NETWORK NEWS SPIDEY...HEAD THE IN KICK A THAN BETTER
Next up in the track list: "Wraith OH TWO has got it going on!" (to the tune of Stacy's Mom)
Life is about variety, and while it can be fun to interview the people who crashed the biggest fleets or who annoyed the most people with their blue text on a blue background, there are many other important roles out there. The person who builds the large defenses, for example, or the person who does the probing for the bigger fleeters. Wraith02 isn't necessarily any of these people, but his is a name that became synonymous with OGame in the minds of nearly every person who played it for over a decade. As such I'll give you all this heads up about what is to come. Some interviews are like a short stroll through events, this interview is like the Odyssey. I have broken everything up into sections to make this epic easier to ingest a little at a time, like a series of articles on OGame lore that you can return to at your leisure. Or binge it all in one go. I'm not your keeper, you do you boo.
When I did my first short series of interviews forever ago I had various names suggested to me. One of the most common suggestions was "You should interview Wraith02". I thought about it. Fast forward to modern times, Wraith02 hasn't even been playing actively for over a year. There are a lot of modern players that would probably pique many people's interest. But still I get messages of "Hey, you should interview Wraith02". So, after contemplating the issue, I decided to interview some other people. Then I interviewed Wraith02 
The thing is, I considered asking Wraith02 for an interview long ago, but I had already interviewed another significant OGame figure, Cassandra Vandales, who Wraith02 was inexorably linked to. If you thought of Cass, you thought of Wraith02. If you thought of Wraith02, you thought of the number one enemy of fun having spam that could possibly exist, and you also thought of Cass. To interview both of them so close together would have been overkill.
I also knew that interviewing Cass would be involved, but interviewing Wraith02 was going to be significantly more involved because he has been an in-game player, a high level staff member of the OGame team, and a longterm enemy of my alliance. Cass, as totally terrifying a player as she was by some undisclosed measure, was not so much an enemy of anyone. I had a lot of questions, I knew it would be a multi-hour event, and I questioned if anyone would want to spend that much time talking about OGame when they could actually be playing OGame instead. I also knew that if I had the opportunity to have a chat with Wraith02 then I needed to get all of the Wraith02 details that I could and hold nothing back. For whatever reason, he agreed.
So this is Part 1 of an interview with Wraith02. In this first half of the deep dive, we discuss the earliest of early days in English Universe 1, go into his time as a staff member, and go further in-depth about the structure as well as the challenges of being an authority figure in an online game. If you've ever had an interaction with a staff member and been left wondering "OMG why aren't they doing more to help" then this may give you a better perspective into the small perks and large burdens of overseeing a gaming community. And so, here it goes...an interview with Wraith02.
Quotespidey: Owl enthusiast and community menace
Wraith02: The guy with the broom
QuoteDisplay MoreEARLY OGAME AND THE FIRST MERGES
spidey: People have wondered about this for years, can you finally put us out of our misery and tell us how you came to be a part of OGame?
Wraith02: I learnt about OGame through Cass from the message board we took our alliance name from. She tried to get some of us to try out the game in German, but none of the rest of us spoke German. Not long after the English community did open (about 10-12 days after it opened), we gave in and joined up with her, with Cass taking a leading role in the community, being an experienced player guiding the majority of the early players, and quickly getting recruited to the mod team by Slyngal (can't for the life of me remember the spelling there).
spidey: Ahh, well, that dispels a myth I evidently had about your origins lol A lot of people assumed you'd joined long before English OGame began.
Wraith02: I think back then there was a handful of players that did come over having played OGame in Germany before .org opened. A lot were banned from playing "to give us a chance to learn" and not just turn it into another .de dominated server.
spidey: I do remember there being a lot of discussion about how all the German players were 'better' and that if .org got opened up to all countries then the Germans would destroy us. Do you remember when .org did allow players from other countries to join?
Wraith02: I do think it was needed, there weren't many similar games around at the time, no pre-existing guides for us to follow etc.
If I recall correctly uni5 was the first uni that allowed German players, with Candlemass AKA GrafZahl quickly dominating the uni. I think it was also the first ACS uni in .org.
spidey: Oh wow, Candlemass very much rings a bell from back then, though by the time he finally merged into U1 he wasn't as active as he once was and slowly faded into obscurity.
Wraith02: That is true of a lot of the once dominant players. If I remember correctly he ended off giving the account away, with it eventually ending up in Zombies hands, then I believe the account ended up in VM for years until the graveyard came along.
spidey: It is fascinating how the merges that were meant to pit top players against other top players mostly just led to many of them quitting. Do you have any idea why that was the case? Were there complaints being made to staff members that weren't being dealt with or was it just burnout?
Wraith02: Often it was just being burnt out or just bored of the game. Being in a quiet uni and the top dog for so long leads to bad habits, not fleet or res saving, etc.
THE ENGLISH OGAME STAFF AND THEIR STRUGGLES
spidey: Let's come back to early history. As I understand it you were part of a board called JediBites and that quite a few early staff members originated from that same forum?
Wraith02: Cass obviously, myself, Sticks. I don't think that many others were interested in joining the staff - that I recall anyway. Anyone else happened to be people we met in-game or on the forums / IRC.
spidey: So how was the atmosphere of the early moderation and operator teams? Was it a bit of a madhouse with people outwardly making it seem like everything was under control but internally being chaos or did things flow relatively smoothly?
Wraith02: Overall it was pretty under control with most people pulling in the same direction, everyone respected Cass and RF_WDA who came in to replace Burg, (one of the early leaders) as the GameForge representative.
There might have been a few issues that came up, but they were usually managed well.
spidey: And as the game started to expand with new universes opening, how did that impact the initial atmosphere you described?
Wraith02: There were teething issues to begin with after the second uni opened, they would fill up fast, with new unis opening every few weeks.
spidey: Were universes opening faster than the team could handle or was the team growing at about the same pace?
Wraith02: Initially the team was able to cope, though it did get to the point where it was difficult to keep the numbers needed with the amount of work needed to properly manage a universe.
spidey: Back then and over the years, up to modern day even, there have been notable examples of players who joined the administration team who came out of the experience disgruntled, to say the least. Do you think that had to do with the work load, perhaps inaccurate expectations of those joining the team about what they were getting into, or something else?
Wraith02: I think there can be many reasons - as you say, the expected work load, lack of tools available, lack of support from GF. Differing expectations of course, sometimes even clashes of personalities between team members and a higher up.
It wasn't unknown for people to try and join the team to learn how to use it to their own advantage.
spidey: Ah, coming into it as bad actors, not really even intending to help the community.
Wraith02: Yes, knowing that the administrative team won't come out and reveal what actually happened due to the DPA etc.
spidey: Completely understood.
LIFE AS A GAMEFORGE STAFF MEMBER
spidey: What was the highest position you held as a member of the staff?
Wraith02: As a volunteer - Board admin, both at OGame.org and Ikariam.com. I think I also helped at Vendetta.com for a little while.
I was a CoMa at GF between early 2009 and late 2011, including taking over from RF_WDA and DragonGun in, I think, mid 2009, until I decided to move to the ill-fated Star Trek - Infinite Space in, I think, late 2010.
spidey: And, for those of us less familiar with these other games, these are also GameForge projects?
Wraith02: Yes, they were some of GameForge's other ventures.
spidey: Interesting. I know very little about GameForge's other games and had no idea you'd worked with other projects of theirs as well.
Having been in such high authority positions, you had to deal with a diverse culture of personalities and demands. What strategies did you develop for handling larger numbers of staff members when you were filling the Board Admin and CoMa (Community Manager) positions?
Wraith02: As the BA, there was always at least one level above you in the Community Manager (sometimes they will put in a Team Manager to help manage both board and game sides) no matter how active they are / were. You try to trust and respect the team as much as you can, though there are still times you have to have a chat with someone when they have differing ideas. Sometimes you can find a workable compromise, other times you have no choice but to part ways.
As a CoMa it's a bit different - a lot of the communities you might have been given might not be in your languages, so you are reliant on a couple of admins (the online translations were.. basic at best). On average we had 15-20 communities, usually including client based MMOs, like Metin2, which can take a lot more time. So there needed to be even more trust in your admins to manage the day to day running of the community while keeping as best of an oversight of them all as you can.
All this was over a decade ago now though, getting old so can't remember everything these days.
spidey: Oh wow, so by the time you reach COMA level you've exited the OGame system and have entered the overall GameForge network.
Wraith02: We used to talk to the other admins on IRC, not just OGame, but all of the other games, there was a lot of networking going on back then. A lot of the admins would work in other communities as well, helping out each other etc.
I remember helping to train a number of the other admins (away from OGame) when their CoMa didn't have time to do so, including some that went on to be CoMa before (and after) me.
VOLUNTEERS, PERKS, AND (SOME REALLY SERIOUS) CHALLENGES
spidey: So I don't want to get too much into who is being paid or who isn't, but I assume it's safe to say that most people that are part of the OGame staff are doing so on a volunteer basis?
Wraith02: Yes, everyone was a volunteer - way back in the day we didn't get anything (except being able to have a slightly larger sig picture). When Commander came out we were given a subscription to that. Finally, when DM came out, it turned into coupons - enough to cover a few months of officers if you only played one account.
CoMa would have been a paid position. Sometimes some of the other higher ups got involved, Project Managers etc, but they didn't often get involved in the day to day running of things.
spidey: Are most of the management team, such as the Project Managers you mentioned, based in Germany or do they have teams based in different regions of the world too?
Wraith02: The vast majority of employees were based in Germany at GF's HQ. I don't know if that's changed at all in recent years.
spidey: Any idea how many employees GameForge has overall?
Wraith02: LinkedIn suggests around 300.
spidey: I think that puts them up into the midsized business tier which is pretty good considering they make games using pictures and text lol
Wraith02: They branched out into client based MMOs some time ago with Metin2 being one of their earliest. They have been one of the bigger publishers - not quite as big as EA or Ubisoft but still well known.
spidey: Wow, I never knew that. Alright, before we move on to another topic I just have to ask; what was the most challenging part of being in a position of authority in this online gaming environment?
Wraith02: Probably how people think their actions don't have consequences..
people get themselves banned for heavy insult, come in, get told why, then launch into further insults and wonder why their ban gets extended.
One time I had someone spamming my email with an auto sender with the same accusations of corruption (they did what they were accused of) - I think it was 600 odd emails in 30 minutes. Little did they know I just filtered them 'marked as read' and sent to a folder after the first couple of minutes of it.
The other part is when money comes into it, spending other peoples money in high amounts (with or without their consent..), then doing something to get yourself permabanned in your game.
spidey: Oh wow, that last one in particular I had never even considered being an issue. Has anyone ever attempted to escalate things into legal action after such an event?
Wraith02: A few people try - most never get as far as taking up the case. Usually it's just threats against the company, or yourself, or in one case (in another GF game) went from offering to pay someone to speak with the CEO, to paying for a lawyer, to paying for a hitman to come after me...nothing ever came from it though.
spidey: Holy s*** dude, how credible did you think that threat was?
Wraith02: I didn't take it too seriously tbh.
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And on this thrilling note, we take a break until Part Two where we discuss banned players, the wild OGame community, and finally get into the in-game politics of playing Universe 1. Stay tuned!
