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Interview
with who?
- Larnen Skyfire:
Part 3
What is your most amusing memory of events on
Elephant Mud?
Lots of amusing things happen on Ele, something the 'Bloody and Amusing
Death' section, as an example, on the webpage has started to reflect, sharing these
humourous demises with many more people than would have known about them previously. However,
some of the more zany events occurred in the early days, when the code was still reasonably
flaky. Some parts of it were inherited from earlier muds, and parts of this inherited code
was more full of holes than the average sieve! There was the time that Draknor managed to cast
blast on himself, and ran around the mud, screaming, while he attacked himself in hand to
hand! Or the time Skippie got killed in the Grik Forest, and managed to resurrect himself AFTER
the fatal blow, but before his corpse hit the floor! Or the time an unnamed player ran through the
square, got backstabbed and had his head cut off, but his headless body made it four moves south
before keeling over.
There have been many more classic moments - the time Groggie and Isil first met the Death Tribble, the day we invented Newbie Tennis, the time Stress killed every single
person on the mud by moving them all into a room with an psychotic Easter Bunny that had no
exits (it took me ages to put them all back to rights!), and even the classic time Tribbles
took over the mud - we eventually worked out there were millions of them all over the mud,
which lagged it so much we couldn't get a command in to get rid of them and had to reboot! I
couldn't possibly do justice to these stories here, but catch me at a mudmeet, and I'll be happy to
share them with you (for a pint of course!) ;)
What is your favourite
Elephant Mud event?
Probably the run up to New Town. This was significant due to its grand
scale - behind the scenes there was MASSES going on, while on Ele itself, we slowly changed
things day by day over the course of over a month. As people slowly began to notice and
connect the events that were taking place, a wave of excitement flowed over Drakenwood and
theories, soothsaying and 'end of the world' predictions abounded. One week before the comet hit,
there were at least five 'major' theories as to what was going on, each with their own
supporters.
When the day finally came, and so much work came to fruition we were happy to see our labours welcomed by the vast majority, and lots and lots of people came to us
privately to say how much they'd enjoyed the event. The night when it happened
was chaos - with about five of us all in one place running back and forth, up and down stairs,
coordinating everything, while many more were logged on remotely and all doing their bit. It was a
great example of how a massive project, involving large numbers of people from all over, could work
together to accomplish something huge.
What is your worst
Elephant Mud moment?
I'd name a time rather than an event as such. Back when we moved out of
Imperial originally, and were running on a 486dx2/66 which was in Rhyders bedroom at uni. While
he are extremely grateful for the lifeline this provided, the machine was hopelessly underpowered
for our needs. At times the mud lagged so much that combat was
happening at about 5% of the normal speed, and MudOS was experiencing all manner of unpredictable related problems. This was
a bad time as there was no clear solution in sight, it was obviously causing profound problems
and we were powerless to prevent them. As time went on, the negative impact it had on our player
numbers was painfully evident. We pulled through after a couple of months though, and the
loyalty of our players (many of who are still here 6 years after this lowpoint), not only ensured
that we would survive, but also gave us the will to put in our all, despite the demoralising
situation we found ourselves in.
What is your favourite thing about
Ele?
The possibilities, and the fact that we can fulfill them. Elephant Mud
has a bright future, and at every point in its history we've been able to look
ahead, see new ground that nobody has trodden before and head towards it. Sometimes the getting there can be hard and
long, but get there we always do. There is a vast plain ahead of us at the edge of which we
stand, and we know that we can blaze our own path, taking the path that leads ever onwards towards
the goal of an environment that can immerse our players in a world that can be as wide as their
imaginations. In a way, running a mud with the support of Ele is like being a pioneer on the new
frontier, and this is something invigorating.
The other side of this of course is the players themselves. Some of our
players are wonderful. Some are terrible. The key thing is that even those of our players who
cause me headaches late at night generally mean well and are just trying to make Ele a better
place. It is that faith in Ele and loyalty to it that also serves to inspire those around them,
and indeed, often the Wizards. There are many people who are my firm friends who I would never
have known without Ele, and just about every player on there can claim something similar.
It brings people together in a way that those on the outside cannot begin to comprehend. Mudmeets
perhaps give tangible proof of this - people from all over the UK, and indeed all over the
world travel long distances to meet their virtual peers. Ele mudmeets are huge by comparison to
other muds, especially when you work them in relation to actual player numbers.
What do you dislike about/on
Ele?
The inevitable flipside to blazing new ground, and having a wide range of players is that there
will be political pressures. As we have all heard before 'You cannot please all of the people
all of the time.' A very small number of people take very badly not being agreed with, and
can spin off with conspiracy theories, tales of dastardly deeds and so forth. As with all such
things, they can never withstand the light of day, but such people tend not to be interested
in actually debating their point, so much as whispering it behind closed doors, not allowing those
targeted by them to respond with an alternative viewpoint. Things like this are rare - very rare
in fact - on ele, but when they happen, the fact that most of us care so profoundly about Ele
means that it always hurts to find yourself attacked. However, for myself, I choose to care and
take all that goes with it, rather than take the blasé 'do I look like I care?' approach that
such political backbiting has lead to among Admin elsewhere. As long as such
criticisms hurt, I can be sure that I care deeply about Ele, and as long as this is the case, I know that any such
political obstacles can be overcome.
If you had to sum up the players of
Elephant Mud in one short sentence, how would you do it?
"Not black or white but a million shades of grey."
Our player base is an
eclectic mix of people from all over the world, and every walk of life. Some are very
young, others much older (there is at least 40 years between our youngest and oldest) -
some work in computing, others are artists. They come from more countries than I care to try and
work out, from every racial, religious, political, and social background you could
possibly imagine. The great thing is that it doesn't matter in the slightest. There is no
prejudice online, no bias against people who may be different from yourself in real life.
Naturally you meet the odd bad apple who brings their real life phobias online and tries to
exert them, but such people are swiftly warned, and if they persist, removed. We take a
very dim view of such individuals, and as a result Elephant Mud has become a veritable
melting pot of people from all over, who can go about their business free from any worry of
abuse.
Interview
with Larnen: Part 4
Interview with Larnen: Part 2
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