Chris 62: It's my opinion that "Of Celts and Iberians" is your finest work. Tell us how you go about researching and making such a fine historical scenario.
Jay Bee: Well ,at the time I did Celts & Iberians I had a lot of experience. So I played with some new concepts and mixed them with the old recipe. It worked quite well I think. I had to read a lot, yes, But that's a lot of fun too. Plus, there is always people around willing to help, to offer tips, create new units, etc, etc...
Chris 62: Who are your favorite scenario designers?
Jay Bee: The ones who started at the time I started because they were the ones I interacted with, and had fun with, such as Harlan Thompson, Mike Daumen, Blackclove, Allard, Hoek, Cam, Mike Jeszenka, etc. (hope I am not leaving out anyone!)
Chris 62: Let's talk a bit about Apolyton. How did you discover it?
Jay Bee: Well, I started in CivHeaven, From there I moved to the Ultimate (DanQ's), Civ2 Universe, the Ultimate, Addicted...
Chris 62: All the dead sites...
Jay Bee: Yeah, but that was 96-98. Let's say I was a bit of an expert about Civ2 forums. Addicted died a few weeks before Apolyton was born. We had created a very nice group at Addicted, and moved it to Apolyton.
Chris 62: How did the Spanish Civilization site come about?
Jay Bee: I wanted that a 'reliable' scenario site existed on the net. Reliable means no broken links, updated frequently, all that stuff.
Chris 62: You set it up yourself?
Jay Bee: yes, mostly. A friend of mine helped a bit, hehe. I knew nothing about HTML when we started.
Chris 62: How did Apolyton come to host it?
Jay Bee: Allard and I had been talking about merging our respective sites. His was the number one scenario site, and I was struggling for the #2 spot. Inspired by Dan and Mark we decide to merge. Then we created the CSC, hosted by Apolyton. I still maintained the Spanish Civ Site alone, but as a minor, author-oriented site.
Chris 62: How did you get your own forum at apolyton?
Jay Bee: Peer pressure ;) The Spanish-speaking people had set up a Civilization Spanglish Forum. It was fun but it did not have enough attendance. It occurred to me that since TSCIIS was an Apolyton-hosted site, perhaps I could ask for a hosted forum. MarkG was extraordinarily kind in that regard.
Chris 62: What do you hope the Spanish forum to be, and is it what you intend it to be?
Jay Bee: Well the pity is that not many English-speaking posters post over there. I tried to maintain a balance between Spanish vs English threads, but, since the English speakers flied away, most of the threads are now in Spanish.
Chris 62: Are you afraid the forum will become sort of a "ghetto" for Spanish speakers only?
Jay Bee: Yes, absolutely. I would not like that at all.
Chris 62: Tell us why not.
Jay Bee: The idea was to help Spanish-only posters to integrate into the Community, not the other way around. In the end we all are here to discuss civ. Some Spanish-only posters have ventured into other parts of Apolyton. I consider that a success.
Chris 62: Lets talk about civ 3. Your view of the game?
Jay Bee: I find it boring.
Chris 62: Why is that?
Jay Bee: They spent too much effort in animations. That's fine, but the game has lost direction. It's become tedious and repetitive. Hopefully they'll amend that .
Chris 62: There was a major controversy over what civs to include in the game, do you think the choices made were justified?
Jay Bee: Not at all. Aside from other ‘obvious’ considerations, my point has always been: why 16? Civ2 had 24. That was a step in the wrong direction, and pissed off many people, he he.
Chris 62: What can we hope to see from you in the future as far as scenarios go?
Jay Bee: I am afraid not much. Some people are bugging me to do yet another one but it's so tough to find motivation...
Chris 62: How about a penninsular war scenario?
Jay Bee: Ha ha! I knew you were going to add that! Sorely mising that one, uh?
Chris 62: Yes, it's a major omission.
Jay Bee: I know. I was working on that once but the computer crashed and lost all my work. At the request of somebody I resumed work a few months ago but...it's not that easy anymore.
Chris 62: In closing, is there anything you would like to say to Apolyton at large?
Jay Bee: I very much admire the impact of the Apolyton community , not because of the time I have spent here but because of the nice people I've met over these years, from the times there were two OT forums to the creation of the Sleague, MP, to finally the creation of the Spanish forum. So I'd like to mention by name the people who made me enjoy this site so much, the vets, Stew, Ming, Hoek, Allard, GP, Adam Smith, JESSE, MR MANTEQUILLA, Dominikos, The Sleeg regulars, Blackclove, Cam, Harlan, St Leo, Elkhan, MikeJ, Temba.., the Spanish gang, Waku, Fiera, Kindal, Alf, Elawr and all the boys...you see, so many people, so much fun. I guess I will stay around for another 6 years.
