Interview with the leader of Angels and Daemons

Author: Henry IV

“May you live in interesting times” (c) Terry Pratchett

Could you please introduce yourself: who are you, what are you, how did you find our project, how were you involved in it?

- Hi all, I am Sir Jedi Knight. As with all Jedi, I am from... a galaxy far, far away. :)

I like to spend my free time playing online games. Played quite a few over the years. The last game I played before Lords was a play chips (no real money involved) poker site. Spent 2 years on that, but after reaching the 'top', got kind of bored with it, and went looking for a new game.

Did some googling and found an advertisment of LordsWM on some game site. Tried it and found the game fascinating with all the different ways a player can build his character.

The fact that one can leave the game for a while and come back, and can continue with character's progress without being at a big disadvantage is also very appealing.

In some cases you can be even stronger after returning. ;) Are you a fan of turn based strategies? Have you faced with HoMM series? Or LWM was the first experience?

- I have always liked games that involved some 'brain work'. 'Shoot shoot shoot, kill, kill, kill !' types of games hold little appeal to me.

Before online games became popular, I was into RPG games like Resident Evil, Tomb Raider etc, where you need to stop and think a little to solve certain puzzles, find missing items etc, to progress further into the game.

I have heard of the HoMM series, but unlike others here, I have not actually played any of the HoMM games before Lords.)

According to your nickname you are also the fan of Jedi Knight? And I suppose all the SW universe?)

- Haha.. is it obvious? :D

Yes, I have been a fan of SW since I was a little kid and watched my first SW movie. :)

I have used various forms of 'Jedi' as my gaming nick in all the online games I have played. Friends that I have known from previous games who joined Lords later kind of instantly guessed it was me after they joined Lords. )

I see. According to the statistics, your character is at the 71-st place of the top-100 list. This position is very good among all the com-players. Were you also at the top of the lwm-players list? And is it difficult to hold the position?)

- There were many players (nearly 10) who was #1 at one point or other during various stages of .com (Mmmm.. I still remember those good old .com days vividly.)

I don't really care about ranking really. Ranking don't make a character stronger whatsoever. In fact, with the 'distorted' disparity between exp and fsp during .com days, it is actually not a good thing to be highly ranked, since it basically meant that the player is gaining way too much exp compared to fsp.

I actually made a deliberate attempt not to become #1 in ranking coz I really don't want the added attention that a #1 ranked player gets.

I only became #1 during the last few months before merge coz I was pushing really hard to earn fsp to get my Knight faction 12. But sadly, along with fsp, I also earned tons of exp.... :

So, getting #1 ranking was actually an unwanted by-product of my push for Knight faction 12.

What do you think about the merge, by the way? From your point of view is it good for you personally and for the majority of former lwm-players?

- This is the golden question, isn't it? Haha.. :)

Well, whenever there are major changes (in a real life or a game), there will always be a portion of people who would not be entirely happy. It's just the way it is. Human nature.

Personally I like the close-knit community from the .com days. It's the ‘during adversity, even strangers learn to bond together mentality.

But with the prolonged 'neglect' of the .com server (the last major event .com had before the merge was like 1.5-2 years ago[!]), lots of players left the game.

I guess it was inevitable that the admins had to make the decision:

- let .com continue 'rotting', till it dies a natural death;

- spend additional manpower (for translating works) and money (ads and such) to boost .com's population;

- merge .com with the more successful .ru server.

For whatever reasons, the admins chose the last option. :)

Overall, I personally feel this is the best option. Yes, there are some 'bad' things that came out of the merge. Most notably is the well-documented huge fsp disparity between ru and .com players. It makes winning in PvPs (Mixed tourneys, 2x2/3x3 Commanders Guilds, group battles etc) really hard for .com players, through there is no fault of their own.

But overall, there are definitely much more good than bad that came out of the merge. I personally am glad that the merge happened, coz .com was really going nowhere on its own.

But isn't it difficult to overcome the language barrier, for instance? Or to get your +3 lvls immediately? And what is the main difference between former com and ru players? Many of us prefer to think that as you didn't have many events or wars you succeeded in terms of improving the guilds, and guilds are your benefit, is it true or not?

- The language will always be a barrier. I don't foresee it being completely eradicated, ever. :)

But humans are by nature very adaptable creatures. When faced with a problem, most of us will learn to find ways to cope with it... if we make the effort.

But it takes 2 hands to clap, so the ru community in general should be more understanding when such problems arises in combats. From what I have witnessed so far, most of the Russians are friendly and is also playing their part to make us feel at home.

Of course, there will always be the bad and rotten eggs, but this is true for both .com and .ru players. It's just learning to 'live' together and enjoy the game and have fun, which is basically what playing a game is all about. :)

Getting the +3 levels (I assume you are asking about +3 faction levels) immedaitely is still hard, but after the merge, .com players have much more opportunities (auto-battles, Training Ground, more events, more Commanders Guild opportunities, Ranger Guild etc) to earn fsp to bridge the gap. So while it's not easy, it's still better than during the .com days.

But, generally speaking, it's almost always better to have more than less options to build one's character. Each player can always choose which part of his character he wants to build at any time. So if I understand your question correctly, no, it's not better to improve our guilds during .com days. It is better after the merge. :)

Yes, you understand me in a right way.) So, generally you don't feel hostility from our side? That's good. Current Status: Exploring the wonders of this strange new world (c). This is the extract from your personal info. Are all wonders good?)

- Haha... yes, for me, I like almost everything (except maybe the big fsp difference between me and a similar .ru player of my combat level) about the merge. :)

But like I said above, it's a player's mentality. I already 'tuned' my mind to enjoy the good side of the merge, and learn to adapt to the bad ones. So for me, most of the 'wonders' are good. :)

According to the statistics your clan is at the 18-th position after the time gate event. The result is good. For instance, many of our old ru clans didn't achieve this position. How did you do this?) And tell us a few words about your clan: policy, targets, intensions, etc. And your clan is fully equipped in terms of fighters, was it difficult to organize this?

- The main reason we started the clan during .com days was never to be the 'best'. It was borne out of necessity rather than trying to compete with other clans.

During .com days, there was a few prolonged periods where there was absolutely no server activitity at all (known to .com players as the 'Dark Ages'). We could sense the disillusion and frustration of many players, and the slow but sure degeneration of morale and spirit of many .com players.

In my opinion, the majority (not all) of the older .com clans jumped into bed and went to sleep together with the .com server. haha… :D

I heard many stories from players about how they would log in everyday and all they could do was hunt, quest, hunt, quest, hunt, quest. The few lucky ones who were in Thieves Guild could do some thieving too, but the wait for an ambush to trigger can be unusually long, since there were not many players online to trigger their ambushes. I asked them what about their clans, and that they could ask their clan leaders to organise some clan activities for them. The usual reply was that their clan leaders was also not very active, or won't organise clan activities. Except for 1-2 military clans, others were like this - 'inactive'.

So after giving it some thoughts, I decided to form a new military clan together with some brothers and sisters who felt the same way.

At that time, no one had register for a new military clan for a long time, and most high level players were already in other military clans. So naturally, many thought we were a little 'crazy' to 'waste' a few million gold on a new military clan and that it will never succeed.

We didn't mind what others said since we just wanted to have a clan where we could organize some regular clan activities for our members, so members can have other ways to enjoy the game instead of the usual hunts/quests, and feel a sense of belonging.

Then the server had its first event when our military clan was only a few months old, and to the surprise of many (including myself), we won the event by quite a big margin.

Are you a community, closely entwined with only com-players, or you can invite ru-players also?

- Not sure if other clans have restrictions on nationalties, language, etc, but our clan will never show biasness and reject a player based on 'non-essential' factors. As long as a player meets the entry requirement (written on our clan profile page), we will accept him/her, as long as space allows it. A good player is a good player, regardless of nationaltiy, language, race, age, gender or... combat level. :)

Do you have some clan property (rare artifacts, modified artifacts, sets, etc.)?

- Yes, we do have a clan Depository, which we bought a few weeks after the merge.

The primary objective and purpose of our clan has always been the same - to make our clan an integral part of the total LordsWM gaming experience for our members. We also try to make it a place where clan members can have fun together and share their gaming experiences.

And at what place was your clan on com-lands?

- I really don't wanna talk or boost about our clan's so-called past glories and achievements as I personally feel whether a clan is good or not are spoken about by others, not by ourselves. We will just continue to have fun and try our best in whatever we do. Winning may be important, but having fun is more important. :)

I would like to add that the merge opens up an enormouns opportunity for the admins. This is already a great game with a huge following among Russians.

The mechanics and fundamentals for a great game is already in place. Imagine the explosion to the population of this game if the admins chose to do so, and manage the expansion well. I would not be surprised when the day comes when we have 30,000-50,000 online daily. )

To conclude, I guess one sentence can summarize our clan's and its members' mentality -

"We will play and have fun like little Angels in peace time, and fight like Demons possessed in times of war!"

This aptly sums up our clan's name and what it stands for.)

Thank you for the interview, I wish you luck and glory on our lands, and let the Force be with you! ;)

- Thanks!))

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