ex Nightdroid
You see a 2-ton grungy black metal bipedal droid with glowing blue eyes. A small red LED display on its chest blinks the message CLICK HERE TO BE IGNORED ->, with a small button to the right.
Nightdroid is wearing a pegasus medallion. The polished obsidian medallion shows a pegasus rampant. This ancient symbol of arbitrary violence is believed to provide some protection against pirates. It hangs on a white gold chain.

Jessecka exclaims, "Welcome everyone to tonight's Meet and Greet!"

Jessecka exclaims, "our guest tonight is Nightdroid!"

Nightdroid asks, "Oh right, that's me isn't it?"

Quantafel politely applauds.

Djentsch claps and says "I'm surprised that his ship still flew

Jessecka winks, "you hear him on the comms all the time, but unless you venture underground, you don't often see him ;)"

Annabel faints at the sight

Occy says, "He walked"

Stirling claps wildly.

Jessecka smiles, "thank you for staying up late and joining us tonight ND :)"

Nightdroid says, "You're welcome"

Jessecka asks, "Ok, let's start with your classic life......when and how did you get started in Fed?"

Walking on eggshells, Cup has just arrived.

Occy sniffs the air and gets a funny face

Nightdroid says, "Some time around september 1993, when it was still on GEnie's mainframes"

Cup pulls up a chair in the back and orders a drink

Nightdroid says, "So I guess I have been playing Fed for just a bit over 12 years now"

Jessecka smiles.

Squeeky pushes the button on the front of nightdroid thats says do not push

Nightdroid says, "I saw one of the house ads for "Federation II. Adult Space Fantasy." and then did something totally unheard of -- I read the manual"

Neecerie exclaims, "no!"

Jessecka gasps.

Cup gasps

Nightdroid says, "And after reading the manual I thought it looked like a fun game, so I tried it."

Annabel faints again at the thought

Nightdroid says, "And the rest, as they say, is history"

Quantafel drawls, "unclean.. unclean..."

Icey wonders if he didnt mean manuel the person ;)

Jessecka says, "so, can you tell us some about Genie fed? Most of us here have only heard of it"

Occy thinks that ND does have a lot of dirt on him now

Djentsch chuckles

Nightdroid says, "Well, the technical limitations of the system had a much bigger influence back then, for one thing."

Jessecka nods.

Annabel remembers the GEnie days

Nightdroid says, "To give you some idea, the whole game had to fit into 1 MB of memory, so there were only a few planets that could be in the game at once"

Jessecka says, "wow"

Jessecka asks, "how many players do you think were around back then?"

Nightdroid says, "But other than that, the game itself was really a lot like what you may have seen on Aries, AOL, or Fed 1 on the web."

Cristi says, "huh. didn't know that"

Icey says, "me either.. aol days was my taste of fed.."

Nightdroid says, "I seem to recall we thought 30 players online at once was pretty good"

Occy nods

Nightdroid winks, "Though the joke was there were really only 20 players in total, all the rest were alts ;)"

Cristi says, "yeah.. I remember paying hourly for fed.. that was spendy"

Annabel exclaims, "CD's was always packed, though!"

Nightdroid says, "Oh yes, when I started playing I think it was $8/hour"

Annabel says, "yeah...$1000 in one month"

Jessecka exclaims, "oh my!"

Jdcollins says, "ouch"

Djentsch says, "nice phone bill"

Nightdroid says, "It was worth it though mostly because I found a bunch of people to hand out with who were all complete lunatics."

Occy says, "that was the price of GEnie in those days"

Cristi says, "I never got to 1000, but I did get to about 300 once"

Annabel says, "$1000 was the month I made Squire"

Nightdroid says, "So I fit in well with them."

Cristi agrees with Nightdroid

Jessecka grins.

Nightdroid says, "Except for the Russian Judge, who always had it in for me"

Jessecka asks, "why is that?"

Nightdroid winks, "People can research the Fed news from 1993 if they want to know that one ;)"

Jessecka giggles.

Occy says, "ND we try to forget some things"

Jessecka asks, "Ok, so you moved with Fed as it moved, or did you take a break?"

Nightdroid says, "I moved with it."

Nightdroid says, "In fact it was the reason why I opened an AOL account"

Nightdroid winks, "And when AOL kicked them off, that was the reason why I closed my AOL account ;)"

Jessecka asks, "were you able to stay in contact with a lot of the original players?"

Nightdroid says, "Incidentally that's how I ended up with the name Nightdroid... it was about the 20th screen name I tried for AOL, and the first one it didn't turn into a license-plate looking thing with a load of numbers at the end"

Jessecka giggles.

Cristi laughs

Jdcollins says, "lol"

Nightdroid says, "Well there is a core group I have stayed in touch with, yes... Bella and Freya obviously, but a few others as well who don't play any more"

Icey snickers.. i remember those days..

Leostada says, "I've been fortunate that way"

Nightdroid says, "I met a bunch of Fed players at an UnCon in Washington, DC and I'm good friends in real life with a few people I met there."

Jessecka nods.

Jessecka asks, "having watched the game evolve with each move, and then being revamped into Fed2, what do you feel are some of the improvements made to the game over the years?"

Nightdroid says, "I think they've done pretty well at keeping up with the changing culture of the player community"

Nightdroid says, "As well as just the changes in player numbers, which got up into the 100's on AOL at one point"

Nightdroid says, "The big changes have been in this new Fed2 of course, from what I recall of all the moves to different systems, they spent a lot of effort just porting the code from one system to another"

Jessecka nods.

Squeeky hops back up on the bar next to nightdroid

Nightdroid says, "I like the direction they are going with Fed2 to have the economic stuff more in the lower ranks and work better generally"

Nightdroid says, "The new infrastructure for maps and events and so on is really great, much better than the old setup, but I don't think most people have had a chance to see it yet"

Nightdroid winks, "Other than by wandering around Sol and seeing what they did with it ;)"

Jessecka smiles.

Squeeky buys nightdroid a can of 10w 30

Jessecka winks, "Remembering back to AOL, and the times when player numbers reached way up there, you didn't ever throw any wild fed larties did you? ;)"

Jessecka says, "whoops, parties I mean"

Jessecka blushes.

Nightdroid asks, "You mean parties in the game, or in real life?"

Icey snickers something about typos and icey..

Jessecka smiles, "both is you want to tell about them :)"

Nightdroid says, "I think the UnCon they had at a hotel in New York was during the peak of the AOL years"

Nightdroid says, "There were a lot of Fed people there and IB was paying for the drinks. So their bank manager must have had a heart attack when the bill arrived."

Jdcollins says, "lol"

Jessecka laughs.

Jessecka winks, "that's kinda scarey, drunk fedders ;)"

Nightdroid says, "But really the wild party was that UnCon I mentioned in DC, the first one I went to--drove 12 hours to get there to meet a bunch of people I'd only spoken to online."

Nightdroid says, "Some of whom were quite disappointed to find out I was not actually a hot blonde 18 year old girl in real life"

Occy says, "LOL"

Cristi laughs

Furgas says, "i was shattered the whole weekend"

Jessecka giggles.

Occy nocked his ashtray on the floor on that one

Jessecka smiles, "Ok guys, I'm going to open the floor to questions. If you want to ask a question, please raise your hand. :)"

Jessecka winks, "don't look at them so mean ND, they are scared to ask questions ;)"

Occy raises hand

Nightdroid laughs

Jessecka asks, "Occy?"

Occy asks, "ND what was your frist name in Fed?"

Nightdroid says, "I played a character called Tabby for the first few years"

Nightdroid winks, "Most people knew right away I was doing some serious role-playing with that, but a few people didn't, or didn't want to know. ;)"

Jessecka grins.

Occy says, "yup whyand all that cat things"

Nightdroid winks, "Well there was a lot of confusion about that... she wasn't a cat, she was a human with a prehensile tail ;)"

Jessecka sighs, and reaches for an Occy to english dictionary.

Nightdroid says, "How anybody could imagine that was the real me, I don't know."

Jessecka giggles.

Nightdroid asks, "Perhaps people might like to know what it is I actually do?"

Occy says, "I was sad that I could never make any of the UnCon"

Cristi says, "yes"

Jessecka smiles, "sure ND :)"

Nightdroid says, "For a little while I was in charge of organizing the testing team"

Nightdroid says, "This was after I had been playing for a few years of course"

Nightdroid winks, "Anyone who has tried to do something like that will know it's a tremendous amount of work though, so I had to give that up eventually since I have a life, also ;)"

Leostada nods

Nightdroid says, "After they moved to the web, IB lost their original system administrator and another player stepped in to do that."

Nightdroid says, "But that is also a tremendous amount of work, so he had to give that up eventually. So then I took over that role for a while."

Nightdroid says, "At this point they don't actually need a lot of system administration so I help out when there are emergencies, but otherwise things are left alone as much as is practical."

Nightdroid says, "So my role is now to sit in the Lucky 7 and make sarcastic remarks, which I seem to be ideally suited for."

Jessecka smiles, "yes you are :)"

Jessecka has given Nightdroid a tender tickle.

Annabel asks, "Do you like Lucky 7 better than the old CD's?"

Nightdroid says, "No, that's just where my friends hang out"

Jessecka asks, "anyone else have a question?"

Jessecka winks, "you must be scaring them again ;)"

Nightdroid winks, "I think so. Or else I'm really boring and they've all fallen asleep. ;)"

Jessecka giggles.

Furgas says, "huh what im awake mommy"

Stirling raises hand.

Jessecka asks, "Stirling?"

Leostada fidgets in his seat "I never sleep"

Stirling asks, "What was, in your opinion, the best and worst of classic and the best and worst of 2 so far?"

Nightdroid says, "I really loved the promotion puzzles in classic."

Annabel says, "yeah...the quests were pretty good...especially the Mars Ruins"

Nightdroid says, "It was great to get a couple of people to help you with them, and finally get all the details right, and then something extremely cool would happen"

Cristi agrees

Stirling asks, "Do you think the changes in 2 have made the game more or less socially geared and why?"

Nightdroid says, "The worst might have been spybeams, but only in hindsight."

Furgas used his spybeam to keep an eye on his alts

Quantafel loved spybeams

Leostada says, "they certainly wreaked havoc"

Nightdroid says, "As for Fed 2... I'm sure the best thing is going to turn out to be the new events system since there's so much cool stuff that can be done with it. And I haven't seen anything in Fed2 yet that I don't like."

Icey loved his beams.. and loved being tanned too ;)

Nightdroid says, "It's tough to say what the changes in Fed2 have done for the social aspects of the game, because it's not finished yet. I hope to see more features implemented that encourage player interaction."

Furgas loved his beam it help him get unlost in the duke puzzle

Nightdroid says, "I've always felt the point of a game like this is to play with (or against) other players rather than against the machine."

Nightdroid says, "So anything that requires players to co-operate or compete is going to be a good thing, probably."

Annabel smiles, "space battles were one of the best parts of Fed Classic...at lease once you pasted the rank of Captain :)"

Nightdroid nods

Cristi nods

Nightdroid says, "I was pretty bad at fighting but occasionally newbods would log on and try to beat me up"

Annabel drawls, "I miss my old ship...it was pretty well armed..."

Nightdroid winks, "Which was always amusing as any player of reasonable rank could afford a battleship armed to the teeth ;)"

Cristi smiles

Jessecka grins.

Furgas misses watching fancy sent him to the hostipal every fighting event

Occy used to love hope and care

Jessecka asks, "anyone else before we wrap it up for the night?"

Jessecka says, "well, since no one else has asked it, and it has to be done, tell us about your most embarrassing moment in Fed."

Nightdroid winks, "Hmm... I have to think about that because I'm pretty shameless. ;)"

Jessecka laughs.

Jdcollins asks, "yeah?"

Nightdroid says, "But it was probably the moment I found out there was such a thing as a spybeam"

Occy says, " know ND was never in any of my dutchies"

Jessecka giggles.

Nightdroid says, "Which was on the first day"

Nightdroid says, "But I was already married before I found that out"

Fancy grins.

Jessecka grins.

Fancy winks, "And enjoying the "privileges" of marriage. ;)"

Nightdroid says, "That damn Russian judge"

Nightdroid says, "I never had a planet in old Fed, Occy"

Nightdroid says, "I got as far as Journeyperson and then decided to become lazy."

Jessecka laughs.

Occy asks, "ND do you remember the name of the Dutchy that Looney Had?"

Nightdroid says, "I remember Looney but not the name of the dutchy, no."

Stirling asks, "Do you remember Pan, and have you kept up with him?"

Nightdroid says, "I also remember inventing the Occy-to-English translator"

Occy says, "That was me and it had a spyproof room so he always got the"

Nightdroid frowns, "Sorry, don't remember pan :("

Occy says, "yup you did"

Occy says, "and always and still on my case for my typing"

Nightdroid grins

Jessecka giggles.

Nightdroid says, "Not too many players mis-spelled their own name, Occy."

Icey snickers has a feeling occy is like me with typos..

Jessecka laughs and points at Icey!

Cup says, "Do you remember Sparhawk? I think he goes back to Genie Fed."

Nightdroid says, "Yes"

Occy says, "on typos I am the best and the left out words"

Jdcollins mispelled company name ::looks around innocently::

Cup always got a kixk out of his respecful bows ;)

Cup says, "kick"

Jessecka remembers Icey mispelling his name and wondering why he logged in as a groundhog again.

Icey snickers and says shush..

Furgas is glad he has beating his typo stage

Cup says, "beaten"

Jessecka says, "Ok, I know it's late for ND, so let's finish up guys"

Neecerie asks, "and just entered the bad grammar stage?"

Icey wonders where nd lives?

Nightdroid says, "Canada"

Nightdroid says, "The Great White North"

Nightdroid says, "We're just beginning our 6 months of darkness"

Occy says, "the great poor norht"

Icey says, "ahh.. its only 11 pm :-p"

Nightdroid says, "I have crossed the border into the US a bunch of times to help IB move their servers around"

Nightdroid winks, "Which is always a fun experience ;)"

Jessecka asks, "what do you do for a living in real life ND?"

Occy asks, "How was it fun?"

Neecerie remembers hearing about that guy with the chainsaw ....

Nightdroid says, "I used to be a programmer/network engineer/database designer type of person. Now I manage such people instead (which means I don't know anything any more)"

Nightdroid winks, "Occy, it was fun moving servers because nothing ever goes according to plan ;)"

Jessecka giggles.

Occy says, "how true"

Nightdroid says, "Also driving around New York with basically IB's entire computer infrastructure in my car was... exciting."

Furgas says, "glad yo did not get carjacked"

Crazuy wonders how big the servers are.. and where they keep them ;)

Jessecka laughs.

Occy says, "but in those days it wasn't that much as I remember"

Djentsch knows those answers

Nightdroid says, "There used to be a bunch of HP machines, which they still have... and they are very big and heavy."

Anonymizz exclaims, "How DID you avoid the potholes?!"

Nightdroid says, "But that's all for the old stuff, the new stuff that Fed2 runs on is just PC-based servers like most of everything else these days."

Nightdroid says, "Pizza box sized things"

Furgas asks, "blades?"

Nightdroid says, "The old ones are like one of those mini-fridges just about."

Occy nods

Nightdroid says, "Driving in New York is easy once you realize 2 things: anything behind you does not count, and anything done while honking the horn is legal."

Crazuy says, "well i suppose the room size for servers droped allot.."

Nightdroid says, "The servers fit into a standard cabinet now."

Crazuy snickers..

Fancy grins and chuckles.

Nightdroid winks, "Not easily but they fit ;)"

Jessecka asks, "anymore questions before we end this evening?"

Occy is glad he lives on the west coast of the americas

Stirling says, "When are we going to get multi color text in Fedterm :P"

Furgas says, "when will planets go in"

Jessecka sighs.

Squeeky smiles, "what does the big button on the front of nightdroid do? :)"

Nightdroid says, "Those would be good questions for Bella I think... I'm not involved in the programming aspect of Fed."

Occy asks, "when can I break the game?"

Furgas says, "i know ND i just had to ask"

Nightdroid grins

Jessecka winks, "guys guys, hello, this is ND, king of sarcasm, not the great demi-goddess ;)"

Stirling says, "Yeah, had to ask"

Nightdroid says, "Although if Bella was here, she would say "Before Christmas..." and everybody knows she never says which year."

Occy says, "I want Wait to work again"

Stirling says, "LOL"

Nightdroid says, "Wait was great"

Furgas says, "or which century"

Fancy says, "Though there is a chance it could be this year."

Fancy says, "With three months left."

Nightdroid says, "I rememeber getting stuck on the train on venus when everybody started typing wait while I was on it"

Occy says, "I had more fun with Wait with people on the venus shuttle"

Nightdroid asks, "See?"

Fancy grins.

Occy says, "it most likly was me"

Nightdroid says, "Yes"

Nightdroid says, "For those who may not know, you used the wait command to make the train go to the next station."

Nightdroid says, "But it did that when anybody in the game, anywhere, typed wait."

Nightdroid says, "So if you were mean like Occy, you would wait for someone to get on the train and then make it go 2000 MPH"

Jdcollins asks, "really?"

Jessecka laughs!

Occy nods

Jdcollins asks, "does that work in fed2?"

Fancy remembers when someone tried to use wait while he was using the shuttle in an exploration event to try to throw him off, but he got off where he needed to. :)

Furgas says, "i use to use wait"

Occy says, "even long time player could never figure it oput"

Jdcollins winks, "I just sit there waiting lol didn't know a command would make it go faster ;)"

Nightdroid nods

Nightdroid says, "I didn't either, at the time"

Fancy says, "That doesn't work here, though."

Jdcollins says, "oh doh"

Nightdroid says, "No, and it's probably just as well."

Jdcollins says, "lol"

Nightdroid says, "People had 1200 baud connections back then, imagine how fast you could make it go now."

Furgas says, "would make aks go faster tho"

Jdcollins thinks about Jessecka playing a trick on me and getting stuck on train ::hurls::

Occy eyes light up

Jdcollins thinks she wants to pay me back for those MGs she lost yesterday ;)

Jessecka winks, "yea, you cost me last night Jd ;)"

Occy says, "I used to pick on the long time players the most cause they where so dumd some time"

Icey says, "well jess helped me out.."

Icey snickers... and points to the he was booted sign..

Nightdroid asks, "Anyone else with a question?"

Nightdroid winks, "Don't be shy ;)"

Jessecka says, "thank you ND for joining us tonight"

Neecerie claps for ND

Occy smiles

Jessecka smiles, "and thanks to everyone for coming out :)"

Nightdroid says, "Thanks everybody for coming. I hope I didn't bore you to death."

Stirling claps wildly,

Neecerie dies

Stirling says, "Thanks ND"

Occy says, "you too funny to be boring ND"

Jessecka smiles, "Everyone remember, Meet and Greet will be back in two weeks at its new time, 4pm eastern :)"

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