An Interview with Sir Shockwave

[Sir Shockwave]

Well, I'd be lying if I didn't consider these obligatory, especially with so much rep and posts done over the course of several days - might as well become on the roster until things turn sour. I did decide to liven this up though, in the form of a Mock Interview, of which you can see below:

Who are you, what are you, and what is your preferred flavor of Ice Cream?

I'm Sir Shockwave, I'm a Novice level Map Maker for Warcraft III and Mint Choc Chip.

How old are you?

As of writing, I'll be 22 years old on December 31st.

Male of Female?

I'm Male. Sorry!

Nationality?

BRITISH! ALL HAIL TEA AND CRUMPETS!

What's the story behind your User name?

Well, originally it was just "Shockwave", named for my Favourite Transformer. However, then I got to playing Age of Chivalry for a while, and the name stuck since.

Why are you here on the Hive?

All honesty? I tend to float around a bit on the internet, going from one place to another. I'm here on the Hive right now because we've again hit inspiration for big, ambitious project and as always, asking questions if I get stuck is always something.

So you have no Interest in the Community?

Well I wouldn't put it like that! I'm just...of the extremely shy and sensitive disposition, with a slight temper. I've never been really good at Socialising with other Human beings. The grand total of friends I have at time of writing? Three.

Having said that, if you fancy a game of something and I can find a way to keep the diary clean, ask me for my contact details via PM or another method and I'll see what I can do. Other than that, you might catch me around when I have a question, answering someone's question as best I can, or trying to find a way to breathe life into the RP section somehow.

Which I guess brings us to this boundary - Warcraft or Starcraft?

Starcraft. While Warcraft does have the better, easier to follow Map Editor (when it's not leaking, crashing or generally misbehaving), Starcraft was my introduction to Blizzard as a whole. Plus, I admit I've always been more predisposed to Science Fiction/Science Fantasy than the High/Gothic Fantasy Warcraft represents.

On that note, which do you prefer - Brood War or SCII?

It's an even split. BW had a much, much better storyline, but SC II had better gameplay. For starters, it doesn't take the best part of five minutes to pop out one guy with a little pea shooter!

Do you partake in any E-Sports events, or play frequently on Battle.net?

I may watch Husky's Starcraft II replays from time to time, but I'm not a E-Sports player (or competitive multiplayer for that matter). About the most Multiplayer goes is Co-Operative session with someone I can rope into having a session. Alternatively, I could spend years replaying the WOL Campaign, and hopefully HOTS has just as much replay value.

On a side note, with a tiny handful of exceptions, it's mostly just boils down to "who's got the better blob of doom?". Call it ignorance, but it doesn't really look like many players even at Grandmaster level really employ any other strategies.

That last statement...could be taken the wrong way.

My apologies if I've offended anyone. It's just what I've noticed from watching the replays. I think as we've gathered I do not hate Starcraft.

Do you have any other interests beyond Blizzard Games?

Kind of a tough and painful subject to discuss openly.

Well then, what do you hate?

Hate in my view is a bit of a strong word. Hate suggests a subject which is pretty much irredeemable. However, if you really want to know, here's a short bullet pointed list:

• Games Workshop - The fans make Sonic Fans, Bronies and some of the more vocal and crazed Furries combined look completely sane by comparison, they enjoy price gouging their players on a yearly basis (go find their Yearly Profits for this year, seriously - go take a look!), strangle smaller suppliers (such as Maelstrom Games among others), and neither the fluff or crunch in their games is very good (WH40K even before Matt Ward came in to defile it more already screamed "compensating for something!" in most departments, and WHFB was just plain confusing after 8th Edition to get into). They're like the EA of the Tabletop Wargaming industry.
• Stormrise - Oh sweet Jesus, Stormrise. So much potential let down by crap controls, disobedient unit AI and of course, third person camera - the absolute bane of RTS games (yes, we've played Sacrifice - the best thing about that game was its story and humor. It's actual gameplay still suffers the glaring flaw of Third Person Camera RTS games).
• Rap and Dubstep Music - it's not music, it's pure weaponised white noise!
• Letting people down\Being useless - The reason many projects get cancelled beforehand.

Hang on, you name dropped a few subgroups back there. Care to share?

...For the love of Menoth, this again...

In brief, I have no opinion of Sonic Fans, but have had some...rather unsettling experiences with both of the latter groups. Get out an armchair and pipe, we have a history...

Furries I still keep a rather cordial - if shaky - relationship with. Though a series of incidents I'm only going to repeat extremely briefly, I was essentially manipulated into betraying a very close friend of mine. After that, it basically boiled down to one insult after another until I left the group in the sands.

Bronies on the other hand are a wound that still bleeds horrifically and won't heal. To the point where extremely bad poetry has been written. But to give an extremely shorthanded version of where the view has warped into by this point - we both a thing for Candy Coloured Horses AND THAT IS THE ABSOLUTE END OF IT. Beyond that, things diverted in such a way that, well...bad poetry fills in the rest of the gap.

Would you care to share said Poem?

Not right now, sorry. It's beating around the bush I know (and a friend studying for an English Major said it needed to be more aggressive - something I'm apprehensive about doing), but you can always ask for an explanation I can give privately, and in confidence.

Okay, well...would you like to share a few other interests right now?

Alright...since we got the gaping wound out the way, might as well.

• Animation - Or more specifically, Western Animation mainly. A few of my absolute favourites are Transformers Prime (though we're also a Beast Era and Animated fan), the 2011 Thundercats remake, War Planets/Shadow Raiders (depending on if you got the Toyline or watched the show, I guess), Dan Vs and Megas XLR. There was also a time where I watched a lot of South Park, even if my memory is slipping there.
• Tabletop Wargaming - Despite the earlier slagging of GW, I have wanted to get into other Tabletop Wargames as long as I can remember. Upon the list are Secrets of the Third Reich, Infinity and Dropzone Commander. Fun fact - I always wanted to get into the industry as a Rulebook Writer. It's since become the how to on how to approach unit/faction balancing (while I will never be Phil Kelly, I prefer to think I'm above Matthew Ward's level - oh god, does that make me Robin Cruddance?).
• RTS Games - Setting Starcraft asides into its own glass bottle, my very first RTS game was Command & Conquer: Red Alert and I stuck with the series as I was growing up, all the way until Command & Conquer 4. Most kids my age were playing Sonic or Lara Croft (no, seriously). I grew up with Kane & Stalin. Setting that asides, some of my other all time favourites include World In Conflict, Metal Fatigue and Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds.
• TBS Games - This one's a separate section because it really deserves to be a separate subject. It more or less comes with being a Tabletop Wargamer really. Personal favourites include Disciples II, Sword of the Stars and the X-COM remake (which despite what the older, grouchier longbeards say, I still vastly prefer over the original).

Is there anything you want to add before we leave?

*Ahem*

I want to apologize if I've upset or tread on anyone's toes before reaching the end of this introduction. And for making so many topics over the past few days.

And for the record, I don't consider myself a douche, just very easily misinterpreted.

And all done. Hopefully this doesn't sound anywhere near as egotistical or douchy as I intended it to sound.

Sorry.