about things made me qualified to moderate the rowdy bunch that our community is lol.
How do you feel about the job? Pros and cons?
Well, there really aren't too many pros of the job other than contributing to the game (sorta lol). The cons are pretty numerous though. People see that green name and their eyes go black with hate lol. I try to do my best, but it's a pretty thankless job, which is ok because I wasn't thanking the mods when I was the one trolling lol.
Should I even get you started on what you think they should do differently with the war win chart?
Sure. The only real issue I have with it is that it doesn't take into account who you war and until it does it will remain worthless in most people's opinions. Beating 8 bad KDs is not as worthy as beating 5 good ones.
Maybe we need someone from the BCS to implement a system lol.
The BCS is worse than the war win chart lol.
If you had to identify one self-spell that encompassed Palem as a whole, what would it be and why?
lol. Love and Peace definitely
Hahaha, classic. Is there anything else you'd like to say for the record?
I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving or a regular Thursday for the non-Americans. Best of luck to everyone for the age and TFC ftw.
But before you go one last question. You mentioned that "awful" thing that drags you back to Utopia. What do you think it is about this game that has that affect on people?
It's definitely a mix between Utopia just being so unique and fun, and the community. I've tried to quit a couple times, but you really can't quit the game until you're truly ready to leave it all behind you. If you come sniffing around the forums every now and then you?re bound to create a "junk" prov to check things out in game and the next thing you know you're back playing full time.
I agree, well thanks for taking the time and for being my first interview, Palem. Good luck with the age.
You too, Petey.
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Originally Posted by VT2
