Interview with Clarey

With just two years in the Utopian world, she's already quite the celebrity. uTimes grabbed the birthday girl, Clarey, for a quick interview to talk about the game, her thoughts of it's future and dreams of her own.

Q: How long have you been playing Utopia?

A: Hmmm, not long enough! Let me think…eight ages. So yeah, actually, long enough I guess. :( That’s about 2 years of straight playing with no proper breaks in between.

Q: What brought you to Utopia?

A: I googled ‘web games’, when I was bored one day and found utopia. This was back when I was 14. Played a total of 2 days and quit. Decided to give it a try again and ended up monarch of a 13 province ghetto. :p Then came on IRC and got recruited for The Spice Must Flow, which by luck, some skill and awesome leadership managed to finish top 10 the 2 ages I played. That really got me started on playing for the land/net-worth charts I suppose. :)

Q: How many kingdoms have you played in since you’ve been playing? Which one was your favorite?

A: I've also played in Edge of Absalom, Deliverance, Seasons and more recently - in Sonata. I think I took a lot from all of these kingdoms, for example if not for Edge I wouldn't have met the gay boy Phlayre. (He's really nice in real life too!) Deliverance was where I first had a taste of leadership, but it was never my kingdom per se. When it disbanded however, I was about to retire, but the Seasons nubs flirted too hard. So, I stayed on three ages in Seasons. I was going to retire again, but an opportunity came up to build up a kingdom with friends I enjoy talking to. In utopia the concept of friends is well... laughable I guess, but some of these people I play with in Sonata I'd trust at my back anytime. So for that, Sonata is definitely my favorite kingdom. :)

Q: Who has influenced you the most in the game?

A: God, you pull out the hard questions, eh? :p I guess my answer is, it's too hard to point out a single source. :/ Oh wait, I know! Dirty-!

Q: What about Dirty- influences or inspires you?

A: As I have said often, he is sex on legs. He's a leader I admire because he is able to do the role of several leaders. He plays fair, clean, is an awesome number cruncher. Unlike other number-crunchers, he knows what will work in the current Utopian situation. So, if you asked me to name the single best Utopian player / leader I know, it'd have to be Dirty-. Yeah, and I guess you could say I was inspired!

Q: What is the proudest moment of your Utopian career?

A: I think, actually, it would be seeing Tempest + NaDa + Versace going on to make Secrets a success. I’m an okay Utopian player, not the greatest. So, I guess I base my 'success' on the quality of friendships I form in the community. I recruited all 3 of them into Deliverance so, for some reason, I considered them as my babies. :p When they went on to create their own kingdom, and it ended top 10 its' first age in existence, I was proud for them as well. :) Even though, I didn't play in Secrets ofc.

Q: What's your favorite part of Utopia?

A: It’s hard thinking of a favorite thing to be honest. I’d say there are a ton more negatives in the Utopian community than positives in general. :p

Q: Such as?

A: The general attitude of Utopians. The idea that their way is always right. I understand that people are self serving. Utopia seems to enhance that particular aspect though. They put it off by saying "yeah, it’s like that in real life as well", but I don’t think its quite to that extent…and well, Utopians, what real life?!

Q: Who would win in a war, Mehul or OMAC?

A:Mehul, because OMAC is nubly, they like their 200 acre caps, and of course, because they don’t understand shite about game mechanics.

Q: What do you see in the future for Utopia?

A: I play the alpha. So frankly, I see it dead after a year. There especially seems to have been a lot of leaders leaving utopia. OMAC has really accelerated the demise of this game in my opinion, with their poor management of players, rules, and deadlines.

Q: Do you see yourself around when the game dies?

A: Hopefully not, but probably, yes.

Q: Do you think UtoNet will still be around when the game dies?

A: Yes, of course (unless the physical servers explode).

Q: Do you think the bonds between players will last long after the game?

A: Not all, but some, yes. I've met a couple of Utopians in real life. Some I'd be proud to call friends. Some I'd love to meet some day if opportunity presents. Essentially I think I can count on my hands the number of players I'd truly consider good friends out of the game.

Q: Who from Utopia would you most like to meet in real life?

A: Hmm, I've met pretty much all the people I want to meet. Probably the only ones left are Ganjah, Versace and NaDa.

Q: What would you change to improve the game?

A: Probably age length, I'm a fan of an 8 week age.

Q: What do you think OMAC should do to rejuvenate the game?

A: OMAC needs to get the new code up A.S.A.P. and start advertising!

Q: What irritates you the most about Utopia?

A: Nubs that disagree with me, because they "must" be right.

Q: What three character traits would your friends use to describe you?

A: Spoiled, nerdy, and sweet. I guess.

Q: What is your greatest achievement outside of Utopia?

A: Probably following something I want to do right now, and not what is expected of me in real life. I was a good student in high school, plus I was Asian, it was kind of expected I'd either do medicine or dentistry. So yeah, I got into dentistry, but I eventually realized it wasn't going to be a satisfying career. Rather than continue on this path to failure and nervous breakdown, I decided to pick something I'd really enjoy.

Q: What's that?

A: Mmm it’s personal. Don’t really want to talk about it. :p Nothing dodgy.

Q: If you came into an unlimited supply of money, how would you spend it?

A: I'm Asian, I'd invest it. Oh wait, unlimited. I'd quit school, move to London, and buy a horse!

Q: A horse?

A: A horse in general, to pull a carriage.

Q: Okay, last question. Who from Utopia have you met and what are your favorite memories of them?

A:
arc - His ability to eat 2 scoops of ice cream and down sugar in general.
Atropine - I worked for him. so uhhh, no comment!
fimbul - Each new memory is a favorite one ;)
Phlayre - Him making me say 'faggot' and 'fag' in real life so he could imagine me saying it when I typed it out on IRC. Or attempting to show me his 'fat halo' in real life (it doesn't exist).
CwK - Saying he was fat after Phlayre showed his 'fat halo'. When he's skinny as anything!

I've also met pachie, erick, Jevouse, Vehn, ShainE, midnitelite, Rena, Rajiv, Bliz, spiddy, deletedsg, feldegast, Webmaster, bead, hay, skymouse, Lovefool, unexpected, Egrest, MiLo, Peacez, zaark and Liquid. Plus, I believe, most of the Singaporean kingdom Snowflake. Favorite memory would probably be midnitelite drenching MiLo with a super soaker gun for being late for one of our outings, or foxsg going drunk after 2 beers!