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Richard Duffek, Community Coordinator

Official Title? Technically I am the Community Coordinator for WAR, but I am also frequently called Community Minion, Junior Minion or Herald Weenie. And of course Sanya calls me lots of other things too, but those aren’t really fit for print. Job description - What is it you do on a daily basis? As a Community Coordinator I spend most of my day reading the various forums for WAR around the web. This serves two purposes really; it gives me a feel for the community’s reaction to the game so far, and it allows me to answer questions. I am also responsible for collecting, reading and tracking all of the feedback emails submitted through the Herald. What is your background? College? Degree? Has it helped with the job? School... I've made an attempt at that ordeal twice so far. The first time I was going for the Programming Path of a Computer Science degree. Had I finished that, I might have a far more interesting job to talk about here at Mythic. But it just wasn't for me at that time in my life and I ended up dropping out and getting a "real" job. A couple years later I went back to school, this time for a Computer Networking and Troubleshooting Technology degree. Basically it was the A+, Cisco, Network+ and Microsoft certifications. About three quarters of the way through the program I realized that as much as I loved building and working on my own computers, I could never do it for a living. So once again, I dropped out; this time to stay home and be Mr. Mom while my wife went to work and I figured out exactly what it was I wanted to do with my life. Mythic is my first job IN the industry, but while I was sitting at home every day playing Mr. Mom I managed to land a gig at MMORPG.com as the Lead Writer/Reviewer. I wouldn't say that either degree path I was following helped me land that job or my current gig, but a lot of the classes I took along the way have definitely benefited me over the years. How did you get interested in MMOs or online games? I’ve been following online games for QUITE a long time now. Some of the younger folks in the audience might want to skip down a couple lines or paragraphs to get to something you recognize... I was first introduced to the internet in the very early 90s. It started off just using the local university’s system to get online and use Gophers to look at info on other university sites and such. Then I discovered the BBSes… Boy did I ever get hooked on playing Trade Wars and L.O.R.D. That was fun and all, but there was just something missing from them. When I was introduced to my first MUD though, I discovered what was missing: the Community. BBS games were technically multiplayer, but you never had more than one person playing at a time. In a MUD though, you were playing the game with people from all over the world. Well, those who were willing to pay the outrageous dialup costs of the time. When you were playing you were part of this huge interactive community; I fell in love instantly. I played constantly, and then taught myself LPC so I could code and help create the world for others to enjoy. That lasted me until the early days of MMOs. Meridian 59, Ultima Online, Everquest, etc... I’ve been a huge fan of the genre ever since and have extensively played every major MMO to hit the market, and a lot that weren’t so major (anyone else in the crowd who was feverishly trying to get in those last couple of laps before the plug was pulled on MCO?) What was your “welcome to the game industry” moment when it hit you that you were really making games for a living? Well I actually have two such experiences. The first came when I was working for MMORPG.com. I wrote a Preview on World of Warcraft. The game was still in beta, and well, massively hyped as I’m sure we all remember. The article I wrote on my impressions from the beta was not really all that well received. While I didn’t dog the game, I didn’t give it as favorable of a preview as most other people were at the time. The backlash from that article really made me stop and think about what I was doing. It really hit me not only was I working for a gaming site, but people around the world were reading what I had to say, and really listening… As far as Mythic goes, if I had to pick one moment it was the first Roundtable I attended. I started working for the company in the first week of July and was shipped off to Vegas in September to help work the Roundtable. Since I was still new to the company, it was a real eye opener to suddenly be standing in the middle of 300+ fans as a representative of Mythic. What excites you about the Warhammer property? What makes it perfect for an MMO? What cool things in the Warhammer universe do you hope to bring to life? What isn’t there to love about the Warhammer property really? The richness of the lore, the character of all the different armies, the ongoing strife... It all makes for the perfect setting for an MMO. I honestly could not think of a better universe to place an RvR based MMO. My favorite aspect of the universe that I hope is brought to life well in the MMO is the humor. Do you collect Warhammer figures? What army do you play? Does your spouse let you display them when friends come over for dinner? While I don’t currently actively collect or play tabletop battles; I’ve always been a huge Skaven fan. I don’t know what kind of spouse you have, but trust me, the last thing MY wife is going to allow is an army of rat people displayed for guests. What are your hopes/goals for the game? My hopes/goals for WAR are quite simple; and in my opinion should be the hopes/goals of every game ever made. I hope that it is fun. I hope that the people who play it have an absolute blast doing so. What is the biggest problem with current MMO’s you hope to fix with WAR? I think people lately are trying to do too much. People want their games to be the absolute best in every aspect... Best PvE, best PvP, best crafting system, etc. Rather than trying to be the best in everything, I think people need to spend more time finding out what their target audience is, or what they do best, and concentrate on that. Mythic does RvR better than anyone else out there, hands down, and WAR is going to be the best RvR game ever made. What are your favorite video/computer games of all time? What games are you playing right now? What game should the reader be playing if he’s not? All time... that’s a tough one really. I’ve played (and loved) so many games over the years I wouldn’t even know where to start... So I’ll just list a couple off the top of my head: Elder Scrolls Arena, the Wing Commander series, Diablo 2, DAoC, Populous, Sim City, Mortal Kombat 1-3, Virtua Fighter, Gauntlet... I could go on and on, but I’ll stop now. Right now I am thoroughly engulfed in Scarface on Xbox. I highly recommend it if you don’t have it. What music are you listening to right now? I have a 30GB MP3 player that runs fairly constantly in my cube. It is completely full and contains everything from Beethoven to Marilyn Manson, Eminem to Tori Amos, Metallica to Johnny Cash. I really do listen to just about everything. Right this very minute is Swing, Swing by the All American Rejects. Is there a recent movie you’ve seen or book/comic you read that you’d recommend to others? Lately I’ve been wrapped up in several of the new shows on TV more than watching movies or reading. I definitely recommend Heroes and The Nine. Anything else you want to add? "It’s OK... I’m a leaf on the wind! Watch how I soar!" - Hoban 'Wash' Washburn, Serenity

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