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| Rising Stars and Old Friends: Applebania and Crazy Girl Interviewed! | |
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| Topic Started: Jul 17 2014, 02:59 AM (149 Views) | |
| unibot | Jul 17 2014, 02:59 AM Post #1 |
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Chief Propagandist
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![]() This week, Joe Bobs speaks with UDL's Applebania and The Rejected Realms's Crazy Girl. Rising Stars: Applebania FEATURE | JOE BOBS The second in a series of interviews with the future leaders of NationStates. In the first issue of Rising Stars, we spoke to Chanku of Wintreath. Unfortunately, the next day, Chanku was removed as Jarl of Foreign Affairs due to low activity. We are hoping this is not the beginning of a 'curse of the Rising Stars'! And we wish the best of luck to Chanku in his future endeavors. We have all had a setback or two in our time! In this issue, we are talking to Applebania. You may know him from Wintreath, Osiris, Europeia, Liberal Haven, United Provinces of Hyrule, Asgard or the GRA. Or more likely, you may know him as the darling of the Gameplay forum, where respected players have taken a shine to this energetic, smart and enthusiastic new player. His attempt to launch the region of The Burning Sea as the 'don't take yourself so seriously' region was met with praise from many. He also wrote the recent Liberate Liberal Haven proposal. We sat down and asked him what it takes to get so far so fast, and how to make it as a newcomer these days. JB: Who would you describe as your mentor? A: Haven't really thought of this one before. I'm going to go for an unorthodox choice here, saying that the regulars at #udl have really helped me out in terms of learning how to defend. Yes, I did just name an entire IRC channel as my mentor. Deal with it. JB: Interesting answer! Any names in particular you'd like to give a shout out to? A: Ravania, the current chief of the band, was the main guy who really showed me the ropes. JB: What has been your biggest challenge so far? A: Trying to get a region off the ground: It's harder than it looks! You have to do an insane amount of administrative work, and combine that with the fact that I'm awful at recruiting has led to the Burning Sea failing to get off the ground. JB: What has been the biggest learning curve for you in NationStates? A: Again, probably the sharpest difficulty curve is getting a region off the ground. JB: I'd agree, region building is the toughest challenge in NS. Are you interested in getting involved in regional governments elsewhere? If so, what aspects of government interest you most (e.g. foreign affairs, internal affairs, the WA, etc)? A: Probably foreign affairs: While I tried to get The Burning Sea off the ground, I really enjoyed writing foreign updates, and despite my lack of social skills (:p), I can be at least somewhat diplomatic (:p again) JB: Where do you see yourself in a year's time? A: To be quite frank, I'm not entirely sure. I'll probably still be a defender, though still being with the UDL I'm not sure about. I'll probably have joined even more regions (Thinking of putting puppets in Spiritus and TEP at the moment) and maybe might have actually gotten one off the ground! Also, if Delegate-Elect has been implemented by then, I'll probably be using that to great extent in order to end raids before they even begin, mainly by frantically trying to contact anyone who would even vaguely be willing to help out. JB: Do you think joining lots of regions is key to developing as a player in NS, rather than devotion to a single region? A: I personally believe so. By confining yourself to one region, you miss out on quite a bit. For example, if one confined themselves to a military-only region, such as The Black Riders, they would be missing out on regional politics quite a bit. JB: What area of the game would you most like to expand into that you are not currently involved with? A: Roleplaying. I often roleplay on other sites, however I haven't actually gone and joined any of the big roleplay regions here, or posted much in II or at all in P2TM, so, yeah, doing that at some point. JB: What advice would you give to newcomers? A: Dive in. Do everything, speak to everyone, whether it be arguing in General or preventing a raider from pillaging a region. There's a lot more to NS than it seems, so just go, and do what you want to do! Do you think you have spotted a rising star? Please send your tips and predictions via telegram to Joe Bobs. The Class of 2002: Crazy Girl FEATURE | JOE BOBS In the first of this series, Infinite Loop told us about the early days of invading, his years in the wilderness, and that he has not yet ruled out a Modship. In this issue, we speak to one of the pioneers of the Defender cause, and someone who has already attained the coveted title of 'Mod': Crazy Girl. Crazy Girl is a game moderator and recipient of SC49 'Commend Crazy Girl'. She has been involved in one capacity or another in The Rejected Realms and the RRA for over a decade, and was one of the early political leaders in The Pacific, where she was one of the most vocal opponents of Francos Spain in the fledgling New Pacific Order. She was Secretary of Defence of the ADN and led the liberation of The North Pacific in 2004. She has been a long-term admin of The Rejected Realms forums and was Delegate of The Moon. We sat down for, oh, about a hundred cups of coffee and explored the mind and memories of Crazy Girl. JB: Who was your biggest influence in the early days? CG: A rag tag group of defenders I stalked. Later on it was Greymarshes and Siggi. (Respectively Commander and High Commander of the RRA.) JB: In the last issue, I spoke with Loop, who of course as a Farker was one of the earliest invaders. You have been a long time Defender, what is your opinion on the current state of the invader-defender conflict, and what do you think about the rise of Imperialism? CG: Invaders pretending to be "the good guys" annoys me. Dare to be the bad guys. I knew plenty of invaders back in the days who prided themselves to be the bad guys and defenders having fun being the "good guys". Not for moralistic reasons, but because it was fun. Leave the "natives" (loaded word, I know) alone, and focus on the fun battle together. Imperialism is utter nonsense and is one of the reasons why people are often annoyed with R/D. Grab a region, hold it possibly for one or two updates, kick some defenders, or get kicked, and leave. I think by searching for conflict with other groups, as amusing as it might seem, gameplayers might be cutting into their own fingers a little. The old invasion rules were far, far from perfect... but they kept other groups relatively safe while we had our fun little battles. The problem was that it was often very difficult to tell who was who and if rules were actually broken. It was not entirely enforceable. JB: What changes to the game do you believe have had the most impact? CG: Founders/passwords/eject&ban and of course, after that, influence. JB: Can you give us any hints about what future changes we can expect? CG: Well, there are the changes posted in the Summit forum: http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=258968 Other than that, who knows what our lovely admins will come up with to make the servers explode? JB: What has been the most unexpected event you have witnessed? CG: A load of delegates (including my arch enemy at the time Francos Spain) being removed from their delegacy. Turned out later an admin I will not mention made a little typo. JB: You were an opponent of Francos Spain, what do you think of the continued existence of Francoism and the NPO today? CG: I wasn't aware anything was still alive in the Pacific? I'll also have to add that I probably wouldn't still be in NS hadn't that whole conflict come up and shot me pretty much into infamy. JB: What has given you the most satisfaction? CG: I'd like to say retaking The North Pacific, but I think that is more of an accomplishment... it was actually the comradery in the RRA in its old glory days. We had a great group of people there. JB: What was your biggest disappointment? CG: Gamewise I'd say I was quite disappointed when I found out the Commander of the Pacific Army turned traitor and was spying on us, or the time where Neut (a former mod) ordered us out of the Pacific when Francos Spain accidently got deleted and we tried to grab the delegacy. The biggest personal disappointment however was that some people on both sides went too far on occasion, as in gloating when someone died or something bad happened to them in real life. In the end, the other player is a person sitting behind a keyboard as well, playing the same game. Keep that in mind when typing your posts and comments. JB: Very true, and sadly something many often forget. What have been some of the best debates or threads you have seen in the main forum? CG: Ah, there have been many over the years, the thread where we asked for a Gameplay forum, the number of threads on the Pacific drama, the Bastard Mods threads of which I always was a big fan. And one that always makes me laugh is a thread actually hidden away in the NationStates forum with irc quotes from the official mod channel, a little glimpse into insanity: http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=7117363#p7117363 JB: What is your opinion on the current state of affairs? How does it compare? CG: As an old fart, I'll give my obligatory "Back in the days it was all a lot better!", which is not entirely true. Some things were better, it was easier to defend more regions, easier to kick invaders out... but you also had to walk on eggshells a bit, because banning the wrong person could mean losing your nation. And of course it meant a lot of difficult decisions for moderators to make. Secondly I think the Security Council has managed to add an interesting layer to Gameplay and it involves a little more politics which is a nice touch. JB: Some have commented that it is much harder to get proposals passed these days, and commends and condemns seem to be particularly tricky. Do you think the World Assembly is still as accessible as it once was? CG: After the obvious ones, it's time to commend/condemn the less obvious ones, I guess. Which might be trickier, but if you know how to make a proper proposal, a proper case for it and you campaign for it, it really should not be all that difficult. JB: What advice would you give to others who want to last as long? CG: Have fun. It seems so simple, but that really is the keyword. Fun. If it stops being fun, take a step back. JB: Excellent advice! Who do you believe has made the biggest contribution to NationStates? CG: Max Barry. (Never hurts to do a little sucking up to the big boss.) JB: Haha, well it is true in many ways. But OK, who has made the second biggest contribution? CG: Overall, relevant for everyone... I'd say Salusa. It may not always be apparent, but he has done a lot for the game, both behind the scenes and the more visible stuff. And I think he is a little underrated there. So I'd like to give some well-deserved recognition to him. Join us in the next issue to hear from another of the Class of 2002. |
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Former Delegate of The Rejected Realms Former Editor-In-Chief, Maestro | |
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| frattastan | Jul 17 2014, 11:09 AM Post #2 |
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Dirty Spammer
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| In this world there are two kinds of people: those with loaded guns and those who dig. I dig. | |
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| unibot | Jul 17 2014, 11:32 AM Post #3 |
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Chief Propagandist
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I thought the same thing.
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Former Delegate of The Rejected Realms Former Editor-In-Chief, Maestro | |
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| Joe Bobs | Jul 17 2014, 02:52 PM Post #4 |
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Hasta la victoria penguins!
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We need to interview CG every week.
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FRA Arch Chancellor | |
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12:21 AM Jul 11