It's back!! Forumer of the month! Enjoy!

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It’s late in the evening and I am sitting cosy in my chair, working with some protox files, when after an hour or 5, darkdude shows up. I ask some questions I already know the answer to (So you live in Canada right?), while I desperately search for my list of real questions.
darkdude always struck me as a quite intelligent person, with a great deal of interests, and an interesting personality: Maybe I have hit the Jackpot.

Our Forumer of the Month is a fanatical Kronos player, having beaten quite a few players above his level, yet he also knows a lot about Scenario Design. I ponder about what he likes best and I decide to make myself happy first by asking about it.

So, since you are a member, that both sends time in GD and SD, which do you prefer? You seem to be mostly a supremacy player?
Good question. It may seem like I prefer supremacy more, but it is only due to the nature of the two worlds of AoM. For supremacy you can directly analyse the subject in question. But when it comes to Design, it is more of an art, which for me is not too easy just to say "put eyecandy here". So I seem less interested in Design. In reality though, I really like both, and if I were to pick one, it would actually be Design over Supremacy. Another reason is that it takes me a long time to finish something for Scenario Design, which is why you don't see my works often.

So we seem to have some same interests then, since you prefer scenario design, I must ask, what is your favourite piece of 'art'?
Well I will have to say that my favourites belongs to the paintings of the Group of Seven (see painting), who painted the Canadian landscape in original and awe-inspiring ways. You see I'm not so bad at Visual Arts (especially painting) myself.
And a note - I dislike "abstract" works. Some may be good works, but most are just stuff made so the artist can gain fame and fortune.

So you are more of 'realistic' fan? With landscapes and such? Or do you also like 'weird' things. Like Salvador Dali or any other of that kind of painter?
Well I like "weird" things, like M.C. Escher's drawings. But can get pissed off when people draw some lines on a canvas and say "it represents the chaotic world..."

I understand what he means, and I feel the same thing. He takes his time thinking about his answers, but then suddenly a big piece of text appears. He really thinks about what he says.

What do you paint yourself? Landscapes as well?
I paint many things, and because it is not my profession I can hardly say what I specialize in. However examples would include landscape, still life, and more recently, (more accurate) depictions of the human figure (see picture below). This should include figure drawings and such as well.

He turns out to really be an interesting fellow, and decide to ask a question that has my interest as well.

Could you tell me a bit about your average day? What do you do next to painting and playing AoM?
Well I am still in school, so I get up as early as I can, around 7, and rush to eat breakfast and get to the school at 8:30. I have 4 classes per day, 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. At 3:00 I am dismissed, but it takes almost 45 minutes to get home. I almost immediately get on the computer, and start my "computer routine", which means basically getting projects and stuff done, and after that going on forums like AoMH. Some time before night starts to settle in I will eat dinner. And some time before it gets too late and annoy the neighbours, I practice on the piano. If I have time after that I think about AoM.

So, since you leave so far from school, does that mean you live in the non-urban parts? Where do most of your friends live?
North York is classified as suburban, so no you don't see skyscrapers everywhere, but you don't have 20 acres of farmland either, which is fine for me. The real reason for the relatively long distance from home to school is due to the fact that I am attending the "Gifted" program (Shanks13 should know too). My parents are planning to temporarily move us closer to the school in October.

....I think I remember a bit of it....So, since you are in "gifted" program, do you think about things a lot? I notice you take time before you start typing an answer, do you always do so?
We aren't geniuses, and officially classified as having "a unique view of the world and surroundings". And at least here in Toronto, Canada, that places us in the "Specialised Education" system, which is also used to help students with learning disabilities (and for that relation sometimes the other students make fun of us). But the course itself is supposedly at a more faster pace than regular courses.

Since you have an unique view, do you mean this in an artistic way? Or am I searching to much behind the paintings?
To my knowledge I am the only "serious artist" in my class (and if not bragging, perhaps the entire school). Admittance into the program is conducted by a psychologist doing a 1 on 1 sophisticated "interview", so who knows what they are judging.
I believe for the last "find out how you learn" survey I scored so that I would be under the "Spatial Learner" category, which makes sense. However I don't believe that it is a completely accurate way of analysing a person's abilities. Maybe we'll never find a way. Humans are sophisticated.

I think that it’s about time that I finish the interview, we are nearly an hour from where we started, and I think I have really gotten an insight in who darkdude is. I decide to finish with the questions people normally ask at the beginning

You have been with AoMH for quite some time, but how do get there? Do you remember what the community was like back then?
I found AoMH when I was bored of AoM, having finished the campaign and at that time having ESO not available to me. I searched in google "Age of mythology Cinematics" and found AoMH. It was like I discovered Narnia! So many excellent articles. Even though written months/years ago, the articles bewildered the newbie that I was. At first I hesitated to participate in the forum, AoMH being the first I ever registered at. But soon I became part of the awesome community that AoMH was and still is. Sure there are difficulties here and there, but over all it could not have been better. So to all those recent complaints about AoM dying and HG not updating, think about the stuff already done by these wonderful people!

Was there ever a game of AoM that you really enjoyed playing or watching? Could you tell a bit about it?
I must say that one of my most enjoyed and memorable games was back when I just got ESO working for me and played online with my real life friend. Of course we immediately did 2v2 games and strategized about everything. I used my first civ, Kronos, and he used Loki. One of the best games we had was on Acropolis, in which both sides were evenly matched and we had great battles. But after a siege on one of the opponent's hill, my friend had an ulfsark left which he hid at the side of the hill, where the opponent did not occupy. Immediately he started to build a base in the small amount of space we had inside the enemy base. I timeshifted buildings over. Unfortunately we were soon discovered, but by that time we had enough units in there to totally knock the surprised player off his feet. As he never recovered, his ally soon resigned. They asked, "How the hell did you guys get in there?!"

So both of you play great rush civs. Do you still play often together?
You can't really consider them as rush civs, as we were newbs and had no idea how to rush. I picked atlanteans for the economy and military and flexible heroes, and by friend, as with most newbs, was impressed by the graphics of the Nidhogg. I was fortunately saved because in AoMH I read that Nidhogg is actually not that great.
The good old times were all the pages are still blank, huh?
We played together a couple of times more, but both of us got more busy with other things in life. However next year he will be attending the same school that I am in (I'm a year older, met him in a split grade class). I guess he'll come back to AoM and we'll plan more online sessions!

I think this is about all, but I think people might feel I missed a question, and I want to be certain that at least one person doesn't have this feeling, so: What do you want to ask as a question to yourself?
I think a good question would be what I think the future has in store for AoM and AoMH. To tell you the truth just like everyone I have no clue, but I do have some suspicions based on other games. For example StarCraft is still going strong for such a old game, and AoK is still a respected and canon piece in RTS history.
I believe AoM will join their ranks and we will make our marks in the history of RTS!

After this positive foreseeing, we decided to get a game going. Darkdude still needed a rematch. The result is below………Gaia versus Kronos.
The first clash of the HG clan (represented by darkdude) versus The Vandhaal forum (represented by Paperfriend).


Below is a review of the game by darkdude himself, giving a quick overview of the game. Enjoy!

The game started, and the map was Savannah. For me this is a tricky map because there are hunting, but most away from your starting base. Fortunately I had a single zebra in my starting LOS and after building the Eco Guild I moved there to find the whole herd with another herd of hunt. With this lucky start I got a bit carried away and instead of the 4:30 advance I planned I added 2 more citizens and was hoping for a 2 TC boom. Unfortunately Paperfriend advanced just before 4:30 and his oracle found my workers building the TC. He used his Carnivoria and military to drive me away. I deleted the TC foundation and upgraded my towers while building my starting military buildings. Paperfriend attempted to contain me but after I got a full sized army I pushed out west to secure another gold mine.

I got a second TC before Paperfriend, but unfortunately it was quite late to be of much use. Paperfriend on the other hand invested into getting to Heroic, and now out tech'ed me. I was hoping to get to heroic too and use destroyers, so I advanced as soon as I could. Meanwhile I succeeded in finding Paperfriend's gold villagers, but they garrisoned into a nearby manor. Next time I visit there I would find a palace up.

We sparred in the centre of the map a few times, but none pursuited much further into the enemy base. Paperfriend now reached mythic age. As if two tectonic plates grinding into each other, pressure on both of our empires built up. Soon war will erupt. What will initiate it? How will it end?
The game is available here.