Sunday 21 August 2011

The Die2Nite Herald Issue #8 Berserk at the Workshop

The Die2Nite Herald Issue #8 Workshoping Workshop

Editorial
I`ve always liked workshop. Its a great honor to interview him. He has always been a great help to the community. A very knowledgeable player who tries to help everyone and improve the community projects. I can think of few who are as known and liked as him. So naturally i had to get him on the herald. It was pure coincidence that got me and Workshop crossing paths. After i lunched the Herald he liked it and later on contacted me about some idea he had. And now we are planning to do a pretty awesome in my opinion cross-over but i wont spoil anything yet :D Ill just let you guys wait and see for yourself.

Yours Azmael
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 Interviewing a Mechanic
  *dislmaimer*
All players must agree to the terms and conditions of our interview policies. No interviews will be hold or published without the consent of the player. The Die2Nite Herald holds no responsibility for what might happen to the players image. Everybody should mind their words.



D2N Herald Q: Workshop finally at our HQs!!! It is an incredible honor sir please have a seet. How was your trip? Any zombies tried to eat your brains?
Workshop A: Thank you! This is very humbling. A-hum. Yeah a couple hundred zombies tried to get me on the way here but I used my nail clippers and only had to repair them once. *wipes hands*



D2N Herald Q: Yes we must apologize for that. With all the work around this place it seems that we have attracted alot of Aaaargh attention. But as one would expect from Workshop he can get out of trouble with just a pair of nail clippers. Now even tho you are quite the celebrity within the D2N community some of our readers might not know who you are. So please tell us where do you play from, how old are you . . . you know just a slight introduction.
Workshop A: I'm 37, I'm Australian but have always been playing from Jordan in the Middle East as I've been living there for about a year and a half. It was fun playing from Australia the last two weeks as I was back home on hols. Great having the attack take place at 7am. Good for corpse eviction distinctions ;) I work, I look after my lovely 3 year old twin girls, I travel a fair bit but I seem to find some time for Die2Nite. I don't quite know how I do that to be honest.


D2N Herald Q: A traveler and a loving father a true role model. But tell us Workshop how did you end up in the harsh wastelands of Die2Nite?
Workshop A: I used to play Hordes back in Australia as a way to use French. I'm a cunning linguist and it's not always easy to keep in touch with a language when it's not spoken around you. I found out about Hordes back in 2008 I think it was, when I was all new and sketchy, the good old days. I played it for a bit over a year before it moved away from what I liked. Back then I was enjoying it tremendously but wished I could play with friends or show my mates what it was all about. So when an old Hordes contact told me about die2Nite I was rapt as you can imagine!! Exactly what I had been waiting for. Been playing D2N since Beta and enjoying every moment of it. That's where I'd like to say that the Die2Nite community is much nicer than the Hordes community. The Hordes community is very much mono-cultural and you see the same sexist jokes and the same over used references over and over again every bloody town. Every time they think they're being witty and original, too... D2N has a wonderful community of players from all over the world with their own references, their own humour and their own way of dealing with things. In addition I believe it makes for more patience and more respect all around. There's a lot to be said for diversity!

D2N Herald Q: Yes well Die2Nite is an international version of Hordes so its hard to witness the same thing. But you once played on the French realms. Would you say the English server is in a better place now?
Workshop A: O_0 difficult question! It's a different place.  Despite what many think, we got updates at different times and at a different pace and we did not get a simple copy and paste of Hordes. I am sure Epoq takes time to think it through and cares a fair bit about what's going on and where we're going. Patience is a virtue (I love saying that because I'm fairly impatient most of the time!)... So we're in a different place. I think our community's best but as far as the game is concerned, well I don't really care much for Hordes and haven't for some time to be honest so it's hard for me to say.

D2N Herald Q: Been here since the begining which game update is your favorite and which one you think made the biggest impact to the gameplay?
Workshop A: I never thought of it this way. I've loved the game since the start and would still enjoy it without updates. At least for quite some time. I can't think of an update I liked more than another. I did not like camping much as I failed to see the point of it, how it was making the game any better and how it was relevant to D2N gameplay. That's why I was glad to see the blueprints update, finally making camping relevant. I am looking forward to seeing more updates using camping as a way to do something genuinely useful. The biggest impact has got to be the infamous <thunderstorm sound effect, deep voice> meta cap... I was on the fence on that one a lot of the time, more on the side of the anti-cap camp because so many players I like and value didn't want the cap. Now, well it's a bit taboo or so it seems but I'm quite liking it. It's fun to see everyone in the same boat.


D2N Herald Q: Indeed camping as it was in season 2 was a very weird feature that people used completely wrong hopefully you are right and there will be more camping related mechanics added later on. You mentioned something about Spartie and virg learning how to fight from you. Obviously you have played in alot of towns do you think its worth trying to teach new players the ropes or its a hopeless fight as long as the game is so hard at the begining?
Workshop A: My hypocritical side will tell you that yes it's totally worth it. R3dd3r and brahe (are you still around mate?) did it a fair bit out of generosity and started planning around it. The more we help newcomers the better the community will be and it increases our chance to do well in our towns. But really, I don't do it all that much. Die2Nite is not all about cooperation and compassion. It'd be boring. I like the sneakiness of it. Very much. Still with the metacap, dedicated players have no choice but show the kids the ropes, I suppose?


D2N Herald Q: Either that or the meat locker- sadly alot of high level players have decided that killing is easier. Speaking of sneakiness there is alot of distinction hunting in this game, people stealing materials to repair weapons or maybe trying to chomp some drugs and dump AP on construction. Out of all your achievements which one are you most proud of?
Workshop A: Ah proud is a short and big word isn't it? I'm proud of the community spirit ones first and before all. No doubt about that. After that, talking about in game achievements, I love my repair distinctions and title,mostly because I'm #1 in the game for repairing stuff but also because it's just something I dig and I get to spend time in the workshop ;) Beating virg's record of zombies killed with a mower was a major plus even though my joy and my bragging made Rulesy grumpy at the time. Now I'd love to stay alive and get some camping after the 10+ town is devastated distinctions and titles and at the same time I want an LMS! Still haven't got ONE!! So much to do!



D2N Herald Q: Camping after devastation is alot harder to do now what with towns lacking supplies and weapons but we wish you good luck. You mentioned rulesy obviously all of us miss him he was a great asset for the game. But now in his place new map apps keep popping all over the place. Recently "From Dusk Till Dawn" was released it just seems like everybody wants a piece of the pie nowadays. Which of the current apps is your favorite? Where should we put our money on?
Workshop A: Might not be harder - towns don't last for as long so it doesn't take you too much time before you get an opportunity to give it a shot! I like to be positive! Now re: map apps, I don't think it's fair to say that everyone wants a piece of the pie. I am thankful to every single one of the players involved in all of our new map apps. Positive again, I think it's exciting. Sure right now it's chaotic and no-one knows where it's at. isaaclw is everyone's saviour here with his brilliant add-on that lets you update every map at once. Still you can't reasonably expect everyone in your town to download an add-on and at the end of the day we're going to HAVE TO have ONE APP as the standard one. It's not helpful having too many seemingly competing with one another. I am a big fan of what From Dusk Til Dawn is trying to achieve and it's the only one with a good name, too. I like my map app to be fast and user friendly above all else. If you ahve to convince newcomers to use an external app, how on earth do you stand a chance if said app is clunky, slow and tricky? Yeah, fast and simple is the way to go. Please don't listen to everyone on the world forum and don't go the clunky, complicated way... Again, I want to say that all those involved in cooking us the next good thing ought to be congratulated and above and beyond I believe it's great that they agree to co-operate on this. I am a bit worried of the current trend that says it's ok to have lots as long as you can use isaac's add-on. It's awesome for now but it's not the way to go. Eventually we must hope for ONE standard map app that pleases the crowds the most.


D2N Herald Q: Yes getting everybody to use a different APP is going to give alot of people trouble. Hopefully by the end of season 3 a winner will emerge. We agree on the names, people need to be more creative!! Now you are a player with alot of ties in the community. Give us some spicy gossip make our readers go O_O
Workshop A: Oooh goss, huh? fodgycakes is turning her dog into a photo journalist (true story), spartie loves to brag about his wife's cooking, spacekadt and Annette are lovely and caring, R3dd3r is secretely hoping to become a D2N saint, and Australians will be the first to have a RL Die2Nite meet.



D2N Herald Q: Yes.....right....i think you missed the basic rule of gossip there workshop. Gossip includes embarrasing things! But no worries we will send you a copy of Ghoul2011`s book "How to dig up Dirt on Humans". Now there some rumors in the office that you and our boss are cooking up something. He has remained tight lipped about it, would you care to shed some light on it?
Workshop A: Baaah... let's just say it involves spreading the news, and an exclusive WORLD FIRST interview of You Know Who ;) ... It's always a bit tricky to communicate in Die2Nite since there is no messaging system and the World Forums are fairly specific. I'd like to take this opportunity to strongly encourage one and all to embrace and use the die2nite.net forums. Especially map app devs. There is a special Dev section there which we're looking at making private so only devs can access it and use it to co-operate and communicate better on their projects.

D2N Herald Q: Yes co-ordination and uniting all the devs sounds like a really good idea. We cant wait to see what you have in store for us in the future. But before we finish any advice for the players out there?
Workshop A: Always send Workshop your best decoration items and your unread texts from the World Beyond, it's bound to bring you luck! Besides that, stay cool, don't fret if someone's stealing off you when you're out there scavenging, it's part of the game and you'll get it back when they die! Why did you have it in your chest to start with anyway? huh? Huh? HUH??!! Don't register a complaint for a yes or a no, it's lame. And those selfish players -slash- griefers out there, good luck to you but what you're doing is easy and most of the time really lame. Oh and tidy your house FFS! ;)


There you have it people from the mouth of Workshop himself. He didnt want to share anything about his project either but we do know that we can expect a release sometime next week. So stay tuned for more information. 
 p.p:Does r3dd3r really want to be a saint?????








 Interviewing a Cartographer 

D2N Herald Q: Hello BerZerg thanks for joining us for this exclusive interview. The Herald was thrilled when you contacted us about your project 10 days ago. Tell us what made you create another map app after Rulesy left we got a whole bunch of them did you not like them?
BerZerg A: Hello and thank you for this opportunity. Well, when Rulesy shut down his app, despite hopes of a lot of us that he wouldn't, something was missing. At that point we had only Oval Office. I like OO for its true strengths, but couldn't quite do my thing with it. In that regard it fell short. In the meantime, it has cranked up considerably and is much better than it was then. Shortly after Rulesy's app died down, Atlas also showed up. First I thought to abandon the project, but I noticed that Atlas was moving heavily towards a feature-rich tool. My meta — the infamous Highlanders — we needed something snappy and reliable — no fluff just stuff. That's why I created From Dusk Till Dawn.
D2N Herald Q: we had a talk earlier today with Workshop and he too agrees that fast and easy is the way to go. You created the APP on your own or you have a team with you?
BerZerg A: I created the app on my own. The first prototype was heavily inspired by Rulesy's, but I gradually moved in another direction. There's a lot of wishes for what creates a good tool and my vision is that a focused tool with relentless care for quality and speed is the best way to go. So I have to agree with Workshop here.
D2N Herald Q: It must have taken alot of time we are all greatefull and appreciate your hard work BerZerg. Is this why you are leaving the project as an open source? And arent you afraid that some people might actually do harm to the app this way?
 BerZerg A: Yes, it did take some time. For me personally, I had the chance to learn some techniques which I wanted to dive into anyway, so it was a great opportunity to polish my skills. With regards to Open Source, I believe strongly that Open Source does more good than harm to any community. Because I have made it Open Source, I cannot keep the community hostage, but have to be a decent citizen too. Also, it is inviting to other, perhaps more talented developers to chip in and contribute to the total.
D2N Herald Q: Well hopefully noone will abuse that. There has been quite alot of feedback on the forums regarding your app. And people are already saying that From Dusk Till Dawn is the best app yet. What plans do you have for the future? Are there any features that we should be looking forward to?
BerZerg A: Definitely. I am very enthousiastic about the activity stream. You will be able to see who made what updates to a zone. Furthermore, you will get a citizen overview and a Duskdawn activity rating. Very handy, if you want to know who to, ehm, "motivate".  
   
D2N Herald Q: Or who to hang on the gallows. . . .you have been playing for a long time and now you are developing an app to improve the game for all of us. But there is only so much a map app can do. What bugs you in Die2Nite and what would you like to change in future updates? 
 BerZerg A: Well, at the start of Season 3, I was a bit miffed about some of the drastic changes. However, gradually, I found that the makers intended for every town to tell a unique story and in that they succeeded. Die2Nite is an incredibly smart game with a social dynamic that is hard to match. What I would like to see are smaller changes, better tested. The big changes are generally not very good and unbalance the game in other, unintended ways.
D2N Herald Q: The game is indeed very dynamic in its social aspects. Has there ever been a sotuation where somebody did something in your town that made you go "WTF"?
BerZerg A: Definitely! The worst griefers make the best stories. There once was this guy who locked most citizens out and kept closing the gate on us. He had like five twinoids, so he could keep closing the gate for a long, long time. Or the guy running of with the hacksaw, literally to the other end of the map. Or the blabberbox who we just had to hang to shut him up. It's a wonderful game, and secretly I like the influence of the griefers too. Did I just say that aloud?
D2N Herald Q: Have you ever commited any griefing yourself? Maybe stole some drugs during the last days of the town? Or mixing a poison vial with a can of food?
 BerZerg A: I admit to having mixed a vial of poison with water. I never got to actually use it, but the pleasure up-front was immense. Selfish play has its charms, but ever since I hooked up with my Highlander buddies, I have a team to look after. So much for selfish play :)
D2N Herald Q: All community devs get a special distinction if their work gets officially approved. Obviously thats something to brag about. What other distinctions do you like to show off to people?
BerZerg A: Killing zombies! Even more difficult in Season 3. I love going out with some highly explosive waterbombs and blasting 20+ zombies to pieces. 
D2N Herald Q: 20+ zombies? We never have such luck with our bombs maybe someday you will teach us how to throw water bombs. Now there has been a huge political debate on the world forums so we must ask you: Who gets it done? MayorFasi, Keith or PrivateButtkiss?
BerZerg A: Mayor Fasi obviously. But does he get it right also?
Azmael Q: I guess we will have to wait until the elections and see. And before we wrap this up- final words of advice for our readers? How Not to Die2Nite?
BerZerg A: Be sure to make your house bigger and better than your neighbours', run faster than they do and if all else fails, pack up and seek out that Nuclear Bunker.
BerZerg is the current favorite in the map app wars loves killing zombies and is a supporter of MayorFasi. Maybe Keith and PrivateButtkiss need to shape up?
       


At The End Of The Day
There wasnt that much going on on the world forums but i had to get the interviews done and released so i decided to do a double feature.
Dont forget to vote on the poll in the right side menu.
Spread the word and open a thread about the Herald in your town forums so more people can read it and hopefully give some feedback in here due to the lack of forum posting rights.
And Community Project Devs register on the community forums (link in the sidebar) and get in touch with the others.
Hope you enjoyed issue #8 ill see you next time.

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