FACES Of APOLYTON #4: YIN26

[MarkG]

<B><I>This is the fourth edition of Faces of Apolyton interview series. This time our victim is Yin 26, a poster contributing a lot to Civilization III section, who is well known for his work on the suggestions lists, and lately for his pessimism regarding civ3..<br>

If you have suggestions on whom to interview next, or want to contribute questions yourself, feel free to email me at solver@apolyton.net.</i></b>

http://apolyton.net/misc/interviews/foa_4yin.shtml

[Father Beast]

This is by far my favorite of the interviews so far. I feel like I'm seeing the real Yin!

It is actually hard to reconcile this yin with the fellow that posted that he wouldn't get civ3 unless somebody bought it for him.

Now I know he's going to get civ3. After all that hard work on THE LIST, he couldn't help himself

[TCO]

Just started reading the FOA. They are actually pretty interesting. I like them. I would have looked at them sooner if their had been a famous guy like Ming being interviewed. (I'm not whining....just saying that they would have gotten more notice...)

[Lancer]

Yin is quite a guy. To have organized the lists, and done such a tremendous job. Enjoyed the interview very much Yin. Hang in there, Civ 3 might be great, it might not, but at least it will be better, right? Also, it'll sell like hotcakes and then other game companies will try turn based civ related stuff. Let's hope...

[Solver]

GP,
I don't want to continue our previous conversation, but Ming is #6 on the list.

[TCO]

I know that Solver. And I said "SOONER". comprende? Ever do any marketing?

And you ARE continuing it.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Yin 26: Wow. It's all a bit blurry now. But as I recall, I was off somewhere causing a stir about SMAC. Perhaps it was on the old OWO boards or perhaps even ACOL. I had had some dealings with Markos even back then, if I recall, and I got the sense he was a bit worried I'd come over and trash the site or something, since we all know he likes to run a tight ship.

Heh. It was OWO. I remember because I followed him......

[Eyes_Of_Night]

Amazing!! The geek o'meter seems to be going off the scale! I wonder what phenomenon is causing this?

[WesW]

Nice article, Yin. I was surprised by the personal info. I always figured that *you* were Korean-American. Going from wanting to fly fighter planes to becoming an English major is surprising, too. How did that happen?

[yin26]

Father Beast and Lancer: Thanks for the kind words! I refuse to say if I'll buy Civ 3. Markos looks awwwwfully close to buying it for me, you know.

Wes:

Apologies again about missing your mod. From what I hear, some people are calling your mod "better than Civ2"! Wow.

No, not Korean-American...but I did marry a Korean-American, as I wrote. I like to refer to myself as an "Honorary Korean," though, since I've spent my entire post-graudate life here. (...that sounded dramatic...but 5 years is a bit of time).

After I heard the news about being rejected for a previous sinus surgery, I was pretty devesated, especially since my friend who got in probably only got in because my space was made available (I had higher marks than he, etc.). It was really tough to see him go to that amazing campus in Colorado Springs, etc.

So when I got to UCLA, I floated around the first year and realized: "Hey, they have a major where all you do is read novels and write your take on them." So lacking any other backup plan for my life, I became an English major and momentum took me all the way to a Masters before I put the brakes on it and said:

"Wait...is this really what I want to do? I still want to see the world."

So while I might not be dropping bombs on people in far off lands, at least I'm here causing them mild irritations of all sorts! You know...I've adapted.

[joseph1944]

A very good interview. A young man who played on my Basketball and Baseball team is now the PR Officer for the Blue Angles. Not bad for a kid from Napa.

[tniem]

Well it was great to read yin. As always impressive work.

However...

FoA are much more interesting to read when you haven't been reading things from that person for the last 2 years. I enjoyed the WesW and Velocryx interviews a whole lot more. Yin knows that is isn't personal, it is just after reading him for some many years it was great to hear about a few other people around this site.

[Ming]

I enjoyed the interview.
I remember the whole "list" thing... and I remember all the abuse Yin took at the time. I also can only guess at all the hard work he did to put the list together. It still stands as one of the greatest achievements of the Apolyton Community, and I truely hope that it had a major impact of the CivIII's development.
It was great reading about Yin's feelings on the upcoming game, and I hope that Apolyton does indeed sic it's bug testers on the game the day it is released (and I hope to be a part of that process)

Thanks for sharing your thoughts Yin.

HOWEVER... I'm left very unsatisified with the interview. It seemed like "interview lite" to me. While there were many words, there were very few questions. I would loved to have learned a lot more about Yin from the piece... I wanted to learn just what drives Yin to do what he does... I assume it's for the passion of games, but I don't really know. I would have liked a longer list of questions... and a longer list of answers...

[Jeje2]

I was going to be quiet - since have been following yin's work closely for several years now. But let's stab him in the back after all ...

Originally posted by Ming
HOWEVER... I'm left very unsatisified with the interview. It seemed like "interview lite" to me. While there were many words, there were very few questions. I would loved to have learned a lot more about Yin from the piece... I wanted to learn just what drives Yin to do what he does... I assume it's for the passion of games, but I don't really know. I would have liked a longer list of questions... and a longer list of answers...

The answer is the <b>Yin roller coaster</b>
What do I mean with this?
Well let's take a look at Yin's past, present and near future

1. Yin began by attacking SMAC quite hard
2. He decided to make the bug list (You know 5 most critical bugs & fixes), continued with The List.
3. Started to yell at Civ3 for not being good enough
4. Organices the bug list for Civ3
5. Dislikes Sid Golf, even though was his own idea
6. Collects fixies for …

See a roller coaster pattern here?

[Solver]

Ming,
I can't say much except for one thing - everyobdy knows what the next FOAs will be, and everyone is free to contribute questions.

Tniem,
That's some different thought, nice to hear it, too!