Questions
by Cody “Micajah” Bye, Managing Editor
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Answers
by Oliver “massi”, creator of ContactRealm
For many individuals, online gaming is a release from the stresses of
the real world. It’s a way to escape the trappings of the
real world, but so many within these virtual worlds find real
friendship with players from all over the various real world
continents. But what about those gamers that are new to a game and want
to find a friend? Or the people just looking to find a partner that
actually shares their favorite hobby? That’s where
target="_blank" href="http://www.contactrealm.com/">ContactRealm
comes in, an online dating/community service that helps bring like
minded gamers together in love or friendship. To find out more about
this site, Ten Ton Hammer’s Cody
“Micajah” Bye asked Oliver
“massi” (the creator of ContactRealm) a number of
questions that Ten Ton Hammer readers might be interested in. Enjoy!
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ContactRealm is for adult gamers, like those that play Age of Conan.
Ten Ton Hammer: To start,
could you give our readers a brief description of what ContactRealm is
all about? What kind of services do you provide MMOG players with?
Oliver:
ContactRealm started out as a dating site, but we had so many
individuals register that are not single and do not want to date, yet
they do want to have some place to meet and exchange ideas. So we
quickly changed the site to focus on community and dating. When I
mention the site to my online friends and I add the bit about
“adult gaming”, the initial reaction is
“Porn?” *laughs* I can assure this site is
absolutely free of it. We - the adult gamers - need at least one place
to gather with the possibility of dating.
Ten Ton Hammer: How did
you initially come up with the idea of ContactRealm? Why did you feel
it was necessary to create this service for players?
Oliver: I
reside in Sweden where there are lots of people (especially in
Scandinavia) that in the wintertime don’t see a single person
due to their remote locations. Internet is a very important part of our
communication. In my guild, there were many single guys, gals, mother
and fathers that work hard but really don’t feel like running
the typical bar rat dating race on the weekends.
It took me about a year and a half of pondering before I got busy
creating the site with Ola and Eric. It is said that Europe is at least
10 yrs behind in the development and standard with US, and a lifetime
away from Japan or Korean standards. what seems normal there we still
have to fight for. To put it mildly, in Europe adult gamers are
considered less than a sub- culture. Its like a rerun of the
80’s. Everybody watched Dallas, but no one admitted to
watching it, but yet somehow there was a worldwide uprising when Bobby
got shot.
Ten Ton Hammer: What kind
of age groups do you focus on? How do you control the age of
individuals who register? Is there any sort of age verification
process?
Oliver: We
focus only on the adult gaming community. No system is foolproof, but
we are working on a solution of verification, that will certainly make
it much harder for any minor to pretend to be an adult.
Ten Ton Hammer: Will
players be forced to pay for this service at any time? How do you make
money?
Oliver: We
do not make money on this site, it’s a service offered from
gamers to gamers.
Everything that the member has will stay for free, but we have had some
requests from some members to make a larger photo album or to be
highlighted in a larger guestbook. With that in mind, we where thinking
that all the original things will stay free, one can date without
buying a epic or legendary membership. It’s just the extra
things that are for the members that want to supersize.
Another idea might be to sell banner space at some point.
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Even these players from Requiem need some love every now and then.
Ten Ton Hammer: On your
website you have a collection of different artwork from the more mature
games in the MMOG genre – games like
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aoc" target="_blank">Age
of Conan and
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target="_blank">Entropia Universe. Are players of
other online games welcome as well? Should
href="http://wow.tentonhammer.com/">World of Warcraft
players come check out your website?
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Oliver:
Being a single dad, my nights typically go like this: I feed my baby,
bring her to bed, read her a good night story and then I power on the
PC, and move into AoC, Entropia and WoW where I have my own sweet
guild. *waves to the Moongladers*
Naturally we include all online games, and our database has about 50
listed. When I started this site, I thought I knew all the games that
were being played. I was wrong, and I am glad that we have so many Mods
at ContactRealm covering so many different games. All gamers are
welcome, but most gamers play more than one game anyway and are always
willing to try the next new one. With that in mind, we will not
restrict ourselves to only one or two games.
Ten Ton Hammer: What
should people expect when they join your website? What’s the
best part of the ContactRealm experience?
Oliver: It
might come as quite a shocker, but we lose online friends all the time
who are never to be heard of again, lost in the twisted nether of the
‘net. This is one great way to stay in contact, while others
just want to talk about paper D&D in the forums. If you are an
adult but still cherish that kid inside you, then ContactRealm is the
perfect way of treasuring these fantasies.
Ten Ton Hammer: Looking
at your list of members, it seems like a vast majority of them are from
European countries. Can players from other countries, like North
America, join your members list as well? Or is it strictly for
Europeans?
Oliver:
Currently, this site is created for any one that can read English. If
we continue to grow, we will have to think about translations into
Spanish and French at some point.
Ten Ton Hammer: What sort
of experience do the developers of ContactRealm have with MMOGs? Are
you all avid gamers? What’s your favorite game?
Oliver:
Touché! You got me there: my mate is a consoler, the second
is consoler who recently moved on to WoW, and I play a couple WoW
characters. I really must invest more time into my characters in
Entropia and Age of Conan. All three games rank equally at my top MMOG
spot.
Ten Ton Hammer: If you
could change one thing about the current state of MMOGs, what would it
be?
Oliver: I
think the press punch = action button is a bit too simple for the more
advanced player. A better more fool proof way to show age would be
nice, and if one will believe the statistics, there is a lot more
adults than kids playing games, so lets have more adult servers shall
we?
Ten Ton Hammer: Is there
anything else you’d like to tell Ten Ton Hammer readers?
Oliver:
Obviously I am also an avid reader, so what would I tell myself? For
one to keep gaming, and whatever happens in life no one can take your
imagination and your fantasy. That makes all of you beautiful.
