I recently had the Opportunity to sit down with the Leader of Dereths Largest Monarchy…Laris Bloodsong, And here is what they had to say on the Issues.
You say, ” What is your real Name?
Laris Bloodsong says, “Amy, I won’t bother you with my last name, no one can pronounce it
You say, “How long have you been playing AC?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “4 and a half years”
You say, “Where are you from?'”
Laris Bloodsong says, “right now NC, originally born and breed in up state NY ”
You say, “In your own opinion, how much does the sex of a player matter in the play-style of players or the attitudes of other players in Asherons call?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “Well”
Laris Bloodsong says, “I had originally made a male character because I didn’t want to be bothered by the teeny boppers and those that are desperate for female companionship. So to by pass any problems I made a male character. My mage is female however, and I have seen a very large difference in how people treat female VS male characters “
You say, “In what way?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “I was always treated as one of the boys while on Laris, doing the same, working the same, given nothing that no one else got. On my mage, I was propositioned for marriage more times then I can remember, given all sorts of items, “helped” while hunting. And as I had not wanted, the nasty tells would come in about well, not so nice ways for sex lol “
You say, “When you get the chance to log in to RL what do you do?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “Well come January, I will be going back to college. Right now I’m an AR manager part time and a PCA part time ”
You say, “How did you come to join us in the world of Dereth?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “Hmm”
Laris Bloodsong say, “I went to a friends house on vacation from work, he wanted to show me this new game he had. It was AC. I was totally enthralled and couldn’t get enough of it ”
Laris Bloodsong says, “Mind you, I never had a computer till 5 years ago, and AC is my very first on line game I have ever played; besides spades and backgammon “
You say, “What dereth city would you say was your first Hometown?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “Holtburg I lived up there for the first 16 levels of Laris life ”
“Then I moved to Baishi, and been there ever since “
You say, “What is your opinion on third party applications in the AC?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “Hmm”
Laris Bloodsong says, “Two fold question/answer really. I think they should have been stopped 4 years ago, when they first came out. Split pea really ruined the game, then the buff bots started ”
Laris Bloodsong says, “To me it would be much more beneficial if AC added some of the decal features into the game. But yes I do use decal; I have for the last year now. I finally caved in.”
“I use Bandit site 2, Meginjarder, and NB 2.”
“Oddly I only use NB on my mage, not on any of my melee/missile characters. Hehe not sure if that was a good answer of not. But the argument is old, In the ways of macroing and what not”
You say, “I have used magelock on my Mage but it made me lazy ”
Laris Bloodsong says, “that is why I say, they should have banned Decal when it first came out”
You say, “So are you against buff bots?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “I was for a very long time. Still am to a point”
“On patch days I put up a MOTD stating, no the bots aren’t up, you should have learned to be self sufficient so you could play, ehh?”
You say, “What do you think is the BEST thing to have happened to Asheron’s Call, and the worst, if any?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “Best is turbine taking AC back form the jaws of Microsoft”
“Worst is not doing it sooner, and making AC the way it really could have been”
“Don’t get me wrong, I adore AC, and the addiction is still strong with me. I do see some of the flaws, and some of them should have been corrected a long while ago. But what is done is done, and hopefully turbine will continue to do what they have, and make the game better “
.
You say, “What is your most coveted item currently in Dereth and how did you acquire it?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “Coveted item?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “WOW, That is a real hard one.”
“I don’t really have one single item I want more then anything else. Many items I have are of sentimental value; due to people giving them to me.”
Laris Bloodsong says, “I think for me mainly, the friendships I have made in this world, are of the most value to me. And I have been honored to be able to meet many Solclaimers in real life as well “
You say, “How has your role as a monarch changed the way you enjoy Dereth?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “I have been monarch now for over 4 years and before that, I did pretty much the same as I do now, any how.”
“Go out explore, and have fun; more recently I have gotten into the new game of
Kill as many followers in the shortest amount of time possible”
You say, “What is the One creature that you would say is you Archenemy?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “shadows!”
Laris Bloodsong says, “I died so many times to them. Still do periodically.
I enjoy hearing them scream when my blade hits home!”
You say, “What old-timer quest would you like to see updated most? Or do you prefer to leave the originals in place and just add new quests”
Laris Bloodsong says, “well”.
Laris Bloodsong says, “I must say, what turbine did for aerlinthe quest was wonderful”.
They updated it, while leaving the original intact!”
Laris Bloodsong says, “I would love to see hamuds katar, the old frore robe back, and the new robe, made for a new version of it”
Laris Bloodsong says, “SoLL”
“That is a wonderful quest! I would love to see a newer version of it being done I still do the old version of it as well “
You say, “What was your first big adventure when you started out and have you revisited that same adventure since?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “Ohh my!”
Laris Bloodsong says, “the GMC –green mire cuirass”
“Laris was a huge lvl 13, and that was my very first quest! What a blast, it was terrifying.
I’ve gone back, and go right back to remembering how it was back then “
You say, “What one Piece of advice would you give someone who has just arrived in Dereth?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “explore and be self sufficient!”
You say, “What keeps you coming back each day?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “my clan mates and my friends I have in game and some of the new quests as well.”
You say, “What is the one thing about Dereth you would ~never~ change, and why?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “hehe thinking sorry”
Laris Bloodsong says, “hard one to answer”
Laris Bloodsong says, “I think, the one thing I wouldn’t ever change, is the way people level.
Because that is part of what this game is: the colors, the excitement and the sparkles ”
“I think everything else, can be changed, possibly for good, or worse”
“Reason I say leveling colors is, when they changed how people logged off, it really threw me for a loop!”
“I liked the old animation/colors better.”
You say, “Where do you see the future of AC going?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “Hmm with the expansion coming out, it is rather hard to tell on that.”
Hopefully with the expansion comes better marketing of the game, we sorely need that and need new fresh blood. I think AC will be around for a few more years as of yet, at least I will be here till they pull the plug. Hopefully more live events will be happening too “
You say, “When you first came into AC did you ever think that you would be the monarch of the largest allegiance on Solclaim?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “no way! I thought this was only temporary!”
You say, “why?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “well”
Laris Bloodsong says, “This group started under Fred Silverhand and he quit.
Verik Silverhand took it over at that point, but he had too much school going on, I was doing all the group hunts and quests; so the peeps in the clan said I should be monarch.
Laris Bloodsong says, “I told them, only till we find someone else to take over, they agreed.
No one else wanted to take it over lol”
You say, “How long ago was this?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “We had our 4-year anniversary in September of this year .
I guess it just got into a groove. We were 63 people strong back then, grew to 100 people and stayed there for a while, then boomed to 200, then hit around 700 and stayed there for a very long time.
By then, if I brought up stepping down, people flipped out and told me no, so, I stopped asking lol.”
You say, “and now you have possibly the largest allegiance in the game”
Laris Bloodsong says, “yes indeed, and if we hit 10 K, you can call the men in white jackets for me!”
You say, “LOL”
You say, “Do you think Allegiance chat Helped or hindered Dereth?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “Oh yes, A LOT! Helped i mean. The ability to get information, or help has been instrumental in keeping the lager monarchies in tact i think.”
You say, “Now for the hot question, What is your personal opinion of Exp. chains, and should they be reinstated?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “I think I saw the worst when chains were around. We had our chain. It was open to the public too. It about broke the monarchy. I booted over 3 K people”
You say to your Fellowship, “ouch”
Laris Bloodsong says, “Got rid of em all, said if you want in a monarchy, come back, otherwise good knowing you. 7 months later one of my direct vassals and a few others loyal to the clan asked to get a personal chain going. I agreed.”
“It was clan only, no one joining could get in it. Worked fine till the change in XP. We don’t have any chains now and people are happy. The people complain about being left behind. Well, they aren’t being left behind. They are looking too much at other people’s levels. And today you can make a lot more XP then you could have a year ago. It is just much more family oriented now “
You say to your Fellowship, “What do you feel separates your monarchy from the rest?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “Hmm, separates us from the rest of other monarchies?”
“I don’t believe there is a huge difference between us and others. I think all monarchies strive to be fun, productive and interesting groups. I know most of the monarchs on this server and I’m friends with most of them as well as their clan mates.”
You say, “In closing who would you like to see Interviewed?”
Laris Bloodsong says, “Deven-kenyon, if she hasn’t been done yet, Panzerfaust, Kat jakura”
Laris Bloodsong says, “umm”
Laris Bloodsong says, “a lot more but I got a mind blank lol ”
Laris Bloodsong says, “kalista too”You say, “no problem”
You say, “all of those will be added to my list”
