Quick Note: I did not conduct this interview. It was done by a friend of Maddy's. I asked for a name and was denied lol. Any and all credit goes to him, I am just posting it. Enjoy
Having seen the efforts that have gone into utopia by a guy, I thought that although interviewing a bunch of utopia's super-egos has some amusement factor, it would be even better to interview the guy doing the interviews. Therefore, I proudly present my In The View with none other than Mad_Scottish!
Interviewdude: so who are you and where are you from?
My name is Kris, I am 27 and I am from Scotland, UK
Interviewdude: how long have you played utopia? and how did you come across the game?
I've been playing utopia since 1999. I cant remember which age it was I joined but I do remember boats and I played with boats for a few ages. I only really messed around back then as I went to boarding school, so access to computers was limited. It was a friend that introduced me to the game and I started messing about with it. I was rugby captain at school so I thought I was too cool to play the game initially.
Interviewdude: ok i was going to ask about boats, but you answered that
Interviewdude: can you tell me about the KD you started in?
I cant really remember which kingdom I started in. I literally only messed about at the very beginning. The first actual kingdom name I can remember playing with was a kingdom called CideEffectz. I have subsequetly moved around a lot to try and learn different tactics and to understand the game on different levels. The kingdoms that I remember playing in that most will know will be FairyTales HaJ, Glitter NoX, Equilibrium of Absalom and Harmony
Interviewdude: can you tell me when you first joined haj?
That was the end of age 28. I was brought into HaJ by a guy called Ciprian who used to lead a kingdom called Nerds. They were actually a fairly decent mid-tier kingdom back then, bearing in mind this is 6 years ago now. I have stayed since although spending time with different kingdoms that were part of different alliances.
Interviewdude: can you tell me if you like a certain style of play? say TM or attacker etc, and if you have developed in that field?
As far as I can remember I have only ever played attacker or hybrid. Not attacking was something I really couldn't bear to do. It has always been something I have considered extremely boring. Having played with the kingdoms I did, they taught me hybrid is always the way to go and I have since kept to that idealogy. I have been monarch for a long time which means that I tend to play a/t simply due to the fact that I like to be the one controlling the intel ops so that I know the info first hand.
Interviewdude: when where you first monarch and is there anything you want to say about being monarch apart from the sleeplessness?
I took over monarchy in CideEffectz, which would have been around age 16 or something (unless I am having a major memory blank). I was very nub when I first took over monarchy as I was only active and didn't really offer much else. However, over the ages and having played in different kingdoms and understanding the game mechanics a lot better, it has turned me into a much better monarch, or certainly I like to think so haha
Interviewdude: its no big secret that your the leader of haj, can i ask some questions about the alliance?
yeah, ask away
Interviewdude: haj has been looked down at as a noob alliance and was frequently heavily critisized, is there anything you want to tell us about that?
I think that ultimately HaJ never really helped herself in that light. We have always had a few kingdoms that could compete but more often than not we had a lot of kingdoms that were simply making up numbers. This meant that when they were warring and getting farmed, that was the general perception that a lot of kingdoms had of the alliance, which naturally, makes us look very weak. There are a lot of various issues that arise and how some of the stigmas carry over from age to age. A lot of people have been waved by HaJ kingdoms in the past, then were maybe waved by another HaJ kingdom soon after, thus developing a perception of us as bullies. We had that problem last age (age 50), where hits were overlapping a lot. We always tag up so when things do get a bit tight and intense, we get nagative "press" for it. We also didnt help ourselves with some very very stupid conflicts that made the alliance look really nub. The BruteForce conflict being the best example, that was embarrassing.
Interviewdude: i know you stepped down from haj leadership for a time and then came back, can you give any insight to that?
I stepped down at the end of age 46. I had lost a lot of energy for the game and was seriously annoyed with the CB - SoT change and in a lot of ways it was the final straw that just tipped me over the edge that little bit further. I needed time away from the game to basically decide if I really wanted to continue playing but also to find out what I wanted my focus to be and allow me to gain a fresh perspective on things.
Interviewdude: but you did return
I found from having had the time away, I quit partly because I was so consumed by trying to keep building under the same kingdom name, which at the time was FairyTales of HaJ.
It was taking a lot of energy and the continued player turn over was driving me crazy. Combined with doing what I do within HaJ and I tend to micromanage (which cranks up the stress), so I was just utterly burnt out. I needed the age away from the game and all the people and the responsibility and what was increasing becoming just one huge big obligation with minimal fun factor.
Coming back into the game, I wanted to build a completely new kingdom, which is called Harmony,we are 4 ages old now. It allowed me to start fresh with some new people and it removed a lot of the burden or trying to maintain a certain standard all the time. It was refreshing and brought a lot more fun into the game for me. I am a lot happier in terms of utopia and HaJ is my home within the game. When I returned to playing it was just logical that I came back to help lead the alliance due to my history and the fact I have been involved as Commander since age 38.
Interviewdude: you are a well known figure with connections to a lot of people in uto, and I wager over time you have had to kill off a fair few players, how do you feel about that?
Mostly any province killing has tied into alliance wars which always drag in a lot more people. Despite what a lot of leaderships may say, there always seems to be a hunger for huge wars on the server. Friendships are always two fold but over the ages, some have definitely fractured and we have went separate ways. Given what previous players have said to me about our (HaJ) interactions within the game, I think because I tend to just be me and try and play honestly, it tends to go down well. Although I know there are plenty that probably dislike me! That is just part and parcel of life as it is within Utopia.
inteviewdude: do you feel utopia is becoming a"elitest" game? there where many changes since mehul. can you comment on how it has changed the game? for yourself and alliance members?
I dont think it has become elitest, i just think the casual people have been chased away due to a huge catalogue of errors within the game and the stability issues we had when the beta code was rolled out by Brian and Sean combined with what was initally very bad management of the community by OMAC when they took over ownership of swirve. I think that the people that stayed around are the "hardcore" people that just want to keep playing, like the community and have good friendships within the game. Also, I think that utopia is very difficult to come into, as the game is more of a lifestyle than just simply a game, new players have to get on irc, get into pimp or set up on bots etc. There is a very very sharp and steep learning curve which I think probably scares a lot of people off because it probably overloads them. I dont think utopia strikes anyone coming into it that it can just be played casually because of the fact that most people within the game know the activity is a must. If you are wanting to just play casually, this isnt going to interest you.
Interviewdude: it was a time many good KD's collapsed if i remember
a lot of kingdoms merged as well as disbanding mostly due to people quiting, typically some of the keystone leadership members. I think there was a little bit of a brain drain within the game as the better players congregate within the same kingdoms which has had a greater impact within the game in terms of player retention as there is less experience outside of the top 50 or even the top 100.
Interviewdude: do you know personally real life people from utopia?
I know quite a few people from utopia, having met and shared a few beers! Mostly those from HaJ given the fact I have been so heavily involved with the alliance for such a sustained period of time.
Interviewdude: we can agree that OMAC purchasing Utopia was a disaster?
OMAC taking over and their handling of the community initially was fairly poor but I am not sure that with the errors that followed their take over, they were ever given the chance to rectify them. Too little happened and a huge break down in communication turned the player base on them very quickly. The "mob rule" effect took over and everyone just wanted to see them lynched. Thankfully Brian and Sean kept the code and the game going after the game was dropped and we have seen it become more stable and we still have utopia to play, which I am thankful to them for.
Interviewdude: you decided to interview people, why? you have played a long time but continue to surprise us with your initiative. how did you get the interviews and war articles posted on the front page?
My involvement is part of a larger project with palem, bishop and a couple of others. Bishop has the admin clearance to get the links up on the throne page which has been great and certainly enabled us to get much greater coverage of the articles within the forums, which has always been the ultimate goal combined with developing the community. Palem was equally interested in getting a utopia news team set up and having reported for the alliance rankings website for so long when that was up and running, I carried over a lot of the formats from that site and the things that I did for them. I knew what people were interested in, interviews and war articles always go down well.
We have certainly managed to get the boards a bit busier which was the overall objective.
Interviewdude: so is your involvement a way of reminising about the old alliancerankings site?
I think that the community missed a good site for news and articles and events going on within the game and certainly my hope is that as we build the uto forums news team up and we get more people involved we can do this on a far great level.
Interviewdude: what would you as a long term player and alliance leader want to say to new players?
Utopia is a game of perseverence, you wont get it right away. You need to stick at it for a bit and try to understand how things work. It is not an easy game to get into, but once you do, it is a lot of fun. STICK AT IT!!
Interviewdude: is there anything i missed that you would like to say?
I think it has had a good breath of questions and it has been fun being under the spot light as opposed to the one directing that light.
Interviewdude: thank you mad_scottish , i hope you interview many more utopian lunatics in future.
1 last question.
Interviewdude: what do you think about the killings in norway?
I think the killings in norway were horrible. It was an act conducted by what is clearly a very evil and sick person that has warped his political views in an attempt to justify his actions that led to the massacre of innocent lives.
inteviewdude: thank you for your time
the in teh view guy would like to point out that tho he is called kris any similarities between the utopian player and the 45.acp machinegun from tdi are coincidental.
Reply With Quote
