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Thread: Heavenly interview

  1. #1
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    Heavenly interview

    well so who is heaven?
    Bart of Sparta! obviously!

    how is your age going so far?
    It's been a quiet age. Decided to "take an age off" and play in a ghetto. Joined an 18-prov KD with some of the old Spartans who didn't want to whore (they basically just want to do whatever they want without me telling them they shouldn't) and I'm not building it slowly into a real Kingdom. At the start it was quite rough because said Kingdom only used utochat, forums and a wapp group with about 8 people. I had to take things slow and introduce new things at a speed they could deal with. Now we're slowly getting more attendance and people are growing fond of using slack-chat. I don't do the leading of the wars myself, I leave that to others. We chose tough battles (WSK, TBB and TNB) to learn. At the same time it allowed me to see which players were good material going forward (those not QQing in the face of adversity). At the same time I'm keeping my Spartans from fighting each other while signing good CF deals for them with the other tops. I still advise them on stuffz but really they're doing most on their own now. Good to see they're doing a good job in the Pandas war without me leading in any form.
    All in all, it has been a more relaxing age. Less tensions and less late-night diplo sessions. Let's hope we/I can keep it that way!

    so the thing everyone really wants to know, how is marriage treating you?
    I am not married yet. However, I have been together with my soon-to-be- wife for 6 years now. Love at first sight as people call it! No real "dating" or anything. Just met her and the second time we met we basically felt like being a couple already. Marrying won't really change that much, apart from the fact I will lose about half my networth should she decide to leave me! However it's a risk I'm willing to take as I am deeply in love with her and she's very loyal as well. All in all a match made in Heaven!

    how long have you been playing utopia?
    Hmm. Hard to say really. I think I was in second grade when I first started. Played in some super-ghetto's but was mostly busy flaming people (in a less nuanced way than nowadays). I then landed in a kingdom called The Dictators. I remember the monarch was called Muammar Al Qhadaffi and that the TM-leader was a woman. After a while I fell out with her and I was probably removed from the kingdom. Will admit though that I had no clue what I was doing. That was like 12-13 years ago I'd say. In the years afterwards I"d play 1-2 ages somewhere and then stop for a while. Remember having the biggest province in Genesis for a while until I got deleted. It happened because I asked a KD-mate for his username/password, then got a friend in to change his details! Sad day! About 6-7 years ago I joined Spartans and had some great fun there, becoming leader for ~2 ages before quitting uto again. My last stint is my current stint. Returned to uto about 2.5 years ago, found Sparta (and found it to be an utter ghetto). Rebuilt it over the course of a few ages and managed to produce some results recently!

    what keeps you coming back to uto?
    it used to be the math! I loved to tweak stuff and build perfect provinces. Math math math that was all it for me. That is how I approached leadership at first as well. I figured that since I was smartest in the kingdom people should just blindly copy whatever I would conjure up. It would go well for a while but once I wasn't there be "da luan" (a big mess!). After our WW crown age I took an age off in the Forsaken Knighthood, still keeping an eye on Sparta. I noticed that in my absence others stepped up and do stuff. At the same time I was reading a lot of books and articles on leadership strategies and especially how to foster an entrepreneurial environment where people would be able to work with autonomy. That's mostly what I'm experimenting with, and I believe the key to long-term success is not to turn people into mindless peons following orders, but to turn them into individual thinkers. Once I realized that Strato's posts also started to make more sense. My adage now goes: "I cannot teach you how to walk, I can teach where to tread and where not!". Not only does it make your Kingdom more self-running, it also makes people feel more invested and happy playing this game. I really hope more people will realize this as I'm seeing too many burned is very much possible to play a fun game while also getting results!

    if you could change one thing in utopia what would it be?
    Hmm, tricky one! Mechanics-wise I would do something to combat the importance of OOR/UB provs and the near-universal snowball mechanisms in the game (other than OOW whoring, in which there is some form of catch-up logistic at work). Mentality-wise, I'd ask people to take a chill-pill, especially those in the top that seem to derive their status from playing in a "big Kingdom". Just because you are better at utopia, it doesn't make you a better person. Ignoring diplo from well-meaning fellow players or talking about the lower-tier as food is a disqualification of yourself. The leader of BoL or Wishmasters is as deserving as Protector or Binar. I understand that a certain group of players has either played together or in direct competition with each other for the top spots for a long time and have therefore developed some sort of common culture and comradship (as is evidenced by the joint policing of "things they disapprove of"). However, you're the minority. The majority of this game is made up of "others"!

    who is /was your mentor?
    too many to name really! My biggest mentor in Sparta was Zume/Equillibrium. I think he had a past in Jerks. He turned me into an expert province-player. There was Spartan of Shadows too, he taught me a lot. When I came back there were many that helped me. Protector, Zauper, Mango. Blizz opened by eyes to the amount of dirty **** happening in uto. Persain was my favourite poster in the strategy section, learnt a lot from him. Francis also knows his stuff and has been an inspiration (too bad he is no longer so fond of me!). I already mentioned Strato, he's also been a great inspiration. In my own Kingdom there is Makka. He's the biggest troll I have ever met, and he has been the great inspiration behind my surge to forum-fame in the last half year or so. He simply taught me to troll on a whole new level, and it is working!

    and who do you consider utopias best current player besides yourself?
    Astron (from BB)

    if you could give one piece of advice to a new player , what would that be?
    Patience. Patience. Patience. Do not expect to become good at this game within a week, a month, or even a year. Lose a war, lose two, lose three. Lose all wars for 2 ages in a row. Grow big and get dropped down. Eat it all, chew on it and learn form your mistakes how to do better. The most important is a strong bonding with the kingdom you're in, and success or failure should be completely irrelevant when it comes to that!

    anything else you would like people to know about you or your kingdom?
    Hmmm... other than that Sparta is the greatest kingdom in the history of Utopia, not really sure. Perhaps one characteristic should be highlighted, and that is our perseverance. No matter what the server throws at us, we keep going. If you mess with us, you better damn well make sure you watch your back for the next few weeks! Perhaps that relates to a personal characteristic, and that has a lot to do with respect. When someone sends me a message in-game, no matter if it's a random from a 10-prov kingdom or the leader of a top-KD, I give both the same consideration and time (granted, I sometimes do forget to answer my name, especially recently since I'm quite distracted). When people don't answer my mail and think ignoring diplo is cool, they're generally in for something!

    that it ?

    thank you so much This interview took place during one heck of a busy day and Bart aka Heaven proved the patience of an angel during it as I was constantly afk in between questions.

  2. #2
    I like to post MyNameIsMatija's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Goodwitch View Post
    and who do you consider utopias best current player besides yourself?
    Astron (from BB)
    Tough call, but yes definitely ONE OF the best overall players in BB atm, probably tied with a couple of others.
    Age 65 - FreeakStyle - FeyrPlay Alliance Win - Dwarves Stole My Bike
    Age 66 - FreeakStyle - #1 Honor & Warring Kingdom - Making FS Great Again
    Age 67 - BeastBlood - #1 Honor Human(Prince) - Steve from Walmart
    Age 68 - BeastBlood ft OldSchool - #1 Honor Kingdom & Avian - We Are All Feyr
    Age 69 - Ancient Spartans - #1 Kingdom in The History of Utopia - Clever Use of Words
    Age 70 - Ancient Spartans - #1 Land(25325 acres) & NW Faery - Spartan of Redeeming Qualities

  3. #3
    Veteran Nim's Avatar
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    Nice read.
    PEW PEW PEW!

  4. #4
    Veteran texn's Avatar
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    Good one! Keep up the good work!
    Played in Freeakstyle from 2009 to age 72 (2017) <3 - 7honor 1war crown | On a break

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