Ahoy Ye Matey!

A One on One With Pirate Blackguard

By: Savanja

It's been a sad, sad month for the community members of EverQuest II. Recently the esteemed developer, Steve "Moorgard" Danuser, announced that his time with SOE had come to an end, and he was off to explore new ventures. Previous to Moorgard's announcement came our Community Relations Manager, Ryan "Blackguard" Shwayder's announcement that he was leaving SOE to return to his home of Colorado. As a huge Blackguard fan, I was crushed, but I have managed to come out of mourning long enough to snag an interview with the now non-press red tape, regular ole EQII player, Ryan Shwayder. He will always be known as BG to me, but today, he's just another gamer.

Savanja: Could you tell us about where your obvious love of gaming started? Were you a platform gaming kid, or a total PC gaming geek? Can you remember the first game you ever played?

Blackguard: My love for gaming started back in the mid 80s on the Commodore 64, Nintendo, and Sega Master System. Those were all my first loves in gaming, after which I moved to bigger and better consoles. My love for PC gaming actually stems from a friend's computer, because I was running on Apple computers for a long time. While I was playing games like Marathon and the Oregon Trail on my Apple, he had cool flight sims and various other games on his PC that I was totally jealous of. I really played all platforms back in the day, and still pretty much do now. I had most of the major consoles, along with a Game Boy and an Atari Lynx on the handheld end, up until the mid 90s. That's when my PC game infatuation started.

Oh, I had played many a PC game at various friends' houses, but it was when Command & Conquer came out that I finally managed to get my hands on my first Windows PC (I technically did play some games on an old DOS machine before that, but it wasn't my own). I believe that was in 1995, at which point I shifted most of my focus from console games and the wonderfully small selection of Mac games to the glorious world of PC gaming. It was almost overwhelming how many games I got to play at that point. These days, I primarily play PC games even though I have multiple consoles and handhelds. And no, I have no idea what the first game I played was. I was far too young to remember. ;)

Savanja: I love Oregon Trail. I still play it!

We all have games that we look back fondly on. Those games, that no matter how lame they look now, always gives a little wistful nostalgic feeling. Are there games from way back when that no matter how silly they look now, still make you smile?

Blackguard: There are quite a few games I look back on and absolutely love the feeling I get when I think about them. The biggest one: The Ninja for the Sega Master System. The awesome music and fun gameplay were absent from my life for years until I found the game again on GameTap. Other games I remember fondly include the Oregon Trail, the Carmen Sandiego series, Ultima, Final Fantasy, all the old school Lucas Arts adventure games, Duke Nukem, and a number of others. Really, the list is far too long to go into here.

There are two games in particular in the online role-playing game genre that I look back on with wistful nostalgia: The Realm and Ultima Online. While I had played a few text-based online games by the time The Realm came out, it was the first game I can recall that truly enraptured me. The great sense of community, the music, the towns, the colored sashes, and all the rest make me smile when I talk or even think about the game. Then came Ultima Online, where I could do more naughty things to people than any game ever before. A great world that gave me all the options necessary to mess with people constantly and have a heck of a lot of fun doing it.

Savanja: Ultima Online was SUCH a great game. Though I was generally the poor loser that was having those naughty things done to. *cough*

You seem to be a total community sort of guy. I read that you used to run fansites, and were a frequenter of gaming forums before you took on gaming professionally. Was your desire to be a part of a community a big draw to MMOs for you?

Blackguard: Originally, not at all. As I mentioned above, I played The Realm and Ultima Online to begin my MMO gaming career. The draw for both was simply to play a cool fantasy RPG. The fact that I could kill other players was a secondary draw, but I really didn't care to get involved with other people at the time. Then in UO, I became part of a band of friends who traveled the countryside in search of adventure and staunchly defended our homeland. It was, I realized quickly, even more fun to play with other people than it was to play by myself.

I really only became involved in forums and the like because I learned how to make websites at an early age, which lead me to create a website for Ultima Online called the UO Press (which is still up in its original location somehow, even though I moved it almost immediately after creating it. http://kryptein.fortunecity.com/). After creating this website, I started talking a lot in forums to keep in touch with other community members, and kept involved throughout a number of other communities.

So I guess the answer is: No, being part of a community was not a big draw to MMOs for me. No, however, it's one of the biggest draws of all despite my tendency to solo.

Savanja: Omg, that site is awesome, a huge blast from the past! It's insane it's still up.

What made you decide to get into gaming as a career?

Blackguard: No single event really inspired me to get into gaming as a career that I can recall. I've really just loved playing video games for my entire life, and started reading various books on game design and development in high school. I made a bunch of mods for various games as a hobby and ran fansites, which got me close to several developers. They all seemed to enjoy their jobs and I liked pretty much all of the devs I met, and the opportunity to work on EQII was timed well for me (and it was the right game) so I went ahead and took it. I've pretty much wanted to make games for as long as I can remember.

Savanja: How did you get started with SOE specifically?

Blackguard: As many of you know, I ran the first EverQuest II fansite and forums back in the day. The first E3 EQII was showing I got to go in and check the game out. Interestingly enough, the person demoing the game was none other than John Blakely, someone who I nearly worked for back in Colorado. We recognized each other and got to talking, and I decided that I wanted to work on the game. But it wasn't then that I got the job. I established a relationship with a few of the folks at SOE while working on the site (EQII.com), which eventually lead to me being invited out to a Fan Faire where I'd get to try EverQuest II for the first time hands on (Thanks Steve Danuser for inviting me).

I tried the game. I loved the game. The people who worked on the game were awesome as well, so I decided I'd jump in any way I could. I then moved from Denver to San Diego for a temporary position in Quality Assurance. Crazy, I know, but that's how a lot of people get started in the industry. I worked hard and kept participating in the community, after which I got a job as a Community Relations Representative, and later became the Community Relations Manager.

It was a long, multi-year road, but it was absolutely worth it.

Savanja: That is great information for those that are trying to get into the industry, get involved with your community!!

There are a lot of rumors circulating about why you have left SOE, would you like to address those?

Blackguard: I tried to address most of the concerns in my post about me leaving Sony Online Entertainment. Everything in there still holds true, and no I'm not on some sort of NDA that doesn't allow me to reveal the "truth" about why I left. In short, it had nothing to do with SOE or EverQuest II, and everything to do with my personal life that I decided to take a chance on by moving back to Colorado.