--------------------------------------------------
How did you choose the name Reckless Rodent? Umm...good question. Several years ago, I used to frequent a bulletin board run by a schoolfriend of mine. On that BBS there was a game called Legend of the Red Dragon, which I found to be hugely addictive. Reckless Rodent was the name I used for that (the exact reasons escape me now). After a couple of months, my interest in the game kinda disappeared, so I just let the name drop. I was never a great participant in Internet-related activities before I joined the C3H forum (in fact, that was the first time I'd registered online for anything), so the name wasn't used for a good few years.
When I first came across C3H and decided to register for the forums, that was the name that came to mind first. I'm sure I could have come up with something better had I thought about it for a bit, but I was stuck on 1 of C3's levels at the time and had a question to ask.
There's 1 thing you can say about it though - you don't see it very often on the Net.
Were you the first HGS forumer? No, not by a long way. HGS in some form had been going for well over a year before I found my way here . How long have you been associated with HGS? Well, it all depends what you mean by "associated". If you're talking about when I first found HGS, then it was late October 1998
What role do you have in HGS? For how long? I'm currently a Halo, which is basically one of the "upstairs" jobs. Our function is basically to pore over maps planning how we're going to conquer the world via the medium on the WWW . I've been a Halo since the start of the year. Before that, I was a normal forumer (2 weeks at the end of October 98 and start of November), a Cherub (2 or 3 weeks in November and early December), and then Seraph (i.e. webmaster, between December '98 and January 2000).
What is your favourite thing about the games Caesar 3 and Pharaoh? Which do you like better?Hmm...not sure about that. I remember enjoying SimCity when it first came out, and played SimCity 2000 quite a bit. The thing that drew me to C3 though, was the graphics. I thought they looked really crisp and clear (and still do - I dug out C3 and played it again for the first time in 13 months in February) when I saw them in a magazine advert. As it happened, that magazine had the C3 demo on the cover CD, so I booted that up and had a go. I completed the demo about 10 times before the full version came out in the UK. When that happened, I made sure to pick it up.
As for Pharaoh, I'm not sure if there's any 1 thing that stands out. Speaking as a player, then I might well err on the side of the new multiple plot lines created by the dynamic request \ extortion system. However, that creates nightmares for the Pharaoh walkthrough-writer, since the reader might find the scenario to be totally different when he plays it. Hence why the PH walkthroughs are more general than the C3 ones.
Favourite of the two? Well, I'd have to say C3. On the whole, it just seems to be a more polished product than Pharaoh. Of course, being from the UK, I'd have to put that down to the fact that David Lester and his UK-based crew were still with Impressions when C3 was created . Do you have a direct relationship with Impressions? What can you tell us that we don't already know about the upcoming Cleopatra expansion? It all depends what you define as a "direct relationship". If you mean whether Impressions react favourably to any reasonable requests I make of them, then yes we do. I think that type of relationship benefits them, us, and you, our visitors.
As for Cleopatra, nothing groundbreaking. The only stuff I know about that the rest of you don't is exactly what's in the upcoming screenshots that I'll be posting on PH over the next week or so . What are you most proud of about your work on HGS? Any failures you care to mention?Difficult one. Initially, I was going to say "the atmosphere in the C3H and PH forums", but then realised it would be far too arrogant on my part to assume that's down to me as opposed to the forumers themselves. On further reflection, I'd have to say PH. I've been there since the very start, and have enjoyed seeing the forums grow busier and the hits increase . Failures? The greatest one was the C3H chat room which I tried to get running in early 1999. Never really worked. Looking back, it was probably a bad idea to start with, but we all have to learn from our mistakes.
You are a very busy man. What is a typical day like for you? Do you ever sleep?Really? That's news to me . Seriously, I'm probably not as busy as many people think. I still go to university (studying History and German), so spend a fair bit of time (though probably not enough) reading books and preparing for essays. When I'm not doing that, then I'm probably working on HGS in some way or another. My main limit on the latter is the amount of time I can spend online at the moment. As anyone out there from Europe knows, it can get a bit on the expensive side if you spend too much time online. There's only a certain amount of HGS-related work you can do when you're not online . What interests outside of HGS do you have? Not many. I've never been much of a social animal anyway, and tend to keep pretty much to myself (HGS is a blessing because it keeps me from getting bored when I'm not working). I used to play golf before I headed to Bristol University, and will probably take it up again when I decide where I'm going to settle down after I've graduated next year. History-related or comedy programmes on TV are always good for a bit of relaxation (Time Team in the former category and Have I Got News For You in the latter category are 2 of my all-time favourites), as is the occasional book (mainly comedy books like Terry Pratchett's Discworld series).
Perhaps I should slip "playing computer games" in there too . --------------------------------------------------
Thanks so much Reck for giving this interview. I hope everyone else enjoys it as much as I did.Cheers,
C
herub
M
arcusLindicus
-----I always wanted to be someone....I guess I should have been more specific.-----