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Whitehorn is a longstanding and well-known member of the Warcraft III Development community. In this interview on April 26 2006, Whitehorn discusses on his entry into the Warcraft III modding scene, the revival of Wc3Campaigns, his future interests, and Blizzard's relations with the Mod Community. Azazel_: Tell us about how you got into wc3campaigns. Whitehorn: Its complicated, but ok. I used to co-run a TA:K clan and mod site. I eventually gave up, and moved on, buying Warcraft 3 at my brother's suggestion. Wasted a few nights playing melee games before deciding to try a custom mission/map, which lead to me hunting for sites that do such things. I joined Wc3Pub and Wc3campaigns, making a post, offering to join a team as I wished to learn to mod Warcraft. Nothing really came about from that, so I got into doing some skinning for existing models. This was about 3 years ago. I did various requests for skins and signature images. Azazel_: Yes, i notice you do get a lot of requests, until you had to add to your sig 'i don't take requests'. Whitehorn: I have no real art or graphic training, but it runs in the family, so I picked it up pretty swiftly. My early skins were poor, but the competition wasn't much greater! My 2nd ever skin appeared in an Enfo's map. Azazel_: That's nice! Whitehorn: It's a bit annoying being 'famous' for something that's quite embarrasing. I don't claim to be 'pro' or suchm but my latest work is a lot better than back then Azazel_: That got you attention by the admins, did it? Whitehorn: Not the admins, no. I offered to moderate one of the forums, skinning I think, and got that job. Ran various contests and continued doing requests and frequenting the entirety of the forums (hence the ridiculous post count). Azazel_: When was that? 2004? Whitehorn: 04/ early 05. not sure. Cookie became Art director around that time (possibly his 2nd stint) Azazel_: Was wc3campaigns one of the most wc3 forums back then? Whitehorn: It was THE wc3 mod site. Azazel_: Ah. what about wc3sear.ch back then? Whitehorn: That was merely a hubb for Darky's campaign. Azazel_: what is the relationship between these two sites? Whitehorn: search was nothing more than his personal site for his projects and spells at the time, not the monstrosity it has become. Azazel_: I see. who's idea was it to turn it into a public database? and what was wc3c's response to it? Whitehorn: Well, after an upgrade, search became the 'download' centre for wc3c, hence it has a wc3c GUI option. Azazel_: it's forums were never on par with wc3c's. in fact, the forums felt like an afterthought. Whitehorn: yes. That is one point of dispute. Azazel_: What happened to wc3c during 2005? it was down for a while? Whitehorn: It 'died'. Azazel_: What were the reasons? Whitehorn: Many. Retracing where I was, Cookie wanted to resign as Art Director. I was one candidate, others were the usual inbred guys who had zero interest in modding, but liked the power at the top. Part of the reason for wc3c's death back then. Suffice to say, I became art director. Azazel_: Who was the key person responsible for wc3c's current revival? i noticed that Vexorian and yourself played a material part to it. Whitehorn: Tim was the instigator, though Vexorian, Stoned and myself all contributed heavily in ways. I noticed wc3campaigns.net has a small flash vid up, showing names of some well known modders. I thought it was a joke, but they seriously wanted to bring it back, and Tim was bragging a 'ground breaking' new mod. To my surprise, he asked if I wanted to be a director. Azazel_: It looks like your efforts have paid off. one of the major obstacles for the revival was getting the server running properly. there was a short database loss for a few days that is well known. what other internal issues where there during the time? and how did you overcome them? Whitehorn: Well, me. Reinstating me was contraversial. I was the 'outlaw' you see. I was banned from Wc3c. behind the scenes, i was a full admin, but publicly, I was under RodofNod by rank#. Azazel_: Haha. Whitehorn: Until Tim flet it right to reveal. We had a few technical problems to overcome. Draco, the former head and scapegoat for its demise, had dropped a few important tables. He killed wc3c in a number of ways, but most critically was his 'rewriting' the forum into some hybrid of his own creation, so we had to work from a fresh VBulletin install and kickstart with empty attachment and PM tables. It was all very rough and ready. Vexorian developed various modules - the gallery, and resource forums particularly. Azazel_: What happened to Draco? Whitehorn: Ostracised, not that he wanted to return. Pretty much all the old, decadent administration was purged, replaced by actual modders. Azazel_: What about your current population? are they mainly the old visitors or have you got a lot of fresh faces. Whitehorn: A combination of the existing, usual newcomers, and some old names have been returning from the past. Azazel_: Are you losing interest for specific wc3 development, or has general game development arouse more interest in you? Whitehorn: I've spent 3 years modding the game and have nothing playable to brag about. Sure, I've made hundreds of models and textures, but none of my projects were realised. I'm having one last crack at getting a map released, but i do intend to explore other things. I'm currently working on a turn-based browser game in PHP/SQL, and am plotting a game that I'll write in C++. Azazel_: Go on. Whitehorn: I tell people I've neglected my art side. Everything I've done since joining Wc3 has been self taught. I have no traning in this field and yet I am the Art Director. Azazel_: Ironic. Whitehorn: I'm doing my final year for a Computer Degree, so I really need to consolidate. I hope to be doing portfolio work, and getting said games completed, which ties into my new site. Azazel_: it will be a featured game on your website? tell us more about your website's content, and who it will cater to Whitehorn: As much as the Hubb was about modding *all* games, it is known as a Warcraft mod site. Well, we intend to get involved with modding Supreme Commander and HoMM 5. But I also intend to cater for PHP development, Game design (all aspects), Creative literature and modding. Azazel_: That sounds like a more sustainable website. game specific websites only last as long as the game. Whitehorn: Indeed. Or at least, the interest of people in the game. Warcraft 3 is 'dead', but we still mod it. Azazel_: Blizzard has often neglected update requests and simple fixes by the community. their mod support forum also seems unresponsive, with their spotlight map choices becoming increasing questionable. what do you feel about Blizzard's support for the wc3 community? Whitehorn: When they added the mod site, a lot of people expected good things but typically, were disappointed. I get the impression they allocate 1 person to deal with it once a week for about the duration of their dinner break. Brett Dixon emailed me after each mod site was lited in a thread. I had a good long chat with him about it all. They *wanted* to get more involved in the community. He even approved of our plan to run a collective database of all things war3 mod related, but they never once reached out to help us. I managed to get him to add a few links but that was sum of their effort. Azazel_: It seems that Valve's Steam network and development tools is a good example of developer-community relations. Whitehorn: I'm a Chris Taylor fan myself. He builds a game with the mod community in mind, plus I prefer RTS to FPS. Azazel_: Why do you feel that Blizzard doesn't want to emulate valve's successful business model? Whitehorn: They cant really emulate it. Valve's success is from their awesome FPS games, half-Life and onwards. Blizzard, well, lets just say GHOST. Blizzard are on a winner with WOW, several million paying players Azazel_: With a real online economy. Whitehorn: Do they need to cater for the small people who mod a 4 year old game? Azazel_: It is good for public relations and has minimal cost, some argue. Whitehorn: In an ideal world. I feel they mostly want to avoid legal issues. I'd like to mention the mod site again. Azazel_: Carry on.. Whitehorn: I'm a slightly different breed of modder to most. I started on a 'mod' path, ie., customising the game, rather than making custom maps. Blizzard have never supported modding of that sort and their site reflects that. They are interested in it, but dont support it. They're all excited about some of the mods in development, but they pretty much have their hands tied. Azazel_: Thank you for this amazingly insightful interview. Whitehorn: You're welcome. I hate doing work. Whitehorn: Happy to answer any other questions. Azazel_: Perhaps I could get a collection of questions from our users and forward them to you in the future. Whitehorn: I'm involved with most the war3 mod sites, or at least know the back stories. |
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