Ol' Blue eyes

2009-06-14 by Frank Sinatra

This weeks interview is with the most handsome player Sun can put on the table who also happens to be the one most people asked for a interview with. And since interviewing yourself never really can go wrong then this will be Frank interviewing Frank - how about that.

Frank Sinatra has been with SUN since its creation and it all began in Faraos Cigarer around 94/95 where he was to open a gaming center for internet games and Magic the gathering/roborally/bloodbowl events. One thing led to another and here we are many years later still spending many hours a day playing competetive online games.

And now hello to Frank.

Ingame name?

Frank Sinatra

How old are you and where do you live irl?

Im 37 years old, i live in Copenhagen, Denmark with my Fiance Maria (wedding 18/7) who is also expecting our first child this october. Outside of the gaming world I'm a volleyball coach and professionally I work as a IT outsourcing manager.

Whats the story behind your nick?

My First nick was Abaddon after Julian Mays series "The pliocene exile", but for some reason I needed a new nick. At that time i was the store manager at the gamingcenter and i played a lot of Frank Sinatra on the stereo and then i became interested in his life where he was well liked, a good entertainer but also had his shady sides with the mafia etc. So for fun I called my char Frank Sinatra - and it simply stuck. In many ways its a stupid nick, and its uncanny how many people call me Frank. But Frank has become my online alter ego, and will probably stay so forever.

Tell us a bit about your gaming story before you joined SUN

I've allways been a gamer. My dad worked for IBM so we had computers very early, so im from the days where you bought a magasine and punched in the code for the game and then played. And if you turned of the PC you had to punch in all the code again - how about that.

I didnt take gaming that seriously until i much later visited a friend with a Vic20. I think he played Zorks revenge, but i clearly remember the situation:

We took turns, and first his friend Janus played for 25 minutes, then my Friend David played for 45 minutes and finally it was my turn. As the first thing i walked into a room with a "chair" looking like this: |_|, and they encouraged me to sit in it. Zap, it was a electric chair and I was dead after 30 seconds, and now it was Janus turn again.

That day i went home to demand a gaming PC and life never really was the same since. The big hits I can remember spending a lot of time on was International Karate+, Bruce Lee, M.U.L.E, The Bards Tale 1, 2 & 3, PSI5 and then it simply rolled from there.

I dont have a big guild history besides SUN. Before SUN was created we had a Quakeworld clan called Mekka, also played Age of empires with success. In Ultima Online I was shortly in Mob Justice with Chub toad and Zargar - but when SUN was created when Catskills came then that kinda sealed my clan life until now.

Tell us a bit about how a typical day in the guild is for you

Depends on my time, but its either A: macroing, B: Farming cash or C: Pvp'ing.
Im not a purist as such, but i havent exploited the acid thing, so im still working on rigor, and dont even have ignore pain yet but ill get that tonight i think :). I went for Necromancy which i regret bitterly now due to the AOE spell is at 100 Necromancy which is basically unatainable in a nearby future.

But im happy with my char now, so focus the last 14 days has changed to much more PvP than before - and for me the game just started in some ways.

How would you describe your time so far in Darkfall with SUN?

A bit mixed. Not because of the game but because we as a guild had a rough start internally. As a player I love it immensely, and I actually beleive with all I have that Darkfall will be the game for all PvP minded MMO players for at least the next year. There will be better PvE games for sure, but in terms of conquest based hardcore PvP there wont be alternatives.

We had a large group of vocal players who hadn't really played for real for a while excusing it with the lack of a PvP game, and when it came they couldnt really deal with it. Added to that we had some old AC players who beleived that cheating was needed to play, which lead to some very large internal discussions. Internally some gave me a lot of thrash for being so much against cheats when people outside have blamed us for cheating for 10 years.

I dont really care what people outside of SUN thinks about us, but it matters to me knowing that we dont win by cheating in PvP.

But we sure had some huge discussions there, where I for a period of time actually lost my will to play or lead the guild. But we came out of it all stronger than ever, and im glad that we took a stand internally and I think it was important also for the years to come.

You have been leading SUN for more than 10 years. Can you tell about what you like and what you dont like?

I like the players. In general I'm not a really social guy in game, and I'm not the guy you write to chit chat. To me there are important issues and unimportant issues. If people write to me with unimportant issues I get annoyed because I'm a gamer first, and I dont get a boner out of having 50 people writing to me every day about issues where they would know the answer by reading a sticky on the boards.

I have a lot of friends in the guild, and I've also been pretty active in taking part of all the RL events.
I like all gamers, but i feel a kindship with adults like me who has a job and a life but who simply have acceptet that they love gaming so much that it isnt just a teenage fling - but a lifelong commitment to competetive gaming. This has also led me to a newfound respect for all the guildleaders of our enemies in the games.

I dont like Greedy players, players who create drama or players who whine. I dont like players who excuse their lack of skill to faulty game mechanics, and I dont like it when skilless players explain that the reason they loose is because they actually have a life.

Besides that im very happy with the guild, and it is a rarity to have a guild like ours with so many years on its back and still going strong as a big factor in a hardcore PvP game.

Why do you think Sun still exists?

Community and leadership structure. I beleive it was brilliant to make the council/gameleader setup , and I think that we have been really lucky about getting the right people when we needed them. Many people are not totally aware how it works, and some people are sometimes annoyed when the council vetos something - but I truly beleive this setup is a big reason for our consistency - and why our game transitions simply work. Added to this i also think our experience makes things work, and while im not allways right - I've made some good choices for the guild on the way.

Any Funny/Fail stories you would like to share?

I'd like to spend the opportunity explaining one story that changed our reputation a lot. We were hardcore and good in UO. With the opening of Siege Perilious 3-4 members found the famous dupe. They were young and duped like mad without the guild knowing and without thinking about consequenses. Due to those few players all of the guild, all our friends and many of the internet cafes customers got banned. I actually had Richard Garriot on the phone 3 times the same evening in our Cafe. We hated OSI at that point due to some GM supervised break-in's in our castle/tower so we handled it badly.

That one situation branded our guild as cheaters, and it taught me a lot about internet rage and how you simply need to ignore the unconstructive things that people like to write anonymously - for some weird reason.

The fast shots (you can only answer with a charname)

- Which SUN member has done something you apreciate. Tsalarian.
- As you see it, which SUN is the best PvP'er. Wizard
- Who is the most helpful. Dont know
- Who is most angry. The French.
- If you needed help ingame, who would you contact. Neo
- Who has the sexiest char? Runa SUN of course.

Tell us one thing about you that noone in SUN knows about you

Hmm ive won 10 Gold medals as coach in the danish championships in volleyball, in 2008 I was on national television 7 times, 4 times commenting volleyball during olympics on Eurosport, one time for for the Volley Cup finals on TV-2, and then on DR2 as a gaming expert talking about virtual economies.

Anything else you'd like to add?

Keep going strong in Darkfall. I think its gonna be a bit low during summer as allways, but im also sure that when the summer is over we have insane times ahead.

Thanks for your time and thank you for reading.