Q: How did you get your name?
A: The last four letters of one of the Three Musketeers. Dartangan I believe.
Q: How old are you?
A: Game time, around 30 weeks and 5 days, and I rarely idle. I know I could be much more experienced with that amount of time spent logged on, but I prefer to sit and chat. Real time... somewhere between 10 years and 30 years. :)
Q: What level are you?
A: I'm not sure, I think I'm level 71 right now. I've spent so much time not doing anything related to experience points that I forget sometimes. At least it keeps me away from reincarnation.
Q: How would you describe yourself?
A: I'm a slightly demented mortal in a perpetual good mood. I often go off in eccentric directions pursuing some bizarre cause or another, but no matter what I do I'm always happy.
A: At least most of the time.
Q: Where do you live?
A: A 100+ room mansion in Loriah, apparently somewhere accessible from login. Apparently it's also accessible from the rest of the city, for that matter.
Q: How long have you been logging on to AoD?
A: A little over 2 years now, I think. I don't believe I've ever gone more than a week without logging on.
Q: How did you first get in contact with Ages of Despair?
A: I decided to see what a MUD was like, and was looking through Top Mud Sites for one. AoD at that time was the highest MUD on the list that didn't require an e-mail address, real name, or approval for characters.
Q: Do you regularly play or wiz on any other MUDs?
A: I'm a regular wizard on one, and I wander around on others occasionally to see what different RPG systems are like.
Q: Are you a normal mudder or do you seldom log on?
A: I log on almost every day, but I kill monsters maybe once a month. Most of the time I just read the boards and renew my locker. I spend more CP on the BS channel than I do on skills and spells. I'm probably the first (semi) pacifist player on the MUD that logs on regularly.
Q: Have you met any fellow mudders in RL?
A: None at all. Some live nearby, even in the same city, but I haven't ever met them. If I did they'd probably be afraid of me, or I would be afraid of them. Or both.
Q: What was your first kill and if you ever died, what was the first thing that killed you?
A: I think my first kill was a mouse on Rondaran Heights. I'm still puzzled about why such a thing is so difficult to cut apart with a dagger. I can understand why they're hard to hit, but I'd imagine one or two stabs would take it out. My first death... The first death I had that I remember was being invited to a party of about five players each around level 10 to go kill a knight in the library. I backstabbed him, and then we all died within 12 seconds. :)
Q: Did you ever get killed by a ("the") horrible creature?
A: I loved exploring when I was lower level, and obviously curiosity is very often fatal. I was killed by that particular creature the first time I went into the forest, and I think I've been killed by him at least 3 or 4 times since then. I think the most recent death involved accidentally entering there after I just fled from the creature with about 50 HP.
Q: Who is your favourite and most hated npc respectively?
A: Jack O' Lantern the Scary Vendor would be my favorite. He makes every Halloween quite a bit more interesting, and funny. As an added bonus, he's a nice outlet for my cash. :)
A: My least favorite... I'd have to say that would be Jalnar, the wise sage. I spent large amounts of time as a new player trying to figure out his purpose, but I never found anything even remotely useful game-wise from him..
Q: What is the funniest/strangest thing that ever happened to you on AoD?
A: Lots of possibilities for this one, but I'd have to say it would be the time I adopted my pet mackerel. I don't see what's so strange about that, personally, but almost everyone else seems to think that exceedingly cute fish are somewhat bizarre.
Q: Ah, that would be Mully?
A: Indeed, A very cute (highly) (and puffy) mackerel. Or, for you Dutch-speaking people, it would be my hoogst schattige (en lichtjes opgezwollen) makreel.
Q: Do you have any piece of equipment you just can't live without?
A: That would be my wedding ring. It's the only piece of armour I really wear around often, and it's a very nice reminder of the most wonderful person I am married to.
Q: Do you have a "special place" where you like to hang out, a private corner so to speak?
A: My "special place" could be divided up between 1 north of login when I feel like giving out enchantments and protections, login, when I'm relatively idle or want to meet people, and my house, when I'm double- and triple-checking that I stored all my equipment in one of those rare instances I actually fight.
Q: How much of your time on AOD do you spend hanging out or chatting compared with exping?
A: Let's see... I spend approximately all my time hanging out and chatting, and approximately none of my time fighting. A rough estimate would be 100/0, which is undefined. Another estimate could be 100 divided by 10^-1000, which is close to infinity. So I essentially spend all of my time chatting and none of it exping.
Q: What is the best thing about Ages of Despair?
A: I'd have to give two answers to this question. Think back to what MUD stands for, Multi-User Dungeon. The player- and wizard- base is one of the best things about the MUD. Most of them are very friendly, and the fact I like to talk to them is one of the reasons I've stayed on so long.
A: For the Dungeon part of the acronym, which I would take to be the codebase, I would say the best thing about the MUD is the woodland mage guild. It's the best thought-out feature of the MUD in my opinion.
Q: What is the worst thing about Ages of Despair?
A: answer The fact that although this is a Role-Play-Optional MUD, not a lot of attention is given to role-players. Essentially the best attempts at role-playing here are done through the BS channel. Many of the features of the MUD do not well fit a role-play environment.
Q: Do you have any driving ambitions on AOD? Is there anything that you want to achieve or perhaps something that you have already achieved?
A: In terms of experience and equipment, I would say there is not anything I'd really want to achieve, except maybe for the status it would give me. Ii would say that being perpetually nice to people is probably the only thing I feel I have left to do here. Well... Maybe being able to modify my title and change it every 5 minutes would be fun, but since the who command doesn't show titles any more, I barely pay attention to them anyway. :)
Q: Is there any advice you would like to give to new players that just entered our world?
A: Be nice to the fishies. Especially the cute and cuddly ones. They are nice and sometimes will help you if you are also nice to them.
A: Oh, and if you ever decide to suicide or leave for good, I would gladly accept all your money and equipment.
Q: Were you ever convicted of a crime?
A: I've never gotten a serious punishment for anything I did, and I've never done anything so bad that it would show up on my crime record. I think the worst thing I did was abusing wizcall when I was a newbie when I got stuck in my locker. And I spammed the woodland channel with '20 r wd' and got banned once when I thought no one but I was listening. Didn't know about invisible wizards then. :) And I used to ahve a habit of shouting in all caps, something I've gotten over since.
Q: How many friends/family play?
A: None at all. I used to ask some friends to play, but none of them liked anything that wasn't graphical. Few people appreciate the wonders of ASCII.
Q: Favourite quote?
A: [bs] Angan 's highly cute (and puffy) mackerel flops across the Internet.
Q: What music are you listening to now?
A: The sound of the memory functioning on my computer.
Q: Is there anything else you would like to mention about yourself or your life?
A: Nothing I can think of right now.
Q: If you could remove one of the questions from this interview and replace it with another one, which would you remove and what would you replace it with?
A: I would remove the "What is the worst thing about Ages of Despair?" and replace it with: "What change to the MUD would have the greatest beneficial impact in comparison with the time it would take to implement?"
Q: And of course I will have to ask you to answer your own question now.
A: Meep, wasn't expecting that one.
A: Make _all_ undead creatures immune to mind spells, and give other creatures similar resistances and immunities too. This would encourage a lot more diversity in who you take to parties. Also, give monsters more varied forms of attack, so that the front-row people would also change.
Q: Who would you like me to interview next, and why?
A: A cute imp, any one of them. Or one of the fishies that live in the forests. Hmm, I'd say a cute imp would be the best next candidate.
A: (Not that I have anything against fishies)
Q: If I do that interview, is there a specific question that you want me to ask?
A: That's an easy one... Ask the imp to compare his cuteness and cute features to those of my adopted fishies. Ask him to compare similarities and differences, and give his opinion of who is the cuter.
Q: Do I have your permission to make this information public on the People of AoD webiste or any other media?
A: Aye, as long as you remove that "Ii" I typoed a while back. It'd be embarrassing for me to make public something with that many typos. And you have permission to spell check it a bit too.
>>> This interview brought to you by Mephitic <<<
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