As someone who's known me for a long time it's safe to say I'm probably one of the laziest people I'll ever meet but I don't that stops me being able to give inspiration to others. Ask any veteran here about me and I'm sure they'll speak fondly of my name but won't a clue what I did in the community and while true that I may have released very little, you'll find my name tends to pop up in other people's readme.txt.
So now, without further adieu, I present to you an interview with Quest:
Random Spiral
DJQuake fan service
- Could you, for the new members here, briefly introduce yourself (age, location...) and tell us when you were most active in the Q1 community?
Ahoy! I'm Jonathan "Quest" Goldingham (Jonny Quest, get it?), currently 24 years of age and residing in Auckland, New Zealand. I was most active in the community between '98-'04.
- How did you get involved in the community?
When a little site called AI Cafe opened its forums and then the escapades & high jinx ensued from there...
But if you want to go further back to when I first got involved in Quake it was during Christmas of '96 when a family friend (who in fact had introduced me to the world of computers and gaming when I was 8 ) brought a demo disc of quake with him. I was hooked instantly. It was such a step forward in technology and I loved the dark grim atmosphere. I was also starting high school the next year so my parents thought it would be a good idea to get connected to the internet. Soon enough I found out about quakeworld/gamespy/planetquake and what people were doing with Quake. It wasn't until some months later that I actually bought Quake+expansions so I didn't play a lot of mods until late '97 at which point I stumbled upon Coffee's site (AI Cafe) and found Minion Arena. There was something about that mod that struck a cord with me. So I ended up ICQing him to tell him so and we ended up talking a lot. Soon after he opened up the forum where I found myself bonding with many like minded individuals.
- What Q1 contributions are you best-known for?
Officially, I'm probably best known for running the FRD (Frikbot Resource Depot) website and for hosting several speed-mod events but I think most would remember me for my tom foolery and auxiliary demeanor. I think most of my contributions have been in supporting others rather than anything I've personally done.
- Do you still have a website/links where we could check out/rediscover your stuff?
Unfortunately not.
- Is there any unfinished (secret?) Q1 project in which you were involved and which you now wish you had completed? Describe it to us and tell us why!
There have been several mods I've known about, that other people were working on, which I'm sad that didn't come to fruition. Pendinas comes straight to mind (you'll have to ask FrikaC about that). As for personal projects the only one I worked on was Random Spiral, a mishmash of code from other mods and tutorials. It got pretty buggy as I piled more and more code into it. It would've been nice to have made it cleaner and more stable.
- What are you best memories about this community?
Oh, so many! I think the highest point was doing the news/events for Qexpo '03 that was a real head rush; a quake junkie marathon. I didn't get much sleep that week. The first Qexpo was really exciting to. It was something fresh and different and was just so much fun to be apart of. But I think some of my most fondest memories would be hanging out in #qc on IRC, engaging in humorous & nonsensical chats and play testing mods. I often had more fun helping shape the development of a mod than playing the final release. Storm the Castle is a great example. I didn't enjoy the mod as much as I did spending the time play testing it with everyone online, even if my ping did hit the 600's.
- When and why did you decide to slow down your contribution to the community (if you did)?
By '04 a lot of the people who I'd talk to on #qc were no longer there. I got hooked on playing Ragnarok on a private server and then Guild Wars 6 months later which became my MMO addiction (without the monthly fee).
- How has Real Life © treated you so far?
Real life hasn't really moved on much. After finishing a Graphic Communication diploma near the end of '04 I got a job in a local delicatessen (a french one no less) and I've been sitting in a happy little rut since. Admittedly I should get out there and find a career but I'm quite content where I am. I mean, I get to feast on a free lunch made with the finest of french foods... thats hard to pass up.
- Are you still playing Quake? Are you still trying out mods, maps and engines?
Very rarely these days but I still have Quake on the hard drive. Lately I've been playing the DS port. It's not perfect but there's something about having Quake in pocket size that I enjoy.
- Has there been other games you have been playing a lot since you left the community (if you did)?
Mainly Guild Wars but I got a new rig last year (goodbye T-bird, hello Conroe!) so I've been playing a lot of games since then. I have to say Portal/TF2 were my latest favorites. As a designer I absolutely love the thought process that's gone into these 2 games and the results that came out of it. Lately I've been engrossed with Spore's Creature Creator. I've been waiting for this game since it was announced and really looking forward to its release later this year. Just to show that Quake is still in my blood, my 3rd creation ended up being a Fiend:
- How would you describe the Q1 community right now? Is there any contribution that really impressed you in the last couple of years?
Coming back to the community after a 3 year hiatus I find #qc is a lot quieter but I3D seems to be more lively and with many new faces. I think it's safe to say that although the community has changed focus it's still kicking. Having not kept tabs over the last 3 years and I've found it difficult to try and recap what's been released in that time. Stealth Quake and Spacewalk had just been released when I came back, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed.
- How do you picture the future of the community? Do you (objectively) think that people will still be modding/mapping for it in, say, 10 years from now?
I thought LTH's response of liking it to a zombified corpse was fairly spot on.
In seriousness though, I believe Quake is a great learning tool for beginning programmers/game designers and will be for years to come. This is why there will still be a community for a long time yet, albeit perhaps less centered on the love of the game itself and more on the technical interest of using it as a building platform. To be honest I'm seeing an inclination towards this already. I think idealistically if the community wants to have a strong, lively base in 10 years, it's going to need to draw in some new blood. It needs to make itself a more beginner friendly place and to promote itself as a great way to learn programming & game design. Also preservation of the knowledge, tools and history that the community has accumulated. These things have disappeared far too often in the past.
- Is there the slightest chance you would consider be an active part of the community again? Or/and put up a booth for the next QExpo?
I don't know if I'll ever be "active" again but I hope to at least keep up a faint presence. Last Qexpo I threw together a Dopefish Magic 8 Ball, I think I'll be hard pressed to top that. Perhaps a set of Quake monsters for Spore?
- Are you excited about QExpo 2008? Are there features (of any kind) that haven’t been part of former QExpo’s and which you would like to would like to see in this one?
I'm always excited about Qexpo. It would be nice to see other communities get involved in it (including q2/q3). Perhaps even expand it into a '"modders expo" to include other games. I don't think there were any game servers running last Qexpo. That's something I'd like to see make a come back so we can play some mods online.
- What is the question you would have like to be asked (but weren’t), how would you have answered it and how pissed are you for me not thinking about it?
You didn't ask what my favorite cookie was... and because to didn't, I'm not going to tell you.
