September 30, 2000
The interview took place on 5th September 2000 in my office. Meiron is a semi- retired hero with the Rogues of the Forbidden Legion. He claims his biggest Medievia achievement so far has been surviving with Tharghan (his clanleader) for 2 years. He is 18 years of age, soon to be 19, and is in his second year at UC Berkeley where he will possibly be majoring in economics. He is a professional, and self-confessed, mooch off his parents. His biggest life accomplishment has been juggling real life friends, Medievia friends, school and sanity. (Interviewer's note: Having spoken with Meiron I think he failed on the sanity part)
I asked Meiron several questions about Medievia and his life and this is what he told me.
Nykaul: When did you start to play Medievia and what got you started?
Meiron: Started near the end of 1997, my real life friends Idris and Tiresias introduced me to med. For about 2 months before I started Medievia he had been trying to get me to play, and my first reaction was, "what - a game without graphics? Didn't that go out of fashion along with the rest of the 80s?" but once I started playing Med and giving it a chance I was hooked!
Nykaul: What changed your mind?
Meiron: The idea of a permanent online world that persists and lives whether I'm there or not was just such an intriguing idea. Plus there was the lure of heroing and actually have people recognize me.
Nykaul: Who were your influences/heroes as you were progressing in your Medievian life? Was there one particular person you looked up to and admired?
Meiron: I was in 47, and the first person that really helped me was the then co-leader, Jhihadi. Funny story about him, he's ALWAYS been my clannie, in every single clan I've ever been in, he's in it as one char or another. Almost 3 years now and he's still my clannie.
Nykaul: Out of all the current players in Medievia who would you say you most admire, and why?
Meiron: The person I owe the most admiration to would be Tharghan. You have to give credit to a guy who can lead an unknown newbie clan with a silly name to become the highest ranked hero clan and maintain that through 2+ years. I'll be the first to say he can be a bit bossy and overly passionate at times, but really, he's the most loyal friend I have on med.
Nykaul: What would you say has been the most memorable event in your Medievian life?
Meiron: Another story! When I was a single level 27 warrior, I was in 47 doing a trade run during a catastrophe and I was hauling willowbark to, I think, a flooded sea's end. Along the way, single warrior being such a powerful soloing class. I died horribly no less than 5 times, and had to ask for help from my kingdom to get my freight to the trade post. When I got there I sold it all for 30k because everybody sold their stuff 3 hours ago. But the story doesn't stop there! I was somewhat unhappy with the results of this particular 4 hours I spent walking med, and was lamenting it on kch [kingdomchat] after telling my whole story. Tharghan of all people said on kch: "damn, do yourself a favor Meiron, and don't ever try to get in my clan! My most memorable moment was reminding him he said that after I became co-leader.
Nykaul: Do you ever regret going single warrior?
Meiron: No, because if I didn't I would have had to re-class to get to my favorite class, thief!
Nykaul: Do you have any interesting single class stories?
Meiron: Let's see. I spent 650 hours as single warrior, and heroed with 990 hours. Oh, and my greatest achievement as a single warrior was getting a minimum tweak frostreaver on auction - all the single warriors in my clan were doing lottos to see who can borrow it from me for a minute and swing it at something.
Nykaul: Do you feel that as a hero you have to set an example to lower level players?
Meiron: It depends really, sometimes I go out of my way to help people without expecting anything in return, other times I can be rather, hmm, skirting on the edge of rules with my jokes. All in all I try to be a nice guy though!
Nykaul: How would you describe your average day as a hero?
Meiron: Well, since I don't play much anymore, is it ok if I described a day from when I used to stay on like 7+ hours each day? My current schedule doesn't seem that exciting, since I sit around and talk to old friends, all day long! Back when I was co-leading though, I'd usually log on, say hi to everybody, go through clanlog and talk to clannies who recently removed themselves. That actually deserves a little explanation. Much as I love my clan, 52, I'll admit that a good deal of people tend to leave and then get re- enrolled the next day.
Nykaul: Why do you think that is?
Meiron: Tharghan has probably the most infamous temper in the game, and it's usually up to me to explain to new clannies how his angry rants aren't personal. Of course most people tend to remove themselves first and get re- enrolled later. I believe if we didn't have that particular quirk the clan account would probably be big enough to crash med.
Nykaul: Did achieving the status of hero be everything you thought it would be? Especially if most of your day was/is spent talking with clannies who have left.
Meiron: I didn't do that exclusively you know! Most of the day's spent doing tons of equipment runs, dragonlairs, and talking trash with clannies about who can beat who in pk-ing [player killing]. Being a hero really has been kind of a mixed experience. On one hand I can do vastly exciting things like be part of a 30 person expedition to slay a dragon, leading a full form of heroes to do the most dangerous zones on med, and testing my skills against the best pk-ers. But being a hero has a nasty side too, imm's a mixed blessing for example, equal parts friendly chat room and grisly torture room with "disguised" bashing and all kinds of unpleasant stuff'.
Nykaul: How do you cope with that?
Meiron: By taking nothing seriously. It is a game after all! Albeit a game with real friends.
Nykaul: Is that the advice you would give to lower level players when they hero?
Meiron: Yes, with the new MLR's you would think the older heroes would respect the newly heroed, but it's not quite the case. Heroing is like starting a brand new game in many ways, lots of rules of being a non-hero no longer apply.
Nykaul: Do you think the caliber of heroes have changed since the introduction of MLR's?
Meiron: Well, there haven't been too many TRUE MLR heroes, most of the well- equipped heroes in big clans know all about everything MLR requires and more. They all start MLR chars for the bloodline parent benefits, basically xp'ing their own child to hero instead of giving them to a "real" newbies. No real newbie can hero MLR in 2 months.
Nykaul: For those players who are doing the MLR requirements the first time, do you feel they have it harder or easier?
Meiron: Well in a way, it's just a formalization of what you needed to do ANYWAYS to be a successful, well-rounded med player. No newbie can go without trading income, and eggs are too expensive to be all bought.
Nykaul: How much has Medievia changed since you started playing?
Meiron: Oh tons! Dragonlairs were certainly an exciting change, and with the ability to unegg equipment that basically changed the way maintenance of power works. I thought clantowns and mobfactions would be a bigger influence, but they're really not very present in a hero's life.
Nykaul: Good things or not?
Meiron: Well trading mobfactions certainly gave me a fair share of headaches when it came out but resourceful people soon figured out ways to neutralize the threat. All in all, all I really miss is kingdoms! New players who have never enjoyed the pleasures of the "spy" command are really missing out.
Nykaul: What features would you like to see be developed on Medievia?
Meiron: I really look forward to the holosections, and autoquests to a lesser degree. Gives more flavor to zones than just kill, loot, rinse and repeat. I've killed everything, looted everything, worn everything through three alignments of thief. All I really want to do these days is chat with friends and find out small neat things about med.
Nykaul: You say you are semi-retired now, yet you still play, why is that?
Meiron: Well partly due to the reasons listed above, I'm running out of new stuff to do on med so I've decided to take up Everquest and college is intense enough that playing two muds really is hard. I might return when something cool happens though.
Nykaul: Why, in your opinion, do you think players return to Medievia over other types of gaming like EQ or Diablo?
Meiron: Oh definitely, Med's in many ways, much deeper than both Diablo 2 and EQ. Graphics aren't everything! To me, my med friends are the best part about the game. However the other games aren't without their merits, just can't really REPLACE med.
Nykaul: What aspect of the game is the most important to you?
Meiron: Clans are the most important! Nothing builds up friendship like a group of people who stick with each other through the most difficult zones and protect each other in pk. It's like the mafia in many ways, including having an Italian leader. I wish med zones were more interactive though.
Nykaul: If you could interview anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
Meiron: I'd probably interview God and ask him why he thought it was a cool idea to make people sleep for 8 hours and miss out on mudding time.
Nykaul: If you could ask Vryce a question, what would it be and why?
Meiron: When's adversary eta anyways?
Nykaul: Name 5 things that most people do not know about you!
Meiron:
1. I have a soup fetish, I must have at least one bowl of soup every single day
2. Med's actually the 2nd mud I played, I gave up after 5 minutes of playing Phidar and refused to try another mud for 4 months until I tried med.
3. I'm one of the few people who have been stripped in CPK as max good AND evil thief.
4. I'm the only known college student who doesn't like pizza. I threw up once after eating some bad pizza, and never ate it again.
5. I contributed about 100 rooms to Wasteland's 3000+ room jumble in an attempt to make a new quest with Kalithon.
Nykaul: If you were forced to quit Medievia right now, what would you want people to remember about you?
Meiron: I want people to remember me as a nice guy with a sense of humor, and pretty good pk-er to boot.
Nykaul: And what do you think people WILL remember you for?
Meiron: Mis-channeling embarrassing information frequently due to confusing placement of my chat/imm aliases.
Nykaul: You have any opinions/statement you would like to add?
Meiron: hmm, let's see, I think med would be a better place if mobs were more interactive, not specific procs, but in general. They should flee more and team up against you so it's form vs form, the most exciting kind of fighting.
I would like to thank Meiron for his time and humor in answering my questions.
If you believe you are a 'special' person that should be interviewed then email me at nykaul@medievia.com with the reasons why. Also, if you have a question you have always wanted to ask someone, feel free to email that question and if I ever interview that person I may include your question.