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This interview was conducted on May 1 2006. Azazel_: How did you get involved with the WC3 modding community? How did you come to your current position in wc3sear.ch? VGsatomi: In used to be an avid map maker for Command & Conquer Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge, mainly for cncgames.com (RADEN). Was on map staffs for other C&C sites (all gone now). Map making was my biggest hobby aspect of computer gaming. I played through warcraft 1 & 2, so when 3 game out, naturally I began making maps for that too. That was when I realized just how much you could do with the world editor. I made many maps before I first found wc3sear.ch. The quality + quantity of my maps was what convinced Darky to be a map moderator, as well as with my requests to help clean up the maps archive (which was only 25-300 maps at the time). As Darky became less active in the site, I was promoted to Admin so the most basic but most needed tasks could be dealt with in his absence (i.e. uploading oversized map, assigning and removing moderators, creating and deleting forums, ect). Azazel_: Tell us about the history of wc3sear.ch VGsatomi: Wc3search was created by Darky27 to help promote his popular Nature's Call campaign series. At the time it came out, modding was largely unheard of and there was very little resources floating around on the net. Blizz has only just released the .mdx import/exporter for Discreet 3DSmax, so most of the models were very simple edits, minus those made for ROTD. Since then more people have become familiar with model editing and scratch modeling, as well as exporting models from other games, so variety, quality and quantity increased accordingly. Wc3sear.ch steadily gre in popularity. Now, we maintain a consistent traffic flow of nearly a terabyte a month, 6000-10000 hits a day and has never gone down. Azazel_: wc3sear.ch is a popular resource center for Warcraft III. However, an active administration is important for self sustainment. Are you the only active administrator at the moment? What happened to the rest? VGsatomi: Shrinking numbers of moderators has been a problem. At the moment I am the only admin, but my knowledge of many of the site workings is still limited, and many of the problems that our site suffers can only be fixed by Darky, who remains largely inactive. We have difficulty finding potential moderators qualified enough to replace the ones that leave, so yes, we feel short-handed at times. Azazel_: What is wc3sear.ch's relationship with wc3campaigns? VGsatomi: Wc3campaigns originally had their own download section. Darky and Draco (wc3campaign's admin) worked out a deal where wc3sear.ch would replace their download section with out own, so we were essentially sister sites for a long while. Wc3campaigns eventually suffered hosting problems and was forced to shut down temporarily. A large portion of Wc3search's hosted content was on wc3campaigns server, and was subsequently lost in the process. Our download server has moved to wc3anvil.com where the files were re-hosted while wc3campaigns revived and with their own donwload section again. But to answer your question, we were both sister sites and rivals at the same time. Many members of both sites felt distain for the other site while other members happily posted and were active on both. Azazel_: The quality of content at wc3campaign's forums is good and there are many mature and professional developers there. How do you plan to improve wc3sear.ch's forums? VGsatomi: The only way to really improve the forums is to improve the people who post in them. There are many helpful moderators and members who regularly answer questions, and as more people learn how to do things, the more quality resource makers will be produced as a result The times where we run into problems is when people don't want to learn, and instead steer towards others doing the work for them, but that's a natural and expected part of any modding site. Azazel_: I have read that you were in the US Army. The Army is a life changing experience, many claim. Could you tell us more about your experiences and what you have taken away with you? VGsatomi: My service has certainly changed me. The military has given me experiences that I would probably have never gone through had I remained a civilian. Right now I live in a country where I will likely never have to face starvation, political or military oppression, state-sponsored murder, poverty, despairing financial hardship, or face "disappearing" for publicly or privately disagreeing with the government, and so on. I feel that I have lived a very good life which would not have been possible had I not been an American. I've had a chance to serve in countries where those basic human rights were sadly not a reality. These experiences have lead me to not take my rights and my luxuries for granted. But as a result, I have grown far less tolerant of leftist critics who try to demonize us for using our military while ignoring the horrible atrocities committed by our enemies which has lead us it use it in the first place, or those who live in this country and enjoy/utilize our freedoms while doing everything in their power to destroy, undermine or abuse all of them. So basically I have grown more appreciative of where I live and my nationality, but also less tolerant of many of the ignorant individuals I come in contact with on a daily basis.. Azazel_: Do you think that more of today's civilians should serve in the military? According to book Making the Corps by Thomas E. Ricks, the termination of the draft has brought profound changes to the relationship between the military and society. Back in the Vietnam war, 2/3s of Congress had a military background. Today, only 1/3 of them do. VGsatomi: Absolutely. The military is a strong career that many should be made more aware of. However I would never support a draft, even with our forces stretched as thin as they are now. Our military is an all-volunteer organization and should stay that way. Some states still uphold the "join the army or ho to jail" policy and I've had the unfortunate opportunity to serve with a few of those individuals who partook in that arrangement...let's just say I would never put my life in their hands....same would go for any drafted generation X/Yer. The first step at being good at what you do is actually WANTING to do it. The military has so much to offer, and although it is a rough way of life, I look back with little regrets. It is a stable job, free food and housing, many different tax exemptions, chances to see many parts of the world, and the GI bill put me through college which relieved me and my family of a major financial burden. I do believe the military would get more positive attention if Congress was composed of more former military, and many of our military's current problems would never have come up if it was the case, but sadly having a military background doesn’t always mean someone is pro-military, as seen with the likes of senators John Kerry, Jack Murtha and John McCain. Azazel_: What do you think of Blizzard's support of the modding community? Has there been genuine cooperation? VGsatomi: One of our site's mods once said in regards to the new Blizz-sponsored modding community; "too little, too late." That is basically how I feel as well. Although it is far better then nothing, and not many game companies have gone out of their way to honor their devoted fans in such a way. Representatives from Blizzard contacted the admins of various different sites and asked for recommendations for maps that they should spotlight on their site. At first it seemed like a great idea to help diversify the battle.net experience with some extremely high quality maps that were well-deserving of a chance to become popular online, however for the longest time Blizz was only showcasing maps that were ALREADY popular, such as Defense of the Ancients and Tides of Blood, which did nothing to help create more variety on b.net. Their reluctance to host single player maps is another thing I find disheartening, as for the fact that so many of the highest quality works ever created with the world editor are single-player projects, like Return of the Dragon and Cult of the Damned. They also host unfinished beta maps, which is pointless because those maps are sure to have more updated versions in the future. Only 100% finished maps should ever be spotlighted. Azazel_: What have you learnt from your work and experience in the WC3 modding community? Are you still passionate about the community and its interests? What lies ahead for its future as Blizzard devotes less and less resources to Warcraft III? VGsatomi: I don't think Wc3 will ever die even if Blizz devoted more time to other projects (as they already have). You can go onto battle.net any time of day and still find tens of thousands of people playing Starcraft or Diablo 1&2. Since that the WC3 world editor is basically a very versatile "build our own video game" engine that has never been seen before in such an easy, user-friendly program, I don't see that phasing out any time soon, either (unless they make similar editors for their upcoming games). Azazel_: Finally, what advice do you have for someone looking to build a career in the US military? VGsatomi: One thing I noticed with most of my superiors was that they looked for initiative. It is the first thing your higher-ups will praise you for having, and the first thing they will criticize you for not. It is the art of knowing what needs to be done and getting it done without being told. If you can master this difficult art, you will be taken far. Real far. |
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