Ouch: We are honored tonight to have SMITH the top socialite of Alter Aeon... system time is 812 pm Monday October 27th 2008...
Ouch: Good evening Smith !
Smith: Heh hi.
Smith: "inte" is the minimum to type for this channel.
Ouch: Oh thanks for telling me that :) It helps already :)
Ouch: I normally let people make initial comments but I'm going to jump right in with you....
Smith: Nod, good idea.
Ouch: How does one go about becoming top socialite (most liked player)?
Smith: I think the key is to just approach the game with a sense of fun.
Smith: Too many people sort of lose their way, where they play the game like total grumps, and end up lashing out at people.
Ouch: Do you see this happen often?
Smith: Oh yeah, every day I ask myself, why is that person bothering to play? They seem so miserable here.
Smith: The whole idea behind the xp channel is to really talk about how much fun mudding can be.
Smith: Of course it's impossible in a social game to never make anyone else mad, especially since it's hard to be friends with two people that hate each other.
Ouch: ha ha ha ha ha
Ouch: I'm laughing because you just answered another question I had planned down the line ha ha
(The next question)
Ouch: "One of your most brilliant ideas on A.A. is the channel XP. How did you come up with it?"
Smith: Oh that's a weird story but it gives me an opportunity to give a shout out to Meow.
Smith: He really taught me the most as a newbie and we'd go on runs all the time and I'd always bug him about getting xp xp xp!
Smith: And I just started a channel xp after bugging him one of those times.
Ouch: :)
Smith: It took a while for other people to join but it's been great since.
Smith: It's pretty much a mud channel now.
Ouch: Is there a single bulletin board in the game that does not have the words xp on it?
Smith: Heh yeah that's my signature line on boards, and of course there's my xp sack.
Ouch: Is that your weightless container?
Smith: Yeah.
Smith: More reflection that it's a game meant to be fun.
Ouch: How many channels are you admin or owner of?
Smith: Heh I don't know, lots I think.
Smith: I often forget until I say something like, hm that person is being an ass, I wonder if I can ban them.
Smith: And most of the time I can haha
Ouch: What's lots? 10? 20? 30?
Smith: Probably 10, it may seem like more.
Ouch: I'm willing to bet its more like 30.
Smith: Heh I think it just seems like more because it's most of the heavily used public channels.
Ouch: Have you ever banned anyone from any channel?
Smith: Oh yeah but extremely rarely.
Smith: One of my rules of mudding is that words are really not that big of a deal.
Smith: People say stuff all the time but it doesn't matter that much.
Ouch: Well who did you ban then? If words do not matter?
Smith: It's really about spam or flame wars that get spammy.
Smith: Like I don't care if someone insults me or if people insult each other, it's part of the game and no one should take it personally.
Smith: But spam gets in the way of playing the game, somewhat for sighted players but especially for blind players.
Ouch: Do you feel the blind players have the raw end from other players?
Smith: No I think almost everyone treats them as equals, there's just a few that don't and unfortunately that gets the most publicity.
Smith: Of course you'd have a better perspective on that from a blind person.
Smith: Dentin has absolutely no tolerance for blind abuse so that helps.
Please see the added note at the end of this interview for some additional comments regarding this question.
Ouch: You used to be a god of a MUD called Pirate's Cove. Can you tell us why you stopped?
Smith: Oh I used to be a god on a few different muds actually.
Smith: But it kind of came down to what I saw as a stark difference between playing and being a god.
Ouch: Which other ones as well?
Smith: Wildside, Eternal Flame, Wildside II
Ouch: Pirates Cove ... :)
Smith: All defunct now though Wildside and Pirates Cove were pretty big.
Ouch: Why did they die out?
Smith: The usual reasons, either the server was lost or the creator got burnt out and his replacements were ill-suited to run a mud.
Smith: I would like to say that Dentin is by far the best creator I've ever encountered.
Ouch: Do you admire Dentin for not burning out?
Smith: Yeah I do, I don't know how long he will be able to do it, I mean will he be 62 and still running a mud?
Smith: But yeah to keep changing and improving and still get excited about it while so many players come and go, it's pretty amazing.
Smith: But the reason I stopped being gods on other muds, and the reason I have no desire to be a god here, is that for me, being a god suddenly changes the mud from being fun to being a job, and I already have a job.
Ouch: In your professional opinion as a former god, do you believe that if anything happenned to Dentin, the team would be able to pick it up and make AA live?
Smith: Well I might get into trouble for saying this, but no, I can't see anyone with the temperment, will, patience, and skill that could continue it.
Smith: The only plus side is Dentin made many things self-regulating, like the ignore command is pure genius.
Ouch: You mean other muds do not have ignore?
Smith: Other muds may have ignore now but they sure didn't before, and gods had to be much more hands on.
Ouch: What made you come across AA in the first place? Why did you pick it as a MUD to play?
Smith: Heh well in 2002 I just thought I'd try mudding again and downloaded the Savitar client for mac and the first mud on the alphabetical list was Alter Aeon.
Smith: So if we were called Zalter Aeon I wouldn't be here probably.
Ouch: So you ended up here - eventually a pure legend - by happenstance?
Smith: Yep although of course I was looking for a diku/merc/envy style mud in any case, just to avoid a new learning curve.
Ouch: As a former god of other MUDs, what advice do you have for A.A.?
Smith: Well I'd say I have advice for A.A. gods, and that is, trust Dentin's vision, it's a good one.
Ouch: Are you disappointed there are no real pirate areas in Alter Aeon?
Smith: I think it would be a cool addition, like a lot of things would be cool additions.
Smith: I would love to port some really great areas here except it's so much work and I'm still having fun playing.
Ouch: I just want to let you know - while we are on that topic - how much of an inspiration you are playing wise.
Smith: Heh I do try to influence the mud in a positive way.
Smith: The culture of the mud was really terrible when I first started, and some of that still exists.Smith: I wanted people to be more happy.
Ouch: In that the culture led to a lot of unhappiness?
Smith: Well the culture was, screw other people, treat newbies like crap, drive people away, etc, all the things that are really not healthy in the long term for a mud.
Ouch: Well I'm going to say it as a question....
Ouch: You are total level maximum for each class - why do you still play? Is the game that interesting still?
Smith: Some things are still fun, and a lot of things are of course much, much, easier when you are at a high level, which is why I levelled so fast in the first place, to make other things easier.
Ouch: I mean are you still levelling skills and spells? Stats? Are there missions made just for total maxed out players?
Smith: No I've long ago maxed out everything, I do come on to talk and explore new areas and kill stuff and help people, it's still fun even though I've reached a lot of goals.
Smith: The process is fun.
Ouch: I noticed you study newbies a bit before you step in to help them out - out of the blue - at what point do you step in?
Smith: Oh I dunno I do try to help when I can, it depends more on if the request is reasonable and if I have time.
Smith: And I always try to answer questions of course, that part is easy.
Ouch: Has A.A. ever helped your real life research as a university professor?
Smith: Heh no, it's just for fun, the only spillover in real life is when I helped glorida's science project with my mutant seeds, and he won a scholarship for winning the science fair iirc
Ouch: How about the reverse? Has your research ever inspired anything in A.A.?
Smith: Nah there's not a lot of correlation between killing deep with 100 golems and figuring out the signaling processes that position organs in plant meristems.
Ouch: ha ha
Ouch: Is there a single person that you have on ignore?
Smith: Nope, I guess for the same reasons, I don't really care what people say to me and it doesn't affect me.
Smith: I look at it as if someone insults me, they're not insulting me, they're insulting Smith.
Smith: If I start a new character, everyone on the mud treats that character differently than they do Smith, so it's really a matter of character, not taking it personally.
Smith: I think if more people had that attitude a lot of things won't go out of control.
Ouch: Do you miss anything about the old A.A.?
Smith: No there are a few things that I would probably change, like the regen on this mud is much much slower.
Smith: Like who ever heard of negative hp regen while standing? Heh.
Smith: And the str/dex spell dents made things a little less fun.
Smith: But the vast majority of changes have made the mud much, much, better.
Smith: Like I actually enjoy seeing what is changed on reboots because it's pretty much always positive changes.
Ouch: What's the best improvement that you have seen?
Smith: Oh there's way too many to name, but one that stands out is that corpse retrieval was eliminated right after I started, and that correlated with a big uptick in newbies sticking around.
Smith: Corpse retrieval is always a bad idea on muds, like rent.
Smith: Or forced ppk.
Smith: It favors established players and discourages new players.
Ouch: What's corpse retrieval? A.A. is my first MUD so I have no idea what you are talking about...
Smith: Oh it's that when you die all your stuff, ALL of it, stays in your corpse.
Smith: So you have to go in naked into some ridiculously aggro area sometimes and pray you can get it back without dying many times.
Ouch: :)
Ouch: Like in Banished Lands?
Smith: Heh yeah like there, Wyvren is a big fan of CR.
Smith: Of course on many muds, nice high level players will help, but not here when I started haha
Ouch: How many groups of people have you seen come and go ?
Smith: I've seen several good friends stop playing, and I miss a lot of them, but I keep in touch with most of them on chat or facebook.
Smith: Some come back after very long absences, and that's always cool.
Ouch: :)
Ouch: Why did they stop?
Smith: Well various reasons, some started college which is pretty much incompatible with mudding.
Smith: Some just didn't want to keep levelling when it costs billions to level.
Ouch: But like you, they could have kept playing regardless of levelling right?
Smith: Yeah I think some people did that too.
Smith: A lot of people, including me, thought they'd stop levelling after a certain level, like 100, 110, 115, but each level makes you a better character.
Ouch: I can guess the answer to the next question but I'm going to ask it anyway...
Ouch: Have you ever been on the asshole list?
Smith: Heh well everyone is ranked on the asshole list, I just happen to be the lowest on the list most of the time.
Ouch: Were you the first to perform the two following: fish a single fish worth 126 000 experience? Backstab a mob so hard it took so much life that the life wrapped around and brought the mob back to life?
Smith: Heh I think Glorida is the master fisherman.
Smith: Tarrant wrapped a mobs hp before me but I was second I think, I've wrapped a few, it requires more than 32000 hp stab.
Ouch: Holy moley ! That's quite a backstab !
Smith: Heh it is fun.
Ouch: Speaking of fishing, when I was a newbie you helped me get the best fishing pole in the game - and I want to make that public to tell others the kind of person that you are. I still carry that pole with me by the way...
Ouch: Have you ever thought about going ppk?
Smith: No, and it's an easy reason I give people why I'm not: I don't have anyone I want to kill, and I don't really want to be killed.
Ouch: But you are living proof the game can be a tons of fun without killing other players.
Smith: Oh yeah and I'm hardly the first or the only one, Druid/Shorty, Craig, Watery (although he has a ppk character to scratch the itch I guess).
Ouch: Where is your favorite place in the game to play?
Smith: Oh I have various places I like for various different reasons...
Smith: For randoms I like milano, of course. Also, that's by far the best place for solo xp I think.
Smith: For puzzles, Void's areas are always great.
Smith: For pure joy of playing, Morph's are great.
Smith: For character interaction and lots of hidden puzzles, Draak's areas.
Smith: Many areas give a really great challenge even for top players.
Ouch: What direction do you see A.A. going in the future?
Smith: I hope that we get a much bigger player base, the more the merrier.
Smith: I'm always surprised when other people don't feel that way.
Smith: I hope of course we keep adding areas.
Smith: I don't really need a level 33 to keep me interested.
Smith: It's great the web site improvements too.
Ouch: What is your favorite thing about the game?
Smith: Heh I like killing stuff, that's always my first instinct.
Smith: Nothing like plowing through an area and looting corpses, it's good times.
Smith: Sorry if that is not sophisticated heh.
Ouch: Has your family or significant other ever complained you spend too much time on the game?
Smith: Well not too often, just pretty much every time I'm on the computer playing from home heh.
Ouch: ha ha
Smith: So can't log in from home for very long.
Smith: Maggie is not interested in the least in games or even computers, she is pretty helpless around them.
Ouch: Well Smith unfortunately we have to bring this to a close... cause I could ask you questions all night...
Smith: Heh thanks for the opportunity.
Ouch: As a conclusion I want to open the floor for you to share any advice you want with players / gods/ or make any statements you feel should be made.
Ouch: And I want to re-iterate how much of an inspiration you have been to so many players.
Smith: Well the main thing I want to leave people with is that when other people on the mud are having fun, you will have more fun.
Smith: But I think more and more people have seen things that way over the years I've been here.
Smith: And to gods, don't forget to keep playing your mortals, because we always like to have good players.
Ouch: This was the top socialite SMITH and creator of the channel XP for an interview with The Ralnoth Times... Monday October 27th 2008 ... closing time is 910 pm...
Ouch: Smith... Thanks again and it may be a bit early but happy birthday !!! :)
Smith: Heh happy birthday to you haha
Ouch: In case we don't see each other tommorrow
Ouch: :)
Special Note: Following the interview, The Ralnoth Times investigated the ownership matter and confirmed that Smith is currently an owner or an admin or an avatar of at least 27 channels in the game. Specifically, Smith is an owner of the following channels: xp, blood, morphred, baseball, rydia, smith, interview, bd, toraxites, quad, bragging. Specifically, Smith is an admin of the following channels: samon, ouch, lexicon, newbie, eternal, dw, bh, dreams, form, joke, avatar. Specifically, Smith is an Avatar of the following channels: gossip, auction, bovine, shout, chat. There is no other player in the game that is an owner/admin of that many channels. Of the front page listing, his ownership extends to 10 channels, so half (50%) of the most used channels are his to administer. Also, Smith has never been banned from a single one of the 165 channels that currently exist in Alter Aeon.
| Interview with the top asshole player: Rydia (Vivi). | Interview with the top socialite player: Smith. |