Featured Community Member

[InsignificantWeeaboo]

By popular demand, please welcome the self-proclaimed most handsome man in the community AKA The Mafia Man AKA The FGO AKA http://googl.img...
The One.
The Only
Linkcat

Q. What is the origin of your username? - Everyone
A. I was about 10 years old and playing a flash game called Territory War. I had to come up with names for my 6 team members, so I decided to just put cat at the end of various Nintendo character's names. One of these characters was Link, and I liked the resulting name so much that I started using it, and I never stopped. It's a representation of both my love of video games and my love of cats. It is now as core to my identity as my real name.

Q. Why have you not engaged more in the PVP side of the game/community? -rob77dp
A. I've never been that interested in PvP because deckbuilding and predictions are way more important than technical play, which is what I like the most about card games. The simple game mechanics allow for little interaction between players, and the large majority of games are decided by the order of the cards in each player's deck. Even so, I've casually participated in several PvP Events and Tournaments, and had fun doing so. I think that by winning Sideboard convincingly I proved that I can be a threat if I try, and that's enough for me. I'll join any future events that catch my eye.

Q. Why are your posts so uninteresting? -serprex
A. Why is your face so uninteresting?

Q. Why is your favorite element Life? It isn't even an element. Is Gravity your second favorite? - serprex
A.

Spoiler for Hidden:

Life is my favorite element mostly for aesthetic reasons. Both the icon and cards have some of the best art in the game, and I just like the idea and theme of the element. I was probably also influenced by Gl1tch, who was my favorite forum member back in the day. My favorite Life cards are Rustler, Empathic Bond, and Thorn Carapace. Gravity does have the coolest creatures, but my second favorite element is Air, mostly because it has two of my three favorite cards in Firefly Queen and Owl's Eye.

Q. You give off the same boring vibe as rob. Does playing Mafia so much have these detrimental effects on most people outside that social construct? - serprex
A. I'm happy to be compared to rob in any way. Playing mafia is the most fun you can have on this forum, so it's probably a reflection of everything else being so dull in comparison.

Q. How was your experience with Sideboard & TPvP? - serprex
A. I was actually really excited for Sideboard and I prepared my deck as soon as it was announced. I had the best deck in the room and there were no predictions necessary, so all I had to do was side out the correct cards and play optimally during the games. My one loss was to DANI in the second round of groups. I was down 1-2 when I realized that I should be going with a Darkness based deck instead of a Death based deck. I won game 4, lost with a 1 QP draw game 5, and ran it back 3-1 in the final group. I wouldn't expect to replicate this success in a different event. Vagger OP.

I only joined TPvP because I could be on a team with Sub and didn't have to try hard. I played some fun decks, won some games, and lost some games. 5/7 would speedbuild again.

Q. Do you plan on running Elements Mafia games in the near future where out-of-thread communication is not allowed? - rob77dp
A. Yes, and I will call it Mafia 71. If we get to Mafia 77 I'll let you decide the rules.

Q. What is your real life profession? If you are a student, what do you study? -Wyand
A. I went to school for Computer Science, but stopped going due to outside factors. I do want to pursue programming in the future. My most recent job was at Wal-Mart unloading trucks. It was a really valuable experience. I quit for various reasons but I'll be getting back into the workforce soon.

Q. Why is your ingame name "doubled"? - Wyand
A. When I started playing I would make a different account for every deck I built because it was a lot easier that way. I have at least 10 accounts with different arrangements of linkcat and 42. I made the linkcatlinkcat account when Firefly Queen and Rustler were released, and I liked the deck so much that I stopped playing the other accounts. My first ever upgraded cards were 6 Leaf Dragons.

Q. How good are you with knives? Are you clumsy, a smooth cutter, a bread ripper, a good thrower, etc? -Anon
A. I handle knives well but I've never attempted any tricks with them. I always kept three box cutters on me at Walmart, and I keep one in my pocket at all times out of habit. It comes in handy surprisingly often.

Q. What happened on the most adventurous night you can remember? -Anon
A. I can't think of a particularly adventurous night, but I did once spend an entire night sitting on a bench in Iruña waiting for the Running of the Bulls. There was also that time I was Nightkilled and shot by a third party in the same Night while I was offering my escort services to kdz in Mafia 68.

Q. Warrior, Marksman or Mage? -Anon
A. I usually go for Mages in any game.

Q. What are you looking for in a girl? Who would you be interested in from the forum? -Anon
A. There's a lot of things I look for in a girl, but the most important besides looks would be that they're fun to hang out with, share the same principles as me, and have similar interests. Sky only fits one of these requirements, but it would be wrong of me to name anyone else. In the interest of fairness, I will also say that if I was gay, I would most definitely go for JCJ. Him being married in a different country is an issue, but I'm sure we could work around it.

Q. What was your favorite subject in school and why? -Anon
A. My favorite subject was P.E. because I like physical activity and I hate busywork. My favorite actual subject would be the robotics/programming/engineering classes I took. I also loved the history classes I had where I just listened to the teacher talk about history, because history is really interesting.

Q. Have you ever rooted for a villain in movies? Who were they and why? -Anon
A. If I'm rooting for someone it's usually the villain because they're generally more interesting, but most of the time I'm just enjoying a story being told.

Q. What is your favorite read? -Anon
A. Hunter X Hunter. It has the best everything.

Q. What games would you suggest to play when bored? -Anon
A. Any Zelda game. For a timewaster on PC, Bloons Tower Defense.

Q. Who are the mafia? -Everyone
A. Giovanni, JonathanCrazySwag, and Zilean.

DoctorC is the entire mafia team.

I told you, there are no mafia and I'm just seeing how long it takes you to notice.

The real mafia are the friends we made along the way.

Q. Do you read novels? What genres? Have you read A Brideshead Revisited? -serprex
A. I read mainly fantasy with some sci-fi. I have a pretty large book collection, including 90% of the books in my top ten series which I have put in a spoiler, and way too many Warriors and Star Wars books. I have never heard of A Brideshead Revisited.

Spoiler for Hidden:

The Dresden Files
The Kingkiller Chronicles
Mistborn
A Song of Ice and Fire
Ender's Game
Dragonlance
Thrawn Trilogy
Codex Alera
The Legend of Drizzt
Ranger's Apprentice

Q. When's the last time you were at a beach? Did you enjoy a long walk then? -serprex
A. A couple years ago at my cousin's wedding in Oregon. I did not take a long walk but I did have to chase down the kids who had wandered too far away.

Q. Do you have any allergies? -serprex
A. No, and I don't get sick either.

Q. When did you learn to read? How old were you when you found out you couldn't read? -serprex
A. I started reading in the crib so I have no memories of not being able to read.

Q. How much harder do you find reading off paper than from a screen? Have you ever tried reading tea leaves? -serprex
A. I find it a lot easier to read off paper than from a screen. No.

Q. Where do you draw inspiration for the numerous forum games that you have created? -mathman101
A. For Mafia 61, I got the idea for roles based on players from a game on the DailyMafia stream that used that setup. For Quantafied 3, Even-Odd 2, and the standard mafia setup that I designed, I just tried to think of mechanics that would be as balanced as possible while also being fun to play. I believe that balancing is the most important thing for a forum game to be fun, and that's why I have been involved in balancing for most forum games run here since the disaster that was Mafia 55. When working from an established base, it's easy to iterate on that and you're more likely to end up with a better game than an original. I do actually have one great original idea, but who knows if we'll ever see it.

Q. You used to play in the PvP scene more frequently, but as of late you have not. What changed that you prefer to spend time in other areas of the forum instead of the PvP areas? -mathman101
A. I play in any event or tournament that I think I would have fun playing in and is hosted at a time that my RL allows. This has led to different levels of participation over the years even though my interest has always been at the same level. And hey, I did just play in WC.

Q. If you were stranded on a deserted island and had these 3 food items, in which order would you eat them and why? -mathman101
A. I would eat the sandwich over the bowl of chicken broth to make sure that I caught any crumbs, and while I drank the broth I would try to use the tuna to catch fish like that guy did in Hatchet.

Q. Hypothetically you are given a free all expenses paid return flight to a limited number of locations to visit fellow community members. Which members would you choose and why? (members most interested in meeting, location of where they live, proximity to other members to meet multiple at once)? -mathman101
A. There are some people I want to see who are close enough to drive to, like rob, so I would save my flights for places that are farther away. First I would fly into New York state because Hyro, Coffee, Sky, and anti are all within a small radius from there. Next would be the UK to see Onion, JCJ, and anyone else who happens to be on the way. If I had a third I would probably go to Texas since I think it would be awesome to see both UTA and Root in real life.

Q. Anything else you would like to add to conclude this interview? -NLW
A. Thanks for letting me cross another item off of my Elements bucket list. Also thanks to serp and [REDACTED] for sending in a bunch of questions. Join Mafia 71.

Spoiler for Hidden:

This is a different member btw.

Thanks for your time!

Thanks for your watch.

[InsignificantWeeaboo]

Greetings, readers (faithful/occasional/new/etc.) of the Featured Community Member thread!

For the month of June, the newsletter would like to announce that our interviewee will be decided ahead of time.

In the interests of getting the community more involved in featuring a community member, the newsletter is requesting nominations from the community! Anyone who is at least a Jr. Member and has been registered at least one year is eleigible to be nominated.

Additionally, anyone who was last interviewed more than two years ago (see the quote in this post) is eligible while those interviewed more recently are not.

Please feel free to PM the NLW team with the nomination that you have with the PM title "Nomination for Newsletter Interviews".

We will be accepting nominations for a few days (you have been late to this post), then having open polls for a few more, intending to leave approximately a week or so for questions and a week for the interviewees to respond.

Don't delay, nominate today!
In addition to this, we would like to announce that we already have four interviewees for a special interview: Team Darkness.

To do so you have no time remaining. Thanks in advance!

Please do not ask your questions here! All the questions will be made public and attributed at the time of release. To maintain secrecy until then, send the NLW a personal message instead, titled "Question for Team Darkness".

Please note that Newsletter writers have the right to slightly edit your question (in terms of grammar style etc., not the actual context), ignore it if they feel it is inappropriate or if they get too many questions (then they need to select the best ones).

Don't hesitate, but please do send us questions! (Please title your message "Question for Team Darkness").

If you would prefer your question/s to remain anonymous, please specify this in your message. (However, it may be best to not ask questions you could be ashamed of in the first place. )
Please also remember that the Staff member questions are to be related to their staffing duties and the staff position, and not about their individual selves.

Well? Why haven't you started typing yet? Don't hesitate, ask today!

[InsignificantWeeaboo]

Greetings, readers (faithful/occasional/new/etc.) of the Featured Community Member thread!

We have a poll for next month's Featured Community Member and a Featured Community Staff Team; voting commences at once, forthwith!

If your name is up there because you were nominated but you would rather decline to participate, please contact a Newsletter Writer and we will keep your name up for bragging rights statistical purposes only. Don't forget to send in interview questions for Team Darkness!

To do so you have no time remaining. Thanks in advance!

Please do not ask your questions here! All the questions will be made public and attributed at the time of release. To maintain secrecy until then, send the NLW a personal message instead, titled "Question for Team Darkness".

Please note that Newsletter writers have the right to slightly edit your question (in terms of grammar style etc., not the actual context), ignore it if they feel it is inappropriate or if they get too many questions (then they need to select the best ones).

Don't hesitate, but please do send us questions! (Please title your message "Question for Team Darkness").

If you would prefer your question/s to remain anonymous, please specify this in your message. (However, it may be best to not ask questions you could be ashamed of in the first place. )
Please also remember that the Staff member questions are to be related to their staffing duties and the staff position, and not about their individual selves.

Well? Why haven't you started typing yet? Don't hesitate, ask today!

[InsignificantWeeaboo]

For this upcoming month, the newsletter would like to announce that our interviewee will be
shockcannon
We also have a special interview for Team Darkness in the works.

This is your chance to ask them questions for all the world to hear!

To do so you have no time remaining. Thanks in advance!

Please do not ask your questions here! All the questions will be made public and attributed at the time of release. To maintain secrecy until then, send the NLW a personal message instead, titled "Question for Interviews".

Please note that Newsletter writers have the right to slightly edit your question (in terms of grammar style etc., not the actual context), ignore it if they feel it is inappropriate or if they get too many questions (then they need to select the best ones).

Don't hesitate, but please do send us questions! (Please title your message "Question for Interviews").

If you would prefer your question/s to remain anonymous, please specify this in your message. (However, it may be best to not ask questions you could be ashamed of in the first place. )
Well? Why haven't you started typing yet? Don't hesitate, ask today!

[MasterWalks]

By demand of the community, please help us in welcoming one of the most popular people in elements right now,

The Master Troll

The Mindgate Master

The King of Mindgames

The Best Player in Elements

shockcannon

Spoiler for Hidden:

shockcannons interview was conducted live. serprex is the interviewer. The link is the uncut 1hr8min audio to this interview.

[Submachine]

I finally got to the end of the interview. I do not regret anything, it was great.~

[InsignificantWeeaboo]

Greetings, readers (faithful/occasional/new/etc.) of the Featured Community Member thread!

We have a poll for next month's Featured Community Member but we forgot to announce nominations, so we took a couple of names from previous nominations (and Espithiel) and put them in the poll. Voting commences at once, forthwith!

If your name is up there because you were nominated but you would rather decline to participate, please contact a Newsletter Writer and we will keep your name up for bragging rights statistical purposes only.

[kaempfer13]

Who's Espithiel? Is that supposed to be the 'none worthy' type of vote?

[MasterWalks]

Who's Espithiel? Is that supposed to be the 'none worthy' type of vote?

Yes

[MasterWalks]

For this upcoming month, the newsletter would like to announce that our interviewee will be
Dawn to Dusk
This is your chance to ask them questions for all the world to hear!

To do so you have no time remaining. Thanks in advance!

Please do not ask your questions here! All the questions will be made public and attributed at the time of release. To maintain secrecy until then, send the NLW a personal message instead, titled "Question for Interviews".

Please note that Newsletter writers have the right to slightly edit your question (in terms of grammar style etc., not the actual context), ignore it if they feel it is inappropriate or if they get too many questions (then they need to select the best ones).

Don't hesitate, but please do send us questions! (Please title your message "Question for Interviews").

If you would prefer your question/s to remain anonymous, please specify this in your message. (However, it may be best to not ask questions you could be ashamed of in the first place. )
Well? Why haven't you started typing yet? Don't hesitate, ask today!
This interview will be conducted live. We will be using the Elements Discord Voice Channel if you would like to join live, or you can watch the recorded video after.

[MasterWalks]

By popular demand, the NLW would like to welcome the Master of Light

Dawn to Dusk

1) How far can the average adult kangaroo jump? - vagman13
Huh, apparently nearly 8 meters (25 feet). Interesting fact. Which I totally knew with my pet kangaroo and all. I name him Corey.

2) Why is your favorite card Empathic Bond? - Anonymous
Empathic Bond is the best card I mean just look at that amazing green colour and how it totally doesn't suck and how it isn't anti-synergistic at all. I mean why would you not use up deck slots on a non-creature that heavily promotes using creatures? And why would you not love a pure stall card, which requires the usage of cards who's primary purpose is not stalling? What a fantastic card that should not be reworked ever.
That being said I have had the opinion that it is terribly designed for a while, I made it more noteworthy with discussion in OEtG, but unfortunately there are cards that actually synergise with it. I've noted that if I did have the opportunity to rework it, I would make it a flat heal whenever a creature enters play on your side of the field. This fixes the issue of it being a scaling card for a scaling deck, and makes it usable in more decks. MitoDevs appreciates this change, since it already has scaling lockdown, and FFQ Hope decks adore the change, since they have Hope as scaling stall already. Better early game stall is fantastic for the deck.

3) Explain the origin of your login name. - Wyand
So the tl;dr is that I don't remember why I chose this name in particular, for the most part, I just tried names until it worked, and this one seemed to work. I've always been terrible at names, and usernames is especially so.
Story time though! So I never actually got Wifi for quite a while after joining the forums (ironic, since an Australian invented it, fun fact). I want to say a few years had passed until I got it. Until then, I was using a prepaid modem, and as such, I tried to limit my internet usage as best I could. I played a Flash game called Edmus, great game, and I was actually pretty good at it. Even now, 6-7 years on, I'm still 19th on the all-time leaderboard. But I did end up deciding to make a name to put on myself. I didn't know what to do, I had a cringey teenage username that I never got to use, so I figured I would try it. Turns out EpicLandMan wasn't a good name. For one reason or another I scrapped it. Thank goodness. And so I went to this. No real reason to it, honestly. It's just what I found that wasn't being used, and it worked.

4) Different constellations are visible from the southern hemisphere. What is your favorite constellation? (If you are not into astronomy, just name a constellation which is a well-known one there.) - Wyand
I'll be honest, I don't know anything about constellations. The Southern Cross comes to mind, primarily because it's on the flag. It's easily the most well known in at least Australia, so I'd have to go with that.


5) Australia is famous about its abundance of opal. Do you own any nice piece of opal? - Wyand
I personally do not. I believe those parts of Australia are a bit further inland. When I was young, I got a thing that came with the newspaper or something, with an assortment of rocks/gemstones with it, and sure enough, it does have Opal there. Not sure if you know much about it, but Coober Pedy is a town in Australia, which is in an especially hot area of Australia, but to circumvent this, they had the now infamous solution of having all housing areas dug into their opal mines. Tom Scott had a nice video on it, released recently, which could be worth checking out if you're interested. The video does outline the town, but the overlaying theme of the video is a bit different than that. Still interesting though

Spoiler for Opal Stuff:

Spoiler for The Notes on the Back:

6) Why not dusk till dawn? - Anonymous
Tbh I get this question a lot. And honestly, I had no idea the movie existed before a few years ago. I do sometimes get people in various games say "Hey you got it the wrong way around", and I've considered changing it before, but I really have no idea what on earth I would change it to.

7) What does snine mean? Why snine? - Submachine
This is a reference and a half, wow. So this is how I used to sign up for mafia, about 5 years ago-ish. It really doesn't feel that long. It really really doesn't. But it was to mimic "Sign", which meant "I am signing up for this". A few other iterations went through, and slowly it became "Snine". Which I stuck with for a while, before I eventually just resorted to saying "In" instead.

8) Do you ever admit losing, or do you always say that you misplayed or just blame others if it was a team game? - Anon
I'd personally argue that admitting a misplay is admitting a loss. Especially admitting that you deserved a loss, since you're admitting fault, to the wrong play. That being said, I may be slightly salty at the time? Though there is often a layer of satire in there. But I do like to be stubborn until I actually lose. A short time afterwards I would gladly admit losses. We lost war, despite our best efforts, I got completely destroyed when I tried War for Life, and I got destroyed in my Trials game vs Will, and lost fairly confidently to Blacksmith.

9) When was the last time you admitted a loss? - Anon
About a minute ago

9) When was the last time you admitted a loss? - Anon
Is this a thing though. Wait is this actually a thing? Oh no

10) Any last comments before we end the interview? - The NLW
I do have full intent to defend Light, and I will do my best to General Light if I win.
Very sorry for being busy recently, I would have liked to do a live interview, it seemed fun. Nevertheless, thanks to the NLW for the great work on the Newsletter and Interviews!

[Wyand]

Hey d2d, thanks for the thorough answer about opals! I'll check the video! (MW could you underline the link? Found it
by accident - wanted to search for the name of the guy, and the mouse-over revealed the link. )

ps: There is a Smashing Pumpkins album titled Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. CD1 is titled Dawn to Dusk.