It has to be said, this was one of the weirdest interviews I've had to do, not so much for the interviewee but the circumstances...
Final prep and drop for Faction Wars was well underway, and the only way we could talk was via a secure intra-gateway commlink, with all the distortion and time delay that entailed.
So, secure in the cockpit of a new Anubis class mech that I was putting through its paces, I inserted the encoder chip into my relay link and established a burner channel on the FUSION comm-net.
GG: OK then, welcome to Galaxy Gathering, just for the record can I get name, rank and serial number and since its a faction war, we'd best have your usual clan as well as your current faction
DD: Don Davis398405
CLAN: FUSION
Faction: Alpha Unit (RND)
Co-Clan Leader of FUSION
GG: Well, our clan channel just exploded into chatter with the divisions having been posted. Are you guys happy with your draw?
DD: Well, if I can ever get the stupid static to clear so I can see what it is, I might have an opinion...
Is the Games Masters channel down?
GG: Nope.... you in a hotel? Maybe try the direct link rather than through local traffic?
DD: Maybe comset issues. stand by
Nope, my account is somehow blocked.
Can't load from any device
OK, suddenly it just started working. Weird.
YES, we're content with the draw. Our purpose this time - meaning FUSION and RND both - was not necessarily to guarantee a gold win, but rather, establish relations and gain experience working together. Both groups have a lot of knowledge to share, and we will both be better for it, long term.
Many low-level players have no idea what it's like to play with Div 1 players, and for us in Div 1, we lose perspective and other critical resources when we lose touch with the lower divisions. This effort seemed to be timed perfectly, especially since there are too many in the game who are too easily enticed by the opportunity to pile on to a one-sided blowout for the sake of prize scavenging. FUSION is interested in the competition and the game experience. Prizes are just nice by-products.
GG: Yes, I think a lot of folk were perhaps a little surprised not to see a FUSION led faction making a play in Division 1.
So was it a deliberate aim to land in Division 2 or did you just land where the levels took you?
DD: To be honest, we really aren't geared for Faction Wars. We don't have the numbers or the affiliations yet to firmly establish a 40-man competitive presence in Div 1, when 3 out of the 4 top clans in the game are already disproportionately stacked for their Clan War divisions, and then decide to double-down on the practice by forcing the rest into a Faction where only 9 or 10 people out of 40-50 have any chance at a win. RND, it turns out, is very good at targeting their preferred division for the goals we've established together for this.
GG: OK, I'll come back to that last statement, just need to check on something else first.
I recall when we spoke at the point of FUSION being formed that there was plans for a second clan, a feeder clan. Now I'll be honest I sort of lose track of divisions that my own clan family doesn't appear in... did the second clan eventuate and if so are you guys happy with their positioning?
DD: We haven't yet formed or aligned/affiliated a functional second clan per se. Ostensibly, RND is well-positioned to properly groom the players who have the ambition and resources to traverse the ever-widening disparate gap between the lower Divisions and the upper Divisions. Part of what FUSION can do is demonstrate how to do that and remain competitive throughout while minimizing personal expenses.
GG: That does lead back to what I was going to come back to... so the division targeting seems to have been done by RND, correct?
DD: Primarily. Kris Fleet is one of the best in the biz with that sort of thing, so he was available for assistance and oversight, but RND number-crunchers are right there with it, for as much as can be accounted for. It's like juggling cats trying to pull that off.
GG: Yeah, I get complaints constantly from our guys when it comes to the art of division predictomancy... but you seemed very happy with a division 2 berth, which leads me to believe you guys hit your mark spot on.
Since we had been talking about advancing players up from lower divisions, some cynics would say that's an ideal spot to garner resources.... or was there some big bads there that you guys wanted a showdown with?
(says he sitting in Division 2 himself and about to be on the end of a Fusion beatdown... )
DD: Well, FUSION knew that what we were proposing would necessarily involve going to a lower division. FUSION really didn't care which one beyond what RND wanted. Now, RND had other concerns and commitments regarding which divisions they would focus on. I'm not going to get into that because it's outside my bowl of rice. We just wanted to help RND succeed to keep those commitments, so not all of us are actually playing with RND this time. We have a couple in another Div 1 Faction to keep from blowing their level averages.
We believe that a Div 1 Clan should strive to be good at all aspects of the game.
GG: Hmmm... tricksy they are...
So how did the joint venture with RND come about? Who approached who?
DD: Kris Fleet is really the guy with the contacts and positioning as a player to broker these alliances. He was a major factor in the success of AFFBros, if you recall, and both Kris and I both worked with Richard Millich for a time in The Brotherhood's Technical and Tactical division, so we had that prior-productive association to build on.
It turns out that Millich and I are of like mind on a lot of things - especially the sorts of things that can result in a better game experience for everyone involved. Of course we advocate playing to win and natural player development and progression over being 'forced' to camp, but there are different ways of defining what constitutes a "win" over the long term.
At that point we had the line cut, presumably due to heavy gate traffic as clans were heading for their respective jump off zones. We managed to pick up the call the next day.
GG: OK, I'll carry on with questions and you can answer as you get a gap in static...
It seems like you chaps are hoping that this is going to be a longer term alliance, much in the same way that the Bunnies and Smurfs have formed the backbone of the BBB faction since the start, would that be correct? If so, I think there could be a few folks keeping a weather eye on what happens between you...
DD: Well, I can't speak for RND, but FUSION is certainly amenable. Again, it's probably less about an "alliance" and more about building a relationship that grooms like-minded players, with a larger perspective of the game experience as a whole. We'll have better alliances and affiliations in every Clan/Faction if players stop going for the short-term scraps and start making their decisions based on a higher personal standard of competition.
GG: You mentioned some of your usual clan mates have headed to other groups in Div1 for this round... any chatter coming back on how they fancy their chances?
DD: Well, they're in Div 1 which will unfortunately be a blowout, but since they are our newest players who have the steepest power curve to deal with before the next Clan War, they will at least benefit some from the better "participation prizes" there, and get to be our ambassadors to the folks in that Faction to start thinking about some of the things we've been talking about here.
GG: Changing tack slightly, since you have discussed a lot about player experience, there has been a lot of discontent voiced recently about the game economy and sales discounts on offer. Any opinion on that?
DD: I've always felt that the missions should be expanded to be more interactive, so they can include ways for players to actually PLAY for niode resources, to reach and maintain a reasonably-competitive strength-for-level, and not just camp or endure unreliable/inconsistent ad videos. There needs to be an in-game method for closing or stalling this ever-widening gap in competition. A player who is just starting out right now would have to power-level for over 3 years before they could hope to scratch the paint on my mechs, much less actually be relevant in Div 1, just due to the fact that Div 1 players can't slow down. It's already over twice as far past the point of reasonable as it ever should have gotten. There's gotta be a way of reeling that back in without destroying the gameplay for the strongest players - any more than it's already being destroyed by the fact that most have no hope of ever catching up to us.
GG: Yes, I certainly agree with the player interactive missions, its something I've suggested myself previously.
OK, one final question since the bullets are already flying,
The betting isn't active this time around, presumably because with factions the field and number of combinations is that much less.... Are you a fan of the betting system (since it is one relatively cheap way for players to close the resource gap if they are lucky) or is it too predictable to be of use? Scrap, keep or change in some way?DD: Oh yeah, love the betting, even though I'm bad at it (Laighing)! More niodes in circulation stimulates the game economy and competition!
And we had to end there, since I was already under fire and hey, there's only so much I'll do for an interview....
Submitted by David McCallum #701548