Greetings all! Like I said in the LESIGS thread, the overwhelming number of good words I got was so stagerring that I decided to resubscribe for the last days of MxO. My pause from the game finally lasted only 2 months, but there wasn't a day where I didn't go look at the forum.

I decided to come back to say a last thanks to the important persons, and maybe to give those who are interested a bare it all behind-the-scenes look on what was my life as a LESIG member, and maybe who I was. My work here is done, so I don't mind finally revealing myself not through a persona! It might be long and full of useless stuff that you don't care about, but I do that mostly for the people that I worked for and with that never had a chance to really know me, even if we spent hundred of hours together! I hope this doesn't come out as anything egoistical; it's just that I feel that I have a good story to tell and never had a chance to do it!

It will span over a couple of days, and I'll try to bring a new part daily. I think the sections will be:

1: Who I am + Starting MxO
2: Harpalos
3: Starting the LESIG
4: Barakoa
5: Vogt
6: Live Events
7: Hovercraft Battles
8: Salutations

Hope you enjoy!

Section 1: Who I am + Starting MxO

My name's Eric and I come from Québec, Canada. French is my first language, but I started very early to get immersed in English thanks to BASIC programming books for my VIC-20, and NES games. I do consider myself fully billingual, with a good English vocabulary, but a french-inspired syntax, and a flawed English accent. I mostly work all day in English, as an IT engineer. I am also a part time teacher in J2EE Web Development. I studied in multimedia (I loved web development, but was horrible in everything artistic), and got my engineering university degree in IT. So yeah, all the fancy web applications and Java programs, they were because it's where my programming roots are!

And well, to those who wonder what kind of personality I have, I am a very curious person that loves learning about everything. I think that some of the events I did showed that I like drawing inspiration from a large array of sources! I'm a very social person, with a good sense of humor. I don't fear telling what's on my mind, and I have an opinion on everything. I'm a home-brewer, a wine-lover, a fisherman. I have a wild imagination, and I am very passionated toward the things, or people, I like.

Gaming-wise, I was mostly a tabletop roleplay gamer, mostly with 7th Sea, Deadlands, but mostly, Shadowrun. I've been gamemastering since forever, and my friends know me for my twisted storylines. I even became a scenario writer for this game, and just like for MxO, I liked to write scenarios which were truly original. Cyberpunk settings are easy for me to write for since the line between reality and fantasy is so thin that both realities can mesh up easily. I did stop working for Shadowrun to concentrate on MxO, but I might continue if I'm wanted, and if there's nothing that fills in the story writer void in my life since I left MxO.

But well, time being what it was, friends grow up and move away, so videogames were a good alternative to tabletop RPGs. Nowadays, my videogaming time is divided between Warhammer Online and Team Fortress 2, but I'm still always looking for good single-player RPGs. My real passion however is boardgaming. I have a nice collection, and just loves to gather with people and play loads of different games. The quality and quantity of fun to be had is tremendous, and it is an amazing social activity. My passion for boardgaming has been a huge inspiration for many of the mini-games I created for MxO, such as the Hovercraft Battles.

But well, it takes opponents to play boardgames. And while you can play them without the commitment required for tabletop RPGs, and that computer RPGs are good, but where players are just actors and don't contribute much, I was curious with the world of MMOs. I had seen Ultima Online or Everquest before, and I thought it was horrible. First, it was high fantasy worlds and I'm not interested in them at all (ok, before you ask, yes I play Warhammer Online, and this is just because I've been playing the tabletop miniature game and the RPG for years!), but also because it looked to me that the goal of the game was like Diablo: kill stuff until you get better loot.

I don't remember how I heard of MxO frankly. I wasn't following the game much. But one day, I learned that the characters of the movies would be in game, and most important, the players would shape the story. I did love the opportunity that it showed, and I got hooked. The demo Sentinels that were published during beta had a huge impact on me, with their enigmas, the double-sense, the doors opened to players. I preordered the game, but also, bought a new computer because my Pentium 3 450mhz was great to play Fallout or XCOM, but I needed something better for Matrix Online. I might have skipped the beta test, but I was ready for it, with my good machine, built uniquely by using MxO's recommended hardware. I would eventually regret this, but this is for another story!

Section 2 - Harpalos



Coming into the Matrix preorder launch with my freshly obtained computer, I was ready for all. I had a name picked, my organization, a background, everything, even the server! I'd pick Linenoise, because that was voted as the non-official roleplay server. I would be a Merovingian because it fits my personality better, and I would play a pacifist more interested in intellectual progress. Obviously, I learned quickly that finding an original name that doesn't involve random numbers is harder than it looked! I settled on a different one, Harpalos, and made a few changes to the background I had.

Basically, I would be a French Canadian (allowing me to explain my bad English) that works for the Merovingian because his dream would be to be left alone and to use the Matrix as a way to learn more, as he was an antisocial bookworm. The background was really well fleshed out right before entering into the game for the first time, apart for the name! Being a fan of military history, I picked up Harpalos as my name. He was responsible of keeping the treasury of his friend Alexander the Great, but eventually betrayed him and kept it for himself. He's a very Merv-like character in antiquity, manipulative and betraying.

In the early days of MxO, I was extremely busy to set up my pieces on the chessboard of influences. Linenoise was a very political place, and I totally loved it! My first partner in arms was someone called Darthlink, and we eventually ended up meeting someone named SysOpt who was our first faction leader, in The Purged, and eventually, Le Concile. And this is where I met my puzzles partner, ZaneZavin, who's still here and which whom I'm still in touch!



Early on Linenoise, the LET was doing a terrific job in planting seeds of chaos in the complex web of Linenoise. I was very active in the Merovingian organization, both in LET or player events. With us and CVC as the most active Mervs, The Enigma Directive, Omega Syndicate and Winter Brood, and Tetragrammaton for Machines, we had a great community there and had crazy fun, and of course, drama.

Eventually, the server merges arrived and the LET had to go. Welcome to Syntax! We then merged with a few important factions of this time to create Consequence, lead by Staticzero. Yeah, this is the Consequence from the signature I never cared to change. We were small, but still, very active in the roleplay, and the other people were taking care of the PVP, something which I never did except for player events. I did organize a couple, and I loved going off the tracks. My favorite one was the Avatar arc, for which I had created many original sub-events and original challenges, and some forum roleplay. I also created some nice header images for subchapters, which I am still really proud of!

This was also the introduction of my alt: Kuchenko. He was a Merv Blood Drinker, Flood wannabee. Pretty much a megalomaniac, despicable, human hating loser that I was using to do some fun roleplay, but mostly, to host player events since instructions had to come from somewhere! This was my LO before they actually existed, and some of you might remember the name since I tied up the loose ends by having him as the "mastermind" in my finishing storyline as Vogt!

And I cannot finish talking about who was I as a non-LESIG member without talking about my friend, Caillech. I met her quite randomly, and I think that she liked that I was articulate. We started talking about books, and eventually, my never-had-a-girlfriend character got one :/ Caillech is a great woman and I was glad to have her both as an in-game and out of game friend. Our roleplay was totally not the kind I was comfortable with, even as experienced as I was. I had to play with feelings that weren't mine. It made sense for the character to have a partner, but not for me! Anyway, things eventually faded out and I kind of totally abandonned my main to focus on the LESIG, but well! Our greatest heritage to Matrix is probably our collaborative story on EDEN, some nearly 50000 words-long story where we would each in turn write a few paragraphs, without talking to each other. It was surprisingly good, but good luck to anyone that actually wants to read it all!

http://caillechandharpalos.pbworks.com/FrontPage

*Scans down the story page.*

Good grief. How long did that take to write? That's probably more than my faction's RP put together.  Well, nearly.

Procurator wrote:

*Scans down the story page.*

Good grief. How long did that take to write? That's probably more than my faction's RP put together.  Well, nearly.

With about one update each week for each one of us, it started from July 2006 and finished in February 2007.

If you read this, Vogt, then it means you're not working. Get back to work. 

Section 3 - Starting the LESIG

In the second half of 2005, Aether (I think) hinted about the project to build a team of people who would help the LET to create their events. From what I remembered, they wanted the feedback of players on past and upcoming events, so that they can offer better events to the community. The Live Events Special Interest Group would be some volunteer advisors, with no real role in the game. The recruitment had started and interested persons had to fill out a form with many questions on who we were, and what was our view on events. Mine was mostly talking about how I loved organizing player events and how I'd like to give more importance to player events. Alas, the LET was disbanded, but Walrus didn't abandon the LESIG. In December, a few days before Christmas, I received my very unexpected answer. We now had a special section in the forum.

We had some very vague rules about confidentiality about discussions. And I remember very well how no one, not even the devs and Walrus, had any idea of what was our role. This sure did last for a while!
Our first assignment arrived a few days after the start. It came from Paul Chadwick, who wanted to have a feature on 100 interesting locations in the Matrix. So we spent time to take screenshots and post them, but we never got any answer about it. Apart for that, we would discuss about what we liked in events, but this was mostly a conversation between ourselves.

Eventually, Rarebit bagan to understand how we could make his job easier, and help him throw impromptu events. Innocently, he asked us if we wanted to do some sexy hostesses for a Merovingian party. He gave us nice dresses, and we went in game with him to entertain the players. They sure did like our performance! I was playing some pale skinned Asian, and I remember being hit on a lot, and flirting with some girl there, who really wanted me. Weird and kinky.

Starting from there, we started to have some minor roles in events, but it was rarely something with big responsabilities toward the storyline. My first solo assignment was a small event where a bluepill girl named NurseOwens who saw something about the vials that everybody was looking for then. She was brought in the white room with Agent Pace and was interrogated. I don't remember what happened after that, and probably her too!



The LESIG was going well, and we were striving to find things to keep us busy. Rarebit would rarely give us assignments, and very important thing: back then, we didn't know anything more than the players regarding the storyline. We would see the cinematics at the same time as everybody else, and try to figure things with it. Following the General's offer to assist Zion, we proposed Rarebit to play commandos that would be trained by Zion and would then help them. This was very interesting! Players were basically instructed to help us level. My commando was PvtMorris, on Syntax. I would spend a lot of hours being trained with some, and have great fun bringing a military dynamic into the game. We had very few pointers on how to play them, but I think we did well in improvising stuff!





Through the weeks, we gained Rarebit's trust, and he would listen to our propositions. When the first 3 Unlimit appeared (Casque, Azul, Andromeda), he brought us an interesting details, that would be like honey to my ears: we don't care about these guys, but they have to die. We had to find how. I quickly took the task for myself, as I wasn't that busy then playing a liaison officer, who had recently started. I had a good deal of freedom to propose a solution to Rarebit, and I had finally a chance to display my skills in event writing!

What I did is create 3 encrypted message meant from Anome to his 3 lieutenants. On each server, they would have to track their assigned Unlimit. I was surprised by how quick a player cracked the encryption algorithm, which wasn't that trivial with some bit manipulation! For the first 2, it went well, but when it was time for Andromeda on Syntax, they would have installed a security system to prevent her elimination. So for this one, the players would need to hack through a system with a series of puzzles that would unlock the next one. These puzzles required all kinds of skills. TasteeWheat managed to unlock the final one, and had to send an email to deactivate the security system. Andromeda was then tracked in the Matrix, and killed for good.





Unlike everybody, the Unlimit chapter was my favorite simply because of the freedom that we had. Rarebit and Chadwick didn't have anything to do with them, and the minimal details on them would provide us guidelines to build on. This was perfect ground for creativity, and it made regret later the heavily scripted chapters that we had more toward the end!

Harpalos-mxo wrote:

Starting from there, we started to have some minor roles in events, but it was rarely something with big responsabilities toward the storyline. My first solo assignment was a small event where a bluepill girl named NurseOwens who saw something about the vials that everybody was looking for then. She was brought in the white room with Agent Pace and was interrogated. I don't remember what happened after that, and probably her too!

   I'd never even heard of this one until now.  Which characters here are LESIG?  I recognize BugSweep.

   Edit: Oh, and MtrWhite, of course.

Othinn1 wrote:

Harpalos-mxo wrote:

Starting from there, we started to have some minor roles in events, but it was rarely something with big responsabilities toward the storyline. My first solo assignment was a small event where a bluepill girl named NurseOwens who saw something about the vials that everybody was looking for then. She was brought in the white room with Agent Pace and was interrogated. I don't remember what happened after that, and probably her too!

 

   I'd never even heard of this one until now.  Which characters here are LESIG?  I recognize BugSweep.

   Edit: Oh, and MtrWhite, of course.

Sorry Othinn... I really don't remember much about this event. On my other screenshots, the chat isn't really telling much, apart for a screenshot where Pace came to pick me and hugged me.

Section 4 - Barakoa

The initiative of liaison officers by Rarebit was initially to help communication with the players. Communication from Rarebit to the players wasn't what it was at the end, and if I remember correctly, it was quite difficult back then to get messages accross, in both sides. So he asked us if we would like to become his semi-official link with the organizations. It was a great idea, but I wasn't too thrilled right from the start. I did propose in fact to have Kuchenko act as a liaison officer for the Syntax Merovingians, but he came out with the rule that we shouldn't be LOs for our own organization. And anyway, my character was known by some, but well, I never was a fan of the LESIG's secret identities. I would have liked to have an OOC link with the players, to get feedback, to be able to actually defend ourselves when our actions were questionned on the forums, but well!

I was busy with some projects when the assignments were done, but I eventually decided to have a LO of my own. I picked up the Recursion Cypherites for the challenge. It was an organization I was totally alien with, and I wanted something original. And Viraconrida seemed like a nice person to work with! I also did like the multiple facets of the organization, represented by Veil and Cryptos.

I decided to go with something totally against the flow. I would create an African with values totally different from the typical mentality. All of it would be alien, to show that this person doesn't belong to this world, just like how the place of humans should be asleep, in the simulation, and not hacking through it. My goal would be to make him as much as a culture shock as I could.

To make him look alien, his outfit would be out of place. He had a terrible fashion sense, with only some shorts and a coat that he was given thereafter. He would also wear no shoes, since anyway, he didn't like them much in his home village, and now he would see it as a form of punishment for his actions.

Basically, his background story was that he came from Zanzibar, an island on the coast of Tanzania, in western Africa. It was a tradepost between the British Empire and the Ottoman Empire, and thus it is a traditionalist muslim population mixed with British roots. He had 3 wives, and a family of 16 children. He was acting as a municipal councillor for his small village. He got recruited by Zion for his skills, and because he started to figure out that his life wasn't normal, with his huge familial burden. He took the redpill and joined Zion. However, it took him very few time before figuring out how stupid that decision was. And there was no turning back. He lost all that mattered to him for a fight that he didn't care for. He then joined the Cypherites so that he could prevent others from doing this mistake. The Matrix would be his punishment, and he'd seek redemption for his selfishness. He took the name Barakoa, masked, in Swahili, the language spoken in Zanzibar.

Since I came after Viraconrida, things were already started and going fine there. I was bringing more dimension in the organization, and it was really fun! Rarebit also started then do give us the opportunity to do monthly live events, so it was great! I did only 2 as Barakoa, the first one being a meeting with Cryptos. But the second one stays as one of my favorite events ever. Anome was the annoying guy back then, and as I said in the last section, Rarebit wasn't giving us any storyline details back then, so we had to come out with stuff. I proposed a story where Anome would be meeting with Robert Kendell, a redpill potential that is candidate for mayor. He would try to recruit him, and Cypherites would have heard about it and try to prevent him. In the end, the guy's mind snapped, and he went running away. He was hit by a car, and died. The thread that followed was probably the first heated debate following a LESIG event! But the think that made it even better for me was that less than a week after, Anome and Unlimit came out of hiding. I like to think how the Cypherites might have prevented the recruitment of an Unlimit, and how that event, by pure luck, a LESIG written event fit perfectly in the logic in the storyline!



But well, Barakoa had to stop eventually. We got the forum leaks, and my identity was revealed. Viraconrida was doing a great job by herself, and I knew that my crazy background was maybe not something Rarebit would be comfortable with. The thing is that Rarebit had a policy to not deal with our LOs backgrounds. And Barakoa's background felt maybe too overpresent for my tastes. The LESIG left the SOE forum, and moved on temporarily to a forum I set in place, the Shelter.

Fun anecdote: I once fell asleep while I was hosting a meeting with some Cypherites. Seeing the chat when I woke up was awkward. At least, they didn't wait for me.

I'm glad you didn't leave just because I called him "Barbara" all the time...

I did have some basis for it though!  I swear!  Since everything I looked up for that name suggested that it was a ceremonial mask either of a woman, or a mask that women wore in the middle east and northern Africa.

It's too bad he got outed, because it certainly seemed like an interesting character concept.  Then we all wondered what happened.

Harpalos-mxo wrote:

I once fell asleep while I was hosting a meeting with some Cypherites.

This.

Procurator wrote:

Harpalos-mxo wrote:

I once fell asleep while I was hosting a meeting with some Cypherites.

This.

lol

Shinryu wrote:

Procurator wrote:

Harpalos-mxo wrote:

I once fell asleep while I was hosting a meeting with some Cypherites.

This.

lol

Hey now!

God, you would enable him, Vogt.