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

TibiaNews: Greetings GM Xadam! And thank you for taking this interview.

Xadam: Hello Zanko.

TibiaNews: Could you tell us a little bit about the person behind the PC, the man wearing the cape, the...err, you get the picture.

Xadam: I'm a casual student of 3rd year Computer Science course on a Technical University. Nothing really special, doing exactly the same as my peers, well... and playing Tibia too.

TibiaNews: Haha, well how did you first discover the game?

Xadam: I visited friends who ran a computer shop that was placed on the way from my school to home. They were talking nonstop about Tibia, adventures, PKs and so on... so that's how I heard of it for the first time. However, I didn't start playing back then. Seeing that graphics, no music etc I really couldn't force myself to do it even once. But as you know, people do stupid things when bored, so using the option of having broadband connection at school and a few other boys who started playing too, I decided to run that 'brand new' 7.0 client. That's how it started. We played on the extra computer-classes.

TibiaNews: Ahah! Well what about your first day as a tibian?

Xadam: First 3 hours were rather hard. I didn't see anything special in the game and the game itself seemed hard. However, having those other boys playing next to me, I could always ask them for a clue. I think that's the only reason why I didn't stop Tibia back then hehe. But after the first 3 hours I felt there is something interesting about the game, especially the MMORPG part (was my first online game).

TibiaNews: What about those friends, do they still play?

Xadam: I really doubt it. Some kept playing for one year, then quit.

TibiaNews: Oh OK. Well...time to go a bit forward in time when you first got your blue cape. When did that happen, and more importantly, how?!

Xadam: That happened a month after my university started, in November if my memory doesn't fail. I was quite active as a Senior Tutor and I was one of the longest staying Tutors at that time. The funny thing is that I planned to retire when my university started. Then, with almost no activity as a normal player, but just a ST I managed to draw CIP's attention. I felt the invitation might come after the unusual episode on Test Server.

TibiaNews: Oh?

Xadam: Craban suddenly teleported to me, then took me to the Isle of Solitude. He showed me the isle and lured me into prison where... I died.

TibiaNews: Hahaha. I suppose you were a bit confused when that happened?

Xadam: Yeah, Craban at his best days, evil as never. To be honest, that was the first and probably the last time I saw members of Ruthless Seven alive hehe. Also, there must be something in those people complaining about CIP servers because once he lured me into there the server suddenly stopped working. So, I actually died in a kick hehe.

TibiaNews: Hehe. Well what about the invitation, what were you doing you were invited to become a GM?

Xadam: The invitation itself came as an email, because Craban couldn't reach me on the test server later. Of course, that was still a big surprise and I really didn't believe it when I saw it the first time. As an IT guy I checked the header of the mail to make sure it's not some kind of 'hack' hehe.

TibiaNews: What about your friends? How did they take it when you first told them you were a gamemaster?

Xadam: I heard a lot of warm words. Actually, I told only a few people that I'm GM. The others got to know the truth during my training.

TibiaNews: Your training?

Xadam: I confused things and sent a world broadcast message instead of red text in a channel. The first red message was 'No'. Then I got spammed with two kinds of messages, one being congratulations and the others 'man! what no????!!?!'

TibiaNews: And do your friends, or anyone else, treat you differently now that you are a gamemaster?

Xadam: Yes, I think a lot changed. Due to the fact that being GM means power, many people are prejudiced and they judge me by the rumors they hear. For some people having power is equal to abuse it, hence the rumors I guess. Also, I got to know who the friends are. Many couldn't understand it that I can make no exceptions when it comes to rule enforcement. Once they or their friends got banned they turned against me. But that's no loss for me. Truth is worth revealing even if it's unpleasant.

TibiaNews: I suppose that’s bitter-sweet then.

Xadam: Well, that may be sad, but that's how it is. I have no influence on that.

TibiaNews: Aye. Well back to GM'ing. What about your first day on the job, learning the ropes and all. Was that fun?

Xadam: Yes, that was fun! And the shock of the player when you suddenly teleport to him, priceless.

TibiaNews: Well you chose to go under your normal character name as a GM, any reason for that?

Xadam: I didn't see a point to hide. Almost everyone I knew was either a friend or neutral to me. Also, being an active Tutor and disappearing next day would be quite strange, don't you think? It was obvious people would find out pretty fast, no matter how much I'd have denied.

TibiaNews: Ah OK. Well I imagine there is a fair bit of stress with being a gamemaster. How do you deal with it? Do you have some ancient methods or do you go on PK sprees?!

Xadam: There was some stress at the beginning, now I can't really think of situation that would be stressful for me. I mean being GM is fun, I wouldn't be GM if it wasn't fun for me. So definitely notating, banishing aaaaand deleting is fun.

TibiaNews: What about when you're answering reports. Do you have specific servers you visit at certain days, or is it all just completely random?

Xadam: To be honest I focus mostly on my home server, Lunara, nowadays. I visit other servers too, but I prefer to do the work 'at home'.

TibiaNews: Ah k hehe. Well, do you have any records you would like to share with us? Most amount of botters banned? Most amount of macroers caught?

Xadam: I keep statistics of my actions, so I can tell you a few figures.

TibiaNews: Oh goody!

Xadam: In the old days, without STs able to report statements, public channels were real mess. So I came a couple of times to such servers to enforce some 'standard' of communication on public channels. 100 banishment in an hour, that's it.

TibiaNews: Holy kamoly! That’s a record for sure!

Xadam: Now with the statement report system policy changed a lot and we are much more lenient towards violations of statement rules. So, there is no chance to repeat that record hehe. Something of other statistics, I don't have all here but I think I did total of around 4000 banishments in my career. Well, there is still much space for improvements. For example, I filtered comments of 58,000 characters looking for inappropriate statements… I got 720 results. I finished at 130th result and those are sorted by server, so... you reading it, you have still some time to fix your comment

TibiaNews: One moment……alright, I’m good!

Xadam: As you may imagine, it's not hard to find players that should be banished. Actually, I'd prefer if there was much more time put into prevention. If you don't give the guy a gun, he won't shoot anyone. If you cut his tongue he won't speak...

TibiaNews: Haha, don’t worry my tongues clean!

Xadam: No, but seriously, prevention is what I think needs to be reinforced in the rule enforcement system now.

TibiaNews: EG: Filters in forums, comments, etc.?

Xadam: Yes, these are only a few of the possible ideas.

TibiaNews: Oooh OK. Well gamemaster Snuggles shared a bit about a gamemaster holiday called Black Holiday. Anything you would like to say about that?

Xadam: Yes, we intensified our actions such as bot-busting and then generated a report of our total work. Too bad I forgot to submit my share :p

TibiaNews: Well you used to be active in the politics and the war, when did you begin that?

Xadam: My tasks were diplomacy and mediations. Originating from the Ternion Verity, I taught skills of solving social issues. I joined academy of Liches of Archinare. LoA was the leading guild back then and I joined with similar purpose to my other friends, to bring diplomacy to power. It was never my intention though to get any power, as you define 'power to use it'. Then the LoA got disbanded and a few players of it (not really many diplomats :p) got into main guild. We formed the guild Core and that was one nice piece of history. Then the wars came. It was the time for the forming of Conlegium (another attempt to gather decent high levels and diplomats) but experience shows that power doesn't really go along with diplomacy. With Conlegium being a fail, I quit politics, I quit guilds. Since then I'm guildless. The fact I became GM had its influence too. Especially during wars it created lots of problems. People could never stop slandering. I can't say everyone in my guild was a saint too. I got to know a few details after the war was over and it was yet another reason to stay guildless. Cheaters are almost everywhere, especially in high-level guilds. Staying in one means you either are lied to all the time, people hide information from you or you pretend to ignore the rule violations you see. The second option is not for me. And I also didn't feel comfortable with the fact people have to lie to me. Luckily, it's easier to find decent guild consisting of low/medium level characters. So I'm member of such guilds with my other characters.

TibiaNews: Ooh. Well have you had many invitations for guilds since then on Xadam?

Xadam: I had many invitations to guilds, yes. In the first year there were tons of those, but later people noticed I'm not interested and stopped bothering me.

TibiaNews: Ah. Well, you must have known this was coming. Fast paced questions! You have twenty seconds on the clock, you ready?

Xadam: 20 for each question or all? :p

TibiaNews: All.

Xadam: Lol, ok.

TibiaNews: Favourite server type?

Xadam: PvP

TibiaNews: Most used type of food?

Xadam: Dragon ham

TibiaNews: Favourite outfit?

Xadam: Standard…citizen

TibiaNews: Most missed client?

Xadam: None

TibiaNews: Favourite monster?

Xadam: Dragon

TibiaNews: Favourite city?

Xadam: Kazordoon

TibiaNews: Wow! JUST on the 20th second...literally!

Xadam: Hehe

TibiaNews: Well... ...this interview is drawing to an end, any last words before we finish this interview Xadam?

Xadam: Nothing unexpected. Play fair and have fun!

TibiaNews: Thank you for the interview Xadam.

Xadam: Thank you too!