1- First of all, could you present youself and maybe add some background on

 yourself?

I am IncaWarrior, developer and administrator at Populous

Reincarnated. I started playing Populous when I was 12 in 1999 and

joined the EA matchmaker in early 2000. When Hepple made the first

level editor and TheGabber started creating New Worlds, I was an avid

tester of the new maps. Eventually, the webmaster "1/4lb" of Populous

Reincarnated (then devoted to New Worlds and a forum) left to do other

things and TheGabber asked me to help out with the website.

 

About a year later, Alacn showed up in the community and we recruited

him to the team to make a new matchmaker. Populous Reincarnated was

basically the only neutral, non-clan community at the time so it was a

good match. The new matchmaker worked with the EA matchmaker service

until early 2004 when EA shut down their server and we moved off.

During that time I worked on the website.

 

A few years later, Alacn announced he was leaving the team due to time

commitments so I took over development of the matchmaker. Since then

I have been developing the website and matchmaker.

 

2- What is so special about Populous, that other games don't have?

I think the shaman is what makes Populous special. Having a single

super unit mixes in some of the personal interactions from a FPS while

keeping the strategy of a RTS game and greatly increases the possible

strategies. The reincarnation of the shaman also means you can get

her out there unlike games such as Supreme Commander where the

commander needs to be protected or you lose the game. When people

play Populous they tend to embody the shaman in the same way they

would in a shooting game.

 

 3- What do you think about people wanting a Populous remake or even a

 Populous 4? And why?

Populous 4 would have been exciting back in 2002 when Bullfrog was

still around and the same people might be working on it, but I'm not

holding out hope for a new version these days. Every now and then we

get an optimistic player that wants to create a new version without

any idea of the scope of the project that inevitably dies shortly

after. Even a gaming company creating a game as Populous 4 wouldn't

be the same anymore with all new people that don't get the fun that is

Populous 3. It's fine for people to hope for it and think up new

ideas, but I try to lower their expectations so they don't get too

disappointed.

 

4- What would you say to a newcomer that is just starting to play Populous

in 2015?

I'd say welcome to the community! We have a slow stream of players

over the years and even some of the best players just started

relatively recently. Stick to it and read the code of conduct.

 

5- How hard is it to be a major admin of popre? What is the hardest thing

 overall?

It isn't the most difficult job thanks to some of the other admins,

but it has its challenges. The hardest part is finding the balance

between letting people say what they want while at the same time

maintaining a community that's welcoming to the most players. It's

never fun to have to punish someone (OK, the in game curses are kinda

fun), but sometimes that's needed if they won't cooperate.

 

 6- You are mostly known as Inca. What does it feel to be among the most

 known personalities in this community?

Populous is a small enough community that pretty much anyone will

become a known personality if they stick around enough. The fun times

are when someone comes back after an absence of a few years and I'm

the one they can recognize. Usually I have to look them up a bit to

refresh my memory, but it's nice to be a familiar sight for people

that might otherwise feel distanced.

 

7- How important is an admin or a moderator to a community?

If everyone acted perfectly all the time then the admins and mods

would be useless. Populous went for a few years in the EA lobby with

basic anarchy where there were no admins or mods present and managed

fairly well (though there were definitely times we wanted one). For

most issues I think no admin or mod is needed to help - anyone that

steps up to the challenge could resolve disputes between players (and

they might be contacted if we need a new mod).

 

 8- What are your thoughts about being pm'ed all the time? Or constantly

 being called in the lobby?

It can be a bit obnoxious, but I like being able to help people.

Having to help people also gives me a good idea of what needs to be

improved. If people keep complaining something is hard to setup/do,

then it needs to be made easier or if there is a common question,

information needs to be more available. A common question used to be

"How do I chat in game?" until the matchmaker put a message in game

for new players telling them to press "M" to talk.

 

 9- How important is using the forums?

Lots of people never visit the forums and manage just fine, but it's

the best place to get a big picture view of the community. Some of

that has moved to facebook these days, but important stuff is still in

the forums. Often there are threads about controversial topics that

when resolved result in community changes that only people involved in

the forums get to participate in.

 

10- What do you think is missing in Populous online?

Feature-wise there are a lot of things missing. Hosting issues still

plague new players and the game in general feels a bit cut-off and

isolated. A lot of these problems are being worked on, but they are

fairly complicated and take quite a bit of time to fix.

 

11- What are the best ways of reaching a bigger community? How can Populous

 be promoted?

The top ways people report they've found Populous are through Google

and through friends. Getting people to show Populous to their friends

is probably the best way we can convince new people to start playing.

Populous also has an advantage in that is looks fairly nice but runs

on 15-year old hardware connected with 56k. I think it would be a

great match for people in developing countries that may not be able to

play newer games as evident by the huge diversity of nationalities we

see in the matchmaker. The downside here is it's a bit hard to target

these types of people due to language barriers and just being

unfamiliar with their cultures.

 

12- How important is streaming for this community, or even for the promotion

 of Populous?

Streaming is great for the community and the promotion of Populous. I

love watching streams myself (especially those with commentary) and I

know lots of others do too. The more streams out there, the more

chance someone will come upon one and get interested in playing.

 

13- What do you think about TheGabber-IncaWarrior situation? Could this

 topic be enlighted?

It's very unfortunate and I wish it could have turned out better, but

I guess it was inevitable with TheGabber being out of the community

for so long and jumping in to impose changes. A few people may

remember several years ago when the administration at PopRe wasn't

very popular and we've worked hard to improve since then, but

TheGabber lacked the experience we gained by not being present.

 

14- How important are the popre donations for the service?

Fortunately not very important since we don't get many. The only real

cost is hosting for the website which is around $10/month. We get a

bit of ad revenue from people that visit the site not logged-in and

some from generous donaters.

 

15- What makes you continue on this project (popre)?

Well for one I do like to play the occasional game of Populous, but

mostly I enjoy working on a project that benefits other people. There

are a lot of interesting challenges with developing the matchmaker and

website that most people wouldn't get to see.

 

16- Anything you would like to say about other services (like wildman

 productions MM, or other)?

I'd love it if they would help contribute to the greater Populous

community rather than going away and trying to divide it. There are

lots of ways to contribute that would be appreciated.

 

 17- Now other kind of questions. We understand you are not the most active

 player, but:

 Top 5 or 10 best Populous players of all time (ordered or not)?

Probably missing a few:

Sunama

Cult

Addiction

Keith

TeratO

Fury

Nici

 

 18- Top 5 or 10 best Populous players in 2015 (ordered or not)?

That's easy, there's a table for those:

[Rw]Nici

[GoD]Lauren79

[Rw]addiction

[TSI]peanut_brittle

[Chf]aravinth

 

 19- What are your most hated 5 or 10 online levels?

Sess and other maps that cut down on possible strategies. Hard to

pick many since I try not to play bad maps.

NP since it's so flat and square.

 

 20- What are your worst 5 or 10 online levels?

According to the website, pretty much all the maps are my worst.

 

 21- What are your best 5 or 10 online levels?

I'm a fan of the original Bullfrog ones and a few unique others.

Orthrus in TN worlds is great for multitasking and teamwork, in the

same pack Juggernaut is a fun challenge for both sides.

 

22- What is your favourite spell, favourite unit and favourite tribe?

Tornado, FireWarrior, Matak.

 

 23- What are your top 5 clans of all time? (either best, more friendly, or

 just your favourite ones)

Team Adept - had a huge presence and long lasting

Team Havoc(and offshoots) - was very influential in the community

until it it broke up rather suddenly

Team Nashua - great group of people looking for fun games

The Dark Masters - Another older clan that had many members over time

Asgard - Quite influential in the community with a lot of pro players

Bonus: Gods of Destruction - very active clan with very involved members.

 

> 24- When you play, who are your favourite allies?

I like to play with friendly players that don't resort to cheap

tactics and know how to work as a team. Even if we lose, it can be a

GG if the players gave it an honest shot.

 

 25- What was the hardest single player level when you started Populous?

Probably the one where you are next to a plateau with green and a

bumpy area towards red - "Attacked from all sides" I believe. Had a

few retries of that one with yellow boating in or the other two tribes

attacking my limited building space. Eventually I discovered it's

easiest to bridge up to green early and build up there while

attacking.

 

 26- What you really hate people doing in the match maker?

I don't like when people try to be very offensive to others and then

act surprised when they're told to stop. That and blame

shifting/tattling when they do something wrong.

 

 27- Who are your best popre friends, and, for you, who are the 5 most hated

 guys on this community?

 (maybe because they are always disturbing, or quitting, or annoying you,

> etc)

My best Populous friends would probably be a mixture of fellow clan

members from clans over the years and members of the PopRe team that

have been most helpful.

The most hated...well those are pretty evident. The people that

intentionally cause trouble and complain about being punished for it.

 

28- Do you recommend Populous? Why?

Of course! It's aged fairly well and contains some of the most

interesting strategies around.

 

29- The Populous Bible was not yet released. This will be a blind question:

> What do you think

this Populous site will be like?

I'm not sure - possibly an annotated wiki

 

 30- Thank you for this interview. Anything you want to add? (:

The more Populous sites the better!

 

thank you

 

(02-06-2015)