Interview with Saint_Proverbius

Home of discussion, generally. If it doesn't go in any of the other forums, post it in here.
Post Reply
User avatar
Gimp Mask
Mamma's Gang member
Mamma's Gang member
Posts: 5288
Joined: Thu Apr 18, 2002 7:05 pm
Location: / 5327

Interview with Saint_Proverbius

Post by Gimp Mask »

Alright so this time I had the honor of interviewing Saint_Proverbius for whom I've always had the utmost respect, he was always pretty classy for the most part even when he was a dick, which was pretty often. Gotta respect that. In this one I tried to focus a bit more on the history of DAC and other Fallout communities although it would be silly of me not to ask of RPGCodex as well. He's another of those people without whom the site would not only never have enjoyed the success it did in (what I consider) its prime, but would likely have ceased to exist, even though he apparently never cared much for the site anyway, but whatever; bend your wrists and get them all flexible-like because I feel like we all owe the ol' Sainty a, uhm, round of applause or something. I think this will be last of the behind-the-scenes types of interviews for a bit, unless someone like Kreegle decides to stop by. Here we go:

---

Gimp Mask: In my interview with DU, he mentioned something about a super sekrit forum where RPGCodex was originally conceived by you, and maybe Rosh, Deathy, Calis? Who were the people originally involved with the Codex-to-be at this stage? Why did you guys decide to found RPGCodex?

Saint_Proverbius: Well, some of us were at Vault13.net and some of us were from Terra-Arcanum. Arcanum didn't turn out to be the game we were hoping for and Vault13.net's founder let the domain expire(JC, you're still a dick!) Rosh wasn't involved, though he's still awesome, but he had a home at NMA. But the rest of us decided that rather than be tied to specific games, let's make a unified RPG site and just follow what we want to follow or just follow everything. So, we started RPG Codex.


GM: Letting a domain expire? What an idiot! Who would do such a thing? Anyway what's with the name RPGCodex? I mean it's kind of self-explanatory but I was wondering if there's some sort of a fascinating backstory behind it or whatever.

SP: Nothing special about it. Codex is a comprehensive book, and the RPG part is self explanatory. I don't even remember who came up with the name.


GM: Fascinating indeed. What was your personal vision for RPGCodex and do you feel you were able to execute that original vision, like how you imagined the site back when it didn't even exist yet?

SP: Well, before gamer gate was public, we kind of knew that a lot of gaming journalism was crap, and most gaming companies had their pets who would score a bag of shit with a perfect ten if they got free stuff. This was back in 2002. We just wanted to be angsty and honest. You know, not patting people on the back for doing something cookie cutter, or just churning things out because something sold in the past. We kind of wanted to push things forward, maybe step on some toes and open some eyes.


GM: Are you still one of the head honchos around RPGCodex? I don't visit the site so I have no idea who's running the place now. Then again judging by the interview with DU I had no idea who was running the place back then either.

SP: Nope, I just pop in from time to time just to see how things are doing. Shit talk with the people. Oh, and I enjoy stalking DarkUnderlord occationally to see if I can get him to pop in the chat.


GM: V13.net was the first site I joined (its Great Exodus is what led me to DAC, and I wonder if the influx of V13 members was partially responsible for the new "direction" of DAC that eventually led to the closure of DAC by Kreegle, but more on that later). You were a prominent figure back there already, and then you joined the DAC gang after it moved away from GSA. Seems like you've been involved with pretty much every major Fallout community, and then there's the Codex of course. Are there any other communities where you have been active over the years, like are you an avid Redditor for instance? What's your Reddit gold balance? Mine's zero.

SP: I don't do social media for the most part, which includes reddit. I wonder what Kreegle is up to these days, though. I used to ruffle his feathers every now and then. He was pretty moderate and low key. I was never part of DAC, though. If I had anything on there, it was probably stuff I let Kreegle have from Vault13.net so it wouldn't be lost.


A bit of a primer for the following questions: there's a thread called "My Story" on DAC (basically a bittersweet story of Kreegle's perceived decline of DAC with some cool cameos from people like JC and Greg, worth a read to anyone interested in the history of DAC). Despite DAC supposedly (or factually, depending on your point of view) turning into the dumpster of the internet, the site has managed to exist longer since that thread than it had existed until that point, which is pretty funny. I feel like it was a big turning point for DAC however, since that was the last time the site had a stable, active & long-lasting administration (although I must admit KOC tried to keep this hot-rod of an online community on the race track for a suprisingly long time). Either way, Kreegle declared DAC dead and Saint resurrected it, so thanks for that.

GM: Basically what happened was Kreegle got mad and gave NMA's Odin the keys to the kingdom without consulting anyone else, like you for instance, even though he had already retired and you were one of the de facto owners of the site at this point (I think). Did you ever kiss & make up with Kreegle? I always liked the guy, didn't agree at all with his decision to close down the site but I wasn't that committed to the site besides the Wasteland subdomain, so it made no difference to me.

SP: I was never mad at Kreegle. Perhaps Killzig was? Killzig went to DAC after Vault13.net, not me.


GM: Pretty soon after that Killzig forgot to renew the duckandcover.net domain and the site was fucked again. And you resurrected it, again, so thanks again. That's when you put Mr. Teatime & KOC in charge I believe, and Calis and DU joined in to fix the site as well, according to DU. Around that time you still contributed quite a bit on the news / content side; did you do other stuff too, or have you always been more of a content guy? Can you tell us about the extent of your involvement with DAC over the years?

SP: I wasn't directly involved with DAC, but we all hang out together. I wasn't really happy when Kreegle went to GameSpy, but there was no hard feelings of anything. I just wasn't much of a corporate guy and I figured GameSpy would push that if Fallout became super popular again.


GM: I suppose you've always been more attached to RPGCodex than DAC, for obvious reasons. Yet you were a regular poster for a long time, even after you stopped posting news and content; what kept you coming back to DAC?

SP: Well, RPG Codex was my baby for the most part. Kreegle's baby was DAC. When I stopped posting news on RPG Codex, it was because I got really busy with real life crap. It happens. I didn't have much time for much of any of that.


GM: What made you stop coming back to DAC?

SP: See the above. Got married, employed, and grinded.


GM: Which one of Rex's shenanigans is your favourite (his more recent developments excluded)? I'm partial to the spinepunch story and him going nuts over his 2.8 rating on HotorNot

SP: The spinepunch is a classic, but everyone knows that one. If I had to pick something that is less obvious, it was all the times he went to town on Cleve. I think he started off as pro-Cleve and then promptly reversed course to harsh, harsh scorn. Exitium is best when he's provoked.


GM: You're an Old Man, and have been involved with RPG websites for something like half of your life. Do you still feel enthusiastic about this stuff?

SP: I don't game as much as I once did. I really like a lot of the survival builder games, like Space Engineers and Ark. I also like Dwarf Fortress, RimWorld and so on. I have high hopes for Saint's Row 5 because of Saint's Row 2 and Saint's Row: the Third. The fourth one, not so much.


GM: Now that we've been reminiscing about this shit and tears are probably running down your wrinkly cheeks as we speak, I have to ask: does DAC hold any modicum of sentimental value to you any more?

SP: I didn't know DAC was still around until today. Who's crying now?


GM: I am. Ok, last question. Any hints / tips / walkthroughs to keep DAC going for another 100 years? DU told me that I need to strap a rope to the beam to enter the murky depths of DAC, but what then? I guess having someone to run the site would be a decent start?

SP: Turn it in to a porn site. Actually, here's to hoping that MicroSoft crushes Bethesda and turns the Fallout franchise over to Obsidian. Yeah, I'll get some flak for saying that, and it's a little too obvious, but Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 kind of showed that Bethesda can't handle that license. They took one of the best RPGs ever, ripped out the RPG, and just made an open world shooter out of it with a really shit story that doesn't even make sense within the universe of Fallout. Don't point to a Deathclaw and tell me that's Fallout, because it's not.

---

There you have it: JC is still a dick, Saint has to turn a simple wrap-up question into a mini-rant about Bethesda, and I am now crying. Happy? I am, these are tears of joy. Soon they will dry up, like tears in the sun. Until my tear ducts are mercilessly ripped open by the beautiful answers of my interviewees again that is. Also DAC porn sounds like a pretty niche thing, but maybe it's worth a shot. I'm sure there's a Bitcoin billionaire out there willing to pay top dollar to see middle-aged nerds all greased up, rubbing their flabby chests against each other. I'll leave you with that thought; until next time.
User avatar
Mismatch
Paragon
Paragon
Posts: 2366
Joined: Tue Jan 20, 2004 7:16 pm
Location: Over yonder hill

Post by Mismatch »

I've always liked Saint. Not that we interacted much. Maybe that's why.
User avatar
POOPERSCOOPER
Paparazzi
Paparazzi
Posts: 5035
Joined: Sat Apr 05, 2003 1:50 am
Location: California

Post by POOPERSCOOPER »

Oh wow. How did you get a hold of him? He left the codex and us a very long time ago.

I like how you are doing these interviews. Makes me proud. :salute:
Join us on IRC at #fallout on the gamesurge.net network.
User avatar
Mismatch
Paragon
Paragon
Posts: 2366
Joined: Tue Jan 20, 2004 7:16 pm
Location: Over yonder hill

Post by Mismatch »

User avatar
Gimp Mask
Mamma's Gang member
Mamma's Gang member
Posts: 5288
Joined: Thu Apr 18, 2002 7:05 pm
Location: / 5327

Post by Gimp Mask »

POOPERSCOOPER wrote:Oh wow. How did you get a hold of him? He left the codex and us a very long time ago.
Just a bit of old fashioned detective work and a lot of man hours. Actually I just sent him a PM on the Codex and he said sure
I like how you are doing these interviews. Makes me proud. :salute:
It makes me proud that I'm making you proud. This is one of the proudest moments of my life in fact, thank you sensei :salute:
Our Host!
Post Reply