We here at the TG Media Team
insist on try
very hard to uphold the
ethical standards and practices of our brethren in the greater fifth estate. With TG as a whole coming down from an election high and our U.S. members coming off of an election watched anxiously by the world, one of media's finest traditions should still be top of mind:
Quotes. We all know that words can hurt, but wait until we take your own, strip away any semblance of context, then use them to sensationalize our otherwise boring drivel at your expense. No colored ribbon campaign is going to protect you from your own words, and you can Like every damn thing on Facebook you want, it's not going to change
nuthin' if some reporter decides to go all cut-n-paste on your ass.
So lay down your forum prose carefully Guardians, for you never know when you'll find somebody has improved it for the greater “good”.
It is within this theme of media and the permanent record we find ourselves sitting down with forum fixture and
PlanetSide2 division leader DakSevkla. Dak has graciously opened himself up to our questions so we can all get
forum ammo to know him better! We actually went pretty soft on Dak regarding the quotes; don't assume the same will happen to you.
Nope, you'll have to do. But enough from me! We bring you... DakSevkla!
Explain like we're all five what the PlanetSide franchise is and how awesome your division is.Planetside is a game where we play as the Blue people. The Blue people stand for everything good and pure in the universe. Now, we're fighting against the Red and the Purple people. They're very, very bad. Like Aunt Helen. But don't tell her I said that. So, we fight over these three BIIIIGGGG pieces of land, with all these cool houses all over them, and we take the houses from the evil people for our Blue team. Also, sometimes things explode. Like BOOM! With TG, we do this with each other. Not explode, but take over the houses from the evil Reds and Purples.
In March you said "Me and Beenie are in talks of someday applying to lead up the PlanetSide2 division." Now that you've succeeded, give us a hint as to the dynamic at play behind the scenes. Pinky and The Brain? Batman and Robin? George and Lennie?Well, Beenie and I were definitely in talks to lead up the Planetside 2 Division. You can see how well that went when you look at the Command Structure and see how Altas and I are leading the Division. So I guess you could call the dynamic behind the scenes sort of a Moe Larry and Curly if Curly took a wrong turn and never met the other two.
"I don't like space games." Um, wut? Dig yourself out of that hole by writing the sickly sweetest most disgustingly sappy compliment to Torynn.I don't like space games. But if I had to, I would want to be Torynn's wingman. Because oh, that man knows how to start my intergalactic engines, power my thrusters, and fire my rockets. Wait, is this supposed to be PG
Is being on the Guardian Council more like being a member of an elite golf club or cigar club? Or AA for that matter? Do they delete all the posts talking about you before they let you in? If you don't answer I'll just ask Pie soon... but you should, I have other plans for Pie.Being on the Guardian Council is interesting. They don't delete anything see, so you log in, and you find thirty threads about how horrible you are. Then you start to wonder about why they brought you on in the first place. Of course, since I have never been a member of an elite golf club, or a cigar club, I'd have to say being on the Guardian Council is like being a member of a Book Club, where you argue about which books deserve to still be books, and which ones clearly got the whole paper thing wrong.
You are a game design graduate; at some point you will undoubtedly be involved in a great game franchise. Place a Guardian in an embarrassing NPC role and give us a description and initial /hail response. Can't be Beenie, sorry.Beenie would just be Beenie, that's embarrasing enough. Okay, let me spin you a thread...
You enter the seedy tavern, webs clingy to each and every corner, tables half broken yet still in use. Various patrons wash away their daily sins with drink, none too eager to strike up a conversation with the likes of you, Master Space Man Slayer that you are. But you're not here for drinks, oh no. You're here for Nautix. The slimy scumball of a purple people eater was said to be hiding out here.
You burst through the door into the back with the greatest of ease, sweat glistening down your stoic brow. And there he is. Nautix, easily 400 pounds of purple hairy man flesh, not so much sitting as laying in an upright position against what you can only call the stove. His giant bat-like ears perk up at your sudden entrance, and he stares you down. He doesn't however stop eating, chewing on the chunk of bone he holds in his hands, gnawing at the gooey center. You stare him down, waiting for the perfect moment... "/Hail" you said, like it was destiny.
"Ah! Here you are", he replies. "I do hope you've come to buy some of my little...ponies." He drops the bone and reaches to his left, grabbing a burlap sack. Wrestling with the string that held it close, a single My Little Pony doll falls onto the floor, covering in Nautix-Slime from hours of gnawing. Yes, you've come to the right place after all.
Your interview with Turbine didn't pan out. They don't know what they're missing, and screw working for the man anyway. You just landed seed money to start your own studio; what would your first blockbuster title be? What would you call your studio? Would you hire an unemployed John Smedley? Curt Schilling?I like this one. My first Blockbuster title is 'The Days of Darkness'. A co-op survival game. You could say it is 'like Day-Z', but built from the ground up as a co-operative experience with real meat to it. Players join each other in a race against time and the elements to rebuild a society, or at least try to. Not only do you have to capture areas and clean out sections of the cities one by one, but food and water are a must to stay alive. Our Studio would be known to all as 'Guardian'. See what I did there? Free publicity. John Smedley would be a nice choice, but I may have to go after Cliffy B. That man is a genius. Curt Schilling not so much.
On Darkfall: "Three years spent salivating, three hours spent downloading, three minutes spent until I uninstalled." What sucked so much about Darkfall? What would you do if you were hired to work on it?Oh Darkfall. The game was toted to be a big Sandbox RPG, where you could work together with your guild or a big group of guilds to carve out a section of land to call your own, and to go to war against other guilds, etc. A big open PvP Game. The problem was, the best way to level up your skills was to just shoot things in town. I remember spending at least 2 of those 3 minutes shooting a magic missile into the air to level up my magic. I spent the other minute fighting 100 players to kill the very few NPCs there were to make myself powerful enough to fight anything else. It really needed a better starting portion of the game, and better mechanics overall. It felt clunky.
You say you come from a RP heavy background. Do you think RP is declining as a relevant factor in MMORPGs? Did some role-players miss the bus by not evolving RP while "our" games became mainstream?I've never really RP'ed heavily in MMORPGs. The only time I have was in LOTRO. I was a member of a faction who patrolled the roads between Hobbiton and Bree. I spent more time in that game playing musical instruments in taverns and roleplay-saving people from NPCs than I did actually levelling, and I loved it. A majority of my RP experience was chat room based, and I still to this day have been greatly influenced by this. I don't think game companies are making games you can roleplay in any more. It's all about the quests, and eliminating grind, and levelling and content. It's not about being your character. I was a big fan of a game called 'Wish', which unfortunately was never released. I spent a week playing as a farmer, and loved every minute of it. Nowadays, that's considered product suicide.
Tell us all of the raunchy details from your recent Mexico trip. TG demands pictures, and if there isn't at least one bikini and two male nipples, we will be disappoint. I believe I read somewhere that you didn't have a camera with you, so fake it 'til you make it if need be.Oh god. It was a great trip, but so many things went wrong. We went to the Riviera Maya which was fantastic. Had a great time. Went to Chichen'Itza one of the largest Mayan villages, and was blown away with how freaking HOT it was. Whew, hot day. I spent most of our time at the resort at the swim-up bar, slowly plastering myself.
Unfortunately, the last half of the week was horrible. My Grandfather who was with us slipped and fell, dislocated his shoulder (He came back to the states and had to have it replaced), and when we went to come home? Our flight was CANCELLED. Then we were put on another one 4 hours later. We got to our connecting flight just in time, and landed in DC 15 minutes before our flight home. We ran for the gate, I made it but my girlfriend didn't, so I stood in the door and refused to move until she got there. Oh, and they didn't have our bags at baggage claim. We finally got to our home city, grabbed our bags, and got home almost 15 hours later.
The next day, I went to unpack. Grabbed the camera case, which was extremely light. No camera. No cards, nothing. Some idiots stole our camera. So I actually have no photo's of it, and now I'm so depressed I can't even fake one...
Tell us about your martial arts training. Make sure you tell us all about how you sacrificed your body to help your dad's school, and who you want to beat up (I know it's not proper, but everybody thinks it).I've been training for years. My dad started when he was very young. We used to train at a local church in Ohio, it was pretty much friends and family but we would train once a week. I hated it, I never wanted to go, but I always enjoyed myself once I got there.
Before I started High School, we moved to Illinois where my dad had just gotten a job running someone else's Martial Arts school. Four years later he bought it, moved it somewhere else, and now it's his own.
I have a black belt in To-Shin-Do, which is more or less American Ninjutsu. I believe I ended up a red-belt in Aiki-Ninjutsu, which my dad now teaches, before I moved away for college. To be perfectly honest, my body was never better than when I was training, man, you never realize how great a shape you're in until you move to college. And never move.
There's this one kid from college who I roomed with, who destroyed our house and tried to get me to pay 1/2 the security deposit. He also got me in a car accident that made me terrified to drive for over a year, and attempted to drug my newer female roommate. Yeah, I'd like to beat him up.
"I'm one of twenty Guardians in IT. Have you tried turning it on?" "Use IE not Chrome." Without going back through your history, either explain these two quotes in this new context, or just give in and tell us how awesome IE is from an IT perspective.I..I...I can't. I can't do that. IE is terrible. Absolutely terrible. If you use it, it better be because you need ActiveX support. Anything is better. Safari is better. IE doesn't even work right if you turn it on. If you push the power button on IE, it just sends viruses to your computer and crashes. Oh god make it stop.
Let me start by quoting a touching tale:
"Last night, we played Minecraft. Beenie had a sword, I did not. I built our house. And cooked food. In essence, I was the housewife.
I continually complained about him not bringing food home, and needing him to kill spiders. And, he would come home, complain about me complaining, and I would throw the fact that I'd built him a decorative house on a PIT OF LAVA in his face. Needless to say, hilarious."
Now write a Dear Beenie letter explaining you've left him for Mas.Dear Beenie,
Hello hun. I know you've been out on your adventures, and I know you've likely come home beaten and burnt, ready for a nice nap in your bed next to mine. Perhaps a loaf of bread I have baked while you were gone. I know you enjoyed these things, and I did as well. But I need to confess something. While you've been away all these years, fighting creepers, mining diamonds, discovering The End...I have been somewhere else. You see, I met someone. He's a wonderful chap, and he never makes me do the cooking. He supplies carrots and potatoes like they'll never run out! He brings home chickens, and beef, and we laugh the night away while they cook in our furnace. And it's not the same furnace we smelt iron in, oh no. He has two furnaces. What I am trying to say is, I have left you Beenie. I have moved on with my life, and I hope you can move on with yours. Also, while your Alabamian accent was...Nice...You have nothing on the smooth European accent of my new lover Mas.
Forever not yours,
Dak
"I love Canadians". We love you too! Sorry! If you lead a Ninjitsu army against us, which city would you want to make your seat of government? Convince us of your love of (or Wikipedia research on) the city so we let you cross the border instead of killing you on sight with kindness.London. London Ontario, not the one over there. I was looking to move there when I applied at Digital Extremes. They talked about beautiful parks, and wonderful sports places where I could do sporty things. It's close to Toronto and parts of the US if I got homesick...And, I could say I'm from London, and not have to live in Europe. That's awesome, right?
"Sometimes they called me Dak 'Trebuchetlicious' Sevkla. Treb's are my weapon of choice. I vow to carry one on me at all times, when I can afford to."
Name your trebuchet after a Guardian, and pick it's color. Must have a first, last, and at least three middle names.My Trebuchet is purple. It is named Le Trebuchet de Weenies y Beenies. Le is the first name.
The following passage is constructed entirely from your words:I'll be recreating my character later. He looks like a 35 year old British high school drop out. Barnaby is the BEST. I look forward to our late, shirtless nights together. I do not believe I've ever been called a beautiful female before! Gonna need a bigger desk.
I play solo a lot. It's pretty tense. Great fun with friends too. Grip and compensator. Girlfriend's mom, thank you very much.
That's an awesome wife you have there. Mine almost just disappeared. Which is great.
So... tell us the name of this novel you're working on.Dak Sevkla : Love of the Wrong Kind. It's a purely fictional Autobiography.
"Wait, did I hear a call for... BATTLESTATIONS?" Yes! But we demand a can of beans visible in the picture.Is four cans of beans too much?
Thanks for doing this Dak! Now get back to work!
Not really Dak or Adomnae.
Source.
Show Posts
But she was awesome. Ever since then I have gone by Martini.
So get Twitter, oh and follow me: 
