- ARBITOR 5
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- Exalted Mythic Member
Part 2
Q: What are your other hobbies/interests aside from gaming?A: Apart from typing up verbose interview answers and speculating on Bnet about things we know like, nothing about. I'm an avid Dean Koontz and Stephen King fan. I like my books in the same way I like my games, I guess. In fact, I do that with food too. I always choose Chicken Tikka Massala when I go for Indian food...I'm so boring.
Creative media has taken up so much of my life in these past 4 years that I don't think my brain will let me have time for much of anything else. I make YouTube videos with my fiancée when we're in the same country, I practice digital and traditional art to keep myself fresh, and I skateboard lazily.
Q: Why Bungie? What made them appealing to you?A: Bungie is reserved, deliberate and mysterious. They do a great job of tying all of their strings together to ensure no loose end. They delivered with such accuracy with Halo 1 that it was hard to fault them. I figure it's because they hadn't anticipated doing a sequel, but that's what made Halo 1 so special to me; the fact that it was uncharted territory and entirely innocent; it was honest. As great as they were, Halos 2 and 3 felt just a little forced to me. I enjoyed them, but having the understanding of the relationship with their parent company, I totally get it. That's actually why I'm excited for Destiny. It's that same Bungie approaching uncharted territory, but with 10 years of hardcore field experience and more than double their workforce. The mind cannot fathom.
As for their appeal, I value their Community wing of the company. It's not that it's rare, but it was more that it was definitely a pioneer in that sort of thinking. Though I don't believe I had explored too many online communities before I came across Bungie, I had made a couple of my own Proboards (lawl) to support my Sonic fandom, but that was the extent of my knowledge of forums; so I suppose Bnet was even more fantastic to discover in that regards. Any other site back in '03 and '04 with forums seemed hostile (still feels that way today).
Q: What makes you important within the BNet community?A: What makes me important? What kind of silly question is that? Who comes up with these? Where's my lawyer? Foman, where are you when I need you?
I don't believe I am any more important than any of the other posters that come here. My ego may have believed myself to be "Semi-Famous" in my early teens, but eventually I realized that what makes someone interesting to talk to isn't how well-known they are, but what they actually do. I mean, take Paris Hilton for example. Sorry, what does she do again? Exactly!
I'm probably best known, or recognizable at least, for my Webcam MVP title which I won during the great Webcam Games of Summer 2007. Oh dems were the days. I have my worries that with the impending Clean Sheet that will be the arrival of Bungie.net's Destiny facelift, that along with a new Member Titles system, we may see the removal of custom titles such as my own. I think it's a great way to reward community dedication and interaction, much like Recon, Nameplates and the Eternal Flames were all fantastic little perks to give yourself a little more personal flair in Halo Reach.
Otherwise, I'm known, or again, recognized, for many of my boredom-induced projects. My personal favourite being the coinage of LASO. Seeing the term used in Reach's challenges was really cool, and although many people may look to others or may not look at all for who coined the phrase or started the craze, it's my own little bubble of happiness whenever I see the acronym mentioned.
Currently, I'm working to figure out tiny little details of what Destiny may be, simply based off of information available to the public. I hang out in the Universe forum specifically for this reason, and I look forward to the day when Halo Vs Star Wars polls stop being the norm in there, and explosive discussions of Destiny arise. I guess my topography map is important to people, if only because it gives us something tangible to think about regarding Bungie's next game, since we have almost nothing to go on.
I still strongly believe I'm minuscule in the grand scheme of things on this site, but I have a habit of liking to leave a mark wherever I go. I'm like a damned puppy.
Q: How do feel about you being so active on BNet?A: Hah. These days I'm as active as anyone else.
Put simply, I used to be a poster like spartain ken, until I took a check to the reality.
Years ago (okay like, two years ago) I'd post 50 times a day, at least, simply because I felt so unfocussed on my life at the time. Since finally fine-tuning my artistic abilities to a point where I can roll with them, and since meeting my fiancée, along with getting a job and a car, and such, I've sharply cut down on my participation on the forums. I'd like to say I've grown up, but I'm still as short as Joe Staten, so I'm not sure that counts.
I come here mostly now to share my experiences, find excuses to practice my art (be it 2D or 3D), and generally observe the community in its darkest days. I'd say I was bored, if I was here all the time, but I'm not, so all is well. I just wish I was a group person; I'm a member of as many as I can be, and I never post in any of them. Just goes to show how infrequently I'm here nowadays!
Q: Where else do you go online other than BNet (what communities are you a part of)?A: Ah, a perfect opportunity to plug--er, I mean, promote--er, I mean, talk about my friends and family at Whisper Game Studios!
Okay, but in all seriousness, I started Whisper with CAVX (anyone wearing a Coup, please to be saluting to that name) back in November 2008, and since then we've grown rapidly. In fact, had it not been for Bungie, none of us would have ever have gotten together in the ways that we have. Our philosophies, for both social and production, have our experiences and understanding of Bungie as such a central foundation to our own make-up that it's hard to think of Whisper and not think of the Bungie Community, after all more than 75% of the guys who've been on our team have been from the Community. Halcylon included! (Traitor!)
Ah man, I've just really enjoyed my time with everyone who's come and gone with us, as a team, immensely, and the things I've learned throughout my time developing XBLIG and PC games there has been astounding; such as "Deadlines are hard to properly estimate for a team that isn't being paid to actively work on the game until after the game is done". But I digress.
Most of the guys on our site are from here on Bnet, having stalked me so hard that they've found their way into our lair, and decided to hang out. Anyone else are just pretty cool guys and gals who love what we're aiming to do. I'm also moving to Seattle very shortly, so hopefully we can get a little attic studio and do some evening development as a team in one place! And maybe host joint Whisper-Bungie Community parties; that would be most excellent!
Q: Who do you associate with online?A: Good question. Probably anyone who says anything to me and says anything back to anything I happen to say back. That seems to be how it goes. If you're a nice person and interest me with your babble, then chances are I'm going to give you my attention and the honour that is my association.
I try associating with Marty, but he never returns any of my emails or calls, but I like to pretend that I know everything he'd say anyway, so we have nice conversations in that respects. And if we have an argument, I always win, and he's okay with that [:)]
But in a nutshell, if you're nice, I'll be nice to you, up and until the point that you're not nice for no good discernible reason, and then I'll be even more nice....up and until I get bored and call you a dolt. Then things get ugly.
Q: Favorite zodiac sign?A: Is it possible to have a favourite without it being your own? I'm a Cancer, and I think we're all pretty cool guys. I'm going to cop-out on you and say that's my answer.
Q: Have you got any shout outs that you'd like to make?A: I'd just like to say that I love my fiancée, Christicake, and can't wait to be with her finally in Seattle. In a funny roundabout sort of way, if it hadn't been for Bungie, I would have never founded Whisper, and if it hadn't been for Whisper or Bungie, our team would have never hired her on as our Audio Director. The rest is history!
To everyone else, thanks for being you. I love observing the dynamics and social structure that is our community. I recognize so many names and avatars and even post-styles amongst the community, and I still find it fascinating just how diverse the Community is, whether it's during its most busy and populated days, or its darkest hours. I love watching your relationships and personalities grow with the Community, and I feel humbled to still feel happy to interact today, after 7 years of my presence.
Thanks for taking the time to ask me some questions, dude. Sorry I spoke so much. Last time I was asked to do this sort of thing, I told urk my entire life story. I was genuinely embarrassed just how cut down my Average Joe was from the original draft.
Hope I did a *little* bit better this time!
If you have any moar questions, feel free to ask away in this thread.
<3, SJ
Interview by RollinRollin13 | Community Joes | Reporter Joe