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Here you go, the first interview of a <gasp> ADMINISTRATOR!
1) How were you introduced to the Malazan series?
Alright, boring answer is boring, but my uncle lent me a rather battered version of GotM one day, after a discussion at Christmas about fantasy literature. He still hasn't got it back, and I've since pilfered his DG, MoI, HoC and MT. Since then, I've bought the rest of the series myself. XD
2) What brought you to Malazan Empire forums?
What else? Reading these books with no friends to discuss them with was driving me up the wall, all Abyss-like. I'd run into the site a few years prior from a random Google search (before I'd read the books), but was, at that time, a scared newbie to the world of interwebz, and didn't have a lot of reason to stick around. Since then, I've become much more confident in my forum-joining ability.
3) What is Modcraft? Is it an evil plot?
Absolutely. Aside from the usual take-over-the-world scheme, we also have a torture dungeon (not kidding...you don't want to know what goes on down there) and a giant laser stashed somewhere.
Our front, however, is much more benign. Posing as a forum for modifying computer games, we contain numerous guilds and mod groups (most of which are dead, I have to admit) who hang out and talk to each other. Lots of good fun and games related to...well, computer games. Simple, huh?
4) Do you remember your first post? What was it and who responded?
Oh god. My first post? No. My first repped post, sure. It was in the games forum, about Mediaeval Total War 2, and I was telling Illy how to get to the New World. He +rep'd me for it, and I was most impressed with myself.
5) Which members do you feel a special connection with?
Illy, for the above-mentioned first rep point.
Dancer/tCoD, because we've always got along swimmingly, and we normally agree on crazy theories and who'd wins.
Gothos, 'cuz he loves Morrowind more than Oblivion too. ^^
Terez, Gem, Nicod, Frookie and AIJ....reasons left unstated.
6) Will the forum ever include a chatzy function?
If memory serves (and there's no guarantee it does, even at my young age), we used to have a chat function of sorts, long before I got on the admin side of the forum. It's something that a few people have suggested, but by no means is a top priority given the lack of support for the idea. We're a forum...if you want chat you can always ask for someone's MSN. Unless you're scared, or something.
But I'd be open to putting one in, if enough people wanted it.
7) Tell us about mafia. Why do you play?
Oh, mafia, mafia. I started playing mafia because of a school camp trip. In this case, not one of the newbie kids, but what we like to call a 'Camp Leader', a senior student accompanying the teacher and kids to help keep them under check (yes, both the teachers and the kids). Because of this, we got to play card mafia until the wee hours of the morning with the teachers, and I needed practice so I could show off my l337 skillz. Joined up a game or two here, tried it out, got hooked.
It is a game of immense skill, topped off by a spattering of luck - in which the luck usually proves decisive (at least for me!). I'd have to say that it is addictive, particularly the rush of being one of the last few people alive on "d-day", not knowing who you can trust, not knowing who it's safe to vote for, reading everyone's post that are just SCREAMING scummyness....it's mind fuck at it's best, my friends, and it is GLORIOUS. Can't live without it.
8) You seem to have a relatively limited presence on the site at times. What's your excuse?
OK, aside from my tendency to hide behind alt accounts, I also live in New Zealand, meaning that for the US folk, I'm on around midnight to early morning, and for the UK folk I'm on when you're at work. Throw in school, up until this year, which meant I couldn't be on for most of the regular NZ day (now at Uni, we have wireless, we have laptops, and we have no rules XD), and it'd be unlikely for people to see me online. Oh, and I tend to spend a lot of time in the admin section, refreshing the new posts, and playing mafia. And plotting to destroy the world...aka going away on a boat that has little to no net connection...I'm in that situation as I type this, but with mobile 'net which actually works. XD
9) What members would you particularly like to meet in real life?
While some of you I would avoid like the plague (just kidding Tiste), I'd kill to attend one of the BBQ's if I didn't know that it would land me in jail instead. Bill and Hazel for sure, they're awesome, and have been so generous in keeping the forum going (and indulging my tendency to SPARKLE the thing up...and my accidental nuking of Hetan's old account...). And the special bond folk ref'd above. Hell, the whole lot of ya!
10) In the pantheon of active members, where do you place the level of your power and influence O' mighty Admin?
Muaahahhahaha. I'm an admin, my power and influence are incomparable. I'd say that while I may not hold the respect some of the longer running, more entertaining members have, I'm usually pretty influential in forum discussions, and when it comes to the running of the forum, well...I'm the tech admin, I'm NEEDED, dammit.
11) If you were stranded on a desert island with only one MBotF, which one is it?
The Crippled God. Hand down, I would rather have the series finale to read for the first time even if it isn't, for some reason, the best book in the series.
If it had to be one that is already printed, I'd probably go for Toll. I'm still finding things in that book that link out and are awesome. And it has some of the most powerful scenes in the series. I also feel that Erikson's narrative has evolved a lot since the early books, and while I still hold them in high regard, he's come leaps and bounds over the years, which I feel peaks in Toll, and will probably peak again in tCG (DoD was a bit lower on the list, but it's the first half of a book, which explains away a LOT of things).
12) If you met Steven Erikson and you could only ask one question, what would it be?
Does he have to say yes?
I don't know. I think I'd be too scared to waste it on something trivial. Probably, can I please, please, please make the MBotF into a computer game? PLEASE?
13) Who is you favorite character from the series?
Picking one isn't going to happen. Dancer/Cotillion, for the assassin stuff, the great depths, and general badassery (see my user title). Anomander Rake, becuase he is Deus Ex Machina but with a REASON. He's just kickass. And Quick Ben, for all the goddamn mysteries and new powers that guy has. So, a mage, a warrior, and an assassin.
14) What are your opinions about "rep"?
I was never heavily into the rep wars, but I did do my share of whoring. Mafia helped, ofc, though I always felt that was for a reason, whereas a lot of the times you could just walk into an Inn thread and asy "rep please" and get it. I'll even admit that I did that once or twice. Of course, in the modern repscape, I think things are a lot more sensible, but also less fun. It's great to be able to leave rep comments - without that, I think I'd be a bit ambivalent about the entire system. And so far the system doesn't get abused too much...except for the users who neg rep people in the discussion forum for differences of opinion, rather than for flaming/trolling/being a douche...YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.
15) Who wins?
According to the lastest poll, Rake does. I'm more inclined to go with 'Byss and say "Wolverine", but when you factor in Dragnipur...gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!1
16) What is it like to be an Administrator of this forum? What does the work involve, and what future plans do you see in the work for our little community?
Oh, I'd say it's pretty good. I'm an admin on a couple of other, smaller forums and I've found that, while our definition of admin here is a bit...different, everyone is fun to talk about members behind their backs with to about forum stuff, and book stuff.
The work is fairly standard for the most part - banning, fixing member's passwords, banning, editing out spoilers, banning, rearranging forums, banning, so on and so forth. Which, incidentally, is why our definition of admin here is a bit strange - all our mods are admins these days, 'cept Lisheo, and that's just because he doesn't like taking up a spot when he doesn't have the time. I have a few extra responsibilities here and there...mostly being the person Hetan runs to when something is going wrong (it's usually my fault, too). Really, though, we just spend all our time in the Moon Base talking about you lot.
As for the future plans...well, it'd be nice to see the wiki integrated into the forum a bit more tightly, get rid of IPS DRIVER ERRORS entirely, and maybe tidy up a bit. Nice as the new layout is, I think it's a tad messy. Maybe I'm just not using it enough to be used to it yet, though.
17) Do you do any creative writing yourself?
Oh, here and there. The Inn over on ModCraft, when I have time (dice free role playing), mostly with characters shamelessly stolen from Erikson's work, as I 'don't have time' to be original, although that is changing.
A bit of this and that all over the place. Still working on stuff to do with the Malazan game project, need to get that typed up...
18) When not reading MBotF, what are you typically curling up with?
What, there are books that aren't MBotF? Wtf?
When I'm not reading MBotF, I'm usually reading: philosophy coursebooks, computer science coursebooks, MalazanEmpire.com, ModCraft.net, PhilosophyTrain.com, a bit of a psych coursebook I purchased on a whim, notes from class, or dialogue from a computer game.
Shuddup.
19) Do you keep a personal library, or do the books just cycle through your possession?
Bit of both. I have my stash of classics (by which I mean, ofc, MBotF books), y'know, Dune, LotR, Silmarillion, Harry Potter (hey, you have to read them so you can insult them, and people tend to assume that means you want them as gifts...and my mother likes them, anyhow >.>), and a few others which I can't remember off the top of my head. It's actually rather large, but nothing spectacular. Of course, I tend to go to the library if I'm out of things to read and don't feel like starting a new series properly. Saves on cash (poor student!) and time.
20) Please bare one random little known fact about yourself for the peanut gallery please.quote]
Hrm. I dunno, what don't you guys know about me? I'm a 19 year old (in two days) male, presently attending the University of Auckland, living at home in New Zealand doing a BSc majoring in computer science w/ a logic and computation specialisation.
I'm 6' tall and weigh ~85kg, have a penchant for RPG's and computer games in general, drive an Alfa Romeo 147, and am $12k NZD in debt for my University fees.
Oh. I'm straight. Very much so.
Uhm...
I have an unhealthy obsession with knives?
I'm a grammar Nazi by night?
Seriously...I don't know what I haven't told you that would be interesting. :S
*flees in terror*
