ES Interviews Part 2
Published on 12-30-2016; updated on 12-30-2016
Tags: General Info, Interviews
function unhide(divID) {
var item = document.getElementById(divID);
if (item) {
item.className=(item.className==’hidden’)?’unhidden’:’hidden’;
}
}
Here are several interviews with Ensemble Studios staff members conducted by previous Age of Kings Heaven staff, from the year 1998 to 2001. (please note that some are pre-game interviews):
- Chris Campbell Int. 1
- Chris Campbell, Int. 2
- Mark Terrano Int. 1
- Mark Terrano Int. 2
- Zone Finalist Q & A
Vidguy: What exactly is a “QA Lead”?
Chris Campbell: QA Lead is a position that covers
all the bases. I of course test the software, but I also do lots of
other things. I also do some hardware support, do some design work,
some level design for the game if need be. I also handle the all-important
Beta test. That’s what I get the most feedback from fans. They all want to
know about any beta test that’s coming up. Of course, we’re not to that
point yet, but we do keep a small list of *potential* testers.
Vidguy: Ok…so on that point… Everyone asks about
the beta program. Could you possibly describe what will happen and maybe
even a tentative timeline?
Chris Campbell: Uh oh. Walked into that one. Yes, there will
be a Beta test. Microsoft has some big plans for a test on their end. I on
the other hand plan to have a smaller, more 3LiT3 group if you will, of
testers. They’ll be more of what you would expect from a Beta test team.
They’ll get all the newest features, and the buggiest code to test out.
Vidguy: So YOUR beta test will be more of a
closed beta test then and MS will be more open?
Chris Campbell: Yeah, more or less. For my test (which I
want to get it ready sometime after E3) I want some really experienced
testers and some people that maybe haven’t played AoE at all. I want
to get a good feedback from people, which is why I’m keeping my group
small and tight knit. It’s hard to get feedback from 1000’s of people.
That’s why I’m going to take time and personally get to know each
tester. I plan on giving them a phone call, talk to them and see what
they really think of the game.
Vidguy: So are you talking 20? 30? 100 people?
Chris Campbell: Maybe around 50 or so. There’s only one of
me right now, so I’ve got to keep it small. Any larger than that, then I
start to lose focus on the game and worry more about the logistics of the
test.
Vidguy: Nice to get the hard-hitting question off
early *grin* … but let’s get back to the “one of you”. How long have you
been with ES?
Chris Campbell: Well, I’ve been “around” ES for about nine
months, although I officially started working here at ES a little over a
month. I’ve worked in the same building as ES for almost 2 years. I
worked on the second floor when I learned that there was a gaming
company on the 10th floor. I wrote Tony Goodman, President, just
saying that there was a group of us below who liked games. He
invited us up and let us Beta test Age during the summer. I got to
go the VIP release party and all that. Later on, Tony mentioned that
he needed a QA Lead at ES, so I jumped at the chance.
Vidguy: Just goes to show what following your
dreams can do, eh?
Chris Campbell: Definitely! It also helped that I had
plenty of experience as a QA for different companies.
Vidguy: Your nickname is “Torgo” … where
did that originate from?
Chris Campbell: ha… Good ol’ Torgo. Well, my favorite TV
show has to be Mystery Science Theater 3000. It’s much better than anything
else out there and it’s always funny whenever you watch it. Torgo was this
character from the classic “Manos: Hands of Fate” episode. Torgo was this
caretaker of this haunted shack in the desert. You’d have to see the movie
to really understand him.
Vidguy: ES is located in Dallas, Texas which
seems to be a hub of computer gaming activity (ION Storm and Ritual
come to mind). Why do you think that is?
Chris Campbell: I think that it’s partly because Dallas
has so much technology behind it. Besides the gaming companies here,
we have Texas Instruments, Nortel, GTE, Fujitsu, AMD, etc. With so
many technology companies, the schools and colleges are putting out
some quality graduates. I guess it just follows that gaming
companies aren’t far behind.
Vidguy: If you could pick one thing that
makes ES standout as a place to work for…what would that be?
Chris Campbell: The “family” atmosphere. We here seem to
really get along. We always do stuff and everyone’s opinion counts.
In fact, it’s hard to get hired here because you need to be able to
fit in with the rest of the group. There’s no place for ego here. I think
that one aspect helps us to stick together and retain our great team of
artists and programmers.
Vidguy: E3 is coming up real fast. What sort of
things do you plan on doing there aside from the obvious. Are you
planning any special events?
Chris Campbell: Well, E3 is the first thing that comes
to mind. In fact, it’s the only thing on our minds right now. We’ve
got everyone working hard to make the game look good since everyone
will be looking at the game and seeing what ES is going to do this year.
Vidguy: We know that every bit of information
about AOE2 is under a tight wrap prior to E3. Will we see a flood of
information released then?
Chris Campbell: I can guarantee that you’ll be seeing A
LOT of Age 2 after E3. E3 is a big press event with everyone trying to
cover all the games. If you don’t hear something from us, you’ll be
hearing it from someone else.
Vidguy: ok…I’ll wrap up with one little
“exercise” if you will indulge us 🙂
Seeing as you are the “QA” person….how bout I do the Q and you
do the A for the following:
Some of the ES “Celebrities” show up in our forums and in the
newsgroup quite often. Could you give us a little “one-liner”
about the likes of:
Vidguy: Duncan “Reverend” McKissick – Artist
Chris Campbell: Should do stand up comedy.
Vidguy: Sean “Lord Soth” Wolff – Artist
Chris Campbell: Can’t turn your back on him for a second.
Vidguy: Dave Pottinger – Engine Lead
Chris Campbell: Dave – He always has the neatest hair.
Vidguy: Matt “Optimizer” Pritchard – Graphics Optimizer
Chris Campbell: The only guy that can talk longer than
Tony G., but it’s always fascinating.
Vidguy: Mark Terrano – Lead Designer
Chris Campbell: He’s the best listener here at ES
Vidguy: Tony Goodman – ES President and all round GOD.
Chris Campbell: Tony Goodman – He may be quirky, but he’s
the best boss anyone could have. And I’m not saying that because he
has a new NSX.
Vidguy: LOL…maybe cause he is the one who can renew
your contract! 😉
Chris Campbell: $$$
Vidguy: All of Heaven thanks for your time, Chris!
Well folks that pretty much sums up my interview with Chris. I do want
to mention that like Chris my favorite type of game is the RPG as well.
I’ve always been addicted to their type of gameplay. I can’t get enough of
it and I think with the introduction of Final Fantasy VII we will be seeing
quite a few good RPGs in the future. We actually did the interview over
lunch while he ate Wendys. I myself having overslept this morning had just
had breakfast so I just pestered Chris while he ate. Chris and the rest of
the guys at Ensemble are a great bunch of guys with a very bright future
ahead of them. I’m very happy to be associated with them.
DeepWater: What brought you to
Ensemble Studios? What actually attracted you to the company?
Chris Campbell: It’s was really
like a Cinderella Story. I’m a serious hard core gamer and I was working at
J.D. Edwards one day. Coincidentally J.D. Edwards is located in the same
building as ES. I saw Online Gaming Review magazine and that they had an
article describing how Microsoft was working with a company called Ensemble
Studios to create a brand new Real Time Strategy Game. I was interested
so I took a look at Ensembles site while I was in J.D. Edwards. I didn’t
realize that Ensemble was actually in the same building just on the
second floor. I thought it was really cool so I sent an e-mail through
the contact page on Ensembles site. It happened to be Tony Goodman, the
president of the company. Within a few minutes Tony came down to J.D.
Edwards to meet me. He was ecstatic that they didn’t even have a game
out yet and they already had a fan. I was invited back up to their
offices to take a look around and talk with some of the other guys. I spent
a good deal of time with ES getting sneak peeks at the game, the play
balancing, and certain steps along the way. I was in turn invited to the
release party. At this time they were in need of a QA guy and after the
party Tony asked me if I would like the job. I jumped at the chance…I
was very happy to accept. That’s how I came to work for Ensemble Studios.
DeepWater: What is your favorite
part of your job?
Chris Campbell: Well there are
actually two things.
One is that I get to see the game as it is made. I get to see every step of
the progress. As a gamer this is the ultimate. It’s great to see a game you
love take shape. The other is that I just love talking to fans and I love
e-mailing them. I remember when I was on the other side of the fence and
there were people who thought they were better than me. I’m just another
guy here and I want to let the fans know that we really care. I think it
makes them feel better, feel closer to the company, and it makes our fans
that much more loyal.
DeepWater: Why do you think
AoE has garnered so much success?
Chris Campbell: Well I think the main reason AoE
has garnered so much success it it’s wide base of appeal. It can appeal
to some who wants to kill, kill, kill or to someone who wants to win based
on a strong economic presence. The history in the game also makes a big
difference. I remember an e-mail I received one time from a father and
son. This twelve year old kid and his dad would play AoE with a specific
civilization and have a great time doing it. Once done with the game
they would sit down and learn all about the civilization they just
played. It also appeals to women because of the broad range of features
that are available inside the game. Basically it spans all age groups,
genders, and races. The game can be enjoyed by the young and old alike.
DeepWater: What are you trying to do with AoE2 that
you didn’t do with AoE? What kind of enhancements are you looking to make
with AoE2?
Chris Campbell: Well first off AoE was the game we
wanted to make. With the success of AoE it has given us the ability to
take AoE2 and make it a game that the fans want. AoE2 is basically an
update based on fan request, opinions, and comments on AoE. We are
basically doing AoE2 for the fans. To note some of the enhancements
that will be in the game. Immediately you’ll notice the size. The map
is five times larger than it was in AoE. Also the art is much more
realistic and detailed. Just look at the Asian Castle. It shows that
our artists have really put a lot of hard work and effort into making
AoE2 the best game it can be.
DeepWater: Can you expand on how ES really has a
family oriented environment?
Chris Campbell: Now this
analogy may sound weird
but it’s a lot like the mafia where we have the GodFather, Tony, who
gives us our direction. We are a really tight knit group. If something
happens to one of us then we are all there for them. I guess you could
also say we are like the three musketeers. All for one and one for all.
We all go out to parties and company luncheons, and we try to involve
our wives and children with us. We really try and go the extra mile so
we are all involved. That’s why it is so hard hiring people because we
spend a lot of time making sure they will fit in with our family.
DeepWater: What do you think
of the competition in the gaming industry?
Chris Campbell: We really try to involve
ourselves with other gaming companies like id, Ion Storm, Ritual, Rogue,
Rebel Boat Rockers, and 3D Realms. We are pretty close to a lot of the
other gaming companies outside of Dallas. We have a lot of respect for
Blizzard and they have a lot of respect for us. A lot of people think
we are at each others throats, but we’re not. Total respect to Blizzard
from me. I try to encourage the gaming companies to get together more
often. I have a little website that a lot of the other developers go to.
It’s a trivia website where they can test their skills on just how much
they know the gaming world. On the site I ask questions like what were
the four ghosts in PacMan. It’s really a lot of fun to work with. I will
be making the site public soon so that all of our fans can see just how
good their favorite developers know their games. I’ll be providing
Heaven with the address soon.
DeepWater: Hehe! Cool! Is there anything you’d
like to say to the fans out there?
Chris Campbell: Well I’d love to tell them a
little more about my history and some of my little known facts. Well
I’m 25 years old and I’m married, with a kid on the way. My favorite
color is plaid and my astrological sign is Neon. A little known fact
is that I speak fluent Italian. I love anime. My favorite game of all
time is a tie between Ultima IV and System Shock. I love Warren
Spectres work…and I just can’t get enough of it. The storyline in
System Shock is one of the best I’ve seen..I loved it.
DeepWater: What’s the first video game you
ever played?
Chris Campbell: The first video game I ever
played was Adventure for the Atari 2600 I think.
DeepWater: What’s the most played game at ES?
Chris Campbell: The most played game at work
is Mortal Kombat 3. We have some vicious battles and to tell you the
truth I’m not really very good at the game.
DeepWater: As Ensemble’s QA lead, what is the
most asked question you get?
Chris Campbell: When is the beta coming out?
And how can I get on the beta team?
DeepWater: Coolest thing you’ve seen at E3
so far?
Chris Campbell: The coolest thing I’ve seen at E3
is the stuff from Squaresoft. I really love the look of Parasite Eve. I
think it’s gonna be awesome. Of course I haven’t seen Gillian Anderson,
from the X-Files yet.
DeepWater: Any other games?
Chris Campbell: Games I’m looking forward to in
the near future are Fallout 2, Ultima IX, Anachronox, and Warren
Spectres new project…I wanna see what it is. See I do play other
games than AoE. Rival Schools United by Fury also looks really cool.
I also want to say a little bit about first person shooters. I’m
worried about the fact that all first person shooters are starting to
look alike. It happened to Real Time Strategies and it’s happening to
the first person shooters. I hope something will be done to remedy
this problem, if not only the strong will survive
DeepWater: One last thought for our readers?
Chris Campbell: One last thing that I want to
say is that I love RPGs. They are my favorite type of game because
they actually make you think and get you attached to the characters
that you play. I really feel we need more RPGs in the market.
Hopefully in the next year we will see an increase in them.
DeepWater: Thanks for the chat, Chris.
Chris Campbell: You’re welcomed.
Archangel: How was Ensemble Studios
able to jump on to their next game, so soon after Age of Empires I?
Mark Terrano: We are using
similar technology to Age of Empires, our very
flexible Genie engine. Since we had a running game to start with, we could
get right into playtesting very quickly. We also have had a lot of feedback
and response from AOE Fans, as well as knowing the features we wanted to add
to Age of Empires but didn’t have the chance to. Having played a several
thousand games has really given us a feel for the things we wanted to add.
Archangel: What about the Time Period that will be
covered in AOE II?
Mark Terrano: One of the most
exciting periods of history – the Middle ages.
Our time span is the entire middle ages – from 450 to 1450, from the Dark Ages
until the end of the Castle period. For historical background we will have
detailed information on the history of each civilization, a description of
each unit and technology, as well as the gameplay effects each introduces.
Middle ages. Our time span is the entire middle ages – from 450 to 1450, from
the Dark Ages until the end of the Castle period. For historical background we
will have detailed information on the history of each civilization, a
description of each unit and technology, as well as the gameplay effects
each introduces.
Archangel: New civilizations and technologies.
Mark Terrano: There are all new
technologies appropriate to the middle ages,
from sieges to banking, and everything in between. There technology tree is
even more interesting than Age of Empires – but I’ll leave the specifics as a
surprise for now…you won’t be disappointed. All of the civilizations are new
for Age of Empires II. Age2 uses the familiar Age of Empires mix of
civilizations – we have 13, each with their own bonuses and liabilities.
Archangel: Trading and economy.
Mark Terrano: Trade, economy,
diplomacy, and exploration play a very important
role in Age of Empires II – our main goal was to not increase the complexity
for our existing fans who love the strategic combat – but to make playing an
economic player or an economy-only game a real, viable, option. With a much
more interesting economy and marketplace system (that is still easy to use)
we have really opened up some new strategies – economic this time.
Archangel: Some of the other improvements in Age of
Empires II.
Mark Terrano: Combat has been
improved as well – we have smarter units, with
new AI and ‘orders’ such as guard, scout, and patrol. Battlefield formations
let you have a lot more control of groups of units, especially in large
battles. The maps are much larger, 300% in area – so an 8 player map can have
a lot more room to grow and expand before you have to fight for territory.
There are many more changes, but I think you can get the idea that Age2 has
everything you liked in Age1, but we’ve added a lot of convenience features and
some exciting new gameplay elements.
Archangel: What about the AI?
Mark Terrano: I know that our
Age of Empires AI played a very good game without
cheating – and we were very pleased at how well we compared to the other
state-of-the-art games that came out in 1997. I think our fans will really
notice some improvements in Age2’s AI – as we are designing an all-new expert
system based AI – because it has to handle trade and diplomacy as well as
combat. Expect a cunning computer opponent that we hope will be nearly as
devious as the friends you play with on a regular basis.
Archangel: Mark talks about the
Monks:
Mark Terrano: Monks are a bit
different in Age2 – they still do healing, and
they can convert some units – but they do not convert buildings you can take
over buildings by killing the guards, breaking into the building, and repairing
the building back up to a working state). Healing is also available at
buildings (moastaries, churches, keeps, and castles).
Archangel: AOE II Cooperative
Mode.
Mark Terrano: We have mostly
added convenience features, and a lot of
robustness to our Internet games. Games are much more likely to survive
through very bad internet performance, dropping players, and the other
hazards of playing online. As in Age of Empires, there will be a cooperative
game option, and some other diplomatic options that give you some new ways to
play as well. Our Multiplayer game, and having a free matchmaking service (the
Internet Gaming Zone)is very important to our strategy. Our Random Map feature
has been one of the features that we are most proud of – we’re happy that
players are still battling out games in the thousands, and still can’t decide
which civilization is best. Expect to see some more interesting random map
options in Age of Empires II.
Archangel: The Buildings.
Mark Terrano: The building set
is very similar to what you expected from Age of
Empires – castles and towers with new abilities will definitely change your
defensive strategies. Having gates that you can open and close is another great
change. Already the graphics have been improved substantially – they are more
colorful, more varied, and have much more detail than anything we have done so
far. They are also larger – they seem in-scale with the units.
Archangel: Next Projects.
Mark Terrano: I can’t give
specific details, but I can tell you that they will
be absolutely best-in-class games – we are a company of game fanatics , and we
are completely committed to doing games that we can’t stop playing (we still
play Age of Empires all the time).
Archangel: Cooperation with Microsoft?
Mark Terrano: We really love
working with the team at Microsoft – they really
helped us turn out a fantastic product with Age of Empires, and we have the
same team on Age 2.
Archangel: Age of Empires III?
Mark Terrano: Whew, we’ll
probably start thinking about that once we are
finished with Age of Empires II – of course, I can’t say I don’t already have
a wish list 🙂
Interview with Mark Terrano Lead Designer for Age of Empires II on the last
day of E3 pointing out dedicated gameplay fine tuning, hollow victories,
chill-out time in the beginning of Age II, reforestation, Age in Space,
Heavenly compliments and love and humility at ES.
Alexander I: What was or is the most challenging
development problem that ES has run into while developing Age of Empires II?
Mark Terrano: For Age II I think the balancing of the
units is always our biggest challenge. We want to spend all the time that we
need so that there is no clear victor for every map. Every civ has its
strengths and its weaknesses, that’s really the challenge: it takes a lot
of gameplay and we try to spend a solid six months on just getting the
gameplay right, just getting the units balanced and the civs balanced
against each other. I think, to our credit, despite the rushes and
everything, there are still on every map no clear winners, no best civ
that everybody always plays and I think it shows in the time we spent on Age I.
Alexander I: OK Mark, you brought up a very interesting
point about the rushes. Of course you know from the forums that there have
been a lot of questions about that. I’m not certain about it but it would
seem that half the people are concerned about it and the other half really
like it.
Mark Terrano: Yeah, the people that rush like it and
the ones that don’t are concerned! We don’t think a rush strategy lets you
explore the full potential of the game. We would like for a lot of the
combat to take place in the third age and the fourth, the Imperial Age,
where it really does get interesting, where we have a lot of variation in
the units-a lot more things to destroy. Now the raiders may be a little
earlier, they may be at the end of the second age, peaking towards the third
age. I think that none of us are really fans of rush victories. They are a
kind of victory but they aren’t as satisfying as having a full build up and
then destroying someone else. Well, being destroyed and destroying someone
else [that way] we think means that people can really play the full game. So,
to combat some of these things we have some new units that will be mostly
offensive units and some stronger buildings early on, some easy-to-put-up
walls-but they are easy to knock down too when you have some more advanced
units-so it’s a little bit more defensive game in the beginning to combat
some of the rush strategies. We’ll also play rush strategies with that in
mind and try to make it a fun game for everybody.
Alexander I: OK, that sound good. Actually, I always
personally think that one of the ‘winning strategies’ of Age I or II is that
so many different people from so many different walks of life, different
gaming walks as it were, can actually play the game and enjoy it at a
particular level, their own level.
Mark Terrano: Yes, I think we have kept that focus
on a lot of different ways to win. We have even improved this in Age
of Empires II by improving the economy. So, if you were an economy player
in Age I there are a lot more things you can do in Age II. You can buy things
from the market, speculate if the price is going to go up and you can have a
supply later in the game. You can manage your resources in Age II. We have
resources that replenish, so if you need trees and you have chopped down your
trees in one area, they don’t grow back. If you chopped down half the trees,
over time those trees in that forest will grow back out again.
Alexander I: Oh, I didn’t know that-that’s amazing!
Environmentalism!
Mark Terrano: Well, the trees keep growing, if they
didn’t come back it would be a pretty bare place!
Alexander I: But there is no tree planting yet?
Mark Terrano: No.
Alexander I: Now, I was wondering, there has been a
lot of talk about the expansion pack which for reasons known and unknown has
been delayed, what is your best guesstimate as to when it would be released?
Mark Terrano: Well, Microsoft has said that it is due
out this holiday season 1998. Age II will be out Spring 1999.
Alexander I: We have Age I, Age II is under development
and quite far along…any plans for Age III?
Mark Terrano: We didn’t really start to plan Age II
until we were almost done or almost at the end of Age I. We had all of the
things that we couldn’t put in that we really wanted to. We already had a
feature set started for Age II before Age I was actually finished. We at a
point cut off development so that we had plenty of time to test the game,
build the AI, things like that. So there were a lot of features on individual
wish lists that didn’t make it in. We started with that feature set for
Age II; probably when we reach the end of development for Age II next year
we’ll be looking at Age III. So we love historical games, we love that
RTG strategy so we can look forward to lots of Age games from Microsoft in
the future.
Alexander I: According to a head calculation here we
have gotten up to about 1500 with Age II; will the next one be up to 2000?
Mark Terrano: 450 to 1450. We can be pretty tricky,
there’s no predicting what the other time frames for the other games will
be. I really couldn’t talk about them.
Alexander I: Age in Space?
Mark Terrano: Uh, I can’t say.
Alexander I: This is a bit of a tricky question. You
would do well to consider it before answering. How do you personally think
that the Heaven websites have helped ES?
Mark Terrano: I guess I was the first person really
to hear from Heavenweb. I was the webmaster for our little tiny site and
Mike McCart dropped me a note saying hey, would you put a link on your site
to us and it grew from there. Early on Heavenweb was the best, the only fan
site first of all, and had our best coverage of fresh information and a lot
of new stuff. They have always been providing the best service to the Age
community by having the facts, the chat areas, things like that. Heavenweb
has really been our key fan site and our better website and I think
Heavenweb provides for the other fan sites. But we really love the Angels
and all the volunteer work that they have done. When Angels show up we
treat you guys right.
Alexander I: That you do.
Mark Terrano: The drinks are on us.
Alexander I: And the food, and the food.
Mark Terrano: We really appreciate all the hard work
and it shows. Anyone that goes to Heavenweb can really see that it is a great
site. We all enjoy it and having that consolidated fan input. We ask what are
the top 10 features from everybody’s wish lists, we really consider all those,
we read all our e-mail, we read Heavenweb, we read the Microsoft Age of
Empires newsgroups so we listen to what our fans want.
Alexander I: That’s very true you can see it in Age
of Empires II very clearly and that is one of the most important things that
makes ES special and the game too.
Mark Terrano: Thanks. At ES we are all gamers, we make
the kind of games that we love. We are pretty humble about it, we are fans of
other people’s games. We just love games.
Alexander I: I can certainly agree on being humble
about it. That is a good thing as it keeps your mind on the work and those
fabulous games.
Mark Terrano: We keep making games that we love to
play that hard-core gamers and other RPG gamers as well go for. We make
games we love and that other people love too.
Alexander I: In your own opinion: what makes Age so
successful?
Mark Terrano: Our key vision has always been we want
to take the best parts of Age I to make it approachable and a game that Age
players will love right out of the box. There’s not a big learning curve if
you are an Age I player: the build up and the resource gathering strategy
is the same but we have added a lot of depth on the economy side and we have
added a few things on the combat side that really change the game. Such as
formations. Once you start to play around with formations it really is like
a whole different game. So we have added to the tactics, we have added to
the growth and development of the game. We have added some civs that really
play differently with the raiders. We kept all the gameplay that certainly
all the Age fans really enjoy and we have just extended those areas that
we felt could be improved. There is a new look to the game. I think that
the artists have completely outdone themselves this time: all new buildings,
all new units, tons of new art, new terrain. It’s just fantastic.
Alexander I: Thank you very much for that information.
I really appreciate your insight. I’m sure it will circle around the world.
Mark Terrano: Considering the number of people visiting
Heavenweb, I’m sure a lot of people will know soon.
Zone Finalist Q&As
Microsoft held an International Tournament in 2000, with the
finalists of each country going to Seattle to fight it out for a
50,000 dollar prize! The Zone had a quick Q & A with a batch of the
finalists that you can check out here!
Singapore Champion: Seekdefeat
Why is that your handle?
I think it sounds good. I have had it for
2 years now and I like it.
What do you do?
I am a student at Temasek Polytechnic,
studying Information Technology.
Where are you from?
I live around Joo Chiat in Singapore. I
have lived here all my life.
What are your favourite hobbies?
I like soccer, billiards, TV and of course
computer games.
How were you first introduced to playing
Age of Empires?
I came across the game at Sim Lim Square
[IT Shopping Mall] and I really liked the graphics. I looked at
some screenshots on the box and I like war games so I bought
it.
And how long have you been playing it?
Over 2 years. I have been playing since
December 1998. I really like playing online at Zone. I have a
teacher on Zone who helped me. He is in Germany his name is
Zen_Wiseoldmonk. He is really good. He taught me a lot about how
to win at AOE. I have been playing with him for at least two
years. I’m sure that he would be playing in the
International tournament as well except that he is under 18.
What do you like best about playing Age of
Empires: The Conquerors?
It would definitely be all the people I
meet over the Internet and some of the competitions I have on
Zone. This is what keeps me playing it. I like playing this game
with different people.
Do you have a favourite civilization? And
why is it your favourite?
Vikings. Definitely the strongest
civilisation on water. They have helped me win many games.
What military unit do you think is the
best and most powerful?
I think the elephant, because it is very
strong. Does the damage.
What will you do if you win the $50,000 US
cash prize? Any plans?
I will share it with some of my friends. I
would also get some things that I really want like a Billiard cue
some good clothes and some nice new games – like Age of Mythology
when it comes out.
German Champion: DjiNN_crouvex
1. Tell us about yourself.
My name is Tommy. I am a 22year old
student from cologne, germany. My zonename is Crouvex, it’s
a name I invented. If I’m not playing AoC I’m either
out for party, driving around, studying or reading.
2. How long have you been playing on the
Zone?
Since The Conquerors came out, I think
that’s about one year now.
3. How were you first introduced to
playing Age of Empires? And how long have you been playing? What
do you like best about playing Age of Empires: The
Conquerors?
When my brother, some friends, and me had
a LAN meeting, my brother was already playing some aoc on zone,
he showed me some 1st steps and I couldn’t stop playing.
Daily playing started about 6 months ago, and now with DSL its
much easier. Best I like to play my rhythem while playing, like
making music.
4. Do you have a favorite civilization?
And why is it your favorite?
I used to, but playing very hard games
with top xperts there is not much choice now. Like china and now
huns on arabia and vikes on other maps. I’m still a big fan
of mongols though.
5. Tell us about the game that earned
you’re a spot as one of the finalists. What strategies did
you use to defeat your opponent?
I did the most basic strat: grush .
Because it gives u most oppurtunities, and a great economy. I got
flushed in both finals but owning water is unbeatable.
6. What military unit do you think is the
best and most powerful?
Don’t think there is but I like
best: Hussars. Elephants still stongest though.
7. Can you share with us and other players
on the Zone some of your strategies? Or some of the commonly made
player mistakes that helps give you an edge?
I used to lose many games because I was
clueless and didn’t know what to do in different
situations. Making decisions quick is a must I think.
8. What will you do if you win the $50,000
US cash prize? Any plans?
Don’t think I will win that, maybe
I’ll buy something for my PC.
9. Any other comments or suggestions
before coming to Seattle for the final championships?
Looking forward to that. ^_^
Brazilian Champion: Gary__Payton
1. Tell us about yourself. (What is your
Zone name? How did you pick your Zone name? Where are you from
(city)? What do you do? What are your favorite hobbies?)
My Zone name is Gary__Payton (watch out
you guys from the press it’s written with 2 underlines :)).
First of all, I’m a huge fan of the NBA (National
Basketball Association), duh so most probably you guys already
figured out why I picked that nick name up :), just in case,
I’ve been playing basketball in school, high school,
college, parks, clubs, vacation, everywhere!!! And always as a
Point Guard. So back in 98 (I guess) I started creating new Zone
names but always Point Guard names such as: Gary__Payton,
Tim_Hardaway, John__Stockton, Allen_Iverson and… I don’t
even remember the others :). Why did I pick Gary__Payton as my
main nick name? Quite simple for all those who saw me and Gary
Payton (the real one from the Seattle Sonics) in action. I have
always been a good defensive player, stealing the ball, good on
defending 1on1 as Gary Payton is since about 1990 when he was
drafted by the Sonics. I also enjoy Tim Hardaway’s
crossover, John Stockton’s assist ability but I was never
able to perform those moves as well :(. I live in São
Paulo City in Brazil in the middle of the Rain Forest :). I work
at civil engineering office. I enjoy The X-Files a lot, man that
is good TV J, swimming, playing soccer and… oh yeah I almost
forgot, basketball too J. No need to say what computer game I
enjoy playing, right? :).
2. How long have you been playing on the
Zone?
Hum, that’s a tough one. Maybe for
about 3-4 years, I have no ideia at all. Time goes by so fast
when I am at the zone :).
3. How were you first introduced to
playing Age of Empires? And how long have you been playing? What
do you like best about playing Age of Empires: The
Conquerors?
I was first introduced to Age of Empires
by my friend (Zone nick is Blink182_AT) some years ago, at that
time he was my neighbor and he brought me a CD from a computer
magazine with lots of demos. One of them was Age of Empires. At
first I didn’t like Age of Empires too much because I got
tired of waiting for the villagers to collect the resources, at
that time my idea was to not spend much food on making more
villagers to save food so I didn’t make more villagers. Do
you have any idea how painfull it is to play the entire game with
only 5 villagers? 2 on wood, 1 on stone, 1 on gold and 1 on food
:). I DID!!!! 🙁 🙁 :(. Later on after discovering the “magic
zone button” on the game (that button that works as a link to the
Microsoft Gaming Zone) I noticed that I was doing something
wrong, or should I say I was NOT doing something? :).
That’s enough personal humiliation for today :). The thing
I really like about Age of Empires is that it offers you so many
different options it’s hard to get bothered, it’s
hard to master at it completely. You will only get bothered if
you only played the game within one kind of configuration. The
graphics are really nice, and at first it’s easy to learn
because the game is based on real life and not on ETs or in the
year 4323, anyone knows how an archer works, knows that cavalry
in general are very fast and so on.
4. Do you have a favorite civilization?
And why is it your favorite?
Not really, it all depends on the
configuration and the settings of the game. For instance, in the
dark age some civilizations are better than others, in the castle
age Franks would be a good choice, you don’t need to be a
master at the game, with a little of historical knowledge you can
figure that out easily.
5. Tell us about the game that earned
you’re a spot as one of the finalists. What strategies did
you use to defeat your opponent?
The map was really odd in the beginning
because my boars were behind a thin line of forest so I was not
able to hunt them back to the town center which almost game me a
heart attack when I noticed that, and for about 1 minute I was
just asking myself what kind of sins I must have done to deserve
such punishment :). But later on I noticed those forests were not
only preventing me from hunting the boars but they were also
giving me a good natural defensive spot preventing me from been
attacked so easily at the beginning. The problem at that point
was how was I supposed to recover that amount of food I was not
going to be able to hunt? So I “had” to fish with fishing boats A
LOT! All that food coming from the sea gave me a good economical
advantage so I could reach Imperial Age faster and send those
trebuchets out to destroy my opponent’s main buildings sych
as castles, town centers and military buildings.
6. What military unit do you think is the
best and most powerful?
This is a very tough question to answer
because most of the times different units have different usage so
it’s as if you asked me what is the best thing to do in the
rock, scissors and paper game? It all depends on for what.
7. Can you share with us and other players
on the Zone some of your strategies? Or some of the commonly made
player mistakes that helps give you an edge?
What????? Do you think I believe in the
Easter Bunny? 🙂 Share my strategies? Only if all my opponents
heading for Redmond are blind or can’t read this text!!!
Just kidding 🙂 My strategy is to use the brain and figure out
what to do while situations are poping up. I guess what always
helps you improve your game is to always have an open mind, be
open to learn new things, new concepts, I mean after all you are
one of 6 billion people living on Earth :).
8. What will you do if you win the $50,000
US cash prize? Any plans?
No idea at all. Any suggestions? If so
send them to me or leave a msg in the forum or message board you
are reading this. 🙂
9. Any other comments or suggestions
before coming to Seattle for the final championships?
Yeah, I want 100 CIA agents undercovered
on my plane to Redmond (all female agents please :)), 1 parachute
just in case, I want to see the Sonics crowd yelling and raising
some paint-brush-made screens on my games: “Go Gary__Payton!!! Go
Gary__Payton!!! Go Gary__Payton!!!” 🙂 🙂 🙂 Record all the games
and put them somewhere or at a website where we all can download
them for free :). That’s all folks! See you guys in
Redmond!
Argentina Champion: Tkenobi
1. Tell us about yourself.
My name is Tkenobi and I chose this name
because I’m a huge Star Wars fan and I combined my real
Japanese name (Tooru) with Kenobi (for Obi-Wan-Kenobi). I’m
from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I’m a student and my hobbies
are, of course, computer games.
2. How long have you been playing on the
Zone?
I have been playing on Microsoft’s
Zone since I was 17 I believe, which makes it 2 years.
3. How were you first introduced to
playing Age of Empires? And how long have you been playing? What
do you like best about playing Age of Empires: The
Conquerors?
My cousin bought the game for another
friend of his and asked me if I could deliver it. I decided to
see what was in that disk, and that is how I started playing it.
This was 2 years ago. What I love about the Conquerors is how
fast it is, the way you have to manage tons of different
resources, the evolution of ages inside the game, and that the
game is really well done for multiplayer.
4. Do you have a favorite civilization?
And why is it your favorite?
Vikings, because militias have more
vitality.
5. Tell us about the game that earned
you’re a spot as one of the finalists. What strategies did
you use to defeat your opponent?
I used GRUSH (Gallery Rush) which turned
out to be pretty effective. And then I landed at his based and
built a Castle. Then the game was mine.
6. What military unit do you think is the
best and most powerful?
I like Brit Archers (when they are at the
top of their capabilities) because they have a tremendous range
of fire and very powerful attack.
8. What will you do if you win the $50,000
US cash prize? Any plans?
We’ll see I’ll be glad to
answer this question once I’ll have the money in my hands.
For the moment, I’m just thinking about the way of making
it reach my hands
9. Any other comments or suggestions
before coming to Seattle for the final championships?
I think this is going to be a very
difficult tournament, because MS managed to assemble the World
best players in just one room. That’s going to be tough. I
specially hope that I’ll be calm enough and don’t
panic when the moment arrives.
Swedish Champion: _ZhaZ
1. Tell us about yourself.
Hi my zone name is _ZhaZ. I took it cuz I
thought it looked flashy :-). I have however many other zone
names I have used like XK_Zeus, Mori_Alive_ etc. Im from the
swedish capital Stockholm where I am currently taking a little
break in my studies. My hobbies are strategy games, people and
sports.
2. How long have you been playing on the
Zone?
Ive been playing Age of Empires 2 pretty
much since it was released. This was my first online gaming
experience and it sure got me hooked up. Now I am addicted and
will most probably continue with other games in the same genre
when Age of Kings dies.
3. How were you first introduced to
playing Age of Empires? And how long have you been playing? What
do you like best about playing Age of Empires: The
Conquerors?
I buyed Age of Empires 2 due to seeing
some very good rewiews of it in a newspaper. And I have never
regretted it. In the beginning I did mostly enjoy all the unique
units and the fabulous black forest map. However in the
transition over to the Conquerors I began to play more 1vs1 and
more competitive maps like arabia. I feel the game has just got
even more fascinating as Ive gotten better. I love the graphics,
the action and the strategic and economic management. In short I
love it all :-).
4. Do you have a favorite civilization?
And why is it your favorite?
Well after the patch I have gotten very
fond of Huns. They dont need to build houses and that really
saves a lot of time and wood which u can spend on other things.
Also their cheap cavalry archers and fast stables are very good
attributes, making it easy to mass a fast moving and effective
army. At water maps I do also play vikings as they are undoubtly
the #1 galley rusher civ out there.
5. Tell us about the game that earned
you’re a spot as one of the finalists. What strategies did
you use to defeat your opponent?
I tried different strategies every game.
In the semi-final vs the mysterious _1stwarrior_ I killed his
scout early. And since he had earlier beaten one of the favorites
of the tourney, SHS_Slugur, with a grush I decided to make 3
archery ranges at home and massing archers and skirms but not
sending them out to attack his walls until they were enough to
destroy the wall quickly. Well it succeded and he had no defense
to defend with, galleys dont do much good if ur opponents
flushes.
In the final the map was (like it very
often seems to be at continental) a bit weird and all of our
boars were in the middle. In the fighting over these boars
strider lost 2 villagers and a scout while I was able to steal 1
of his boars which gave me a huge advantage (much like the
opponent of SHS_north got in the british final). After that I
made a fast castle and made a castle attack which ended the game.
Both games can be found at the excellent Age of Empires homepage
www.ageofkings.cc.
6. What military unit do you think is the
best and most powerful?
Well I would defenetively say the Hussar.
It is very fast and do well vs many types of units as well as
being a great raider. It is also one of the few units that dont
cost gold to build which is very neat in Imperial age where the
gold piles are diminishing.
7. Can you share with us and other players
on the Zone some of your strategies? Or some of the commonly made
player mistakes that helps give you an edge?
I think that what the common player does
wrong is that he is not spending enough time managing his
economy. I guess many people consider that a very boring business
but it is very important. Also speed is an very important factor,
learn all hotkeys and set the mouse at highest speed. It takes a
while to get used to but in the end it will make you a much
better player.
8. What will you do if you win the $50,000
US cash prize? Any plans?
Stop robbing old ladies :-). And buy a new
computer so I could play the new RTS games.
9. Any other comments or suggestions
before coming to Seattle for the final championships?
A big “shout” to all my friends. And
especially to the XK clan (www.aokxk.com). Im looking forward to
meeting all the Age of Empires people in USA and one thing I know
for sure. Watching these kind of expert players play in real life
will teach me a lot. Will be interesting to see who is the
fastest and special tricks and things they do.