Interview with HaRRy

Hi, its been a while since we had any interviews done here on the portal, so in a response to the latest finished poll the portal will have much more articles, gonna have more funky functions and in general improved stuff. But at the same time trying to keep it quality over quantity.

Q: I think most Orkfian players recognize your nickname but what does it mean?

A: You’re probably trying to say “How and where did you get your nickname?” because it doesn’t ever really mean anything. Or if it does I don’t know it and would make a rather disappointing answer.

I won’t tell you where it comes from but I will tell a bit about my nickname(s). First of all the name isn’t English and should more be pronounced as the word “starry” while replacing the st with an H.

I also have a 2nd nickname and that is Henk(pronounced Hank), that one started when someone was too lazy to remember two syllables. Both the nicknames are often used by friends to introduce me to others, who are usually pretty confused when I introduce myself as René.

Q: What do you do for a living?

A: Apparently I get paid while answering these questions. Of course that isn’t what my job description is saying, it says something like “Draws, checks drawings from 3rd parties, attends meetings and shows initiative”.

My main job is draw, not design, homes, shops, schools, offices and homes(which is in order from small to huge) in archiCAD. In some cases I follow the whole building process from start to end.

Besides the normal things you come across during the process it also happens I have to make a 3D image + photoshop and that sort of things.

Q: How and when did your Orkfian career start?

A: I really don’t know it exact but I think it was around age 5 of the original series that my friends finally forced me into it. Played a few ages, went away a few ages, played a few ages, went away etc. etc. and it still goes like that.

For me it’s pretty time consuming because I keep looking even when I know nothing is happening so I have to take big breaks to keep my real life running as well.

Q: What part of your years in the Orkfian universe are you most proud over?

A: Maybe it was getting myself in BvS while I was still a bit newbish or maybe it was when the game was still holding a lot of players and I came to the top spots without support from a good alliance.
Either way, it was a lot of fun back then when I had a lot of undiscovered calculations.

That’s why I think this game should keep changing things to keep the vets thinking as well.

Q: What is your current position in Orkfia?

A: Dev staff in AatW only. I’m not as good with PHP as Martel is but I can be pretty creative in solving problems.

The biggest achievement so far is rewriting all the ingame links and making them work. That means that .com/index.php?page=alliance&id=1 is changed into .com/alliance/1/ which is a lot neater and more readable for humans.
Currently most of my work will involve javascript.

Q: Being part of the development team on Alliances at War, can you give any sneak peek on whats coming mechanics wise?

A: The whole bbcode function on the forums(and works in pm as well) is also made by me and I’ve already made a few changes to it that might be uploaded next age.

That includes an image tag and a greatly improved script for the buttons. The caret position/selected text will be used for inserting tags and didn’t fail in any of my tests. After pressing the button the caret will be placed back to the right position.

You should also be able to select text anywhere else on the page and then press the quote button to get that text quoted.
We’re also busy improving the gamespeed by use of ajax that communicates directly with the server without having to load visual data every time you want to cast a spell or send thieves away.
Other gamespeed improvements should already be noticeable.(like archiving forum topics)
There are always a lot of changes on the roll, just so little time and so much to do.

Q: Both Alliances at War and Orkfia Classic is suffering from deminishing playerbases, what do you think is nessescary to turn the tide around?

A: Except from expensive marketing I don’t really know. Mouth to mouth advertisement is the best we could have at the moment.

1 option might be merging with a big company that hosts a lot of other games but we would still have to refresh more game mechanics and the interface before we could actually make a chance. But that would also be selling our souls, so please no.

Another thing that could help the mouth to mouth advertisement is coding something very very cool. Please tell me if you’ve got an idea. I’m already thinking about some (mathematical) solutions to an abstract world map but even that seems impossible.

Q: How does your dream of a perfect Orkfia look like?

A: 4000+ players and enough people donating to support payment for a personal server in personal rackspace. The game has to stay free tho!

Q: What would you like to say to the new players out there?

A: Find your way into the community(irc) ,keep playing with people you like and brutally force other people in playing this game too.

Q: Five Quick Questions:

• IRL or Internet
• IRC or MSN – Completely different uses.
• Attacker or T/M
• Download or Buying – Pay for anything worth it.
• Graphical or Textbased – Both. I wouldn’t enjoy a LAN party with just text based games.

Q: is there anything else you would like to add?

A: If you want to know anything more you can find me on IRC.

With that Id like to thank HaRRy for taking part in this interview.

Cheers

~Acwder

1. HaRRy says:

   April 21, 2009 at 14:57

   Something is missing.
   IRL or Internet: IRL
   (*censored* is much better IRL)
   Attack or T/M : T/M

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2. admin says:

   April 21, 2009 at 16:27

   its not missing, its bold, tho just realised the bold part maybe isnt bold enough

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3. HaRRy says:

   April 21, 2009 at 16:39

   Ah now I see, or think I do.
   And skip the maybe, it needs a lot more bold :-p

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4. Draco says:

   July 6, 2009 at 12:57

   :O Wow and I always thought he was an excellent PHP coder

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