Interview - alliance Storm-chasers

End-of-tournament interview with the Alliance Leader of Storm-chasers, Vulpion The former founder and AL of the historical ALLIN alliance and the founder and AL of the few-weeks old Brotherhood of Storm-chasers is the current target of our interest. We wish to ask him about his views on the previous tournament’s events, as well as his plans and hopes for the next one.

Chronicler: I’d like to ask you, Vulpion, to summarise which events of this tournament affected your play-style or alliance life in a few sentences. The Warlords of the Universe are very curious about the chain of events that led to the switch between ALLIN and Storm-chasers.

Vulpion: I’ve had the idea that led to the founding of the Storm-chasers on my mind for a long time. The reason I didn’t act upon it before was a mistaken belief of mine, according to which Warlords-and I don’t just mean former ALLIN members here- like fighting the same war tournament after tournament for a case they believed to be good, and that continuing this war was a question of honour for them. The next step was due to the neglect of our former AL Beleriand, which almost drove the alliance to ruin at the beginning of this tournament. It was then that the Storm-chasers were first formed as an elite squad within ALLIN, a sort of alliance within an alliance. Of course this squad would have continued with the bipolar-war, since the long-term possibilities weren’t planned out yet. The reason this didn’t happen was due to the changing mood of the warlords-or rather the realisation of this. This occurred during June, when a large-scale filtering of ALLIN members took place, followed by a sabbatical due to my vacation that took up the rest of the month. However, the Storm-chasers decree and the plan of execution were complete by then, and select members and leaders within the alliance already knew of them. Upon returning to duty we began work and within the next two weeks the transformation was completed. What anyone thinks of this chain of events is their business.

Chronicler: In the Storm-chasers’ decree and Metal trained in flame articles you spoke of new goals, new politics, numerous old allies rejoining and numerous more new members being recruited as your plan. How did you manage with these?

Vulpion: Quite easily really. Any new plan or belief can be good and just, but without the proper might to back it up, it’s just a word in a storm, if I may phrase it so. This required might is granted by the warlords joining the alliance, fittingly acting as soldiers and keeping themselves at full strength in a militaristic game.

Chronicler: This must mean that you treat personal matters within the Storm-chasers with great importance. Could you share with us a few examples of what this means now, and how it will affect the members of the alliance in the upcoming new tournament?

Vulpion: That’s a very interesting subject. When personal matters come up, we get a lot of complaints about setting our standard-bar too high. I, on the other hand, believe we haven’t asked for anything impossible from our members. We do expect player activity, team-play, proper manners, honesty, commitment, obedience and a good basic knowledge of the game and constant improvement of that knowledge from our members. At first this may seem like a lot to demand from one player, but if someone wishes to play the game seriously then I think these are absolutely necessary. Also, these traits help team-play rather then hinder it. If I was to compare our current members to the members of ALLIN back then, they make a considerably better community and the general mood is much better as well. As for what it means now and what it will mean in the future? Basically the same thing. Obviously we’re still learning after this fresh start, but with time the whole architecture will evolve without changing the core ideals it’s based upon. My only advise to people who are considering joining us is to go ahead and try. Those who like to participate in great battles, to make friends and are willing to spend time and energy on the game will not be disappointed.

Chronicler: What did the previous tournament mean to the Storm-chasers?

Vulpion: It was the beginning. It couldn’t mean more, since we didn’t even start until the very end. It couldn’t mean less either, since this is the tournament we started down the new path. So it meant the start, a start filled with great battles, for which we thank all who participated.

Chronicler: You mentioned the bipolar war between two sides for a supposed good cause previously. How do you plan to stop it from resurfacing in the next tournament?

Vulpion: By creating a diplomacy that ensures that even if the two sides form again, we won’t be a part of either. Of course diplomacy like that makes winning the tournament impossible, but that isn’t our goal right now. We prefer to concentrate on making the game-experience enjoyable and fulfilling.

Chronicler: The next question won’t be easy to answer: how exactly do you tolerate all the accusations and offensive comments that you keep getting on the public forums?

Vulpion: Sometimes well, sometimes not so well. For instance the ones written in proper tone and with worthwhile content are always welcome in my inbox, and I try to answer them accordingly. The trash-mail and pointless accusations sometimes make me laugh, sometimes make me sad and sometimes even make me with stoically calm. Just like the common stupidity of humanity usually does.