The following is an interview with Osod on 12/23/04. Osod is an experienced human enchanter. Although I did not bring it up, he has done some zone leading. He is also a member of the Shades of Twilight guild. Osod may be reached by email at david.pan1 (at) us.army.mil or by AIM at spiderJ42.


Y: Greetings and welcome.

Osod gasps in astonishment.

Y: Please tell us about when and how you got into mudding.

O: hmm, well, I actually got introduced to the mud by moritheil, who is a real life friend of mine of many years
O: I started a little late in comparison to some of the other mudders from my area, but I did spend some time on the BBS's playing LoRD, (Legend of the Red Dragon)
O: on top of that, my sister mudded on some form of diku mud before I ever got started
O: I was pretty enamored at that point, kind of envious that her friends got something like that together. Online gaming to me seemed like a new idea, I guess it's kind of old hand now.

Y: How long have you been playing here?

O: well, I've been playing since 1997 I believe, but like so many things I do, at first it's kinda off and on, and off and on again.
O: that period of my life is kinda fuzzy.

Y: Moritheil introduced you to this mud, but what was it about the mud that has caused you to stay here?

O: well, at first it was the exploration of something as vast as evermeet. Sojourn fascinated me.
O: and when I'd finally gotten an elf off of that island, I realized how much bigger the game got. At that point, the investment of time kept on bringing me back I suppose. I had to put it down for a while, but something just kept on calling me back.
O: I've never really mudded elsewhere, but I've invested enough time in zones and relationships here, that staying here isn't just the best option for me, but almost the safest option.
O: in a way, I'm kinda a shut in as far as mudding goes

Osod gives himself a silly smirk.

You chuckle politely.

O: but I do have an immense amount of fun here, the game is dynamic, and simple, the rules are pretty open in certain areas, but they do try to keep cheating to a minimum
O: all in all, it's a small enough community that it hasn't been overly ruined the way that Ultima Online was by the people who did nothing but play that game.
O: but it's a large enough community to make things interesting
O: and there are people who come and go, secrets which only a handful or people know about. I'm not sure how that is on other muds, but I like a game that possibly hasn't been fully explored yet.

Y: Is there any aspect of the game or players that really ticks you off?

Osod throws back his head and cackles with insane glee!

O: wow, I guess I'm kinda an angry person at times.
O: well, players, that is a can of worms I'm not afraid to open I guess.
O: I think some people are often confused. A lot of people don't realize what sort of commitments in time others have made, that getting everything in the game does take a long time. Those people don't really realize the awful value of a string of ansi can be to many of us.
O: but we were all there at one point or another
O: and I feel for newbies a lot, so I do try to keep some hand down eq handy for just such situations. There are a good number of newbies that I really respect in some aspects, and can see them going far if they manage to stick with the game.
O: well, the next thing that slightly annoys me has a little to do with players and the game.
O: it's hard to put my finger on who to point my finger at.

Osod points randomly in space.

O: but there are a number of leaders out there who don't account for spell slot numbers on certain casters.
O: that is not just hectic, but usually causes further trouble, I think I could handle globing eight to ten people for one fight, but after that, my mind's going to fall apart.
O: any more than that might get me into more trouble than I'm truly willing to deal with I suppose
O: however, that's a decent portion of my beef list I suppose

Y: If you could change anything about this game, what would it be?

Osod begins to ponder on something.

O: well, I heard touk mention once that he was going to take out rogues, and give rangers pick lock... however, I think I'd go the other way around. Take out rangers, and give rogues better ranged weapons

Y: What has the staff done right here, and what do they need to focus on?

O: I'd say the staff has made considerable leaps and bounds in more directions than I can name here. The downgrades are kinda misplaced in certain areas. I definitely think that the area reward calculator needs to be revamped a little bit.
O: it's kinda disenheartening to see that they downgraded some magma items from being overly uber, as we'll probably never do the zone again.
O: but izan's equipment can use all the points it grubbed for.
O: but degree of difficulty is definitely something that should be evaluated after a zone is implemented. To me, izan's seems like a prime target for downgrades, but they seem to be more after overpowered equipment from a respectably overpowered zone.
O: if I were to suggest anything else, I think that some of the future eq quests should involve some more old school zone items, as well as some of the eq sink items like nebs and such. But they should try to encourage travelling to other parts of the mud as well. Darkhold is a really cool place, and pretty evil in
O: some parts

Y: What makes the players on toril cool, and what do they do that isn't cool?

O: I don't think you're cool by virtue of logging on, but more so by what you do with it.
O: one of the great things about toril is that it presents a number of problems on different levels
O: even with zmud, you still have a number of problems that you have to figure out.
O: but it's definitely not for the weak of mind, and in some ways, I can respect a good deal of the players here for thinking of things I very easily couldn't have. But it's also a place to pretend to be someone else for a while.
O: which is something I tend to overlook a lot of the time
O: what do they do that's not cool? Unfortunately, as with any large group scenario that involves having fun, somehow, politics becomes involved. I think that's pretty uncool
O: inevitable but uncool
O: I also think you can be uncool by having 10 zone level characters decked to the teeth, and having no clue how to play 9 of them, but insist on bringing them, that's pretty unforgivable.
O: but to each their own I suppose
O: ultimately, cool is always going to do w/ a frame of mind. Touk, there's a cool character. I've seen him get angry once as long as I've mudded here. And he's definitely got a list of 'cool' hobbies.

Y: You play an enchanter, which is arguably the most difficult class to play, and you play it well. Do you have any techniques you would like to share with us?

O: well, I do have my triggers posted on the public area of the shades of twilight forum
O: it's not entirely pre-packaged, but it definitely is a place for someone to start.
O: I think if I were to re-write it knowing now what I do, I'd probably become a much worse enchanter. Those triggers are able to keep track of 9 globe targets, something which I'd probably not write into new triggers.
O: I'm also kind of a time stop junkie.

Osod shakes his head negatively.

O: feh, wrong social
O: but glancing at all your spellup targets is definitely the best way to go, just don't forget to add the anti-paladins and the paladins, skip the rangers, cause spelling them is kind of like encouraging them.

You chuckle politely.

O: and prepare to never afk again
O: I've been gone a couple of days, and I think the other chanters have kind of rejoiced
O: but that's really along some political lines, which I'm barely starting to understand how I fit in.
O: however, a good portion of it can be attributed to experience, just don't let yourself get overworked. Drop the hammer if people annoy you too much.
O: i suppose those would be my best words of advice to an enchanter, but I think there are those rules to being a stoner/scaler which I haven't looked at in a really long time
O: prolly why I die so much.

Y: What are some common mistakes you see other enchanters making?

O: I've seen a good deal actually
O: I still see myself making some
O: hasting tanks in some situations can be pretty awful, but you're really just making more work for yourself
O: I catch myself doing this all the time
O: blurring someone right after a fight
O: or, rolling it prematurely
O: as it is the shortest spell, it often doesn't last until the next fight.
O: oof, was about to quote star trek, but I think I'll just paraphrase
O: if you let them think that you're getting things done faster than you'd given a good educated guess at, you look much better than giving them a realistic estimate and not making that mark.
O: On that note, don't ever show them how much you're truly capable of.
O: it'll make more work for all of us enchanters, just do what you need to, no frills, and 9 out of 10 times, everyone makes it out alive, that other one, it was the leader's fault anyways.

Y: What is your favorite area or zone, and why?

O: it's hard especially for me to say, They're mostly all the same to me.
O: I definitely enjoy myself a good ashentoris fight now and again.
O: however, I think if I had to pick something as overly fun, might have to be the ones which aren't done, because you never have the right group.
O: not to say that there's a formula to these zones
O: but usually, it's more to do with the people involved. You're not going to spank on surtur cause you have no ghealers, it's cause you have 5 people who listen, 4 who are afk and 3 who just don't pay attention to you.
O: arbitrarily that's 12, but with the right 12 people, you could probably get some of the really challenging stuff in the game accomplished
O: but since only half of it ever gets done, I enjoy full TTF most of all. I'm a little disappointed when it comes to rewards I suppose.

Y: Tell us about your involvement in Shades of Twilight.

O: well, as I started playing again after joining the military, I started out as osod, and I had a few friends in the guild already. I was keeping my open, but shades is definitely a family I'm proud to be a part of.
O: I do try to think up a few ideas here and there to try and build the guild up, as well as bring us closer together sometimes, but I owe as much to shades as I work for them.

Y: Please talk for a bit about your greatest achievement within the game.

O: I think my greatest achievement is accumulating a reputation. I'm not quite as experimentative as Moritheil, or Obibble.
O: but I've definitely made a name for myself, and for that, I feel as if I'd done something great.

Y: Do you have any game related goals?

O: I try to keep myself going with quests. They really are what drive me to keep on playing. I hardly ever win big in zones, so questing is kinda like making my own luck sometimes.
O: it just involves a little more work. but I do want to do a BC run at some point, I was going to go on the last scheduled one, but it fell through.
O: I'd also like to take up leading more and more
O: I've kinda grown lax on my leadership, being an enchanter.
O: people don't mind that I try to dedicate myself to that singleminded job though.
O: but leadership definitely is constantly one of my goals

Y: What are some of your interests in real life?

O: Chiefly, I'm a lindy hop enthusiast. I've called it several things, vintage dancing, swing. To me, that's possibly more important than mudding.
O: well, it really is.
O: aside from that, I'm also an avid graphic novel reader, and a fan of cartoons
O: there's more, but I can't really think of them right now.

Osod yawns. Sleepy head!

Y: Could you tell us a bit about some of the things you do in the military?

O: well, my unit provides echelons above corps signal support. So we provide telephone and internet service in support of theater operations, most recently to the middle eastern theater of operations.
O: I fix a good deal of the equipment used in providing communications.
O: and I think that's almost quoting my unit's mission

Y: This will be the last question.
Y: Where do you see yourself in the future?

O: well, for the next year or so, it's kinda iffy as to my relationship with the mud. I'm deploying for the year 2005. After I leave the military, I'm looking at taking up zamboni driving for a while.
O: and a couple other odd jobs, nothing serious, just stuff to pass the time until I go back to school.
O: other than that, i'm gonna leave it fairly open. Deciding on the future's a little premature in my opinion.

Y: Thank you :)

O: you're welcome


interviews

---