A Visit with AFKGamer's Blogging Bad Boy

Foton from AFKGamer graciously agreed to spend some time answering a myriad of questions I threw his way about guilds and gaming.

He's played MMO's for nearly a decade, from Everquest to Star Wars Galaxies to WoW to Lord of the Rings. AFKGamer is a template for the display of fine drama and Foton chronicles it and other gaming anecdotes with detailed flourish.

Here he weighs in on everything from being a catass to occasional raider, the lessons Blizzard failed to learn from Everquest, and having women in your guilds. Also, apparently the secret to long term guild success is merely having Foton around to entertain. I wonder if he consults or could be hired in moments of low guild morale?

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Fraxx: The post of yours that I read once and it made me keep coming back ...the Piano man post. I liked the way you characterized the people who maybe had negative reasons to play the game, even as a form of denial, in a humanistic light, and I thought the song was an apt use of analogy for it all. I was surprised when it didn't end up in your favorite posts list. Why not?

Foton: that probably is a fav of mine. I'm not sure why I didn't fav it either. It was more experimental? (not sure of term I'm searching for here) sometimes I do that, earlier I did that. now people arrive with an expectation and I guess I try to deliver on that


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Fraxx: Does Foton do guild leadership? -On any level

Foton: Actually, I resisted for a long time, said no thank you for a year and then I caved (while drunk ... true story) and took an officer promo which I kept for 6 months, and then I asked for a demo to the casual raider rank right before LOTRO release cuz I knew I wouldn't have the play time to fulfill my duties

Fraxx: You have any tricks you did while raiding to make people crank down the suck and turn up the awesome to beat encounters?

Foton: I'm quite entertaining on Vent and in /gu

Fraxx: Single handedly kept guild raid morale on the upswing ?

Foton: actually yes. I don't think anyone would dispute that
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Fraxx: At this stage in your MMO career, how would you classify yourself a player relative to the amount of time to you give to the game(s)? As in...do play a small amount enough of time to be casual, or do you manage to pack in enough time and content to call yourself a raider, despite being a working adult?

Foton: well, still a raider, but not nearly hardc0re like in the EQ days so not casual, altho I'm pushing casual lately with LOTRO and the amount of times I'm ditching wow raids

Fraxx: So, you were once hardcore...in Everquest...you miss being able to give a game that much time, seeing content at the top of the curve?

Foton: NO

Fraxx: Or are you content to hang out with friends and go at your own pace?

Foton: yes, the latter. I think everyone who pays should get to see all the zones (maybe not get the shineys)

Fraxx: Going back to amount of time raiding... at your catassy-iest, how bad was it?

Foton: this is when I was young and stupid
Foton: also, I was broke, just having graduated from college, so 23, I'd say actually 2000 was the Year of Living Catass,so 24 (and not just 2000, btw. but starting then)
Foton: 40 hours a week, easily

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Fraxx: Is LOTRO just a WoW vacation, or you think you'll move on for good once you see what LOTRO's end game is like? And, what long term potential do you think Lord of the Rings has?

Foton: if turbine pushes regular content updates like AC (asheron's call), I could see being down in LOTRO. otherwise, this is just a wow vacation. Of course, if blizzard would stop f'ing around and fix some of the post-70 bullshit, I'd be pulled in that direction
Foton: As far as lotro's potential, it's got legs. I don't know endgame, and I'm at a rough spot now with too many group quests and not enough solo quests (late level 30s), but the game's got legs
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Fraxx: You played a cleric in Everquest and a priest at some level in Wow, Right? Do you enjoy healing or is it for purely utilitarian reasons?

Foton: I hate it. but alas, I'm a control freak and nobody can do it properly besides me
Foton: you can quote me on that, Foton says the rest of you suck

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Fraxx: You've mentioned before about WoW not always learning from Everquest's mistakes, specifically I'm referring to putting Spell drops into raid-able only content, Can you think of any other examples?

Foton: Everyone (all guilds) on my server are running out of gas. tiered dungeons are the devil. I'm pretty sure we learned that in EQ, but apparently some of us didn't learn the lesson
Foton: Also -listening to hardcore raiding guilds. don't listen to us, we're everything that's wrong with MMOGs.
Foton: And - the over-reliance on the healing classes.

Fraxx: But what about the people that enjoy playing that role?

Foton: that's crazy talk!
Foton: I suppose there's some. however, don't a huge majority burn-out from being so critical to everything? I mean, if healer 1 and healer 2 can't log on some raid night, there goes the raid

Fraxx :And from being pigeon holed into the same job despite the encounters changing, and etc etc.
Foton: ya, that too. f'ing repetitive

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Fraxx: Whats your biggest personal fuckup moment in a raid? When you were alone responsible for a wipe.

Foton: LOL, first, I'll tell you the one that my e-buds always bring up
Foton: now this one IS NOT A FUCK UP - it was the goddamn monk, this is EQ, obviously
Foton: I played a bard and we're working on mithaniel marr. and as bards could completely wipe aggro and also had the fastest run speed in game (faster than mounts, etc.)
Foton: I had been reading that bards could split mithaniel marr from his dog guards with a pull, run, feign, instant dmg combo (not feign, aggro wipe, but I say feign)
Foton: bards could fish almost anything out of the pool and i was a master
Foton: so, I had the 3 off their altar and I'm fishing mithaniel marr, and the monk pulls too early, so all 3 come and we wipe
Foton: I had jaked the pull, and I SAID let me die, but he pulled nonetheless, and we wiped, and that was the end of foton's experiment
Foton: so now, my e-buds always bring up mithaniel marr anytime I have a new strat in mind for a quest or a group, etc


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Regarding MMO Fan Faire's, Foton himself in game, and his facade as an asshole...

Fraxx: I was hoping for some sort of juicy detail that you hadn't all ready blogged about, but alas.

Foton: i do have that, but goes to the grave, my friend

Fraxx: Which could maybe bring us to the question .Is there someone somewhere telling Foton stories or have you kept your hands clean all this time? Drama, absurd story wise -Something scandalous

Foton: are there people saying i'm a moron and an idiot? yes

Fraxx: More like....in game hookups, or e-baying, or did you ever run off with a guild bank- I guess you wouldn't tell me though if you did

Foton: =) I've never cheated anyone in game,I've done far worse things in real life than in game. kinda mixed up, i know

Fraxx: What about your asshole level again? Are you a nicer guy IRL?

Foton: I actually am a nice guy in game. I'm helpful to noobs, I'm entertaining in guild. I think I'm actually nicer in game than I am to my employees
Foton: That's kinda messed up
Foton: I think what i'm saying, if all you knew is what you read on afkgamer, you'd think i was horribly impatient and a demanding taskmaster. and that's not true. as long as people do their best, admit to mistakes and have a laugh, that's good enough for me
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Fraxx: I know you did some writing while you played SWG, what about non gaming writing?

Foton: my job involves content, if you will, with a slightly punchier standard. I'm a multi-tasker, creatively, so when I'm stuck in one area, i shift to another for a while. That sounds really pretentious. I LOVE IT!

Fraxx: Ill let you shore up some more pretentious points here. Good writers like to read, so what do you read ? If you say trashy fantasy novels it'll ruin the above image.

Foton: LOL I'd imagine so
Foton: this is the dork side of Foton -every summer i set a reading goal. old school habit, the one summer I did old classics I missed in high school/college, another i did true crime This Summer, I'm doing political non-fiction. I am a skilled reader and well-read
Foton: I'm liberal, so currently, Al Gore's new book and then a little known historical liberal review Saving General Washington
Foton:I have a well-thumbed version of Common Sense. (quote me on that, makes me sound edgy)
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Note: Investigation proved whatever Foton read wrong, Nihilum says here they will actually recruit women.

Foton: I read about nihilum's no recruit policy on women today, and frankly, i have expressed privately the concern that women are >>> trouble
Foton: but as i thought about it, probably it's the immaturity of men equally - there is a definite benefit that women provide to a guild leadership
Foton: i think male-only guilds lack soul. and I hope that's not offensive to women, because i mean it in the most respectful way
Foton: We could be all business about guilds, the games almost require it, but we are far better for having women/a woman at least in a leadership position
Foton: there's no reason for it anymore
Foton: y'know it's easier to make potty talk than to straighten up and take the best players
Foton: Maybe that's one of the last gaming dirty little secrets
Foton: What I mean is, excellent girl is seen as T and A - sorry. biology is pwning here, which is equally man's problem as woman's