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Was looking for something else, found this in my archives. Note the date of the original article:
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February 5th, 2001
1) First off, please tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from, how old are you, what's your real name, male/female, what are your goals in life?
I'm 22, (male) I was born in Des Moines, Iowa and lived in Des Moines or Iowa City my whole life until last week when I moved to Brooklyn, NY. I want to find a job that basically requires me to be creative. Something fun and creative that pays the bills and then some. If that doesn't work out, I'd like to find a box of money.
2) Do you work/go to school? If so what do you do/what school do you go to if you go to university.
I attended University of Iowa and Kirkwood College in Iowa City, but dropped out to move to NYC and find something I enjoy doing. So I picked up a table waiting job out here until I find my calling.
3) How long have you been playing Subspace, how long have you been playing Trench Wars? How did you find out about Subspace?
An old friend showed me subspace about 5 years ago, I played a lot back then on the multi-weapon levels, I believe Chaos and Alpha, but I confess I don't really remember. I got a computer last year and went looking for subspace. I didn't really recognize any of the levels so I think I tried Death Star Battle first because it had so many people there, but it was a stupid level so I tried the next highest populated zone, Trench Wars. I've been playing TW ever since...
4) So you're the leader of Pallies right? Tell me a little bit about your squad. What's it's history? Who's in it? What are your goals?
My friend Andy (RogerMexico) also took a real interest in TW with me when i started playing. He's a real rectangle eater. I wasn't sure that I was interested in squad play but I was approached by Apocalypse squad and joined them. It was a poorly organized squad and I was the best player after having played a few months, which was distressing. Still I was excited about the idea of squad play so I stuck with it for a while. After an annoying weekend of forfeit I quit the squad and went on to the independent route. Played a lot of elim and assimilated some of the better players' skills into my game. After a shortlived stint on the Xorce squad, RogerMexico and I decided to start our own squad. We smoke a lot of herb and really cheesy things are funny to us, so we took the name "Pallies" from an episode of HBO's Mr. Show with Bob and David (a brilliant sketch comedy show that you should all check out). We paired up with some friends of ours from Iowa City who weren't as active in TW at the time, jager, concreteschlyrd, renraw dc, and began to recruit. Who's in the squad?
Divine Rides, RogerMexico, e_mex, bloodzombie, Maan!!, laurden, Magic Monkey, Boo-Meringue, Dalai Lama, Hiderz, PuNks, Sexual Misadventure, Tin Foil Man, Kiddos, deathrow, Jedi*Knight, KAT1975, Apollo75, straker, Mr. Spam, Flabin, ONO... a couple others, I have been out of the game during my move and RogerMexico and Bloodzombie (the co captains) have done some recruiting. Some of those players on not active with us in league play either. We got one TWBL game in last season, but basically this is our first season in TWLeagues.
Our goals basically include winning and beating some old established squads. We don't want to be unrealistic about our status, but we have a pretty clutch top 7 or 8 guys that can hang with the big boys. We want to make sure we're on both TWDL and TWBL pyramids at the end of the year. At this point we feel we can be level three on both.
5) Are there certain things that you look for when recruiting new people to your squad?
We started the squad with some very idealistic views on recruitment, as we've emerged as a pretty good squad we've gotten a little more strict in our decisions. Basically we look for the obvious factors, good shot, good performances in elim/dm, innovative flying and shooting. We also look for people who play a lot or have evident potential. Newer players that play a lot can be an asset to a squad as they are always improving. It seems like once a player gets on a squad he starts to play the game a little more seriously and potential in an independent player can blossom quickly. We also look for rectangle eaters.
6) What leagues is your squad playing in?
We were really only interested in TWDL and TWBL, we recently signed up for TWJL but we aren't prioritizing it. We're currently level 4 on the TWDL and level 3 on the TWBL pyramids.
7) As a squad captain yourself do you have any advice for newbie captains out there about what to do?
When you first start building the foundation of your squad you have to look for a few things, find people that play a lot, try to find people who aren't being offered spots on other squads, you'll need patient people who don't mind laying the groundwork. Try to find people you can relate to as well, if you're 22 and smoke lots of pot you're probably not going to want to recruit a bunch of 13 year old kids from Finland. It definitely helps if you have a friend to help you co captain from the start. Patience is key, it takes time to get better players on your team. If you're good with computers it always helps to have a baddass website or other inviting elements to your squad.
8) Where do you play most often, pub or elim?
I go in spurts where all I want to play is elim or all I want to play is base, I'd say 50/50.
9) What complaints do you have about pub?
The point of public is the flagbase, sometimes there's 30 people in an arena and 10 of them are actually working for the base. The other twenty are having pissing contests in spawn area. A lot of the better players won't play public because there are so many new players and it's a frustrating combination of spawn killing and not knowing their ship role. The newbie swarm is part of public's charm though, I think if the older players would do a better job of explaining protocol and strategy instead of calling players "newbies" or "lamers" the game might be better. It's frustrating because you realize how fantastic the base game is when you get into TWBL, it's fast, intense and crazy. Maybe the older players should designate a public arena to be the place to go for more advanced basing. I don't know, the public areas fall under much more criticism from the old schoolers, there's clearly room for improvment but it's generally a really fantastic place to play, with more depth and dynamic than the elims.
10) What complaints do you have about elim?
Elim is a giant, every man for himself elimination tournament. It is not a place for people to have one on one duels. The worst part about elim is the players who constantly bitch about "vulching". They want to have some little corner of the grid to themselves to duel with someone else while another player waits for them to finish. Ridiculous. If you can't multi-task, you're not a good player. It's a dogfight, not a duel. Shut up and play.
11) Have you read Epi's Rants about the problems in TW and do you agree with them?
A couple of them. The thing is that so many of the problems (that I mentioned and you've mentioned) that are posted so often are the same problems over and over again. Seems like once a month some older player has "had enough" and quits. These problems don't get solved they just continue to get rehashed on the tw.com board. I think players just get frustrated and find elements of the game that aren't flawless and focus their frustrations on that. I'm just worried that a lot of these issues can't be corrected so we should just learn to live with them.
12) If you were sysop what would you change in this zone?
Deathmatch would be a 24/7 event like elim. I think deathmatch is the best of the tw sub-games and it's sad how rarely it's played. I would also take levs out of the game. They bring nothing to the game.
13) Who are your best friends in SS?
That's tought to call, clearly the guys that I know in real life, RogerMexico, ConcreteSchlyrd, jager, Renraw are favorites. I really like all the guys on my squad, bloodzombie and e_mex are amongst my favorites, they have been with us from the start. I used to play with Trollock of Paladen squad a lot, he's in China or something but he's one of my favorites. Mr. 420, Sandy B, Gryll... shit I hate this question because I'm automatically going to leave people off... I refuse to answer further.
14) Who do you respect?
All the great players on the good squads that don't act like elitist pricks. Final and Paladen have always been cool to me. I respect the shit out of PoU he's a nice guy and he's helped me more than once. Most of the staff is pretty cool about making the game better for everyone. I've never paid for a shoe shine, I mean, the whole idea of it is ridiculous to me.
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February 5th, 2001
1) First off, please tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from, how old are you, what's your real name, male/female, what are your goals in life?
I'm 22, (male) I was born in Des Moines, Iowa and lived in Des Moines or Iowa City my whole life until last week when I moved to Brooklyn, NY. I want to find a job that basically requires me to be creative. Something fun and creative that pays the bills and then some. If that doesn't work out, I'd like to find a box of money.
2) Do you work/go to school? If so what do you do/what school do you go to if you go to university.
I attended University of Iowa and Kirkwood College in Iowa City, but dropped out to move to NYC and find something I enjoy doing. So I picked up a table waiting job out here until I find my calling.
3) How long have you been playing Subspace, how long have you been playing Trench Wars? How did you find out about Subspace?
An old friend showed me subspace about 5 years ago, I played a lot back then on the multi-weapon levels, I believe Chaos and Alpha, but I confess I don't really remember. I got a computer last year and went looking for subspace. I didn't really recognize any of the levels so I think I tried Death Star Battle first because it had so many people there, but it was a stupid level so I tried the next highest populated zone, Trench Wars. I've been playing TW ever since...
4) So you're the leader of Pallies right? Tell me a little bit about your squad. What's it's history? Who's in it? What are your goals?
My friend Andy (RogerMexico) also took a real interest in TW with me when i started playing. He's a real rectangle eater. I wasn't sure that I was interested in squad play but I was approached by Apocalypse squad and joined them. It was a poorly organized squad and I was the best player after having played a few months, which was distressing. Still I was excited about the idea of squad play so I stuck with it for a while. After an annoying weekend of forfeit I quit the squad and went on to the independent route. Played a lot of elim and assimilated some of the better players' skills into my game. After a shortlived stint on the Xorce squad, RogerMexico and I decided to start our own squad. We smoke a lot of herb and really cheesy things are funny to us, so we took the name "Pallies" from an episode of HBO's Mr. Show with Bob and David (a brilliant sketch comedy show that you should all check out). We paired up with some friends of ours from Iowa City who weren't as active in TW at the time, jager, concreteschlyrd, renraw dc, and began to recruit. Who's in the squad?
Divine Rides, RogerMexico, e_mex, bloodzombie, Maan!!, laurden, Magic Monkey, Boo-Meringue, Dalai Lama, Hiderz, PuNks, Sexual Misadventure, Tin Foil Man, Kiddos, deathrow, Jedi*Knight, KAT1975, Apollo75, straker, Mr. Spam, Flabin, ONO... a couple others, I have been out of the game during my move and RogerMexico and Bloodzombie (the co captains) have done some recruiting. Some of those players on not active with us in league play either. We got one TWBL game in last season, but basically this is our first season in TWLeagues.
Our goals basically include winning and beating some old established squads. We don't want to be unrealistic about our status, but we have a pretty clutch top 7 or 8 guys that can hang with the big boys. We want to make sure we're on both TWDL and TWBL pyramids at the end of the year. At this point we feel we can be level three on both.
5) Are there certain things that you look for when recruiting new people to your squad?
We started the squad with some very idealistic views on recruitment, as we've emerged as a pretty good squad we've gotten a little more strict in our decisions. Basically we look for the obvious factors, good shot, good performances in elim/dm, innovative flying and shooting. We also look for people who play a lot or have evident potential. Newer players that play a lot can be an asset to a squad as they are always improving. It seems like once a player gets on a squad he starts to play the game a little more seriously and potential in an independent player can blossom quickly. We also look for rectangle eaters.
6) What leagues is your squad playing in?
We were really only interested in TWDL and TWBL, we recently signed up for TWJL but we aren't prioritizing it. We're currently level 4 on the TWDL and level 3 on the TWBL pyramids.
7) As a squad captain yourself do you have any advice for newbie captains out there about what to do?
When you first start building the foundation of your squad you have to look for a few things, find people that play a lot, try to find people who aren't being offered spots on other squads, you'll need patient people who don't mind laying the groundwork. Try to find people you can relate to as well, if you're 22 and smoke lots of pot you're probably not going to want to recruit a bunch of 13 year old kids from Finland. It definitely helps if you have a friend to help you co captain from the start. Patience is key, it takes time to get better players on your team. If you're good with computers it always helps to have a baddass website or other inviting elements to your squad.
8) Where do you play most often, pub or elim?
I go in spurts where all I want to play is elim or all I want to play is base, I'd say 50/50.
9) What complaints do you have about pub?
The point of public is the flagbase, sometimes there's 30 people in an arena and 10 of them are actually working for the base. The other twenty are having pissing contests in spawn area. A lot of the better players won't play public because there are so many new players and it's a frustrating combination of spawn killing and not knowing their ship role. The newbie swarm is part of public's charm though, I think if the older players would do a better job of explaining protocol and strategy instead of calling players "newbies" or "lamers" the game might be better. It's frustrating because you realize how fantastic the base game is when you get into TWBL, it's fast, intense and crazy. Maybe the older players should designate a public arena to be the place to go for more advanced basing. I don't know, the public areas fall under much more criticism from the old schoolers, there's clearly room for improvment but it's generally a really fantastic place to play, with more depth and dynamic than the elims.
10) What complaints do you have about elim?
Elim is a giant, every man for himself elimination tournament. It is not a place for people to have one on one duels. The worst part about elim is the players who constantly bitch about "vulching". They want to have some little corner of the grid to themselves to duel with someone else while another player waits for them to finish. Ridiculous. If you can't multi-task, you're not a good player. It's a dogfight, not a duel. Shut up and play.
11) Have you read Epi's Rants about the problems in TW and do you agree with them?
A couple of them. The thing is that so many of the problems (that I mentioned and you've mentioned) that are posted so often are the same problems over and over again. Seems like once a month some older player has "had enough" and quits. These problems don't get solved they just continue to get rehashed on the tw.com board. I think players just get frustrated and find elements of the game that aren't flawless and focus their frustrations on that. I'm just worried that a lot of these issues can't be corrected so we should just learn to live with them.
12) If you were sysop what would you change in this zone?
Deathmatch would be a 24/7 event like elim. I think deathmatch is the best of the tw sub-games and it's sad how rarely it's played. I would also take levs out of the game. They bring nothing to the game.
13) Who are your best friends in SS?
That's tought to call, clearly the guys that I know in real life, RogerMexico, ConcreteSchlyrd, jager, Renraw are favorites. I really like all the guys on my squad, bloodzombie and e_mex are amongst my favorites, they have been with us from the start. I used to play with Trollock of Paladen squad a lot, he's in China or something but he's one of my favorites. Mr. 420, Sandy B, Gryll... shit I hate this question because I'm automatically going to leave people off... I refuse to answer further.
14) Who do you respect?
All the great players on the good squads that don't act like elitist pricks. Final and Paladen have always been cool to me. I respect the shit out of PoU he's a nice guy and he's helped me more than once. Most of the staff is pretty cool about making the game better for everyone. I've never paid for a shoe shine, I mean, the whole idea of it is ridiculous to me.
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