Runar, owner of the former supported fansite TibiaNorcdic, was interviewed by our staff member Naicb.

TibiaNews: Greetings Runar and thank you for this interview. We're gonna jump right away to ... the first question: Can you tell us about the man behind Runar?

Runar: The man behind Runar is a 18 year old guy who lives in the best country in the world; Norway. He used to play on Galana and Antica until he switched to Mac. Cipsoft havent created the Mac client yet :(

TibiaNews: So, how did you start Tibia?

Runar: A friend of mine, who was tipped by his cousin (who was a respected tutor and vice leader in one of Eternia's most famous guilds) told me about Tibia, and I remember we walked around in Rookgaard. I think it was around 2002 or 2003. I also remember we quit because we got "hacked" by a "enter your account number and you'll get all the items you want" webpage ^^

TibiaNews: We all know you from the TibiaNews Forums and Tibianordic, so what made you want to start a Tibia Fansite?

Runar: I've always liked/loved to make webpages, and after a friend of mine introduced me to Tibia, I thought "hey, why not make a website about it". It was kinda ... sucky the first years, before I met some nice people who helped me starting Tibia.no.

TibiaNews: Most of your readers have noticed that the site was offline for a while, could you tell about what happened?

Runar: It wasn't fun to run the fansite anymore. I wanted to use my time on work and school, and when the forum crashed due to a weird bug, I just gave up .

TibiaNews: Can you tell us what it takes to run a Tibian Fansite?

Runar: Well, you need to be patient. I think that's one of the most important things if you want to run a fansite. You should also know how to make it, so you don't need help from other people all the time. Money is a good thing too, since it's not free to run a fansite if you want it to become popular. Also some free time, at least in the beginning.

TibiaNews: What plans do you have for Tibianordic in the future?

Runar: At the moment I'm writing detailed guides for each town in Tibia. The idea is to make it more user friendly and detailed than Erig's TibiaWiki. We're also trying out something I can't really talk about yet. All I will say is It may have something to do with your VIP-list.

TibiaNews: What's the biggest problem you have had with the fansite so far?

Runar: We haven't experienced many big problems, except the one I can't talk about. But we got hacked once. I'm still not sure how he/she did it, but I'm glad we had backup. I also managed to delete every news post we had and replace them with the word "text". Some would say money is the biggest, and/or hardest, problem, but our Google Ads from December to March paid for the next year, which reminds me I have to put them online again.

TibiaNews: I guess you have a lot of people to thank and give credit to, so here's your chance.

Runar: I'll thank JTE who have given me a lot of help with the coding. I would also like to thank the following people (in random order): Hannah, Christopher, the TibiaNordic staff, Hapex, Jason and Wrzasq, Same-Truls, Canti, GM Dazetih and GM Wilfred of Mayhem, Josh, James and GM Issalia ,Zipfried, my uncle (for providing me with the tibia.no domain) I might have missed someone, so I'll thank everyone I might have forgotten. OH! And last but not least, Guido, Stephan, Steve and Durin for making this wonderful game.

TibiaNews: So we have talked about Tibianordic, now lets talk about Tibia. How do you feel about the way Tibia is developing?

Runar: I haven't really followed the development the last months, since I'm unable to play, but I think it's going the right way. But I think CipSoft should focus more on organized cheating, like sharing and trading, since it's bigger than they think (or they're just pretending they don't know about it) I have always liked exploring new land and reading new stories, so I'm exited each time they increase the map.

TibiaNews: In your days of playing Tibia was there ever anything you wanted Cipsoft to add to the game?

Runar: Something to stop cheaters and bad players, I guess. I also wanted them to add the "sit-on-chair" feature who was in the PoTD on TibiaNews some time ago. A more exiting Rookgaard wouldn't hurt either. :)

TibiaNews: Since you said you have always liked making websites, I'll ask you this. What do you think of the newly made Tibia website?

Runar: From a technical point of view, it's better. They're not using tables to make the layout anymore, which is a big plus. I like the new Featured Article thing too, but I'm not sure if I like the new layout better than the old one. I still think they really should add a search engine to the forums. It can't be that hard? Users like me will have to expand more than one menu to find what he/she wants, which is a bad thing. Except that, I think it's good.

TibiaNews: Here's the last question for today: What do you think of TibiaNews?

Runar: Honestly? I think you (the staff) are not using all of it's potential (right word?). I'm not saying you should use more time on TibiaNews than your real life, but it should be updated more often and the libraries should really be updated. You could do a lot with the forum too, like changing software (phpBB is not that great), change layout, get the avatars back, remove pictures from signatures, get rid of the spammers, insulters and bad people. I know you can't do anything without Ex, but that's the biggest problem. TibiaNews was once TEH fansite, now it's kinda falling apart :( Please don't hate me.

TibiaNews: Well thanks for your time, anything you want to say to the readers before I go?

Runar: Stay away from cheats and sharing, and try to enjoy the game as much as I did/do!

TibiaNews: Thanks once again!

Runar: You're welcome :)