Entrevista a Maimin_Matty (Nr 1 en la zone por mucho tiempo)
Algunos que juegan en la zone habran escuchado hablar de el,
El ha sido durante mucho tiempo el numero de la zone y es considerado por muchos uno de los mejores jugadores en AO. A tal punto que ha sido contratado por Microsoft para que le realice QA (Testing) a sus productos
Bueno aqui una entrevista a este mounstro, solo que esta en ingles, asi que agarren sus diccionarios (es que da pereza traducir pe :wink: )
Matt "maimin_matty" Scadding - AoM Playtester, Top Player in Supremacy, Deathmatch & Lightning modes
Interview held on January 4th, 2003
Whoever knows what a legend is, knows what "maimin_matty" represents to many of us, long time Agers. He surely is one of the best and most talented players to have graced the RTS community, and as a result, has won many tournaments since 1997. "- Mmm, more than 5 years ago? isn't the guy a bit out of the trend"? "- Nope, check the ESO top ranking... sorry, check the ESO top rankings"!
Lunatic - First usual question, can you present yourself?
matty - Present myself? well, my name is Matt Scadding, I am 27, and I was just married on September 14th of 2002. I love computer games but hate school. Unfortunately I need one for the other so I am currently attending my last semester at the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada). Recently I accepted a job to work with Microsoft. More specifically, Ensemble Studios, so I will be heading down there to start work some time this summer when I am done with my studies. I've been an ager for as long as I can remember, maybe 6 years, since AoE. It's been a great ride and I've had a ton of great experiences including, trips to Montreal, Paris, United Arab Emirates, and the US multiple times. Umm I think that's it!
Lunatic - What was the job for MS exactly?... is this 'another job' that you are going to do for ES?
matty - Yes, for the last 3 summers I've accepted Internships with Microsoft, 2 of which were in Seattle, Washington and the last of which was in Dallas, Texas. The job I've accepted is full-time permanent so I will be moving to the US with my wife Angela.
Lunatic - Ah... internship that was... did you do QA or something else?
matty - The technical term is Software Test Engineer (QA). I've worked on a variety of areas in the game including setup, file operations, multiplayer, etc. as well as getting to do some playtesting.
- I know what you did last 3 summers... -
Lunatic - Exclusively on AoM, or did you playtest other MS games?
matty - 1st summer was coretesting on AoC, 2nd summer I worked on Multiplayer on the AoC patch, 3rd summer I worked on AoM doing both coretest and playtest.
Lunatic - How come you did catch up with MS and not ES directly, like many of the top players (Sheriff, Redline, Swinger, Iron, Vega...)?
matty - That is a longer story. Let me see, it started back after the Rumble for Rome. Microsoft was looking for playtesters of the top caliber. I applied and they wanted to hire me but I was unable to get a visa. However, the_sheriff, being American was able to get a job at Microsoft. So I thought I was screwed, but after talking with a number of my contacts at Microsoft I figured out I might be able to get down as an Intern. Microsoft throws a lot of money in the direction of the intern program to try and recruit new people. So I started my internships with MS, I never even thought about working at ES, partly because they didn't really have anything set up to hire interns from across the border. So I did my first and 2nd internship at MS, but then ES was bought by Microsoft. I now had the opportunity to work at ES, because it was owned by MS...weird as that sounds. I wasn't sure that I wanted to take the risk of going down to work at ES, as I knew that if I did a 3rd internship in Seattle I was basically assured of a job there. But the situation arose and I decided to take a chance with ES. Although all those guys have been around for a while, only Sheriff has been in the Biz longer than I have!
Lunatic - Hehe... so basically the initial problem was that you were non US citizen?
matty - Yeah, to summarize :)
“Although all those guys have been around for a while, only Sheriff has been in the Biz longer than I have!”
Lunatic - So... The Rumble for Rome was the UAE tournament, right?
matty - Rumble for Rome was actually the Microsoft tournament. The UAE tournament had some other name and was a year or two after that. This tournament was held by a Prince though (Sheik).
Lunatic - Yes I remember that one, but I can't remember the Rumble for Rome then... whatever... I wanted to have your feeling about the orientation of pro-gaming nowadays... do you feel you could've been a pro-gamer?
matty - That's a good question. I never really looked in to that. Having a serious girlfriend kind of made that less of a possibility. ;)
Lunatic - Lol, that was going to be my next question :D
matty - I think pro-gaming is a pretty crazy thing, getting paid to play games competitively, but I'm sure people thought the same thing about baseball or basketball at one time. I guess the question is whether there is an audience for it and there certainly seems to be an audience. I would not be surprised at all if pro-gaming was a more common thing in 20 years.
Lunatic - Do you feel that's 'wrong' somehow... I mean, is the purity of the origins over, or something like that?
matty - Hmm wrong... Well as far as 'tainting' video games, how could you really? Video games don't really have a moral value attached to them. If anything the moral value attached to video games isn't really a great one. It's about killing, destroying, rage, fighting, a dark competitive side, doing things you can't legally do in real life.
Lunatic - So true... even in AoM!
matty - In our media centric society we've become numbed to the visual image of watching our fellow humakind being slaughtered....good times.
Lunatic - Have you seen 'Bowling for Columbine'?
matty - I haven't seen it yet, but I really want to.
Lunatic - I thought you had, because the movie reflects your sentence ;)
matty - I've seen trailers, so maybe I heard those words from there. I also had a lengthy discussion with my Uncle (a Justice) about this very subject just 2 weeks ago
Lunatic - So, no regrets about money coming into the world of hardcore gaming?
matty - I think it's a great thing. Video games is one of the (or the) largest entertainment industry. The people that play video games play to a competitive level like any of the other 'sports'. People like watching, playing and talking about video games. It would be silly for me to have regrets to see money going the direction of video games. It's just a natural progression, and besides I'm going to be working with video games, keep my industry alive!!
Lunatic - Even if you are not going to be a pro-gamer, how much time per day do you put in the game?
matty - Right now, that's a good question. Thankfully ESO keeps stats like that. I'd guess around 1-2 hours a day actually playing, about an hour a day waiting, and maybe 30-60 minutes in the forums. Definitely not as much as I used to.
Lunatic - An hour a day waiting lol... this is not good advertisement ;)
matty - Well let me rephrase that then... an hour a day chatting on ESO :)
Lunatic - Haha... how would you improve ESO anyway?
matty - Having a high rating means there are a lot fewer people that I can play. So I often need to come online look for people that I can play, then head out if no one is around. Although I finally decided to take one of my names and just resign every other game at the end. :P That keeps my rating in a place where I can get games.
Lunatic - Nice one
matty - ESO needs the ability to make chat channels or have more of a private chat, it needs better integration of things like invite and whisper. Lastly, on a strictly selfish note, I think the way rated games are found needs to change so as not to ignore the top 20 and bottom 20 players.
Lunatic - Is Battle.net a role model for what ES wants Ensemble Online to become?
matty - I'm not sure. There are a lot of online sites to take good things from, battlenet, the zone, gamespy to name a few. I think part of battlenet's success is solely in the sheer number of players. If they have 50,000 players and ignore the top 20, that's not much of the community. In comparison, if you have 2000 people and ignore the top 20 that's a much larger portion of your community!
Lunatic - I get your point... do you think that ES is pleased or disappointed by how many people logged in ESO?
matty - I'm not sure what the expected numbers were. But all the old age games grew at about the same speed. I remember the first month or two of RoR, I don't think we ever broke 1000 people. Beyond that, it's not really my place to comment on the expectations of ES...
Lunatic - On ESO, around 426,000 games have been played on RM, 10,700 on Conquest, 4,500 on Lightning, 40,000 on DM... Do you think that Lightning or DM should/will be played by more people? Do you have an opinion why most people prefer playing RM?
matty - I definitely think people should try out lightning and DM for at least a little bit. However, I understand if people don't like those modes, they are very different than RM and much faster paced. For a new player the pace of lightning and DM would most likely be too overwhelming. Because of this I believe both the DM and lightning community will grow as people become more comfortable with the game. However, RM is what the game is about. If you play through the missions they are all RM based, the player isn't exposed to DM or lightning (perhaps ES might consider this for a mission or two in future campaigns ;) So, for the new players, they naturally go to supremacy. As far as why the rest of the world likes supremacy, I really think it has to do with the pace.
Lunatic - Now, is there a specific reason why you are playing mostly DM now as opposed to RM?
matty - Not really, I like all of the modes. I just don't have time/want to make time to play them all. RM is fun, but the power of Ra definitely makes it a little less enjoyable. In DM there is still lots of room to expand strategy and try new things. This, for me, is one of the most enjoyable parts. I'll probably go back to supremacy eventually though.
Lunatic - What is your opinion of the Ra FH?
matty - I don't play enough RM now to make a 100% educated statement. But I don't think it's just the fast heroic that is the problem for Ra. They have the best economy, easiest to get favor, best early god power, cav mercs, free towers, uber screwy midgol units.
Lunatic - Well, I've seen you use mercenaries in an offensive way in DM matches... do you think these are definitely overpowered?
matty - Yup, way overpowered.
Lunatic - Any idea how they should be nerfed down? cost pop maybe?
matty - I'd happily save 10 pop and build all cav mercs. Nerfing them isn't necessarily a great idea, because I think the idea of mercs is a great one.They just don't have a counter: they need a counter unit. Maybe make them myth units... they could easily be made into myth units I believe. They could also drop their crush armor so other myth units could do more damage vs them. I'm not saying it's a perfect solution. But it's a step. There is also the issue of trading being too good mixed in there.
Lunatic - Well it's complex anyway...
matty - Yeah perhaps what would be best is them only being allowed to move a certain distance from the TC, but the coding for that would be crazy to do.
- What's Deathmatch? -
Lunatic - Speaking of DM, what are your keys to success?
matty - lol, playing a civ that vastly outpowers my enemies (Isis) and then spending the rest of my time wondering why they don't play the civ more often :). Isis takes some time getting used to but it has more screws than Norse.
“My keys to success? lol, playing a civ that vastly outpowers my enemies (Isis) and then spending the rest of my time wondering why they don't play the civ more often”
Lunatic - Haha... my next question was gonna be... why Isis is SO overpowered according to you?
matty - Isis is able to rush out on the battlefield and 80% of the time I am able to force my enemy off one of his 3 TCs, about 50% of the time I am able to take it for myself. This gives me a huge population advantage right off the start (TC population bonus as Isis, Plus being up 1-2 TCs). The meteor god allows me to build my entire military from 1 midgol, and if I can get a TC up in the enemy land I start spamming cav mercs and it's game over.
Lunatic - I've seen that in one of your game...
matty - The ancestors god gives my priests a bonus vs Myth units so they kick decent butt, even vs fire giants. Then on top of that all my priests heal my entire army in about 30 seconds after every battle.
Lunatic - Speaking of them, don't you think that fire giants are overpowered too?
matty - I don't think Fire Giants are as overpowered as everyone likes to make them seem. At least there are other things that are even more overpowering than Fire Giants. The biggest problem with Fire Giants is there ability to kill seige in so few hits. They basically negate the ability of any other civ to build seige. As Isis I never build seige until I've killed every last fire giant.
Lunatic - And you don't think it should be changed?
matty - It badly needs to be changed. Fire Giants make DM less fun, but I love them, and pray they don't nerf them, it's about fun and balance.
Lunatic - You work at ES, you have some weight in the balance decisions, don't you?
matty - Not until I am actually there, I won't be finished University until April. Obviously I can phone or email my friends down there and discuss balance with them, but I can't effect decisions really.
Lunatic - Btw, what are you studying?
matty - Computer Science :)
Lunatic - My question... why do you feel you have to study, although you could work with ES/MS ?
matty - To work full time in the US I need a University degree before I am able to get that kind of visa.
Lunatic - I asked because Xiphoid had the same dilemma... but as he's american, the answer was different. Btw he wants me to ask you this: "How badly did you beat Xiphoid in ping-pong and Mortal Kombat 3 during his stay at ES?"
matty - lol... that poor bastard just doesn't understand how to play games
Lunatic - So... what would be your hints to new DM players?
matty - The most important thing to do is build a huge army. It doesn't always matter what you build. Just build a huge army. If the enemy attacks you with a larger army before you are ready, it probably means you haven't built enough military buildings. Watch recorded games, there is no better way to learn than to watch how you were just killed. Every rated game is saved to your computer, so go out and watch your game after a crushing defeat. Read a couple forums to find out what the biggest 'screws' are (screws=imbalances in the game). When you play do your best to exploit these screws. It's not really honorable to exploit screws, but it will help you learn quickly
Lunatic - Hehe... here speaks the AoK TC man ;)
matty - lol I never said I was honorable :P. Get involved in the community, they are a great asset. And lastly, have fun. Truly, being a new player is about having fun.
Lunatic - You said Isis is able to rush out on the battlefield... why quicker than other gods?
matty - In comparison to Norse, they get 10 villagers and a pharoah that is able to empower. As well, as Isis you only need to build 1 military building, a midgol, in comparison a Norse player might have to build 10-15 barracks and 3-5 forts. So an Isis player can build 1 midgol then race out to the Towncenters, with 1 pharoah to empower.
Lunatic - Nice... didn't see it like this.
matty - In comparison to Greek, it's quite a similar situation, although Greek starts with 10 villagers that build faster. Egypt has a much harder time vs Greek because of this
- Balance and overpowered strategies -
Lunatic - So you said you were fed up of RM because of Ra, but you play DM because you feel Isis is overpowered, and you wanna exploit it... is there something I'm missing?
matty - I'm full of paradox :) I still like DM because other people refuse to believe Isis is overpowered. Only a very small percentage of DMers play anything beyond norse, and just because I say Isis is overpowered doesn't make it so. Mine is only an opinion and there are many others.
Lunatic - So at this point do you think it's even possible to have a somewhat balanced game, or is a RTS condemned to evolve from one overpowered patch to the other?
matty - I haven't followed every RTS ever, but from my experience perfect balance is difficult to achieve. I think the real goal is fun/addictive. If something is making the game less fun it needs to be patched. Sometimes overpowering units can actually be fun.
Lunatic - Like Fire Giants?
matty - I think a lot of people loved fire giants for a while, but I'm pretty sure they are getting less happy with them now.
Lunatic - Why?
matty - Because Norse is so easy to play. Fire giants are so easily to build and use. For the newbie-low expert this ease of use makes it difficult for them to do anything but do the same strategy. As well, I've seen a lot of complaints about fire giants in the last 2 weeks or so... I guess that's a good indicator too.
Lunatic - Indeed
matty - Fire giants are good against everything, whereas a lot of other powerful Myth Units actually take some micro, such as medusa, mummy, or that flame breathing thingy.
Lunatic - Ever thought about joining/founding a clan?... and why?
matty - Joining-every once in a while. The big problem is that being part of a clan means I represent them, but more importantly that they represent me. I don't trust many people to represent me. As far as founding a clan goes, I think I'm probably too lazy to do that, but for the above reason as well.
Lunatic - When do you have the conviction that a feature is overpowered... I mean should we wait in order to find an adequate counter... or patch right away?
matty - It truly depends... I have the conviction that something is overpowering when someone of a lower skill level than me can take it and consistently beat me with it regardless of what I do. As far as AoM goes and the community, I definitely think that strategy is evolving. Something might be imbalanced but something else might be even more imbalanced. I think it's important to patch when this evolution of strategy has come to a stand still.
Lunatic - But then comes the question of 'lower skill level'... how can you determine it? Players evolve...
matty - Well, I could go into an analytical approach or I could just say 'I know when my opponent sucks' :)... but a good measure is something like this, player A plays B all the time and wins. Player A and B both do approximately the same strategy. Player B starts doing something new and A loses all the time now. But if A changes his strategy to B's then A begins to win again.
Lunatic - You have many different names, on each game type... do you use them for specific purposes?
matty - Originally no. To begin, I found it impossible to get a game once I was around the top 20. So I'd just start a new name. Eventually people in forums started complaining and eventually I agreed. So now I basically have 1 active name and then 1 name that I resign with all the time so as to keep my rating in a spot where I can find lots of other players to play. I encourage other players to do the same. Having 5 names in the top 20 isn't helpful, although it is fun getting them there. It's depressing once I get them in the top20 and can't find any more games.
Lunatic - Hehe, Elitex told me he had to call friends to play his top name... do you happen to do the same?
matty - Yeah. I try and keep the top 60 or so people on my list and browse the list every time I come online.
Lunatic - He also said that RoR DM was THE DM game... do you agree?
matty - Not necessarily. It had some great balance to it though. Hittite, Choson, Egyptian, Greek were all viable DM civs. Egyptian and Greek beat Choson who beat Hittite who beat Egyptian and Greek. Oh yeah and the Persians and Carthinagins ruled tiny DM... come to think of it, it probably was the best DM, although I really do like a lot of the ease of use things in both AoK and AoM.
Lunatic - You've been around the Age games for a long time. Do you feel like an 'oldtimer', or an 'oldschool player', or do you feel that these names have no sense, since you are an active player?
matty - I think to be an oldschool player, you have to have played a long time ago then taken a long break then come back. I've never really taken that break. Maybe oldtimer is a better description, but I think that implies that perhaps my skill level has diminished and I don't think that's necessarily true... maybe 'permanent resident' is a better description?
Lunatic - Hehe... a quick look on ESO top rankings is convincing enough :). You just won the Starlight tournament, is your fighting spirit gonna fade one day? would you define your fighting spirit as your best asset?
matty - I'm sure my fighting spirit might be focused on other things as my life progresses. I love Age and games, but I do want to have children some day and my family will take precedence over my gaming. Definitely my desire not to lose has helped me through some rough games. A number of games that I should have lost I won because I refused to resign and eventually came back. That's actually another good way of telling whether another player is better then you. If they have obviously won but somehow let you comeback, they probably need to play more :).
Lunatic - Hehe... that's SO right... IMO, the only true comeback can only be because the opponent made a mistake
matty - Yup, that's not to say I didn't make mistakes to get to a losing position, but IMO it takes more skill to comeback than to win.
“IMO it takes more skill to comeback than to win”
Lunatic - Sure. Have you got some recorded games that represent your gaming skills in each of the game categories? (RM, DM, Lightning)?
matty - I was browsing, most of my RM and Lightning games are getting old now... very sad, but I haven't really played lightning or supremacy in a month :(.
- For the Lightning game, I hadn't played in a month, but saw warrior_nick was searching. I think he only plays Lightning so I jumped on it and searched. He plowed me for about 5 minutes (30 minutes supremacy time) but I refused to give up!
- The DM match is versus StArLiGhT_BuRnT and it's a pretty classic scenario of Isis vs Loki. I would actually say I got bad TC placement. I've got other DM records but there aren't many people that come close. There are a couple that are pretty good, but I've only lost once in the last month. And that was to Swinger when I played Zeus to his Ra, I cried when I saw the civ he picked! I hate Zeus.
Lunatic - Why?
matty - All the units are so slow. They are good, but the greek army has no mobility. On top of that their seige factories are crazy expensive. They don't get as much favor and don't really have any counter to Ra Chariot Archers. But mainly I just find them slow. Not really because of the range difference. Chariot archers with the myth tech get 24 range, seige gets 28 and I think peltasts get 16 or 18. And then you put 2 or 3 merc cavalry in front of your CA and it's game over. The Greek army just isn't fast enough to catch the fast RA CA, so the Egypt just keeps backing up, not much fun.
Lunatic - Even horses?
matty - greek horse move at about 5.3 and Ra CA move at about 6.5, and then they get that 24 range too...
Lunatic - Any RM game somewhere?
matty - The only RM I have is from 12/3 doh! it's a match vs Akhen...not sure if I posted it. I tried to watch it a minute or two back but never made it to the end.
Lunatic - When was taken the picture you gave me?
matty - From Paris, 1.5 years back, almost 2 years now. They had given me an honorary af_pal award I believe. I always use google to find pictures of me :P
Lunatic - Well do you have something you would like to add?
matty - If you live in guelph, stop in for a beer!
Lunatic - Thank you very much matty!
matty rules in three modes of the game, so he definitely had to give you 3 games. Many thanks to him for that. You'll find a Supremacy game, a Deathmatch game and a Lightning game. My personal favorite is still the RM game, as it really features different fights, both on water and land.
