TheHopefulLoser: So tell me, where does the “Voice of the Union” get all his Charisma?

Crüniac: Hah! Me or the character? The answer is the same either way. Though I don’t feel terribly charismatic, any I have obtained could be attributed to a life in reflection. I think it was when I was about ten or eleven I started to be very introspective. Time spent looking inward and considering your effect on the world around you can teach you many things; it taught me a great deal of empathy, and a maddening capacity for devil’s advocacy. I think it was from this that I shaped the character known as “The Voice of the Union:” a man who is privy to the memories of the dead, like dreams, or grains of sand slipping through his fingers. It reflects how I feel about the burden of insight. Too much understanding can be uncomfortable at times.

TheHopefulLoser: What would you say is the most challenging part of being a moderator for PlanetQuest?

Crüniac: Probably the most challenging part of being a Mod is, if I’m to be totally honest, which I prefer to be, managing expectations. I’m the kind of person who will dream at a scope that few people are prepared to keep up with. I ask a lot if I’m going to ask at all, so I’ve definitely had some issues with conflicting ideas in my time here. An operation like PlanetQuest requires a lot of backend work, and I have a tendency to press for things I need to enact my own visions for front-end stuff. Luckily, we have a pretty good crew who mostly understand when friction comes from a good place.

TheHopefulLoser: What are some of your hobbies, and which hobbies have helped you along the way in PlanetQuest?

Crüniac: Hobbies eh? Games, certainly, but that seems like a given. 3D art has been a hobby of mine, on and off. I got into that when I was fourteen I think. I like to believe I’ve gotten fairly decent at it for dabbling. Guitar is another one. One thing I’m sure nobody wants to know is that I’m often accused of vampirism because I have very long nails on one hand. I like to hope people are joking when they say this, but sometimes it’s hard to tell. And though I don’t do this much anymore, I used to be a singer, which has helped me quite a bit working with Helios and the gang on the upcoming voiceover project. Probably my biggest flex was (and possibly still is) performing at Notre Dame a couple years before the fire. I am also, I know this is going on a bit, quite good with baking bread, though that’s sadly a thing of the past for me.

…And then there’s writing. I have complicated feelings about writing. Without condition I love to analyze and edit the work of others, but when it comes to creating my own works, the muses have me whipped. When they sing though, it’s a wonderful song.

TheHopefulLoser: Do you think we’ll get papier-mâché Valkyries for Federation use in the Game? (Hopium)

Crüniac: Of course! Right along with the Union Nailgun and the Empire Puddle Duckers!

TheHopefulLoser: What video game experience do you bring with you into PlanetQuest, and how will it help you lead the Onions to Victory?

At the unassuming age of fifteen I was brutally introduced and sentenced to ten long years of League of Legends. My crowning achievement was probably ranking among some of the best Shen players in North America for a brief while. I reckon I can translate some of that skill over to PQ. On a less grim note though, I can’t resist a good card game. I don’t appreciate not being able to get the cards I need, to compete, but when I have gotten what I need, I’ve been able to reach the highest levels of play consistently enough. Then there’s RTS games. I’m terrible at them, so uh…nothing to see here.

Aelus: Why did you pick The Union, when your real Voice is clearly Imperial?

Crüniac: Shhhhhhhh! They’ll hear! Seriously though, the choice to be Union ties back to my reasons for getting into crypto in the first place. I strive to have enough that I can afford to share. I enjoy being generous and sharing, but I’ve never had enough to do that. Joining the Union was an easy choice for that reason. It represents those values to me. I can’t stress this enough though, all three factions are excellent for too many reasons to name. I love them all for their good and their bad.

Aelus: When will we get to read your Book?

Crüniac: Oh dear…someday I hope. I haven’t touched my book in several years. Things shifted around in my life, and I realized it wasn’t striking the tone I wanted. I haven’t been able to reach my protagonist in a long time. One day though, I will be able to write that story again. In the meantime, you’ll be the first to know when and if I publish my short story.

TheHopefulLoser: Do you have any plans to organize for early access gameplay?

Crüniac: You know, for the longest time I didn’t. I thought it would just be me and you two occasionally running missions together and otherwise drifting like the forgotten relics of PQ’s yesteryear that I feared we’d become. Things have changed though. Some of the newer members of the server have helped reignite the flame, and now it looks we will be able to really organize. It’s these guys that have enabled the voiceover project, which is just starting to get going, and allowed us to move the storyline discussion to a more conducive medium. I’ll miss the janky days of fighting with the stage and feeling like we’re huddling in a dusty bar to discuss the latest scrap of alpha, but it’ll be a nice change to be able to speak to our audience properly, have automatic recordings, and use visual aids.

Interviewers: TheHopefulLoser & Aelus

Editors: Crüniac & TheHopefulLoser

Illustrator: Luffy

The post Meet the Mod: Crüniac appeared first on PlanetQuest News.

Doc: Let’s get a quick recap of who you are and what you do ?

Flovster: I am known as “flovster”, but my real name is, unsurprisingly, “Flo”. Currently I am working on my master thesis which I intend to finish by October. I am a family man, father of two girls, and married to a wife who I dragged onto the PQ Server XD. I sadly don’t have a majestic beard to show off, but if the sun hits the right spot I can blind my enemies with the lack of hair on my head! Aside from PQ my free time is mostly filled with Dungeons and Dragons, Vampire World of Darkness, or any other kind of pen and paper game. And I like to build stuff. I am no carpenter, but among other things I crafted a wooden play house for my girls and a leather armor and belt for myself

The Fool: Since I know you’re from Germany, I have to ask, what’s your take on the German weather?

Flovster: I once loved our German weather. Consistent in its season. Springs with brisk breezes inducing my sneezes (look at that poet!). Summers, warm, but not too hot. Autumns with pleasant temperatures, and white Winters for cozy blankets … Yeah, that’s the past. Now everything is hot and I hide inside walls from the scorching sun. I hate the heat and I guess some of the members already heard me cry about that I want my mild temperatures back

Doc: Now that you are a moderator, what changed in your daily PQ life?

Flovster: Not that much, to be honest. I am as active as before. But I have to read a lot more and of course there are more responsibilities now like managing the German translators. But it’s manageable.

Doc: You are the curator of Bestiary and Botanics thread, and I am a fan of that, can you tell us a bit more about that?

Flovster: An idea born in the general-chat has to be awesome, doesn’t it? A quick back and forth between Jon, you and me sparked the whole idea (for more information please take a look at the Bestiary and Botany post on PQ News ). Since then it has come a long way. It was even mentioned in some official talks between Loren and partners. Our work is being acknowledged by the team, which feels really great. Currently we are running the fifth week of our Bestiary and Botany Contest Weeks. I love to see our creative minds bring their ideas to paper. As Master of the Compendium I can’t get enough of them My book has many more pages to fill!

The Fool: Where do you draw your inspiration from, do you have a secret muse?

Flovster: For animals and plants, it’s mother nature. It’s that simple. Years of evolution brought forth so many different kinds with varying skills, some so absurd you couldn’t make it up on your own. For example the Bombardier Beetle. What on earth made nature create a beetle that can create explosions. I thought to myself, why not that but with ice?

For stories, it’s mostly just an idea that pops into my head now and then. I daydream a lot and picture stuff in my mind’s eye. It is easy to stretch the idea there, twist it left and right, to see where it is going. Once I like what I see I bring it to paper and let it breathe from there. So no muse there, just daydreaming

The Fool: Which faction posts the most quality content on your channels? You can be honest

Flovster: Blue is the answer to that question, my friend. There is a certain flair in the content of my colleagues here at the Federation. Certain expertise you can not find among the barbarians or onions. Not arrogant at all, this fed

Doc: You said then “I feel like a game developing fan boy“ and now you are one of the purple gang who created a ton of new exciting events and content, still feeling the same?

Flovster: Absolutely. I love playing around with ideas. Not so good on the execution front, though. But ideas are what we can contribute here. A wonderful playground for my mind!

Doc: Now you are being humble, I have seen great events take off under your watchful gaze. Well done!

Doc: I always ask about the perks of being a mod, but with you I also want to ask the hard parts, what are the banes and boons of being a Moderator?

Flovster: The banes and boons, hmm. Well, being a moderator means a lot of management. Be it events or groups of translators and so on. This might lead to making uncomfortable decisions. As I said, I like rules, but that does not mean I callously impose them on others. Sticking to my principles sometimes comes with the price of making people angry or disappointed. The boons on the other side are definitely to get a peek behind the curtain and creating events where people can make their ideas come to life.

Doc: After the Ice planet deep dive, I presume you are still bullish on an Ice Planet, or do you now have a new favorite?

Flovster: I like the cold! This will never change. The moment I click on the button to mint my planet I will think of nothing else but: Ice! Beneath that thick layer of solid white mysteries await me. Monsters in the icy deep that can’t wait to devour anyone trying to discover them. Relics of old civilizations forever protected and preserved by an endless cryosleep. I want that on my planet! And I will create the lore for it :)!

Doc: Let’s get deep into the Storyline, what is the most striking thing that happened in Season 1 ?

Flovster: No spoiler alerts needed here, I guess. Pretty obvious. A Rite that shook the Universal Council, no, the whole system to its core. San’a :’( she just couldn’t keep her cool. It was a marvelous chapter. I could see the fight with my mind’s eye. As if I was sitting in that arena. Mercer’s cunning plan came to fruition and he killed the one person he always wanted to (but I don’t know why, yet!).

Doc: Yeah that was hard to read for me as well, I hope Sheercold will give us some clues about his motivations.

Doc: Which books, movies and Tv shows do you like the best?

Flovster: I probably shouldn’t say this out loud but aside from school books I think I have read around 10 books in my life. And those ten contain the whole Song of Ice and Fire series. Those also happen to be the books I like the most. My most favorite movie would be “The Road” with Viggo Mortensen. A movie set in an apocalyptic world. The film does not focus on the why it is like it is, but on the survival of a father and his son in a cruel and life threatening world (not a good date movie as I was told by my wife!). But, tbh, almost every movie with Viggo is worth watching. He is more than just Aragorn (I was made aware, that there are people on this planet, that do not know about the “The Lord of the Rings” movies by Peter Jackson; Aragorn, played by Viggo, is one of the most important characters in that fantasy world; #LordOfTheRingsMovieEvent). For TV Shows I pick “The Boys”. This show amazes me. Especially the character as well as the actor of Homelander. He is incredibly good at depicting Homelander’s emotions. Aside from “The Boys” I heavily enjoyed “Vox Machina”. An anime series about a D&D group, that hit the right spot for pen and paper nerds like me xD

Doc: Yeah, I also really like Viggo, I loved his acting in A History of Violence, he is a great actor.

Doc: Choose one : Are you a bad boy? Breaking laws and hearts or a knight in shiny armor saving damsels in distress?

Flovster: Man, your choices are awful xD But following those I’d be a good boy. I love rules, won’t break them. They give me a room in which to grow. Maybe it’s the German bureaucracy blood in my veins

Doc: What was the stupidest thing you ever done? Hahaha I can tell a lot of stories for this one, can you?

Flovster: I don’t know if it is the dumbest thing I’ve done but a top 5. I once had a bicycle accident and damaged my knee somehow. The doctor couldn’t find anything immediately but I needed crutches to walk. Unfortunately on that same day we went for a few drinks with some friends. After a certain amount of adult beverages I usually tend to get the urge to move my body in rhythmic ways according to the music played, some call this “dancing”. End of story: We went to a bar, the “Ol’ Dirty Soundbar” (thereby revealing the kind of music played), and I started dancing with my crutches. I didn’t feel pain, because of obvious reasons. But I might have damaged my knee even further that night, resulting in a very long healing process of cough months…I was a student and full of hubris, don’t judge me XD BUT: I got a number that night

The Fool: Where do you see this community and yourself in it in 2 years?

Flovster: Hopefully in the next bull run But from a more based perspective, I would love to see the game live then. I guess the community will grow even more alongside the game. But I am not sure how the aspect of “community” will be implemented into the game. Will we even need discord at that point? Will it all happen inside the game? I am excited to find out.

The Fool: What advice would you give to someone trying to make his first contribution as a content creator?

Flovster: Taking a look at other works, at existing content, no matter the form may offer a guiding hand as well as inspiration to start from. Existing work is not limited to the hands of a human. When thinking about shapes and forms for art, or concepts of animals and plants, taking a look at our nature offers so much potential and inspiration for new creations.

Our Flovster is a very good Moderator who has taste and style, I am glad to call him my friend. You can see him always active on #Bestiary and Botanics and doing awesome events for us. We will continue to tell you more about the Purple Gang, cya then…

Interviewers: Doc & The Fool

Illustrator: Luffy

Editor: Meitman

The post Meet the Mod: Flovster appeared first on PlanetQuest News.

Questlog: I’m pretty sure everyone in the Discord server has seen your name a million times and already knows a few things about you, but for due diligence, could you tell us a bit about yourself?

Doc O.B: My name is Alper, I am in my forties, and as my nickname suggests, I am a medical doctor. I am also studying Philosophy as my second degree. I am a family man, but used to party hard, live fast, but now I am old and wise I am the int. moderator of the Turkish community, and I write for the weekly story contests. I basically try to participate in everything related to PQ; I see this community as my second family. Oh, and I really like physical activity. I train 5 days a week and also  ride a dirt bike, but I can’t do the acrobatics, it’s just to commute and do some light endurance. I really like riding motorcycles too.

Questlog: That’s really cool! Although your name is pretty self explanatory, and you already told us a little bit about it, could you tell us why you chose this name?

Doc O.B: My nickname was oturtanboga (a wordplay of the indian chief sitting bull in turkish, which I can’t even try to explain) and at one event I raised my hand and they couldn’t pronounce it, so I added the ‘Doc’ part and shortened it so I can easily interact with anyone without worries about language barriers.

Questlog: So we finally know where that name comes from! Now a little about your time at PlanetQuest: What made you fall in love with PlanetQuest?

Doc O.B: This is easy, I always liked international communities, starting back with mIRC in dial-up times, but for the last ten years I was disconnected from that. When I joined PQ, I fell in love with the story, then the awesomeness of this great, international server where I can talk about the things I like with peoples of the world and learn new stuff from them. Then I started being here as much as I could; Cea and Danny Rush were there to help me engage even more. I then started translating stories, and by then I already knew it’s not the gamer in me, but the human in me that loves this. I felt great about belonging here, chatting, and helping when I could. I made great friends here, awesome human beings that are true sons and daughters of the stars we all come from… This place is not just another server for me. This is the server. I want to get old (older) and still be here with my great friends, bashing my brains at #pq-brain-games and writing pulp stories….

Questlog: You just mentioned ‘the gamer in me,’ and we know moderating a game with this much potential is a gamer’s dream. So, have you always been into games?

Doc O.B: I started playing games with a Commodore 64 and tapes and played lots of hours. I am not playing anything right now. WoW was the last game I played online, but that was before COVID, which made life very busy. Now I’m back, but my computer is what Retro calls a ‘potato,’ so no more AAA games for me.

Questlog: Then we should be glad PlanetQuest will run on even potato-setups! Outside of gaming, do you have any hobbies we just need to know about?

Doc O.B: I already told you about sports and bikes, but I also read a lot. I have an old dog and a mean cat, and my kid is five. They forbid him to run in daycare, so he takes it all out with me… My wife and I try to watch movies when we can, and finally, I like swimming in the open sea, so if I have the chance, I swim for 3-5 km. Oh, and many here already know that I am in love with music.

Questlog: Now that you mention music, you are always sharing lots of music over at the #general chat, so what type of music do you usually listen to?

I am an omnivore. I listen to nearly all kinds, but any sort of electronic music is especially welcome. Rock, punk, metal, and some blues… Mostly my mood dictates my choice of the day, but also what I am doing while I listen.

Questlog: You sound super passionate about the project, which probably contributed to your promotion to the Moderator role, so what is the best thing about being a Moderator for PlanetQuest?

Doc O.B: Being able to navigate around the server and talk in multiple threads is the best. I also love to contribute more, and moderation gives me a way to keep my beloved server free of bad actors.

Luffy: How do you find time to do all the Mod work in PQ?

Doc O.B: This is fun, and I love being here. I am glued to my phone anyway since I need to be available for emergency calls. I can compartmentalize my time and effort, so I can do a lot of stuff like Mod duty, translations, events, and my other duties like studying, training, and parenting.

The Fool: How often do you brush your teeth?

Doc O.B: Twice or more a day. I have a full set, including four wisdom teeth, so I try to look after them. But I broke one once while lifting weights—clenched too hard, so now I mind that.

The Fool: Oh wow, I’ve never heard of someone breaking his tooth like that. Are we gonna see a pic with a smile?

Doc O.B: Even smiling you can’t see it.

Luffy: Tell us one thing about you that few people know?

Doc O.B:I did take a break from med school and hitchhiked with my tent and stuff along the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, working here and there for expenses…

Luffy: What would be your perfect day?

Doc O.B:I think there can be a lot of ways to have that day, like spending time with my family and friends at the beach or riding my motorcycle at some fire trails. Another one is reading an awesome book while listening to great music. I think we choose to perceive reality in a way that we can make it good or bad, so it’s up to us to feel the perfection of the days we live. 

The Fool:We can now travel to distant galaxies in a matter of years. We found a habitable planet, and the spaceship is leaving next month. Knowing you will never return to Earth, are you on that ship (family is coming with you)? If yes, what were you doing the last month on Earth? What do you take with you?

Doc O.B: Nope, I wouldn’t leave. Have you read The Martian? But if I were going to, I would take books and music, and a motorcycle as well, if I could. Those three things are my lifelines. I enjoy them too much to leave behind.

During my last month I would travel around to eat the things I would probably never eat again: roo meat, gator meat…but not that creepy egg/embryo thing.

Questlog:  What are you looking forward to the most when it comes to PlanetQuest?

Doc O.B: Planet surface views. I want to see what the Genesis engine can do there. And I also want to see more ‘Meet The Team.’ I really like to read about the incredible people working on this project. The thing I like to dream about is a blockbuster movie that I can watch with my kid and say “I was there at the beginning. We made it happen with your uncles Cea, Questlog, Flovster, Nikita, Luffy and Pancrudo and many more others. Sir Boslee the Great was there even before me….”

The Fool: If you had to convince as many people as possible to become PQ explorers, and you had the ability to write a message everyone in the world would see, what would you write?

Doc O.B: I would tell them about being an owner of a piece of the multiverse that would span movies, books, comics, and an awesome game. Talk about the real ownership and how empowering that really is, and how it opens up a new era in our understanding of games. I would tell them that it has already started with a decentralized storyline where we decide how things shape up in PQ and how much fun that is. Last, but maybe the most important, I would tell them about my PQ community, where I met great and creative people from all around the world, and how I feel like this server is my second family.

Interviewers: Questlog, Luffy, and The Fool
Interviewee: Doc O.B
Graphic: Luffy
Editing: Luffy, Crüniac, Questlog

The post Meet the Mod: Doc O.B appeared first on PlanetQuest News.

Crüniac: Ahh, those were the days.

Crüniac: Since you mentioned that sort of fascination and fear with sci-fi films like Alien, I’m curious to know what the first video-game you got hooked on was.

Hopeful: Great question! First video game that I’ve ever gotten just absolutely enthralled with would have to be, and I don’t think anyone is gonna know this game, and again it kinda plays into my love of being scared—

Crüniac: My own answer to this question is something no one would ever have heard of either, so…

Aelus: I’m already on Google. Just say the name and I’ll look it up.

Hopeful: So the name of this game that I was completely enthralled with, which had like a comical aspect to it even though there was so much fear involved—like genuine fear as a child if you played this game there is no possible way way you would be not scared unless you were taking valium—

Aelus: *Cries a little bit*

Hopeful: —or you were just, I don’t know, emotionally dead, or something… So, the game is called “Blood.” In this game, you play a gunslinger who’s been killed, his family’s been killed, you’ve been taken by Tchernobog, a dark demon lord, and you rise from the dead in vengeance. The whole game is just you fighting dead creatures, the miscreants of hell, and it’s just so terrifying. It’s very much akin to the first Duke Nukem on Nintendo 64, if that makes any sense, but it’s just a computer game.  

Aelus: I’m looking at the pictures, and it’s for MS-DOS.

Crüniac: Oh my God.

Aelus: So, ‘97. I was not that young, but you guys are younger so you were very young playing this.

Hopeful: Oh yeah, which would speak to my love of hardcore gaming and challenging myself. I feel like the fear is something to be channeled, right? Especially if it’s in a controlled environment. The mysticism of sci-fi and wonders of space, the immersiveness of gaming… These are controlled environments where you can explore fear.

Crüniac: Hopeful, what is the first thing that you want to do when pre-alpha first drops? When you first load up into the game, what is the first thing you want to do?

Hopeful: Go through my epic gear loadout. One-hundred percent.

Aelus and Crüniac: *Chuckles*

Hopeful: Yes, I’m definitely going through my epic gear load out, and I’m going to fully explore any and all mechanics that I can, right? In this pre-alpha, I will do any and all quests or missions available to me…and on the hardest difficulty of course. Yep!

I’m gonna really go through each and every single one of my Planets that I am hopefully able to buy in the Planet Sale. I wholeheartedly want to explore them though during pre-alpha. If I’m capable of going through the environments—throwing on a loadout and just, whether doing a mission or not, walk around a small area of my Planets in my flashy gear, then I’m totally squared away.

Aelus: So, just directly asking, then. Talk to us about playing hardcore.

Hopeful: Oh boy.

Aelus: Why do you choose this sort of lifestyle? Why do you like pain?

Hopeful: What motivates me to literally (figuratively I hope) self-flagellate? I can answer this. I can answer this in an eloquent fashion, I promise. It has to do with, again, controlled environments of fear. When you talk about hardcore, I immediately imagine like any real game, right? Playing ninja gaiden on any difficulty, the original ninja gaiden—

Aelus: Right.

Hopeful: —that was hardcore. I don’t think I’ve ever beaten that game. It slaps me up. The game punishes me. That is a game I regret playing hardcore. But I still do it.

Aelus: Gaming in our childhoods was generally hardcore. Whatever you were playing, those side scrolling games—

Hopeful: Correct. Games were generally unforgiving.

Aelus: —absolutely hardcore.

Hopeful: Very unforgiving. So I feel like this has conditioned me, right? And then when you think of more modern hardcore games like Diablo, for example, or playing Halo on legendary with all the skulls turned on, like a madman. Things like that. That’s kinda how I prefer to play my games. The reason is because, yeah, although sometimes it does make me mad, of course, but it’s the challenge. It’s the defeat behind it, that ultimate defeat of say, for example, Diablo. Your character dies after 500 hours of playing, you have multiple gear sets, numerous legendary gems, and they’re completely maxed out, and you’re crushing greater rifts left and right, and then you make one mistake and your character dies.

Aelus: Oh my god.

Hopeful: That’s truly heartbreaking. *Laughs at own pain*

Aelus: That is truly heartbreaking. Oh my God.

Hopeful: That’s when it’s okay, even as a hardcore gamer, to take a day or two—

Crüniac: Take a day or two to throw your monitor out the window.

Aelus and Hopeful: *Kek’ing intensifies* 

Hopeful: A day or two is customary. You know, just like funeral rites.

Crüniac: Complete change of subject: Do you have any beard care tips?

Hopeful: Haha, oh boy, bear care tips. I was expecting this one for sure. 

Crüniac: I’m glad I didn’t disappoint you.

Hopeful: No, no, I knew you wouldn’t. Okay, Beard Tips 101. You gotta have shaved your face, right? If you’re starting out with peach fuzz, shave your face.  Every three or four days—that’s how you start a beard, as if you had a beard. This promotes even hair growth across your face. You may or may not have issues with hair follicles coming in in an ingrown manner. This is something that, usually, your face becomes more accustomed to, but it could depend on the type of razor you’re using or even the method in which you shave your face. So these are all things you have to consider, but that’s the start. So let’s say you’ve done this already. Moving forward you already have some nice beard stubble coming in, right? You’re pretty proud of it. It’s not even hanging off your face yet, and you’re still like a beard minnow. You gotta brush it. You gotta stimulate those hair follicles. You get one of those nice boar bristle brushes, right? With the wood handle, and you just brush your face. Feels good, trust me. Feels real good.

Aelus: *Laughs in minnow*

Hopeful: All right, so let’s move on. It’s been a couple months now, you’ve got some beard coming off your face. I strongly advise you pay close attention to the mustache area and the corners of your mouth. You wanna ensure you are shaving this area so that it does, in fact, form the goatee bridge. It’s very important to have a nice full beard. Now, the soul patch, right? That’s right under your bottom lip. That’s that nice, stylish piece of man-patch fur. You gotta maintain it. You gotta start brushing it downwards. You can’t have it all scraggly and looking all over the place, getting into your mouth. It’s not cool. So, when you brush, you brush down nice and even. You brush it the entire time you’re growing your beard. If you want to trim for style, that’s on you. My advice is to actually grow your beard out like you’re Moses, or something like that, or perhaps like some sort of hipster, and then at that point you have a lot more to work with when you trim. You can style, you can form, like, specific shapes if you want, you can go for the Leonidas, right? That’s real cool. You can go for the Kratos beard, right? God-of-War? These are just examples I throw out there. But yeah, those are beard tips. You can also oil your beard! I would not over-oil your beard. Be very spare with the oil, and if you want great trimming, you have to do it with a pair of scissors. So I’m not sure if we have any further questions that I could expand upon as far as beard tips, but these are your first beard tips.

Crüniac: I am so not disappointed. I’m so glad I asked.

Aelus: *Still laughing*

Hopeful: Okay, Beard Tips 101 has gone well.

Crüniac: It really has. I feel like an expert already.

Aelus: It was really good. I am gonna be embarrassed to post my picture with my beard. I just know Hopeful is gonna look at it and say ‘No, no, no, no, no, you’re doing it all wrong!’

Crüniac: I’m just gonna shave. I have no beard to speak of, so…(incidentally, Crüniac has recently begun curating his beard)

Hopeful: In Beard Care 201, we can go into straight razor shaving. That’s where you get into the real nitty gritty, like fancy man stuff. Where you just pamper yourself.

Full transcript of the interview: Read more here

Interviewers: Crüniac and Aelus
Interviewee: TheHopefulLoser
Editors: Crüniac, TheHopefulLoser, and Luffy
Graphics: Luffy

The post Meet the Mod: TheHopefulLoser appeared first on PlanetQuest News.

Prime your teleporters, and don’t forget to feed your Qyllit. We are going to KhyberPhase…

Doc: Can you introduce yourself to the community? Who is Jupiter?

Jupiter: There is the PFP, and then there is me, Robert Estlinbaum. Jupiter_Fulminator Democide is the handle I use in discord servers. In Unreal Tournament 2004, I’m Sumugan. Jupiter Fulminator is an epithet that, like the old Roman god, is akin to Odin, a lightning thrower. So, while I was doing D&D in 1986, I was looking through the thesaurus and come across whole mythologies. I really enjoyed this idea, and it stayed with me all these years later. I consider myself an artist at heart, with profound thoughts of existence. And like any artist, I feel like there’s plenty of creativity to share. I have engineered digital-physical instruments on a Korg Trinity, and created over 4,800 compositions. During my college years, I really immersed myself into computers. I had a student job in a computer-courtyard with 500 computers on two floors, excelled, and was put in charge of opening and closing. We went from DOS to Windows 3.1—the good old days of mIRC—to Win ’95 and so on. Then I delved into 3D. So essentially I, Jupiter, am a maestro of cross-disciplinary explorations, creating a symphony of curiosities for fulfilling the muse at the core of my being.

Doc: How did your journey in the PlanetQuest universe begin?

Jupiter: My first NFT mint experience was last October. Despite a well known, doxxed comedic personality the project stalled and has been put on hold. I was just as active in there as in here, but when it fell dormant, I went looking for other things. I heard of play-to-earn, so I googled around. I stumbled across PlanetQuest on the 23rd of December, and I’ve been here essentially ever since, coming in hot with ideas flowing.

Luffy: What motivates you? Why are you so passionate, and how do you have so many ideas for PQ?

Jupiter: What motivates me fundamentally is my children. I want to be there for them and have a legacy of sorts in having a variety of media for them to say, “My dad did this.” Everything from my dabbling in sound engineering, songs, paintings in acrylics, to poetry, to science fiction, to speculative musings, 3D files and their renderings in different scenes—essentially my artwork—is all for them, just as I want my PlanetQuest NFTs to be. Like heirlooms.

As to the question of why I’m so passionate, well, I think without passion life would essentially be dull. There’s a favorite quote I have, I found it in the internet. I think it is by Marco Vassi, “No Passion Without Paradigm.” That sums it up for me. Without the inner fire, vitality for life, there is no way to transpose the inner world to express to the outer, physical world. It is our duty as sentient beings to make our mark in the universe. Be it physical, or in the translated electronic world of the internet, and now the metaverse, I would like to leave my legacy.

Doc: I know you have done lots of things in the past. Can you tell us a bit more about them? Any advices for our younger members?

Jupiter: Actually, compared to others professionally, I don’t think so. I have held five jobs in my life with pay: delivering papers for Anchorage daily news, a bookkeeper for a CPA, a demolition worker clearing off properties with a sledge hammer and carrying a wheel barrow of debris, a computer-courtyard student assistant, and an IT network technician. I grew up with a father in the United States Air-Force. I was Born in Guam and have been to 38 of the 50 states, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, England, Scotland, and a lay-over in Amsterdam. My advice would be, “The grass is not necessarily greener on the other side. It is basically how you make life, a ‘half-full, half-empty’ glass perspective.”

Doc: What do you like the most about being a Moderator?

Jupiter: What I like the most about being a Moderator is the ability to give commendations to the community. I also like the way we tag-team in time-zones. As I go to sleep we have Mods on the opposite side of the world waking up. We truly are a world-wide team.

Doc: Who is your Favorite character in the Storyline?

Jupiter: Hmm, well, my favorite character of late is the resurrected Emperor, Solas Craine. I loved the description of his eyes, and the exact revenge he gave to Gloria.

Doc: What do you do in your free time, aside from being an awesome Mod in PQ?

Jupiter: My free time is seemingly a very fleeting thing. Between duties as a father and expectations from my wife, which would zero out any “free-time,” I manage to sneak a little time to create artwork, be it rendering, which seems to be the majority of late, to actually crafting ideas for equipment, planets, game-mechanics, and world-building.

Doc: Which books or movies inspired you? Would you recommend some to us?

Jupiter: Wow! What books inspired me? Hmm, the Foundation series, by Isaac Asimov, and now the last three books by Brin, Bear, and Benford. Robert A. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers and Stranger in a Strange Land, P.D. Ouspensky’s Tertium Organum, Greg Bear’s Eon, Eternity, Moving Mars, and Slant, A.A. Attanasio’s Radix tetrad series’ Last Legends of Earth, Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld, Joan D Vinge’s The Snow Queen, and lastly Piers Anthony’s Orn.

As for movies: Jupiter Ascending, Cloud Atlas, Life of Pi, Barton Fink, Millers Crossing, The Big Lebowski, and The Big Short.

Luffy: Do you have any fun facts about yourself that you want to share?

Jupiter: Fun facts? I am red-green colorblind, which has filled my life with fun trying to explain it in a way people could relate to. Also, I won 3rd place for the Maine “United Chess Federation Championships.” I believe I was 13 years old at the time, in 1984.

There you have it Explorers: The Great Jupiter_ᶠᵈ Stiped Tribune, one of the best, a prolific creator, and an awesome friend. You should definitely check out his contributions to PlanetQuest over in #PQ Equipment RP Thread. The Meet The Mod series will continue. Be vigilant Explorers…

Interviewers: Doc & Luffy
Illustrator: Luffy
Editor: Crüniac

The post Meet the Mod: Jupiter appeared first on PlanetQuest News.

Joking aside, we want you to meet the Moderator team and to see the purples for who they really are. This Interview will be with one of the community favorites, QuestLog! İf you’ve joined discussions in the #general-chat channel or if you needed help in #tech-support, you may have already met the amazing QuestLog, but who is he…really?

            Doc: Can you tell us about yourself?

            QuestLog: Hoi! I’m Niels, but I guess…all of you know me as QuestLog. From the land of cheese and windmills—the Netherlands. 24 years old, of which I’ve been gaming for probably 20. I can still remember forgetting to save some five-hour sessions of Pokemon on my GameBoy, sigh, and running upstairs after school to grind some Call of Duty with my classmates. Because of my passion for gaming, I quickly came to the realization that I wanted to create my own games, which I was able to do when one of my buddies showed me Roblox, hehe yes…Roblox. I started developing my own games through their platform and was proud to reach the front page on multiple occasions. With the euphoria this gave, I started studying game development at the age of 15, which I finished four years later while doing a year-long internship at an application development studio. There I fell in love with programming for iOS, which is what I’ve been doing for the last five or six years now. I still occasionally think about getting into game development again though.

            Luffy: How did you come up with the name QuestLog?

QuestLog: The name QuestLog goes way back. When I was around 12, my uncle was a huge gamer, and he introduced me to WoW (World of Warcraft) at that time. First he allowed me to play on his account, with my own character of course, but after a while I wanted to be able to play while he was online and play together. So I spent all of my monthly pocket money on the subscription and finally had my own account. In WoW every user has a ‘Quest log’ to keep track of their quests, I’m not sure why, but that actually inspired me to choose this name. Since then I’ve been rocking this name on all games I’ve played.

            Luffy: What do you do in your free time?

            QuestLog: Planet. Quest. No but on a serious note, I do spend a lot of time in this server. I still love to play games though. I’m currently on something like 1800+ hours on Rocket League, which has been kinda my main game for a while now. I do occasionally play other games, like Fortnite (sorry) with my girlfriend, or silly stuff like Human Fall Flat and Move or Die with friends after a drink. To add unto that, I love a drink on a terrace, absorbing the sun. Well…for those two weeks of sun we yearly get in The Netherlands anyways. For those interested, I’ve been Grand Champion 1 since season 14 (before f2p) on Rocket League.

            Doc: How and when did you find PlanetQuest?

             QuestLog: Well…let’s start in 2017, all coins were booming, everyone was happy, at which point my uncle thought it was a good idea to introduce me to the world of crypto. My smart-ass thought I should just put five dollars per week into random crypto until there was one which went x2000. Seems smart right? Well yeah, it might be, that’s if you can stick to that plan. I quickly went from five per week to hundreds per day with my hard-earned internship money. It did go as planned though, for a little bit. Anyways, most people here probably know what happened at the end of 2017, or rather the start of 2018, red seas every single day…for months. This actually made me quit crypto for at least three years, after which I came back and quickly started to search for new projects to jump into with all the new technology out there. After a few months of searching, I saw Guild of Guardians (GOG) on some ICO info website. I quickly joined their project as this was the first time I’d seen a crypto project working with the so called NFTs a lot the media was hating on so much. After doing some research I saw its potential and went for it. This is when PlanetQuest popped up in the GOG subreddit, a new project that had already been in the works for a year, giving out a free NFT to anyone who joins. And the rest is history…

            Doc: Why become a Mod? What do you like most about being a Mod?

             QuestLog: From day one I was super invested into the whole setting of this project. I loved the sci-fi aspects, and the people I met here were top-notch. Having experience in IT, I quickly went on to help people who were experiencing problems. I think I’ve always been the person who enjoys helping to smooth the process for others. There is just something fulfilling to it. After about a month and a half the Ambassador Program was introduced, and I couldn’t hold myself back from applying as a Moderator in the hopes of being able to help people on an even higher level. The friendliness of the existing Mods was insane, and the positive feedback I received only made me more passionate about the project. We were starting to build something big, something beautiful. Of course being a Mod has its perks—a small peek behind the curtains and a more direct line with the people who are building the project you are so passionate about—but I think the most important one is the fact that I can now help out with growing the community and giving support to the people who need it. The support channels can be a headache, hehe love you, but some of the responses you receive after fixing a problem are just heartwarming.

            Doc: The Corners and AMAs are wonderful to participate in. Which is your favorite?

            QuestLog: No offense to Retro, Dincy, Sheercold and anyone else that has organized a Corner Initiative or AMA, but the Art Corner is my drug. Jon is a legend, and I’m not even going to mention his voice (I just did). I’ve always been impressed, and jealous, of people who can draw amazing stuff with the ease of a flick of the wrist. Figurative speaking, of course. I’m a very visual person, so when seeing the art that’s being shared over there I can already imagine what those things are going to be like in the game. Just thinking about it makes me insanely hyped. I hope we’ll be seeing some live drawing in the (near) future, and of course…seeing some of the community work from the Bestiary and Botany thread being made into something real. Can’t wait!

            Luffy: Tell us one thing about you that few people know?

            QuestLog: I love cooking! There is no place in this world where I would claim I’m actually good, but there is something relaxing about it. Put on some music, throw stuff in a pan, and enjoy the greats smells. Side note: I despise cutting up vegetables and meat.

            Doc: How are you this lucky? Spill the tea. We want in. A rabbit’s foot? A four-leaf clover?

            QuestLog: Hahahaha, I know I know….I won quite some raffles in this channel, and I’m sorry to say I have no idea how. I’m not the type to be superstitious, and I’m in no way saying I’m a saint, but I do believe that people who are kind and generous will, in one way or another, be repaid for their deeds. So let’s just say my help over at the support channels have been paying off.

            Luffy: What are you looking forward to the most in PlanetQuest?

            QuestLog: Maaaann, you have a few hours? All of it is hyped, but first of all, my own planet. I’m soooooo ready to jump into a lobby with some of my friends, by just sharing a link with them wink wink, and explore for hours. So far the gameplay is sounding super interesting and unique, and the story has been a blast already. Last but not least I can’t wait to see where this project is going to be in a few years from now. Comics, Movies, Merchandise, Games and a lot more to come if we can trust Loren’s words, which, with his excitement shining through his voice, are hard not to get hyped about. I’ll leave at that for now.

And there you have it, Explorers! We all now know our amazing Moderator and Fellow Explorer, QuestLog, a little better, and for those of you who are lucky enough to call him “friend,” you now have a face to match the name.

The Meet the Mod series will continue with another awesome member of the Purple Gang, so follow us for more tea-spilling about Mods!

Interviewers: Doc & Luffy
Mod: Questlog
Editor: Crüniac
Illustrator: Luffy

The post Meet the Mod: QuestLog appeared first on PlanetQuest News.