Solver: "On-Topic" and "Off-Topic" worlds at Apolyton seem to clash sometimes. What's your look at the fight?
Lancer:There's no good reason for it. Imagine Apolyton as a club where there are rooms for discussion of certain things. People can go to each room and discuss the topic of that room, or if they want a break from that can go into the special basement room where you can kick your feet up with friends, have a beer and fart on occasion without too much censure. To say, I'm not going there because I don't like that there is no set topic is just fine, to each their own. However to say I don't like the people who go there because they go there says more about the speaker than the OT folks in my opinion.

Solver: Something to entertain the admins now. Just please be honest :). What do you think of Apolyton administration, and have they used the evil sword of banning vs. you?
Lancer: These are people, they have their good days and bad just like anyone. If you go to Apolyton to make trouble you'll find it. If you go to Apolyton to learn or share or have a good time you'll find that too. If the mods and admins have a failing it is that they let their position and the fact that they are the cop on the beat stop them from having fun sometimes. This is by no means universal however. Some are not defined by their position. All are good sorts as far as I can tell and I respect them for doing a good job and for their dedicated interest in the site and the games. As far as being banned, I was banned for taking part in Black Saturday, which in hindsight I should not have done.

Then again I might not be hitting the mark with that first bit. Apolyton when I first got here was different in that it was new. The mods and admins were Civ interested as everyone else. The focus was more on the game than on who was who, and we all pretty much got along with a common interest, selfless. New people coming in now see a set hiararchy and can't fail to notice that they are at the bottom. Post counts and titles have further eroded the original spirit and divided the mods and admins from the posters. Imagine one of those that chase post counts in a situation where there was no such currency of competition. There would just be the game like it used to be. Recently I was given a 10% pcr (post count reduction) as punishment for persisting in something not popular with the mods and admins. The pcr was my punishment! I realized, it wasn't a punishment, it was a symptom. BUT! These are mostly OT problems, boring stuff for the rest of the site, sorry...

Solver: Thinking back to before CivIII was released, what made you then think it's going to be a great game?
Lancer: Just look at Civ[I] & II! There's a pleasant trend for you.

Solver: Sid Meier, having built many Civ games by 1999, now seems to be also interested much in other projects, like the famous SimGolf, released recently, and the abandoned Dinosaurs game. What's your take on his dedication to non-Civ things?
Lancer: I don't have much of a take for you. I'm a player of grand stategy games almost exclusively. I wish Sid and all the great designers that have done such great things with Civ would stick to grand strategy out of pure selfishness on my part. What I would really enjoy is a turn based Civ-like grand strategy game covering the age of sail right up through Napoleonic times. There were plenty of inventions during the time that had to do with sailing ships and their guns, infantry tactics, as well as a rich political field in the european monarchies of the time and a population explosion that added preasure...Interesting time that has been neglected. 

Anyway, if I want to play golf I get out my clubs.

PAGE 1 | PAGE 2 | PAGE 3 | PAGE 4