DUCHY REVIEW
with ZARGOT, DUKE OF ZAR


May 12, 1998


Zargot says, "oh geeze he is here.."

Poseidon grins wonderin if he means me

"Posie.. yo got the floor all wet again", says Zargot.

Zargot says, "all that water ya know"

"Yeah but least i found a way to get rid of the smell", says Poseidon.

Zargot smiles

Zargot says, "true.. it was spreading from your Duchy to mine"

"Well i havent been round your place for a while, perhaps you need some treatment plants", says Poseidon.

Zargot says, "who is this Duke Zargot I keep hearing about"

Poseidon points at you

Zargot looks at himself

Zargot discretly checks his fly

Poseidon laughs, Fly is fine, but you forgot the pants

Zargot says, "thats me pet fly"

Zargot looks around and notices one of his old fluffy pillow from the old days.. grabs it and has a seat

Zargot looks around CD's and realizes it STILL hasn't been painted

Poseidon points out that they at least removed the chalk outlines

Chiefsgirl is waiting for the private dance

"true", says Zargot.

"private dances cost more<g>", says Flee.

"Diesel still hasnt changed though", says Zargot.

Chiefsgirl laughs

"Don't I know it", Chiefsgirl says.

"what a shame", smiles Myangel.

Zargot ducks from the swing of the bat

"Once a tramp, always a tramp <g>", says Poseidon.

Poseidon hides behind Zargot

Zargot wonders how the Duke reacts when the word Sushi is mentioned

Poseidon usually sends guido, the killer sword fish, to visit your house

Chiefsgirl climbs up on her barstool and clears her throat

Zargot fluffs up his fluffy pillow and repositions himself..

Chiefsgirl smiles, "Hello and welcome to Fed's duchy review"

"Thank you all for coming tonight....we gather here every Tuesday night at 9pm EDT for a chat with a duke or duchess of Fed", you say.

Zargot says, "adjusted for Fed time we are just on time"

"Tonight we are honored to have Duke Zargot of Zar as our guest. He will tell us a bit about himself and then we'll open it up for questions and comments", Chiefsgirl smiles.

Chiefsgirl applauds for Duke Zargot

Flee thinks if it was fed time, it would be thursday nite

Chiefsgirl sinks down onto her barstool

Zargot says, "Thank you. Im very happy to be here"

Flee says, "of last week"

Poseidon points to the smiley badge indicating that happiness <g>

Zargot says, "My Fed history goes back a long time.. at least my family history does"

Zargot says, "Im now third generaation in my Fed family which started back in the old Genie Fed when it was in Beta on Genie in fact"

Chiefsgirl is impressed

"so Im the third Duke in my long ancestry", says Zargot.

Zargot says, "My randfather Aren was Duke of Naug. The name of the planet my brother now has"

Poseidon thinks Duchy of Naug is before even the time of the oceans

"my father was Duke Exobot of Droidium.. thats where I got to know Uncle Posie", says Zargot.

Poseidon fondly remembers Exobot, twas a real shame

"Uncle P as we called him.. because of his urinary tract infections was a member of my fathers duchy", says Zargot.

"oh sorry Duke I wasnt supposed to mention that", says Zargot.

Poseidon says, "Hey, family secrets stay family .. sheeesh"

"And besides, it wasnt my fault, whooda thought lightweight metals could cause those kinda problems", says Poseidon.

"well once i got old enough to get my own planet my Uncle allowed me to join Atlantis", says Zargot.

Zargot says, "ahh yes.. I will never forget the alloys war"

"but once I finally got my Duchy Zar and Atlantis has remained favored duchy", says Zargot.

Zargot says, "i fondly remember my days in Atlantis.. or was that fondled i forget"

"For quite some time now i might add", says Poseidon.

Zargot says, "something about poco but its a blur really"

"Silly weasels, Fish arent for rodents", says Poseidon.

"well I think that will give some people an idea other than to say I grew up in Droidium with a lot of the famous and infamous people in Fed", says Zargot.

"was an exciting time", says Zargot.

Poseidon says, "Zargot's father, my and shavers mentor, amung others"

"Will you tell us a bit about coming up through the ranks, Zargot?", Chiefsgirl asks.

Chiefsgirl loves to hear about the old days

Elin was wondering about the alloys wars

Poseidon says, "Yes yes, alloy wars ..."

Zargot says, "sure... its sometimes difficult to remember the early days but it seems each of my ancestors saw a major renovation each time"

Zargot says, "from no more than 7 duchies at a time"

Zargot says, "to the max of 100 people in Fed dataspace at a time"

Chiefsgirl think that sounds like now

Zargot says, "Puzzles and helping one another was very important"

"Feds come full circle ?", asks Poseidon.

"i think it has", says Zargot.

"It feels more like the old days than ever before", says Zargot.

"and without the aid of a DC", says Zargot.

"DC?", asks Elin.

Poseidon wonders if Zar thinks full circle is good or a step backwards

"Duccal Council", says Zargot.

"I say good", says Zargot.

Poseidon does too, but liked the AOL database of new players

Zargot says, "i find myself here more lately"

Zargot says, "that is very true.. we can only hope"

"to go OOC for a bit", says Zargot.

Zargot says, "people had to pay hourly for chat"

"back in the old old days", says Zargot.

Zargot says, "so if your paying to chat why not play gain friends and play a game all for the same amount"

Zargot says, "but there were some very devoted players back then"

Zargot says, "but as i come back to Fed now since the move i feel a more relaxed atmosphere"

Zargot says, "but then again I may NEVER leave"

"question... when fed went to pay, some said that in the early days of fed you had to pay. is that correct.", says Lookout.

Zargot says, "and I cant begin to tell you why i come to begin with"

Zargot says, "yes and a lot more than the 2.99 AOL charged"

"plus that was only from 5pm to 7 am", says Zargot.

"7am to 5pm was prime time", says Zargot.

Zargot says, "i remember coming into fed after getting out of work to get all the objects for the GM puzz"

"well i don't think we pay a lot now anyway...did you have a lot of players then", says Lookout.

"prime time was 12 or more a hour", says Zargot.

"when we were active i remember 60 or 70 a night the early servers barely allowed 60 - 100", says Zargot.

"Isn't it nice only .60 cents a hour now!", exclaims Byterunner.

"it slowly went down once Genie looked like it was going belly up", says Zargot.

Zargot says, "i think so.. to be honest if it was .40 or 50 hour id play a lot more"

Poseidon laughs

Zargot says, "sorry about all the typos.. but fed went down when Genie looked like it was going to die"

Poseidon hopes Zar wasnt serious

"well once you get into this game it is addictive. i can't believe i spend so much time hauling.", says Lookout.

"Went down on what slowly?", asks Byterunner.

Zargot says, "the amount of people on"

Poseidon asks, "Wasnt that about the same time AOL was starting up though ?"

Zargot says, "it was very sad to see an average of 20 - 30 people anytime to go down to none"

Chiefsgirl remembers the first days of payFed

Zargot says, "yes a lot felt AOL fed killed Genie Fed.. i think it started a long time before"

"It was like that", Chiefsgirl says.

"AOL just put the nails in the coffin", says Zargot.

"True, but i think the years Fed had with AOL, while maybe not the most intense, had to be the largest this game ever or will ever get", says Poseidon.

"easily", says Zargot.

Poseidon says, "Then again, who knows, the web has potential equal or greater than AOL"

Zargot says, "i remember trying to get in on the free weekends back on genie"

"Well Fed finaly found the right place on the web.", says Byterunner.

"we had them fairly often", says Zargot.

"Yea that was fun.", says Byterunner.

"Specially before the stats stores", says Byterunner.

"but if i remember it counted back then", says Zargot.

Barb says, "it counted but we took all the planets out"

Poseidon asks, "No planets ?"

Barb smiles, "so it didn't make any difference"

Zargot says, "also i wonder how many here know about the planet sizes back then"

Poseidon remembered reading the original manuals when they put em on fed from genie

Chiefsgirl doesn't know about planet sizes

"planet sizes?", asks Lookout.

"Way tiny, plus as i recall, no instant changes", says Poseidon.

Poseidon says, "Besides, from everything ive ever heard, size isnt important .. <g>"

Barb says, "original planets were about 80 locs"

Zargot says, "well the number of locs were a lot less and when you promoted to Mining you were only left with a mini planet"

Zargot says, "your best 15 or so locs"

Barb nods at Zargot

"Poseidon it depends upon what we are talking about", says Alikat with a wink.

Zargot says, "sorry sometimes the numbers dont stick like they used to"

Poseidon thinks a fish should never respond to a kat and just kinda nods

"then we went to what we called Fed II and the new server", says Zargot.

"there are a lot of old friends who have come and gone and I miss them But I like the Fed of now", says Zargot.

"What do you like about it now?", Chiefsgirl asks.

"who knows what it will be like 6 months or a year from now.. prolly even better", says Zargot.

Zargot smiles, "Im a Duke now"

"So you have been through 3 generations and 3 formats ..", says Poseidon.

Zargot snickers

"3 generations and 3 formats if you include all of Genie as 1 format", says Zargot.

Zargot says, "i often think of the Genie years as a few formats"

Poseidon asks, "Same type growing pains as AOL version had ?"

Zargot says, "Delphi and Cris were also hooked to Fed on Genie for a while"

Zargot says, "so we had people from 3 different services"

"back then if you wanted another screen name you had to have another account", says Zargot.

"also there wasnt something called multi tasking", says Zargot.

"so if you played 2 characters at once you needed 2 computers and phone lines", says Zargot.

Chiefsgirl boggles

"wow that cost", says Lookout.

Poseidon thinks he doesnt have enough fins to manage all that

Zargot says, "i did well a few times for a while til i confused the computer i was using"

Lookout says, "you can use your tridant poseidon"

Poseidon asks, "So something that ive always wondered about, there was an Atlantis in Aries fed, any comparison or completley different ?"

Surfghost asks, "Wasn't there a "Surf" in aries fed?"

Zargot says, "completely different the old Atlantis never sank"

Zargot says, "Surf was the most popular place in the old fed"

"Well the other Duke just wasnt as mean as me i guess", says Poseidon.

Surfghost says, "Really? Thats cool."

Chiefsgirl laughs

Zargot says, "it had a place called the Ritz a spyproof room"

Surfghost asks, "There used to be a spyproof flag?"

Zargot says, "if you knew what to do once entering the room nobody could spy you"

"only one in all of fed", says Zargot.

"Barb could correct me on this but i do believe it was bid on by some of the most influential in Fed", says Zargot.

"a number a GIG crossed hands", says Zargot.

Zargot says, "well there were no IMS or ICQ or messenger"

"I'd love to have a room like that for the present-day Surf.", smiles Surfghost.

Zargot says, "sure back then the tourist time was a number of groats based on the tt"

Zargot says, "we all got it.. plus promoting to Mining was in part based on your total TT"

Barb says, "and yes the spyproof room was won by a HUGE high bid. It was an experiment, and we considered it a failure and won't ever do another one"

Poseidon wonders if the original version still exists

"well some did take it to an extreme", says Zargot.

Barb gazes at Surf and shrugs vaguely

"they were paranoid and never left", says Zargot.

"it was very anti-social. Whatever, Bella has declared never again, so that's it", says Barb.

Zargot says, "wouldnt do a digest without being in there"

Barb nods

"made couples suspicious of each other", says Barb.

Zargot says, "i would agree.. but Barb I do remember having a number of ahem social events in there"

Poseidon wonders if filling an official bribe list item might get a spyproof room

Chiefsgirl laughs and sees Barb's point

Barb says, "I'm sure you do, Zargot"

Barb smirks

"and we spied a LOT of people in there", says Barb.

Zargot always wondered if staff couldnt spy in there

Zargot says, "ack i new it"

"see, people are careless and sloppy and they would constantly forget the right way to go in there", says Barb.

Zargot turns 3 shades of purple

Poseidon laughs, how much for the logs Barb ?

"you had to leave the game and relog in", says Zargot.

"no Zargot... that's not the point. The point is. people were careless and PLAYERS spied them", says Barb.

"right, they were too eager to go there to remember to log out and in", says Barb.

"if you just entered the room you could still be spied", says Zargot.

"if you had someone spying you, it would just continue", says Barb.

Zargot says, "it did lend to lots of intrique at times"

Barb says, "Pose, I spy vastly less than you'd imagine"

Chiefsgirl never spies

Barb says, "Zargot, know who was an obsessive spyer? Tellurian"

Zargot says, "who can forget Tellurian"

Zargot says, "one of the better villains in Fed"

"Occy was the -worst- obsessive spyer I know tho", says Barb.

Poseidon even knows of Tell, man just exuded power and such,

"Least to a knew commander fish", says Poseidon.

"beats any I seen in fed since Genie", says Zargot.

"Occy drove me nuts with non-stop spying whe he was a higher rank than I", says Barb.

"so what was the alloys war? and i hear shaver has ALWAYS been like this, is that true?", asks Elin.

Zargot says, "always always always"

Zargot says, "my father complained about him all the time"

Barb says, "Shaver really has -nothing- to do with GEnie Fed"

Chiefsgirl wonders what shaver is like

Poseidon laughs, Shaver was'nt exactlly the originator or even the first involved

"involved in what?", Chiefsgirl asks.

Zargot says, "nothing at all but back in Droidium.. very true Posie"

Zargot says, "the Alloys war"

Barb says, "Shaver is an AOL Fed player"

Poseidon says, "I recall myself and your Dad, Exo having many discussions about it"

Barb passes round baby pictures of all the little Naugas

"'if my father was a little more forcefull he would have been in sol a few times", says Zargot.

Myangel looks at the pictures and passes them on

Zargot says, "My father was a softy"

Elin says, "they were separate questions really"

Poseidon says, "Arent they cute, tho hard to protect from weasels"

Chiefsgirl looks over the pictures and passes them

"makes the finest recliner covers", says Barb.

"the little Naugas were brought over from Genie", says Zargot.

Zargot says, "hence the planet name Naug"

Barb says, "I loved the Nauga thing"

Barb smiles, "I thought back then and still think it was a great joke"

"Naug spent some time in Atlantis, in fact on the old scrolls there is still mention of the Naug protection act", says Poseidon.

Zargot says, "and i tried to continue it from there I liked it"

Elin asks, "ok, i will ask.... what was a nauga exactly?"

"well not much of a joke if you knew where i am from", says Zargot.

"isn't it obvious what a Naug is?", asks Barb.

Poseidon smiles, "Well Nauga Hides were very valuable"

"not to me...", says Elin.

"where do you think genuine Naugahyde comes from?", asks Barb.

"the animals that the hides come from to make Naugahyde", says Zargot.

Chiefsgirl laughs

"oh duh", says Elin.

Zargot says, "in RL i happen to come from Naugatuck .. the town where Naughyde was developed"

"it was one of our favorites on GEnie", says Barb.

Poseidon asks, "So the planet Naug from Naugatuck, home of naugahyde ?"

Zargot says, "yup but i came up with the kind and gentle animal Naugas"

Zargot asks, "gee did i just blow the image here?"

Elin asks, "what was the image?"

"So what ya think of the evil weasel who used to poach Naugas ?", asks Poseidon.

"in my mind Naugas ae very real.. like the wee people and fairies", smiles Zargot.

"some people over the years believed me when i told them about the animal", says Zargot.

Elin asks, "they are kind and gentle?"

Zargot says, "oh yes"

Elin says, "so who skins them...."

"in fact unless a Nauga hyde is harvested after it dies from natural causes it is ruined", says Zargot.

Elin says, "ok answers that question"

"that is all a secret and im not allowed to discuss the actual means", says Zargot.

Elin says, "ah"

"but they grow to a very old age and are often thought of as pets", says Zargot.

"And they make great door stops too", says Poseidon.

Chiefsgirl laughs

"and Poco just loves em .. i mean she really loves em", says Zargot.

Zargot says, "then when she tires of them .. she BBQ's them"

Poseidon says, "That she does .. silly weasel"

"oh my", Chiefsgirl says.

Zargot says, "Atlantis had a statement in the link"

"Still does i believe", says Poseidon.

Poseidon goes to check

Zargot says, "Naugs were under strict export control"

Poseidon has just vanished.

"silly Duke he doesn't remember", says Zargot.

***** Not Duke of Stadium ***** Poseidon has just arrived.

Poseidon says, "nope .."

Zargot says, "took it out"

"Yeah, when i started rebuilding the lost continents", says Poseidon.

Chiefsgirl smiles, "Well, I would like to thank you, Duke Zargot, for being our guest tonight"

"I really enjoyed it, thank you for asking", says Zargot.

Chiefsgirl smiles, "And I hope you'll all come again next week when Duke Chasroll will be here"

Poseidon mentions the Duchy of Zar web site

Chiefsgirl loves the duchy of Zar website

Zargot says, "yup its in the Zar link"

Zargot says, "i should fill in some of the pages"

"wow most i been in CD's in years", says Zargot.

"Thank you again, Zargot", Chiefsgirl smiles.


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