Ex-GM Lantheos was interviewed by our ex-staff member Zanko.

Tibianews: Hey there GM Lantheos! And welcome to the TibiaNews interview headquarters.

Lantheos: Hello there!

Tibianews: Like usual, we’ll have to start with the opening questions. For starters, could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

Lantheos: Well, I’m sorry but I can’t tell you much. Let’s just say I’m a student from Europe.

Tibianews: And what about Tibia, when and how did you first discover the game?

Lantheos: I think it was in early 2005, my classmate was talking about it all the time, so I decided to give it a try as well. And I’ve been playing since that day

Tibianews: What about your first day playing? Was it exciting… scary?

Lantheos: I would say it was scary… I entered the sewer gate and didn’t know how to climb up a ladder. So finally some evil rats killed me. I was so sad that I created a new character and started to play again with an empty death list (not for a long time, though…).

Tibianews: Moving right along, to roughly… well, whenever you were invited onto the gamemaster team! When, how did you feel, how did it happen? Spill the beans!

Lantheos: It was a shock! I came back from school and logged in. After few minutes I was PMed by CM Alguzara and she offered me the position of a gamemaster. I was so surprised that I could hardly type I had to go out and take some breaths of the fresh air, haha.

Tibianews: What about your first day flying solo? Any problems?

Lantheos: To be honest, I don’t remember too much from my first day as a GM. I only remember the training, after receiving the blue cape I was visited by at least 10 gamemasters. Then there was my first ban. They told me to broadcast it and then they were laughing when I was being spammed on PM What else… well, creating so many characters also took a while.

Tibianews: Were your friends surprised? Were they supportive, or were some already asking for screenshots?

Lantheos: Only few friends knew actually. And they were really supportive.

Tibianews: Are there any abilities which you would like for CipSoft to give gamemasters to help fight botters?

Lantheos: Sure there are but I cannot share them with players. You know, the more botters know, the harder it is to catch them.

Tibianews: Do you think there are enough gamemasters to cope with the rule violators in Tibia, or do you think more need to be appointed?

Lantheos: We need more and I’m sure some new will be appointed sooner or later.

Tibianews: Even if there were hundreds of gamemasters, do you think that cheats have gotten far too advanced and other types of prevention are necessary?

Lantheos: Of course manpower is not everything. Also prevention is needed. Like they say… better safe than sorry.

Tibianews: Have you ever accidentally banished someone? And how long did it take you to notice?

Lantheos: Haha, yes I have. I copied a wrong name and I realised soon enough so this player was banished for only about 30 seconds.

Tibianews: What is your opinion on “GM Stalkers”?

Lantheos: It all depends what they do, actually… as long as they don’t spam too much, I don’t mind. But some players are annoying and I have to use the ‘ignore’ function from time to time. On the other hand, however, I can understand those ‘stalkers’ who go to other worlds looking for GMs because they have got some reports to check. But here I would like to ask them: please use the ctrl + r and don’t bother to PM gamemasters, especially on their playing characters, as such messages will be ignored anyway.

Tibianews: There have been various proposals for things such as “different ranked gamemasters”, “hired gamemasters”, etc. What is your opinion on these proposals?

Lantheos: To be honest, I have never read such a proposal. There are already 2 ranks (Customer Support and Gamemaster) which is enough in my opinion.

Tibianews: Corrupt GMs! Although there aren’t a whole heap of cases, a few do come up every now and then. Do you think most of the time the cases are invalid, or that maybe sometimes there are corrupt GMs?

Lantheos: For sure most cases are invalid. Players tend to overuse the word ‘corruption’. It’s simple: our duty is to punish players, and in case of a punishment there are always 2 sides, those who reported and those who are punished. It is simply not possible to please everybody, and that’s why the rumours about certain GMs being corrupted are spread. In most cases, there is a certain guild / group of players violating the rules as well as their enemies. This group is reported and finally punished. Then, they start to accuse the gamemaster. Of course the banishments are justified, but the community doesn’t know everything and such accusations are being spread really fast. Naturally, there used to be some rotten apples in the gamemaster team before, but I haven’t been a GM long enough to comment that.

Tibianews: Now it’s time for that part of the interview… where things get rowdy and heads fly off! It’s the quick question section! I’ll ask a series of questions and you have to give the quickest answer you can. Are you ready?

Lantheos: Sure!

Tibianews: Alright, time to start… Favourite vocation?

Lantheos: Druid

Tibianews: Favourite city?

Lantheos: Edron

Tibianews: Wand or rod?

Lantheos: Rod

Tibianews: A wizard has turned you into a mudkip! Is this awesome?!

Lantheos: A mudkip?! 0.o

Tibianews: Sword, club or axe?

Lantheos: Sword

Tibianews: Bolts, arrows or spears?

Lantheos: Bolts

Tibianews: Any last words before we wrap up the interview?

Lantheos: Have fun and play fair! And never forget that Tibia is only a game!

Tibianews: Thank you for your time Lantheos.