Let me begin by thanking you for taking time out of your busy schedule
and allowing us this interview.
No problem :-)

 

What was your official title at OSI?
I was working for Origin as an external employee while being in the Arch Companion Program. There was no specific job title actually...let's just say Customer Service Geek ;-)

 

How did you come by this position?  What is your background education and skills that helped you get the job?

I initially applied for becoming a "standard" companion, as I liked the idea of helping new players on their first steps in UO. After a few months, I received mail from OSI that I was taken into the program. At that time, some UO-Fan sites where posting messages that there was quite a bunch of trouble in the training classes for the Startup-Senior Companions, making some leave the program. So I wrote a letter to the person responsible for Senior Companion recruiting, asked if they need somebody to jump in...and that was the beginning of my time as a Senior Companion. About four months after we started, the Arch Companion position, which was actually designed to identify the people at Origin working at the program, was transformed into the lead-volunteer position of the companions.
So since then every shard region had its own Arch Companion.

 

Have you worked at the same or similar positions since you started
working there?

Nope, my first and last direct interaction with OSI as an employee was the companion program.

 

Can you tell us what an arch companion was, and what was your duties as one...?

 

Arch Companions where basically supervisors of the companion program in their specific region, very much comparable with Shard Lead Counselors in the Counselor Program. I for one was the AC of Europe, after my colleague Fangorn left the program (he was made AC again after I resigned from the position, so it was a nice give'n'take between us two ;-). The main duties where the already talked about office work, and of course the conduction of the program in Europe(=Europa and Drachenfels). New recruitment classes had to be prepared together with my fellow ACs and the internal OSI-staff, and we also hung out on the shards, seeing if the companions do well while helping. Also, as the program grew and grew, some non-robed companions had to be recruited to Seniors. This meant special training classes - in game as well as in irc - and, of course, giving them robes on their shard(s). So as you see, the work of an Arch Companion was more or less a quite straightforward job, like most of the duties where organization is the top attention.

 

How did you feel about the program closing down...?

 

It was very sad, because of two main reasons: Firstly, Origin/EA decided to close the programs without letting anybody (well, almost anybody *quack*) know in advance. Most of the volunteers heard about being kicked by reading the news post on uo.com, or a mail from their responsible OSI-staff, only one day before. So that was not the nicest way for OSI/EA of saying "thank you".
Secondly, after the volunteers where taken away from US- and Euro-Shards, you could really see the impact on in-game service. Especially the disappearance of the Counselors made the whole system crash, and OSI hasn't really found a way to bring it back to where it was before until today (which is, to stay fair, quite impossible. There are simply too many calls for the handful GMs).
 
After all, as most of you might know, the reason OSI shut the volunteer programs down was a lawsuit caused by an ex-volunteer who wanted to have the volunteering time paid subsequently. So OSI probably feared a success for the claimant and pulled the emergency brake. I think nobody can be blamed for what happened, it was just...well...bad luck for all the people who had fun helping other players in an official way. Let's all take it easy and move forward (we already did a long time ago I guess :). Eventually there is no need to wear a robe or to be in contact with OSI in order to perform good works :-)
 
By the way, maybe I should mention that all the standard, non-robed companions where excluded from the program-shutdowns. There is no OSI- organization behind them, nor are they official representatives of OSI anymore, but they still have their special commands (no fear, they cannot turn you into purple rabbits :-). A lot of them are actually still doing their companion work, so as you see, the spirit of volunteering is left on all shards after all :-)

 

What did your position involve?  What was a typical work day / work week like for you?

 

A typical Arch Companion workday consisted mainly of doing office work. There were lots of mails to be answered, and a bunch of organizational stuff to be handled. Helping new players - the main reason I went into the program - became almost a luxury. But it was still a great time, and one of the most satisfying (and at the same time useful *g*) things I have done.

 

If you could choose any position within OSI which position would you choose and why?

 

My dream position was once Game Master...I thought it would be really cool to be one of the red ones, without a special reason actually.
Today I would favor a position in the developer team. Lot's of ideas in my head...but nobody hears me ;-)

I was wondering if you could perhaps enlighten us to how the "Office" is at OSI.. in general, in your opinion, are the people relaxed and joking about in a carefree manner, or is it a strictly run tight ship?

I have never seen an OSI office, as I was an external employee :-) But let me say that everybody at Origin we where working with was just great. Those guys and gals are really nice people, and it was a lot of fun and a pleasure working with them.

 

Do you Play UO? If so how long have you been playing?

 

I have been playing UO for five years now. I didn't login a lot over the last year, but AOS made me come back, and since February, I am back at full power again :-)

 

What has been your greatest achievement in your position with OSI and within the game...?

OSI: My AC position :-)
Game: I don't have achieved a lot in game actually *(lol)*. I am the type of player who just does what he wants to do, without looking at skills or titles. The thing I am most proud of is probably my giant villa in malas :-)

 

What are some things you'd like to see added to the game or strengthened in the game?

I would love to see new character breeds. That's one of UO's biggest weak points in my opinion.

What are some things that you think the playing community of UO could be doing to help make the game better and stronger?
OSI made big efforts in automated new player help systems and quests. Still, it will never be able to replace the help given by actual players. If you see a young player being in trouble or having problems with the game itself, try to take a few minutes and help him / her. It's something absolutely significant for the overall gaming experience of new players. Nobody really wants to be taught by websites and help screens all the time :-)

 

What do you see as the biggest/best change UO has taken since you first started playing/working for OSI?

The biggest change for me is the customized housing feature. It gives the world a touch of personality which really improves UO a lot.
The best change was the introduction of the companion program... ;-)

 

In addition to UO, what other games are you currently playing?

UO is the only MMORPG I play at the moment. I tried about all of the other MMO-games, but none of them convinced me, mainly because I love the unbelievable complexity of UO that is unrivalled.
The non-internet games I played most over the last months where Splinter Cell (just great) and UT 2003.

If you could be any monster in the game, what monster would you choose to be and why?
A dragon, because of the fire breathing ability ;-)

 

In an in game support situation, how much of an impact does the players behavior have on the end results.  Are you guys/support staff able to (and do you) go a little bit further for a person who's polite and well mannered than someone who's inflammatory and impolite?

No one has fun dealing with impolite people. That counts for online game support as well. The behavior of a player can probably influence the way a call is handled, but there are strict dos and don'ts for the support staff. So it's not like a friendly player will get his house door fixed, and the rest will have to stick with a damaged door...you know what I mean? :-)

 

In the UO Community would you say that there is a "typical
complaint/issue" that you are called out for most, and if so is it one that could be easily resolved to keep you from being called about it?

I can just take my experience from the companion program as a clue on this question. What I noticed is that new players often have problems with starting a new profession. It's sometimes unclear what kinds of skills you need for becoming a good xyz, how to get the items you need and where to play in order to get the best results out of your gaming. That's something OSI should continue working on. Though I have to say the improvements in the automated helping systems of UO are really commendable.

 

In game there is sometimes the perception by players that calling a GM may yield very little if any results.  In fact in some situations where a person has been scammed the person will often encourage the victim to page a GM.  In most of these situations the offender logs out and the victim is left feeling pretty powerless.  Obviously the GMs cannot respond instantly to each call.  Can you elaborate a bit on these situations and what you'd recommend players do in them?

Uh..that has never been my cup of tea obviously. I could only say as much regarding that as any other veteran player, so go figure for yourself ;-) The GM team is working hard to respond as fast as possible, but with queues going into the hundreds it's nearly impossible to help everybody in time unfortunately.

 

In your dealings with the UO Community, what would you say has been your funniest situation/ordeal you have been called for to help with or heard about?
One of the most satisfying situations was when I helped a new player who was on his way of becoming a warrior. We where slaying small monsters for about an hour, and I told him everything he needed to know about his profession. After a while he said "Wow, that's cool. I feel like Luke Skywalker being trained by Yoda"...that was really funny (though I don't like the new episodes :-). It's situations like that which proved to you that spending your time for the companion program was really worth it.

 

Do you find people reactions to the changes in AOS to be mostly positive or mostly negative?

Again, I can just answer that in my view as a player. Most of my uo-friends are pleased with the changes AOS brought into the game. The personal housing design feature is the best thing that happened to UO for years, in my personal opinion. Maybe they should have done a bit more debugging work, and a beta test, as they did for UO 3D. There where (and still are) lots of small bugs that keep getting on peoples nerves (like falling into your house floor and being stuck :-).

 

With AOS there have been some exciting additions to the game.  Can you give us any peak as to what might be in store for us in the future?

 

From what I've heard, it's very likely that 2004 will bring a new, big update to UO. I would guess that a completely new client is in the works, with an up-to-date graphical engine. The current 3D client isn't very popular in the UO community, for various reasons (one being the poor performance, while delivering a quite poor graphical result at the same time).

Thank you for taking the time to speak with us Sunny.  We wish you well
in all your future endeavors.