Tweet
Imhotep: Hi Robert, hi jobe! Thanks for this interview. Now we have learned that apolyton and fastmoves have merged, resulting in an interesting mix of approaches. Apolyton always was more SP oriented, while fastmoves concentrated solely on multiplayer aspects of Civ. A love at first sight?
jobe: At least the basis for a perfect relationship
. No overlapping turfs, instead we complement each other very well, it´s two sides of the same coin. Robert: At one of our Apolyton meetings we discussed what we wanted to do with this new blogging system. Jeroen suddenly talked about this 'fastmoves blog' he was reading frequently. A frequent publishing civilization oriented blog that had a lot of quality. Quality in the terms of content, layout, dedication and stability. We thought it was a good idea to contact 'these guys' and ask them if they would want to move over to Apolyton. We could offer them a wide audience for their article, they could offer us exclusive content. In addition we hoped that they would inspire others to blog as well. The weeks after I started to read through all these articles and got the same feelings about fastmoves. Even though the blogs focussed mainly on quick multiplayer games, there was a lot of valuable information in there for every civ player.
Imhotep: Robert, when did you first think at approaching fastmoves with the idea of merging, and why?
Robert: Well, it was Jeroen's idea. After reading the blog I completely agreed and left a note on their website with a question to "contact me". The messasge is still there: http://fastmoves.wordpress.com/2010/...n/#comment-481
Imhotep: jobe, your guys and you were already on the verge of creating a new standalone site and leaving WordPress behind. Why did you accept merging with apolyton?
jobe: What we wanted to do with the launch of a standalone fastmoves site was non-existent in the plans for the Apolyton relaunch, yet what was there I liked very much from the perspective of a civ fan. I realized that what Robert, Jeroen, Rutger and Arno were trying to do was the same we were after, just with a slightly different kind of civver as an audience in mind. After a couple of chats and mails I gained a lot of confidence in the skills of those guys and in our ability to have fun together, so we decided on trying to combine our efforts in one site where each party complements the other in various ways.
Imhotep: Now the new apolyton is online for a few days. What are your first impressions, and what do you like most about the new environment?
jobe: At the moment I enjoy the VB4 environment in all its options – still having to iron out a couple of bugs here with the CMS and other things, but I like the functionality very much already. The fast server is nice. I enjoy the black background, honestly.
– though still support optional themes once we get a way to realize that either ourselves or receive the help of someone.I will answer that question again once the stuff that is currently in our test environment gets implemented
Robert: I like it most that we have it under control. We can post content, we are away from this old server, we have a test environment. There's still a lot to be done though. A lot of our content is still on the old server. We have to get it over somehow.
Imhotep: You guys joined for live coverage from the GamesCom 2010 in Cologne, Germany and met in real life as well. Anything you’d like to say concerning the GamesCom?
jobe:
- Meeting Robert and Rutger was cool!
- Getting a glimpse behind the scenes and getting to know people like Jon Shaf and Pete Murray was interesting.
- Running around with a camera and press accredations makes you feel important for some reason.
- In general I´d rather take my games with a cup of tea at my desk, not so much in endless tubes of gigantic halls without oxygen and the volume of a busy airstrip.
- The Civ5 booth girls wear about as many clothes as the rest of the female staff of the other booths taken together. I say 2K is burning money here.
Robert: It was a lot of fun to work together, get in contact with the people of Firaxis and 2K, play the game, and have everything falling together at the right time. Jeroen calling to say that the migration had succeeded, the 2k people telling us that we could interview Jon Shafer, being able to play the game and gather information for our articles, and just talking together and having this 'click'.
Imhotep: I’m sure most users would like to know what apolyton has in store for them in the next few weeks, and what to expect from the fastmoves guys in particular.
Robert: I have learned to not reveal our future plans before we're sure that they are working. That's against my very nature, I'm a spoiler myself, but for now the answer will remain "no comments"
. We are working on some good stuff though!Imhotept: Thanks for the answers! I hope we all will enjoy apolyton and Civ V greatly in the upcoming months! Keep civvin’!
Robert: Thanks as well!