Where Are They Now?

Interview with ImaNewbie from Ultima Online
By Gamegoddess
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1. What inspired the ImaNewbie toons?
I think what started me going was the forums on the old Crossroads and Stratics. There were endless posts with people complaining about how they got pk'd, how nobody roleplayed, how there was a server revert and they lost three days crafting or how they paged a gm and waited for ever just to be told "Sorry but I cannot help you with that!" I felt their pain and all of a sudden a vision came to mind of this "ultimate roleplayer" guy who was bigger than all that. No matter how much went wrong he would rise above it. Kill him, revert him, steal his stuff, teleport him to a tiny little island and the next day he would be back for more, still greeting everyone with a "Hail and Well Met!" Thus ImaNewbie came into being. The weird outfit just seemed to match his personality and made him one of the most recognizable characters ever to roam Britannia.

2. How long had you played before Ima was born?
Ima was born ... interesting concept. Tough question. I think about a year. By then I had enough material to last for ages. Anyone who played in the early days of UO has to remember how nuts it was. Between the player killing, bugged patches, server reverts, lag, griefing, houses with no locks on the doors etc. it was a wild ride just to survive ingame.

3. How big a part of Ima were you? Most of us had characters that our personalities transferred to.
Many of the things that happened to Ima were based on something that happened to me ingame. Probably one of the most humbling early experiences to me was when my 'uber' Grandmaster Warrior in his best armor and weapons, for some reason I still haven't been able to figure out, snooped an npc's pack in SkaraBrae causing the guards to appear and insta-kill me. By the time I got back to my corpse there wasn' t a single thing left. Armor, weapons, gold, house keys, recall runes all gone. By the time I got back to my house whoever looted me had got there first and cleaned me out. Can you say "what a DORK!" ... I knew you could.

4. Did you think the series would be as popular as it was?
I had no idea whatsoever. I am still kind of shocked by the popularity. Over twenty million page views in four years while it was going strong. 50,000 emails (no exaggeration). Visitors from 108 countries. That's just the confirmed ones I could identify by their ip's. Who would have guessed? People still visit the site and email me even though I haven't updated for several years. I think what made Ima popular was the things happening to him made their ingame problems seem minor by comparison, lol. As time went on I created the Britannia Enquirer to give me a platform to rant and rave about the more 'political' aspects of the game.

5. Did Ima ever actually meet Lord British?
Nope, like many others, LB to me was just a figurehead. I still give Richard Garriott full props for basically laying the groundwork for every computer fantasy based rpg/mmo that has followed. EQ and WoW would still probably just be ideas gathering dust if it weren't for his pioneering.

6. As a person that was a counselor, I found the toons that featured the GMs and counselors to be especially funny. Were you in the volunteer program?
Nope, but I knew several people that were and they gave me ideas. I always felt the GM's and Counselors took the brunt of the abuse when most of them I think, truly were dedicated to helping best as they could. I tried to let them know that the 'toons were in good fun but I was on their side. Check out toons #65 & #66 for a peek into the secret headquarters of the GM's Counselors, lol.

7. Did you have a favorite episode of Ima?
Arrrggggh! That is next to impossible for me to pick. I think one idea that for some reason I really found funny was the one where Ima finds the polymorph scroll (#8), uses it, and turns into a ham. The vision of this poor soul trapped as a ham out in the forest as darkness descends, his feeble cries for help, unanswered. It was one of the toons that spurred me on to build the site into something more than a here today gone tomorrow page. The Killer Chicken series was a biggie with the fans, that and the series about the Lost Tribe of Amazon Women. Every guys fantasy, lol.

8. Do you ever think about going back to UO and reviving the Ima series?
Yes, I have. I have tried most of the other MMO's out there ... EQ and EQ2, Asherons Call 1 & 2, DAoC, WoW, SWG, City of Heroes, Shadowbane, AO, and many more. Apart from World of Warcraft which kept my interest for a year or so none have even come close to the six year love affair I had with UO. But then that ship has probably already sailed. I don't know that the spark that created ImaNewbie could be re-ignited.

9. Are you playing any games now? If so which ones?
Well I mentioned the ones above but I also am a big fan of shooters, Half-Life2, Far Cry, Unreal Tournament, Call of Duty etc. I guess the next one I will go out and buy is Half-Life2, Aftermath when its released this month. I am also playing a certain 'very' popular MMO now on (dare I say) an "emulator" but will leave it unnamed. Suffice to say it would have been hard to do the UO toons were it not for the emulators. I was still paying for two or three real accounts when I used them for the toons, so it's not like Origin/EA weren't getting their pound of flesh.

10. What do you think of how games and gamers have changed since the old UO days?
I think there are still plenty of great gamers out there. As far as online games are concerned though, it's just that lately the damn gold farmers are ruining it for the legit players. I still would have been playing World of Warcraft if it weren't for the fact that it has just become too painful to try and play when everywhere with decent drops is being camped 24/7 by a bunch of "low wage offshore slaves" who don't speak my language. That ain't racist. It's the unfortunate truth. There are also gold farming factories in the US and Canada so it isn't just offshore. I think they should take IGE and every company like it and drop them in the middle of the Ocean. Props to PCGamer (quick plug) for their refusal to accept advertising from those companies.

11. As the first in this series of "What are they doing now" series can you tell us a little bit of what you are doing now?
Still gaming. Once a gamer always a gamer. Though now I am gaming with my kids so that is definitely a new experience. Thanks for this opportunity to recollect some of the times back in the day. Hey, that gives me an idea! ... how bout a website devoted to endless rambling on about "the good old days in gaming" ... Nah ... Let's just leave it at 'wouldn't have missed them for the world'.

Laters...
Zryon aka ImaNewbie and a whole lot of other alter egos