November 2003

Glory or Death - Tribes AA Interview with FruitY
Conducted by CLIMaX

~GoD~ is from North America where a thriving Tribes AA gaming community exists slightly below the radar of most gaming news coverage. FruitY is a leading member of Glory or Death and shared with us some of her tribe's history and current success story. ~GoD~ holds the #2 position in the TeamWarfare League's PS2 Tribes AA Capture the Flag 8 vs 8 Division, with a roster of more than twenty players.

The Tribes games, published by Sierra, have never been as popular as Counter-Strike, Quake or Unreal Tournament, but the ~GoD~ crew don't seem to mind. Tribes Aerial Assault for Sony Playstation 2 is one of the most sophisticated first-person shooters in the PS2 realm. It looks identical to its PC sister Tribes 2, has almost as many features, and offers victory to only the most highly coordinated teams. If you're a serious FPS player who likes to use her brains and her brawn to win then you need to check out Tribes Aerial Assault. Shazbot!

____________________________________________________________________BIO

_____________________________________________________________INTERVIEW

[CLIMaX] How did ~GoD~ come to be and what are your roles in the tribe?

[FruitY] Widdow and Sinner were the original founders of ~GoD~. At that point, there was no meaning to the acrononym and the first member recruited (excluding the two brothers) was BaHaMuT. I was the third, Wendigo was the fourth and from there it was Splinter, and Stellar. All of the recruits from the first ~GoD~ were newbies to Tribes AA and this was our first clan. I believe Wendigo was the only person of the original five to play Tribes 2 but other than that we all started with the PS2 version.

~GoD~ almost disbanded last March, I believe, when SinneR and Widdow went missing due to personal reasons. When this happened, we waited 2 weeks and decided to make ~GoD~ go through a Re-birth. We decided that we would designate specific duties to different members so in the event that one member could no longer perform a duty it wouldn't hurt the whole team and it would be easier to find someone to (temporarily) replace them. Bahamut, as the recruiter, then began to kick much ass in random games and brought together most of the team that you see today. I, on the other hand, took care of simpler duties like Forum stuff, scheduling (until Gabriel joined) and basically keeping the boys in check. LOL.. i <3 you all. Splinter was in charge of our strats, and the rest is, well, still going.

Of the original five, Bahamut, splinter and I are the only ones active. Stellar should be coming back relatively soon. We dunno where wendigo is but he bounces in and out every once in a while.

As for Daily duties, I'm the forum girl. I take care of communication among ~GoD~ members and with other teams. Recruitment is closed so the only other thing still poppin is the strats [strategies]. Our strats team is incredible. They have a lot of fun with what they do and that's important. Although we do stray from our strats from time to time, we don't get punished too badly for it. hahahaha..(I wish I was kidding...no-no, I kid, I kid!).

[CLIMaX] What is Tribes AA? How is it unique in comparison to other FPS multiplayer games? Isn't Halo a better Tribes AA?

[FruitY] Tribes Aerial Assault is a FPS that requires an immense amount of individual skill but more importantly, requires the ability to work with your team. Depending on the game type, a team will need a diverse set of members who should be able to multi-task if not be able to play different positions. In my case, I mostly do Defense but because I want to be more diverse in my skill. I practice offensive positions in random games.

The most popular game type is Capture the Flag. In comparison to the other types, CTF is by far the most difficult in terms of strategic placement. A team will need flag capper(s)/chaser(s), Air support, Flag Defense, Base Defense/Gen Defense, Midfielding support, or even a Reaper. It all depends on how badly a team wants to kick the other team's butt. With every game type in TAA, communication is key. If one can communicate well with other members, the team can be unstoppable

Halo vs. Tribes? Halo is fun but because I haven't played the online game, it gets kinda old. And, because I'm not familiar with the PC version of Halo I really don't have an opinion on it. The only thing that I would venture to say is that the PC game could be a bit easier and more versatile in gameplay because of the extra features, which in turn, could enhance one's gaming experience and need for overall knowledge.

Interacting with other players from a game is what keeps a game fresh and exciting. The team game creates a sort of samurai-esque type loyalty and honor system which adds more drama in your life than you really need but hey...at least you get to frag people when you are mad at them. LOL. I dunno if Halo is better. I think its just different. I can say this about TAA. It's the only game to keep my attention for more than 2 months. I've played a lot of games and I have a mild case of A.D.H.D.... what was that?

BTW, this is a great Flash game site magic-number.co.jp/kt. It's called "killing time"...ahahaha. You have to have JPS IME installed to read the font. Also, some other members and I are very competitve with the games "Pensame" "Hishi" and "Cr".

[CLIMaX] How does GoD train? Got any special playing techniques that have enabled you to beat the competition?

[FruitY] I don't train people, I just yell at them. Bahamut in charge of training.

Ideally, we would like each ~GoD~ member to be able to play every position in case we happen to be short for a match. But in the real world some people have better skills in certain areas than others, so we generally pair up people. For instance, if someone were showing interest in improving their skill in flag capping they would work alongside Klam, JDog23, CerealKiller, or WickeD. If one wanted to work on defense, they could learn strats and tips from me, etc etc. When I feel that I want to strengthen another arena of skill, this is the approach that I personally use.

When trying out for team ~GoD~ the trainee usually tells us what they are most comfortable doing and in regards to what they want to do, we ask the appropriate senior. (For example, we have a hopeful that wants to do base D so then the most important opinions should come from the disruptors and other defenders) Because ~GoD~ is a roundtable clan, we state our views on the recruit and vote the new members in.

[CLIMaX] Tell us about some of the memorable moments in matches.

[FruitY] Well, Wicked tells it pretty well: "Hmm.. beating .POW, the team thats been dominating the entire game since its release. They've only lost to 3 or 4 teams, GoD being one of them. Winning our first Shazbot, a trophy for the official Tribes AA Tournament (2nd place)."

Gold Silver Bronze Midnight

On TribesAA.com you can look in the Private Guilds section and it will list all teams recognized by TribesAA.com. Recognition is established through participation in the tourneys and accordingly, "Shazbots" or trophies are awarded. Underneath each name there are different types of Shazbots a team can earn. I believe ~GoD~ has 3 Midnights (indicating participation) and 1 Silver.

[CLIMaX] Gabriel heads up the Final Fantasy XI section that shares your forum. Do many ~GoD~ members share an interest in this role playing game?

[FruitY] I won't be playing it mainly because I'm a broke college student. Most of our members share Pantera's thoughts on it:"I haven't played and I don't plan on playing FFXI - no broadband. But, that doesn't mean I wouldn't like to play it. I'd hope you guy's would save me a spot in ~GoD~ on FFXI if I ever do, though " Yep. That sums it up.

[CLIMaX] Did you ever run away from home when you were a little kid? [FruitY] I think I may have tried to go to my best friend's house which is two houses away. Well basically...I have a control freak for a sister. Hellfiend said: "I tried once. However, I found out before I even got out of the door that a microwave doesn't fit in a backpack!" HAhahahaha...what a crazy guy!

~GoD~ leader and an unidentified friend. "She's more of a puzzle gamer." - FruitY