What's your callsign?
Hellduke.
Let's get to know you – can you describe yourself in five words?
I guess I can give it a shot: quiet, trustworthy, honest, patient, social. Might seem like the first and last don't fit, but I make it happen.
Tell us about your history in TAW.
I joined TAW several years ago. I received a PM on the Company of Heroes forums back when I started getting into Company of Heroes Online. At the time there were very few of us, but once we started growing we needed something more interesting to do during the training nights so I took the job of XO. Back then I was actually making notes before leading a practice.
We stayed in Vanguard for a very long time, but once we launched I was offered the position of DO. I took it and then started working with a guy called DeSoto. Was fun, since we often disagreed, but we got around a lot of problems that way. After he moved over to help out the World of Tanks division I stayed behind to keep the Company of Heroes going. Found great help in one of my members Eifer. After the first year in TAW I received a commendation signed by most of my co-members. I still love to go in and read the nice words everyone wrote.
Then came a long break from TAW after transfering into Star Wars division. I guess I just over-worked myself. After staying away for a while I came back into the Dota 2 division. I found several known members. RomanTemplar being one of them. He was the DC of DA. I knew Eifer did really well in TAW, but finding him in the OS CC was interesting. So I guess that about covers my whole history in TAW without going into details too much.
What was your initial impression of TAW?
I really liked the way things worked. I liked the structure which was clear and showed who is supposed to do what. For the most part at least.
Tell us about your division, and what you do there.
I am currently in the Dota 2 division and I am the Division Commander for that division. While officially the Division Commander mostly takes care of transfers, discharges and overview of the division, there is a lot more that goes into that than it seems at first. As the DC I also have to keep an eye on the day to day activity. I still get approached with things like excusals and practice times. I often need to step in for other staff members when they seem to slack on doing there job. Being the DC (Division Officer is in the same position I might add) is more about knowing about every position and being able to do everything than just general overview. Probably one of the most stressful things I get to do is checking the attendance.
Every month I just make a complete overview of the division and discharge the members in the red. It's not always easy, especially if you attend practices and since you know a lot of the people. You know that they don't do it out of ill will, but sometimes you just have to discharge some people just so they learn their lesson. Which is also not an easy thing to do, since it does not apply to everyone the same.
What would you like someone considering joining TAW to know?
TAW is being administrated by people like you. Everyone has other things to worry about and the rules are there for a reason. If you are someone who can't do simple things like filling in excusals you just make it harder on the people trying to make this a comfortable place for you.
Also I would like everyone joining to keep in mind, that the community is something I would call "By players, for players". If you don't intend to step up and help out then there is that much less of a chance that there will be people out there to do everything to keep this place alive.
Do you have any special hobbies or activities outside of TAW?
Reading books is one of my hobbies. I also like to play football (soccer to some) and basketball when I get the chance. I also like playing snooker. Used to have more, but as free time decreases so does the number of hobbies.
If you could change one thing about TAW, what would it be?
I guess the one thing that bugs me is the one member one division policy. I understand the point of it, but I would like to see a possibility to be on another divisions backup roster. Basically the system would be that you belong to a single division like now, and you would have sub divisions or whatever we would call them. That way you could get notified on their practices, be included in the mailing lists. Also, it would more clearly show the interests of a member.
Tell us about some of the people you've met during your time in TAW.
The first people that come to mind are Kingcheese and Eifer. Kincheese was in Vanguard back when I joined and was a great deal of help getting used to everything I had to do. Helped out a lot and was very patient with us.Eifer was a good friend, joined after me. Kept pushing him up rank after rank until I had him as my DO. He was a great deal of help and still is.Another person worthy of mention is DeSoto. Was a great friend and co-worker if you can call a DC to a DO a co-worker. Often disagreed about many things, however that only allowed us to resolve a greater deal of problems as funny as that might seem.Among others there's RomanTemplar and Kinare. The first one was again back from the day in Company of Heroes. I still remember talking to our CC and saying that we wanted to push him up as far up the CoC as we could. Kinare was a great help as well. I just seem to keep getting extremely gifted and friendly DOs and DCs. Hope that keeps up!
What's your favourite thing about TAW?
I guess that would be the friendly people. I really like talking to people of different cultural backgrounds. Admittedly we do have the not so friendly people, but then again we can always discharge them :D
How does TAW affect your offline life?
In all due honesty, not a lot. Most likely changes in my offline life have an impact on how I do things in TAW. Though I tend not to bring the negative into TAW. I guess I could say that I did learn to manage people better in real life, but since I do not work in an administrative field in real life, I don't get to apply that as much.
What might our readers be surprised to know about you?
As far as I can tell, apart from another member that has left TAW quite a while ago, I am the first Lithuanian in TAW that is active to this day. Otherwise I might say I am the second Lithuanian, beaten by a former member Gerex by a week or so. On another note, from a real life point of view: I am diabetic since 1994.
What's your favorite retro videogame? Why?
I had many favorites. Though I guess that if I had to pick the top 3 it would be Stronghold (1 and Crusader), Total War (the whole series, but if I had to single out - Rome) and Diablo 2. Stronghold was my favorite RTS game at the time. It just somehow appealed to me. I remember Shogun Total War. It just was different. Haven't played anything like that. It also pulled me into showing more interest in the Japanese culture. Finally Diablo 2 was my favorite RPG. I was drawn into it by my cousin. I found the idea of having to equip and level your character interesting.
Another game worth mentioning was Max Payne. I still think that game had the best story telling (and a nice story as well) to date.
If you could choose any TAW member to be stranded on a desert island with, who would it be and why?
Well I have 2 choices here. I would take Eifer because he is reliable and we get along really well.
On the other hand I would pick Kinare. First of all, she is also reliable and helps out a lot with her own initiative. And also because I am a typical man: I might misplace something and not find it even if I look at it. I find that women generally help me out in that respect.
Do you admire any celebrities? Why or why not?
If there is one person I could say I admire from the celebrities, it would be Morgan Freeman...Mainly because of his views and the fact that he is outspoken on them.
I mostly don't admire many celebrities because I don't follow their private lives. I just simply put do not care if some celebrity adopted an orphan, or if they donated or if they beat some illness or something. It's their private life and I feel no interest in poking my nose in there.
Who do you believe is going to be the most influential figure in gaming in the next three years?
I guess it will be TotalBiscuit. He and the others from an obviously close group have a great deal to say and most things they say make a whole lot of sense. If more people listen to them it will be easier on a lot of us.
Honestly though I couldn't really say. I don't really believe anyone can have a big influence, or any influence at all on a thing such as gaming.
For their time, effort and dedication, this member will be awarded our In-The-Scope member tab for completing the interview.