Article
I'm not gonna make a too long introduction. You all knowiPSiArt - he's not just the single most famous individual of Primera but has also achieved remarkable success in Secura. He's got one of the biggest newspapers in Primera and with 52 society builder medals he's amongst the biggest inviters. Only a month ago he publicly stepped down as the GOA of this game, which resulted in grieving of many citizens. In these interviews he will talk about his past, present and future.
In order to bring this interview to you we've been working hard and even going as far as getting Railman to approve its contents. I'm glad to say we didn't have to delete anything.
These interviews with Ipsi will be a major project due to the fact that there will be 3 parts. 2nd part will probably me more interesting since the questions will be addressing some problems of the game, while for the 3rd part YOU can give me questions to ask from
1. Welcome
iPSiArt , now officially the most beloved player of this server. I'm extremely honored to have you here with me, answering my questions.
1. Hey there
Orlandio . I don't think it's fair to say that, there are a lot of other great players out there.
Though I'm actually honored to be interviewed by you, I like your interviews.
2. Much of your later fame has come from being the GOA of Primera. We'll get to that too of course but now that you're retired - WHAT do you do?
2. Well, since I retired I have much, MUCH more time in my hands, so I use that time to do stuff that I like. I did some work with my damage calculator, and in some time I will release it publicly. Ofc most of the time goes to RL - I finished my bachelors degree, now working on several projects.
3. Congrats... I can't just switch away from that topic of you being so famous in this game though... Can you comprehend it yourself and what does it mean? For example do you get many letters etc.?
3. Ohh even now that i've I retired, I get at least 3 messages in game daily, mostly from people that still believe that I'm the GOA or admin of the server. I like when people recognize my name and say hi when I join random channels.
Also, lately I hear that people tend to call me Legend.
It's of course very pleasing, but I don't think I should be called that.
4. You're one of the "early-dayers" generation and joined the game on the 3rd day after its launch. What was different now that it is then, compared to let's say today's activity etc.
4. Oh it was very different. People were very enthusiastic about this game. Most of the people came from another similar game where admins did a lot of mistakes, and this game gave people hope that it will be different.
I wasn't very enthusiastic about it in the early days. I registered because my friend
Bato Usai asked me to and at first i didn't really like the design of the game. But after a week or so I realized that the community that came here was amazing and it just made me stay and play. I have to note that the game was much worse back in the days, a lot of stuff is fixed now - but the game atmosphere was much different, people loved admin and he did very well when he started.
Comparing to now, the game did expand much, it has a lot of fixed bugs and new content added. However, people aren't even as close as happy as they were.
5. What - do you think - happened to that atmosphere and why aren't the new players nowadays that "enthusiastic"? Did the game get old and so did the enthusiasm or what is it?
5. Well, the biggest thing on which people were enthusiastic about was the fact that admin listened to people's opinion. I must say it's very hard to do that, since when there's a lot of people there are lots of opinions, but in the beginning he somehow managed to make it work. Buying gold was one of the big factors that brought the enthusiasm down, because our admin used the fact that it's a "NO BUYING GOLD" game everywhere when the game was launched. Although I have nothing against buying gold.
I don't think a game like this can "get old" because it's the same as to say that the world "got old". It's a world simulation game - it shouldn't get old if it's developed from time to time.
But, leaving everything I said behind - I admire that our admin actually did this game. It's a really difficult task, and most people wouldn't be able to do it. And he managed it. Even though he has done mistakes, we're still here, and I guess that's something.
6. In these early days i guess you weren't that important... or even in the staff? What were your first „important“ positions in this game and what did they teach you that you could use in later sim-life?
6. Of course.
One of my favorite parts was that we (together with Bato Usai ) created a special MU called OBA - a MU with only TOP players, with max strength, skills and damage. We brought that idea from the other game, and it went pretty well here. Also, I was pretty active politically. I worked in many different cabinets, congresses, alliances, even secret offices which gathered the key information about enemies and spied on them.
After some time I started advertising the game. And as most of you know, that went pretty well as well. I traveled a lot of countries and changed lots of citizenships while helping them keep their newbie players, and creating newbie ministries in different countries to keep them in game. That also helped me to collect some gold. Once I tried to actually create my own country by using a not very active country, and helping them grow. That also went well in my opinion, but slowly I reached all the stuff I could do in the game and started to be less active here. But anyways, i tried a lot of stuff and I learned a lot that I used later on.
I probably even forgot a lot of it in time, but that's the general stuff that I can remember.
7. When were you first introduced to the staff?
7. I actually tried to apply from the first time that I saw they were looking for new members but I wasn't elected for a long time... But I guess my friend who was in staff those days recommended me and eventually I was first introduced to staff in... October or November 2012? I can't remember the exact date. Not long after I was promoted to GOA of the Staff team, because our GOA lost his position due to publicly disagreeing with the administration.
8. Was working with staff what you expected and more, at least in the beginning? What WERE your expectations?
8. I actually really liked working in the staff at first. It WAS different from what I expected, but it's not that bad as some people might think. I can only tell that while being GOA I expected to be able to make difference in the game production, to provide fast feedback. Sadly, GOA is mostly responsible to make the Staff work, so I couldn't do what I expected to do.
I have to say I loved the team I worked with. I can only say thanks to all of them.
9. What problems appealed to you the most when working in the staff?
9. Well, I must say that it was very hard for me to deal with people who did mistakes in game but were respectful about doing them. I like to think that I am a good person and it is very hard to judge a person when you CAN give him a chance, but you don't know if you should. I did some mistakes when I gave people chances to change when they obviously were just using my good will...
GOA's work is hard mostly because they "take" all the responsibility of all the staff actions on their backs: they == GOAs.
Also, throwing someone out of the team is very unpleasing. Ohh, and the fact that people look at staff like we're behind all the decisions in the game (when they are actually made by the administration) and usually I had to say sorry for mistakes I didn't do. That was really hard for me.
I had some problems with some players also, but I wouldn't want to go into it more.
10. You were mostly loved for your actions though... what's your secret?
And tell us what reactions did you get for leaving the staff (both reactions inside the staff and also from ordinary players).
10. I guess I was the person who represented the Staff. It's a little easier to be loved as a GOA rather than as GO, since GO's are usually the first to ban people. GOAs decide if the ban was legitimate or not.
Well, most of the reactions I got were that people didn't want me to leave. Especially staff - they asked me to stay like a million times...
but I had to go. Of course some people were happy that I left, and I'm happy for them. What wasn't so pleasing was that some people accused me of stuff I never did. I hated that.
And that's it, only 300 characters remaining.
TO BE CONTINUED...Previous article:
Interview with chrisss, PD of Opposing Front (11 years ago)
Next article:
Interview with iPSiArt: Part II (11 years ago)
About the game:
USA as a world power? In E-Sim it is possible!
In E-Sim we have a huge, living world, which is a mirror copy of the Earth. Well, maybe not completely mirrored, because the balance of power in this virtual world looks a bit different than in real life. In E-Sim, USA does not have to be a world superpower, It can be efficiently managed as a much smaller country that has entrepreneurial citizens that support it's foundation. Everything depends on the players themselves and how they decide to shape the political map of the game.
Work for the good of your country and see it rise to an empire.
Activities in this game are divided into several modules. First is the economy as a citizen in a country of your choice you must work to earn money, which you will get to spend for example, on food or purchase of weapons which are critical for your progress as a fighter. You will work in either private companies which are owned by players or government companies which are owned by the state. After progressing in the game you will finally get the opportunity to set up your own business and hire other players. If it prospers, we can even change it into a joint-stock company and enter the stock market and get even more money in this way.
In E-Sim, international wars are nothing out of the ordinary.
Become an influential politician.
The second module is a politics. Just like in real life politics in E-Sim are an extremely powerful tool that can be used for your own purposes. From time to time there are elections in the game in which you will not only vote, but also have the ability to run for the head of the party you're in. You can also apply for congress, where once elected you will be given the right to vote on laws proposed by your fellow congress members or your president and propose laws yourself. Voting on laws is important for your country as it can shape the lives of those around you. You can also try to become the head of a given party, and even take part in presidential elections and decide on the shape of the foreign policy of a given state (for example, who to declare war on). Career in politics is obviously not easy and in order to succeed in it, you have to have a good plan and compete for the votes of voters.
You can go bankrupt or become a rich man while playing the stock market.
The international war.
The last and probably the most important module is military. In E-Sim, countries are constantly fighting each other for control over territories which in return grant them access to more valuable raw materials. For this purpose, they form alliances, they fight international wars, but they also have to deal with, for example, uprisings in conquered countries or civil wars, which may explode on their territory. You can also take part in these clashes, although you are also given the opportunity to lead a life as a pacifist who focuses on other activities in the game (for example, running a successful newspaper or selling products).
At the auction you can sell or buy your dream inventory.
E-Sim is a unique browser game. It's creators ensured realistic representation of the mechanisms present in the real world and gave all power to the players who shape the image of the virtual Earth according to their own. So come and join them and help your country achieve its full potential.
Invest, produce and sell - be an entrepreneur in E-Sim.
Take part in numerous events for the E-Sim community.
