Zed-F by ShadowHM 03/2005

ShadowHM: Please give us some general information about yourself. For starters, where were you born? Where were you raised to adulthood? Where do you live now?

Zed-F: I was born in Edmonton, AB, Canada, and lived there all my life through university. My first bachelors degree was in Genetics, but I found pursuing a career in that field didn't seem appealing, so I got another bachelors in Computing Science. Along the way, I met and married my wife. Once I graduated, I found work in the R&D section of a large telecom manufacturing company, and we moved to Ottawa. I have continued to work at that company despite the burst of the internet bubble and still live in Ottawa with my wife and 4-year old.

ShadowHM: Who influenced you the most in making you interested in games? How? Were there any other gaming influences?

Zed-F: I had a few friends growing up who liked games, both the role-playing kind and the computer sort. Most of my gaming influences came from associating with other people who liked to game as well.

When D&D Basic first came out, I got a copy for a birthday gift when I was around 9 or so. My brother and I and my father opened it, and tried to figure it out, but we couldn't make heads or tails of it! We eventually took it back and got a more traditional puzzle game instead. A couple years later I made a friend who was very much into that sort of game and showed my brother and I the ropes, however, and that made all the difference. I have enjoyed a good roleplaying game ever since and currently spend some of my gaming time on an online play-by-post roleplaying site known as HeroCentral. I actually met my wife by virtue of our mutual interest in roleplaying games; we were both members of the role-playing club at university.

As far as computer games go, when I was young it was again more a matter of having a couple friends who were into computer gaming. It wasn't until I was nearly a teenager that my father brought home an IBM PC (at a whopping 4MHz) for work purposes, and a couple games we could play at home. I would play the occasional arcade game as well, and there were a couple I got good enough to beat on a single quarter, but I never really played that many of them, and I never got into the head-to-head type. Still, the home computer allowed us to play the early text-based adventure games from Infocom and a variety of other games, and from then on it was a matter of keeping up with the PC gaming scene. We never did own a console.

I have a dabbler's interest in other types of games as well, such as war gaming (both board and miniatures-based) but those have always been sidelines that I would play when I could get together with someone else who was interested. For a while in university I had a friend I would regularily play WH40K Epic-scale miniatures battles against, but he has remained in Edmonton while I moved to Ottawa, and I was never able to find someone to take his place out here. He still keeps me up-to-date on goings-on in the WH40K universe when I visit, however. I also enjoy a good card game. I wouldn't say I'm an expert card player, but I like to think I'm at least competent. My wife and I have come to play bridge online on a fairly regular basis, even if we always play in the social and not the competitive rooms.

ShadowHM: What games have you played in the past? What games do you play now?

Zed-F: For the sake of brevity, I'll restrict my answer to computer games.

When I was younger, I played too many games to easily list. These days I tend to be far more selective with my purchasing dollar. However, my brother still buys many games each year and I will occasionally borrow some from him that he's finished with.

At RB I have played Diablo 2, Moo, Civ 3, GalCiv, MOO 3, and Guild Wars. Other games I have played in the last few years include Starfleet Command, the Homeworld series, Half-Life and Half-Life 2, Dawn of War, Starcraft, and I'm sure a few more I've forgotten. I have a big stack of games I borrowed from my brother that I have yet to play, so I don't feel the need to purchase many new computer games unless they are must-haves for whatever reason. Generally I go in cycles where I'm playing one game consistently for a long time, then I switch to something else or another game and do that for a while. I don't tend to jump around a lot between different games within a short time interval.

ShadowHM: What non-computer games did you play as a child? Who introduced them to you and which types did you enjoy most? What non-computer games do you still play and why?

Zed-F: All sorts of games. Most of the highlights I already went over in my previous response, in the answer to the questions about gaming influences. The ones that stand out most in my mind were roleplaying games such as D&D (in various incarantions), Champions, Call of Cthulhu, and many more, and strategy boardgames or wargames, such as Axis & Allies, Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, and a variety of others. I also played my fair share of card and dice games, especially hearts and bridge, as well as many others. Since in Unversity I was a member of long standing in the roleplaying game club (more accurately, the gaming club, since various members of the club were engaged in a variety of kinds of gaming beyond roleplaying games) I had exposure to a wide variety of games. I enjoyed that diversity and was often willing to try my hand at new games that seemed interesting, regardless of the format.

I still play roleplaying games online at HeroCentral in a play-by-post format, though I haven't made a serious effort at finding a local group to roleplay with in a face-to-face environment due to transportation issues and other difficulties. My wife and I play bridge at Yahoo Games on a regular but unscheduled basis as a social activity for ourselves. Unfortunately I haven't had opportunity to continue to pursue my wargaming passtimes since University other than the occasional computer game.

ShadowHM: How did you choose the username Zed-F?

Zed-F: I'll let you all guess where the name Zed comes from. It's an obscure reference to an old but well-known science fiction television character.

The -F appendix is not properly part of the name, but it's something I often add to distinguish it from all the other Zeds floating around out there. There is no particular reason why I chose -F other than habit.

ShadowHM: How did you come to the Realms Beyond?

Zed-F: I used to play Diablo in a now-defunct legit gaming organization by the name of Honor-Might. During the interval between Diablo I and Diablo II, the lull proved to be too much for many such organizations, and such was the case for Honor-Might. However, I happened to know Shadow from those days, and one day when I happened across her (I forget where) she mentioned RB. So I stopped by, liked what I saw, and decided to stick around.

Since then a couple former members of Honor-Might have become peripherally associated with RB, such as FlashNPan. Most, however, continue to play other games, such as UO and EQ.

ShadowHM: Please tell us about your playstyle.

Zed-F: I am a strong proponent of the RB variant philosophy for keeping things interesting. In part, this comes from indecision; when I'm starting a new character, I often am not certain exactly what I want to do with the character, so I will save resources/points/whatever until I have occasion to decide what I want to do. Even once I've made my decision as to a path to take, however, it's often an additional challenge to continue to make do without those resources. While this slows down the pace of the game, I find I'm not a big fan of rush-style games in the first place; a more moderate pace is helpful for safety, situational awareness, and ultimately enjoyment, at least in my case. I can be a pretty patient sort... though there are of course limits.

As such I've tried to participate in and promote variant games across RB, and particularily the type of variant where the variant rules are easy to understand but significantly limiting. I was a member of the FoS hardcore challenge for much of the course of that series of games, and also the proponent for the Slackers games that are still ongoing (when everyone can get together.) I also have an even more strenuously hampered Slacker variant character, AssIsGrass, who is making slow progress through Hell difficulty, and am participating in the BN challenge KoP came up with. Most of my characters are restricted in one way or another to varying degrees, though I do run the occasional unrestricted character.

ShadowHM: In terms of the playstyle you favour:
Is this a continuation of your approach to your work? Or is it an anodyne for the work you do? Or is it a choice because it is a counter-point for other aspects of your work or lifestyle?

Zed-F: I don't think my playstyle really has anything to do with the nature of the work I do. I think it has more to do with setting challenges for one's self, and then overcoming those challenges. Without new challenges to overcome, any endeavor becomes stale.

ShadowHM: Could you please give more details about that FoS hardcore challenge series, for those who are not familiar with it? Who was involved? What restrictions did you have? What were the most diffictult challenges? What does FoS stand for anyway?

Zed-F: FoS is short for Friends of Sisyphus, which was an attempt in v1.08-1.09 to get a closed team (no-twink outside of what the team found) of HC characters through the game, completing all quests, with as low a clvl as possible. The initial participants were Occhi, Hawkmoon, CelticHound, and someone else whose name escapes me at the moment. The team had some trouble coordinating their play times, however, and took a long time to complete normal difficulty. This was compounded by the fact that every time a player died, a new instance of that character would have to be created from scratch and levelled to catch up with the rest of the group -- hence, Friends of Sisyphus.

By the time the team reached nightmare, the fourth original player had dropped and Doc and I came on board. Doc dropped out again partway though nightmare, but I stuck with the team, and eventually, with much tribulation, we managed to defeat hell Baal. The experiment was definitely a mixed success, however, in that the Ancients quest pushed our clvls up higher than what we had intended. I remember taking my backup sorceress through the game and skipping the Ancients to see how far the concept could be pushed without that artificial level inflation interfering. I eventually managed to solo her as far as nightmare ancients while holding her clvl down to about clvl33. Since she was supposed to be a hydra/orb sorceress, and there were no synergies back then, she made it the majority of that way relying pretty much entirely on a +3 Glacial Spike/+3 Fireball leaf staff and her Iron Wolf Ice merc. Needless to say, it was very slow and careful going.

These days it might actually be possible to start again and be true to the FoS spirit since the ancients always give only one level. However, if I were to try again, I would do it in softcore to avoid the frustration of starting completely from scratch every time. Ironically, though I lost several backup characters, I never lost my main character until after we had completed our quest.

ShadowHM: What about Slackers?

Zed-F: As far as slackers go, there should still be links around somewhere to the concept there. The original version was a very straightforward no-twink team variant that simply restricted the total skill and stat points available to the team members to about half of what would normally be available. Some team members chose to voluntarily take additional restrictions on top of that. Currently the slackers team is in A5 Hell, and consists of:

TyrFune - windy druid played by Shadow
VandyGraff - Lightning sorcy played by Hawkmoon
BringOutYerDead - CelticHound's no-stats Lord of Mages necro
SmOcchiTheBare - semi-naked trapassin originally started by Occhi but currently run by Shishak
Systah - Zed's no-stats Enchantress -- the only weapon-oriented character in the group, still using Ravenclaw 'cause we haven't found anything better!

I have since come up with a significantly more complex and more restricted version of the slacker variant and have off-and-on been running an assassin to those rules. AssIsGrass is currently in A1 Hell and looks like she will ultimately be capable of completing the game, if at quite a slow pace. Her story so far is posted on the board and inside the RBD tales section here.

ShadowHM: Since this interview is about 'The Making of a Gamer", what steps, if any, have you taken to ensure that your four-year-old will be a gamer too? i.e. what games do you play as a family and/or what games have you purchased for your child?

Zed-F: None in particular. I think she will likely become interested in gaming by osmosis, but it's not something I want to particularily encourage or discourage. In particular, I am trying to avoid encouraging much interest in computers at this time -- I'd rather she spend her time learning in other ways until she's a bit older. Once she's school-age will be soon enough.

We do have a few educational board games and the like that we do occasionally play together. Simple jigsaws, alphabet games, matching games, and story games are about her speed.

KingOfPain: First let me thank you and Shadow for taking the time to do this interview, and sharing the adventures of AssISGrass

If you don't mind... I'd like to pick your brain a bit. (I know a few RBers here are into or working toward a degree in computer science as well, so feel free to chime in.)

PoO just got accepted for an 18 month course in Game Programming, starting this Oct. I am trying to talk him to push this back a year, because he is still 18 and can afford to wait another year. `25K is a lot of money and that does not include living expenses. He would have to move to Vancouver for this. Although we have friends and relatives in Van I don’t want to impose on them, and I don’t want Jerms to “have” to work. The course is only 18 months long so he has better make the best of it with full concentration.

I feel that if he waits another year and use that time to work and make some money he can at least cover living expenses. Of course, that means I don’t have to dig too deep into my pockets ;p But more importantly, he can also use this time to get a head start in programming and game/mod making.

What worries me too is that Jerms has contacted a few game companies and almost all of them want someone with a four year degree in computer science with good writing skills. I am not sure if he is taking the right course, at least one that will give proper credentials. I am hoping a year pushback will let him take a better look around.

I think he is somewhat limiting himself by not taking the full computer science route – Not that I wouldn’t be happy enough if he can make it in that industry.

My questions are:
Do you like what you do, what do you like about it?
What is a workday like in the life of Zed?
If you have to do it all over again, (concerning education/career choice) what would you do different?
Any advices?

TIA

Zed-F: Sometimes I like what I do better than others, but by and large I like what I do. What a workday is like depends on where we are in the production cycle. Writing software is often a cyclical thing, especially if you are working on something where the plan is to have multiple releases of the software. Early in any given cycle, the goal is to nail down as firmly as possible what it is you are going to do and how much effort it's going to take. This is often easier said than done, as there are always temptations to add new content for a variety of reasons, and things usually take longer than one would think or expect. Also it's important to document this well so that the QA team has some idea of what they should be testing for, and so that the various people in the design team will design stuff that works well together. Later on in the cycle, there is of course a lot of coding and bug hunting, and things can get pretty hectic until most of the bugs are ironed out. After a while, the system gets stable enough that any remaining bugs are pushed off to deal with next release and the software is declared ready to ship.

So if you get the idea that coding skills are only a small part of what you need to be a software engineer, you'd be right. Having a solid set of communication skills and interpersonal skills is at least as important, if not more so. Having a good command of English, and the patience to deal with those whose command of English is substandard, is crucial. Having the flexibility to adapt when what it is you are supposed to be working on changes on a weekly or even daily basis is a good thing as well. You can't get too attached to your work, because you never know when your feature will get cut. And you have to be prepared for other people to review your work and suggest changes -- sometimes seemingly trivial changes -- and not take it personally. Ideally, you should also be a self-starter; if you don't have enough to keep you busy, tell someone, or find something worthwhile that will help out the team and take it on.

I would definitely suggest taking a full comp sci degree or something equivalent. It will make him more attractive as a potential employee not just to game companies, but to other software development companies out there, should be find it hard to break into game programming, or decide it's not for him. Game programming has a fairly high burnout rate, and it doesn't usually pay that well unless you have a lot of experience in the industry. I also understand that if he wants to be a programmer at a game company, he'd do well have other skills that he can offer, such as modding skills or level design or web design or something. That way he might be able to get an in at the company in one area, show he's a capable guy, and then move into programming. Even with a full comp sci degree, unless he's an extraordinary student, he'll probably find that's not enough on its own.

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