[Interview] ADMIN

[Reporter]

Hello everyone,

I know that many of you have been waiting for this interview for a long time, so, as I promised you on Phoenix, let's get inside the mind of the most important man who devotes his time building for us new servers with lots of futuristic and interesting updates and manages, for so many years, the most stable and the most beloved servers on the market :

Reporter:   " Hello, Admin! To begin with, I want to thank you for all the effort you put into this server, because you successfully manage to bring us so much joy that we have only experienced in youth  " 

Admin: "   Hi there, I'm pretty happy if my work has brought up good memories about this game!"

Reporter: " Can you reveal us your name? " 

Admin: "  My name is Alex. "

Reporter :" How old are you?"

Admin: "  I'm 23 years old. "

Reporter: " Before you were server administrator and owner, you were a mu player. Can you tell us when did you started playing this wonderful game?"

Admin: "   I've started playing this game in the 3rd grade (so, around 14 years ago), finding it randomly on a website. It fascinated my kid brain and in few years (around 3-4) it started to be a real 'hobby' for me, playing hard-core for top on each new server, having a dedicated guild formed by loyal players."

 Reporter: " Have you been a player on this server?"

Admin: "  I've played at start of 2017 a little, to raise competition, as situation was bad at that times in terms of competition and had to personally rescue it. "

Reporter: " Do you think about starting to actually be a player on your server?"

Admin: "  Nah, for me MU was either all-in (top, guild, active 12/24) or none at all, since I can't do the first one anymore I'm no longer interested in this game but I love working on it and making it the best around all the rest. "

Reporter: " Since you built OldSquad have you ever played on another Server to steal configuration ideas or to copy the good stuff that other servers have?"

Admin: "  I didn't touched MU since 2017 except tests/support/events on our servers. Our objective is to innovate as much as possible, not stealing other's ideas, but others have stolen ideas from us "

Reporter: " Can you reveal us your past nicknames(on your server or other servers you have played)? " 

Admin: "  My most stable nickname was rEaDy. Used it for MU, DOTA1/2, WoW, HotS, Underlords. I played as Fenrir here once."

 Reporter: " How and when did you decide to create your own server? You did it alone?"

Admin: "  I've been running online communities since really young (around 14-15 years), owning CounterStrike servers & more. But the idea of OldSquad started just from an ambition. As I said, I was already bored of all the trash-servers I was playing with my guild, changing them weekly due to either Pay2Win aspects, bad balance or boring gameplay, so I told myself if I can't find what we are looking for, I'll just create one, with my own ideas and features, based on my experience. The fact that my domain was IT also helped a lot. But I never thought it would have such success, I just tried my best to create something unique & nice, as I always wanted to play."

Reporter: " Since you opened the server many years ago, I bet you have had many battles, with hackers, cheaters, etc. How do you manage to keep the server stable after all these attacks? "

Admin: "  In the Internet era, security is a big aspect, we've encountered a lot of 'bad-guys' in these years, we've been through really bad times because of them, and I doubt that this will ever end, because it's a sensitive thing, that even the biggest companies around the world does have problems with, not saying a small private gaming server. But with patience, hard-work and support from our providers, we'll do our best to keep our project as stable as possible."

Reporter: " How much time do you spend daily (on average) working behind "the curtain" to keep the server stable and bring game upgrades?" 

Admin: "  I don't have a stable schedule, one day I can work 1 hour and other day I can work up to 16 hours, it all depends, but the average I would say 6-8 hours/day, except dead periods like summer when activity is really low so I don't have much to do. "
 

Reporter: " Some people have judged you, some say you are too proud, you get angry quickly and you have often shown disrespect, how do you comment on this?"

Admin: "  I'm that kind of person that can be the greatest dream or the worst nightmare, depending on the people I face. I'm still a person behind the 'ADMIN', and I'll always act naturally, no matter the subject. I hate trash-talkers, but also ass-lickers. I've interacted with over 1000 different persons during these years, and the most people have 2 faces, which I also hate and it some-how 'marked' my own character. "

Reporter : " In the past I heard rumors that you sold items for money "on order" to some players, is it true?"

Admin: "  On the first server, the Season 4 one, I made such compromise, as we didn't had any VIP-System or credits system to sustain the server, and I was running out-of-student-funds to continue the project, so I had to do such thing in order for the project to survive. "

Reporter: " Last year I heard players saying that you open new servers every 3-4 months just to make money, how do you comment on these accusations?"

Admin: "  The concept is pretty easy to understand. We'd love to have a server that lasts a looot of months (active, of course), meaning no extra work for us and just focusing on a single product. But, sadly, it's not the case, it was proved multiple times that people leave the game after few months, no matter how good the server is (they are just getting bored, and I understand somehow, looking at me when I was a player). But when one competitive guild leaves, it creates a hole in the gameplay, de-motivating the other competitive guild to play. So it creates a chain-leave between competitive players, leaving mostly casuals, or new players on server, that are also de-motivated to sustain a 'dying' server, which means basically close to 0 donations after first 2-3 months. Taking into account that costs to sustain such community, at this level, there are 4 digits in euros per month, I personally can't afford holding them alone, so we use the other servers/editions to sustain the older ones. It's easy to judge without seeing the full picture, from people that are just looking at themselves, wanting the best for them, no matter the circumstances, but it's not that easy, and in the end it's about us first and the future of us, not about them, people come and go, OldSquad remains. "

Reporter: " I know that during these years you had ups and downs with the server, have you ever been so disappointed by the bad mouths that you want to shut down the server? Can you reveal some of these moments to us?"
 

Admin: "  Up to 1 year ago I was really sensible, knowing how much I work for this community and people always throwing shit at me when the things went bad, appreciating only when the things were as they want. But I stopped caring about such things and I started just to focus on my goal, ignoring such people/comments. I don't think I ever wanted to shut down the server, there were moments of uncertainty, but that moments have never reached that point. "

Reporter: "When was the time when you had the greatest joy / fulfillment related to the server? Can you describe it to us?" 

Admin: " There were, multiple times, especially after fixing/solving a game-changing problem. But, I think the greatest moment was to see 3 really good and balanced guilds/alliances fighting at a Castle Siege, I think one of the first CS-es from our previous Max30RR."

Reporter: "In these years, I'm sure you have had players you have admired or appreciate... What did you like about them? Can you name them?"

Admin: " I don't think it's about admiration/appreciation, it's just about liking a mentality. I liked a lot of players during years, many of them proved to be double-faced, sadly, but there are still enough people with mentality that I like, especially those that know how to address a problem/issue without crying and bringing both arguments and solutions to the discussion. Some of them are DIEE, salam (Aqvila) and more."

Reporter: "What kind of players do you respect and what kind of players make you the most upset?"

Admin: " As I said previously, I do respect brained people that know how to address problems and, also, the realistic ones that look at things with realistic eyes, without exaggerating or saying things far from truth (example: I lost upgrade at + xx multiple times, your game is bugged/rates are not true!). I don't suffer criers and trash-talkers, I have more empathy for a hacker than for those kind of persons."

Reporter: "Have you ever had a time to make a decision (ban someone or something) and then regret it? How did you proceed next?"

Admin: " Just like any person in my position, I made both great decisions and bad decisions, usually the bad decisions are impulsive (not taking the time needed to think about them, just a fast act). A decision which I regret was on Phoenix, where I banned few players without thinking, when the "sessions-problem" was happening - even though it was not their fault, despite being their account, didn't thought that the actual robber was just on their accounts. I declined their request to re-think their ban at first, acting impulsive, but then, the next day, I thought a lot about it, and realized that it was not their fault, so I contacted them and apologized for my acts, unbanning them and giving them few days of VIP for free as compensation."

Reporter: "Can you tell us what were the biggest problems you faced on Phoenix? I remember that at one point donations did not turn into credits, how did you repair the situation?"

Admin: " To be honest, Phoenix had the least problems from all our projects, and also had the best gameplay (in my opinion). The only "bigger" problem on Phoenix was the problem with sessions, where people would be logged in on different accounts on website. We fixed it in the end by forcing sessions to stick to IP, so on any IP change they would log-off automatically. There was also the problem with Paypal credits, but that wasn't a problem from us, it was simply their API being bugged for some days, until they fixed it, not sending the callback to our (and any) website when the payment was completed, so the website wouldn't give the credits without Paypal confirmation of payment, despite it being done."

Reporter: "At one point, if more than 500 players were logged (on Phoenix start), there were lots of lags and disconnects, and the AFK players had to be disconnected, what happened? How did you fixed the situation?"

Admin: " Ehm, almost forgot about it, yes, it happened on first days of Phoenix, DataServer was restarting every 10 minutes after reaching more than 500 players online, causing disconnect-reconnect to players and also a small roll-back. While we were testing different possibilities of solutions, we had to keep the players under 500 so it won't disturb server with disconnects, so we were staying in low maps and looking for AFK chars from towns to disconnect, in order for the new active players to join and the number to remain < 500. In the end, the only thing that fixed it was to switch to a different windows version on our machine, as most probably something was corrupted inside, nothing else was working out."

Reporter: "Last year you had to ban most GR0M members, how hard was it for you to make this decision? Did you know what impact this action had on OldSquad, and yet you took it ..."

Admin: " GROM was always a double edged sword. The good part was that they were very active and they were creating competition on server, the bad part is that they were always the ones to do shits, when they were losing. Starting from CS anti-games, dramas, up to hacks and in the end, bug-abuses. To be honest, I never regretted a second, when the ban came, as I was completely sure that our community will be much healthier and less toxic without them. And it was proven on Phoenix, atmosphere was great without them. I'll always stick to my principle that quality is more important than the numbers."

Reporter: "Have you been approached by GR0M members after this decision? Can you tell us what they said?"

Admin: " Ofc, after the ban some of them came with insults, others with threats, others with trash-talks about us, just GROM things, but ofc nobody have fully read their messages, facebook block works like a charm. Then, when Phoenix started, few of them asked me to unban GROM, just like on Inception start, but it won't happen. 2 of them passed by on Inception with new IP's / devices, but not for long."

Reporter: "Everyone says donations are making a big profit for you, is that true? Can you reveal us numbers?"

Admin: " There is of course a profit, but not even close to how much a mediocre IT guy would take at a normal job, for the same time allocated. And that's because one month can have a good profit, but the next 3 months can have 0 profit, and even minus, in terms of project costs. Not even talking about the responsibilities that I have and the multitude of domains except technical domain I must touch, learn and master, including Finance, Accounting, Marketing, Q/A, Support, compared to a standard job. What I personally did for almost 4 years alone is usually spread in teams of enough members. But as long as I am doing what I love to do, I still prefer it over any normal job, as long as there is still a profit."

Reporter: "What has been the hardest decision you've  ever made since you created OldSquad? Did you consulted anyone? (detail, please)"

Admin: " That's a good question. There were a lot of hard decisions, from decisions to try new things out (like stages, dynamic exp systems, the now well known Current of no EEs, etc.) up to decisions of nerfing a lot the VIP exp, closing NonReset project, giving Max50RR a second chance on this new formula of mother-kid server, etc. On some of the decisions I consulted Legion. Probably the hardest decision I ever made was to start the project from 0, on different files, after it was hacked in 2017, instead of quitting it. But I believed in my dream of creating the best MU community for the hard concepts." 

Reporter: "Can you give us more details about this "mother-kid" project? There are rumors that you wanted to quit max 50 resets because it was a failed project. "

Admin: " Max50RR was the first and only non-hard server we made, with a medium experience. I don't think it was a true fail, as it was pretty popular, but the fact that it only lasted for 3 months of active play, and almost completely dead after those 3 months, was clearly a sign that it's either not our niche or it simply can't work on the long term, due to the fast-paced game, where people complete it pretty fast. As we don't like to work on a project that only stay alive that long, we just wanted to quit the project and focus on what lasts longer. But one day I was thinking about how we can increase even further the life-span of our servers, mainly Max30RR, and came up with the idea of mother-kid concept. In this concept, the players that got bored of Max30RR in time and quit it, have an alternative to join it, with higher character and gear, by playing on such seasonal Max50RR, that lasts only for 100 days, and then being transferred to Max30RR to continue the journey. Basically, in this way, we're encouraging both old players to rejoin it and also new players to join our community through Max50RR, while Max30RR players just stick to Max30RR, without strong reasons to join Max50RR and leave Max30RR. It's something totally new that it's worth at least a try, I'm not completely sure it will be a success, but at least it can be marked as "tried". Only time will tell." 

Reporter: "Where do all these innovative ideas come from?"

Admin: " I guess it's a combination of brained person, huge dedication, big experience with the game as a player and the will to be the best in what I do, in this case, our servers. Some ideas come out of nowhere, some ideas come late in the night, when I try to sleep, some ideas are just a result of multiple brain-storms in multiple days."

Reporter: " Since Inception started, I've had moments where I saw over 600 characters online, how does it make you feel when you see your work giving fruit trees?"

Admin: " I can't say it does not feel good to see big numbers, but for me it's much more important the overall quality of gameplay than the numbers. If the quality is right, numbers will be no matter what, but the opposite can't be true." 

You all  know i have interviewed some VIPs on Phoenix and on Inception servers, so here are their questions for Admin, I know that some answers have already been given by the admin through updates in game, but it is my duty to put them all on the sheet and let the admin to answer, if you solved the problems please detail . "

Catarina: "Some time we kill boss and we don't get rewards....or boss left map when invasion is not finished, try fix that" (it is not actually a question, it is a message, but it was his wish)

Admin :" I guess it was fixed on some of the updates."

Ganja :" Why EEs are banned from IT, when SM has just as much impact, as MS has 39% abs, and ERF can buff party to 4k hp ?" 

Admin : " We've came with the solution of personal-buffs-only in IT, to match the concept. "

Ganja : " Can you make an event like Loren Deep, but really weak mobs in there, so newbies can kill them and get items, maybe like CW event but for new players?

Admin: "  We've thought about it, but nothing serious yet. "

Ganja: " Can you get more GMs, to be more involved with community? I am not talking about auto events like 20 questions, there is a lot of fun stuff a GM can do.  "

Admin: "  I don't like to depend on others, especially on people I don't know/trust. There are always discussions about favoritism & fairness, which I want to avoid. But Gion is filling that gap anyway. "

Ganja: "Can you improve navigation for help section on forum? Maybe add a Getting started FAQ or something ?"

Admin: "  We've made some changes to forum, we're still open to ideas to improve it. "

Coco : " Why I failed so many feather and w3? Are the chaos machine rates for real? Can you change CS time to Sunday and reduce it from 2 hours to 1 hour? "

Admin: " Bad luck bro, there is no point in showing 'fake' rates when I can just show lower-rates if I want them lower, nothing holds me from doing that. Time was changed to Sunday, CS will always last for 2 hours."

FKingCunt:  "What can you do to have more people on server? What can you improve about CS to be more interesting? What can you improve in gameplay/bugs? "

Admin: "  We do everything we can/know to have more people on server(s), the problem is that the player-base might be getting lower, not our efforts. CS is already interesting, it just needs enough competition for it, mainly at least 3 guilds participating, constantly. We're constantly improving the gameplay and fixing any bugs we can fix. Some bugs are just un-fixable. "

Javaraya :" Please use donations to buy new season GS files, I want to try and play the new things. "

Admin: "  We did it already. 2020 may bring it officially. "

Almighty : " How much time you spend working on OldSquad all projects weekly?"

Admin: "  I already answered such question in the interview. "

Aqvila : " When will the next non reset edition come? Admin plays the game as a regular player? Did Admin had any servers before OldSquad? "

Admin: "  It will come on S14, somewhere on the next year. I don't play. I had one tentative of season 2 server long time ago, when I was running a CS community, but nothing serious. "

DIEEEEEEEE :"Why I am so unlucky??( kidding) I have no question for him."  

Admin: "  Cheers, mate! "

RedBuLL :" Admin, when season 14 will be released?"

Admin: " It will take a lot, we must first learn everything is included in S6+ (and as a tip, the difference between 97d and season6 is much smaller than difference between s6 and s14) from the perspective of players, before actually working on it, else it's just a bunch of random things throwed up together. If we'll ever release our non reset project on S14, we must make sure that it will be an incredible experience, not just "another s14 server". " 

Zutto: "Free Chuk , No but seriously... What are your plans right now if your got any to work out the speed issue classes are having?  " 

Admin: " The only bugged skills are Chain and Chaotic, nothing else. The only elegant solution we currently have is to make Fire Scream and Blast their replacement, by cloning their stats. More info in the new patch. "

Reporter: " Thank you very much for your time and for your honest answers , I will do my best, as always, to bring the truth to light and to animate the forum, as I promised you since Gion "hired me" .

Admin: " Thanks for the interview, hopefully things are more clear now. Keep up the good job! :)"

On the record : when I accepted this "job" as a reporter I expected to write and do everything that goes through my head(I am free to do this anyway) but I was hit by the professionalism of these people Gion, Admin and Legion and I was shocked, the first thought was to give up the job (as some of you know, I do not speak or write the perfect English Language, but when I get involved and I put my soul into what I do I don't give up easily and I'm glad I got to know these people who are probably much more stubborn and perfectionist than myself  ) and I can not give up easily, so I managed to earn their trust and with small victories, I managed to do this job to rise to the expected heights, I am the second hired reporter and, believe me, if you do not put your soul into what you do, you have no way to have support and succeed in everything! 

[Reporter]

New!!!

[Reporter]

Up Up!!!

[ThrustMG]

thanks all

 

[Bashki]

great interview