Q: What do you do in the Guild Wars community and where can everyone find you?A: Most people know me from my data mining-posts and the news it generates. But I also like to make maps, videos, tools, audio, applications and many other things. You can find my stuff on reddit (/u/that_shaman), YouTube (/c/thatshaman), soundcloud (that_shaman), twitter (@that_shaman), dulfy.net, my blog (thatshaman.blogspot.com) and in local newspapers.
Q: Did you hear of/play GW1 and what was your experiences/ you're impressions? What is your earliest memory if so?A: I've been playing Guild Wars 1 since launch and sunk many hours into it. My earliest memory of it was a friend (who kept raving on about it) sharing his pre-order guest pass with me so I could participate in one of the Beta weekend events... it didn't end well. My account was all set up and all I had to do was download the client, login and play. By the time I finally managed to sign in and walk around a bit I promptly got disconnected... the beta just ended. Nevertheless I immediately bought the game, and in the years to follow got all 3 collector editions.
Q: Did you/are you playing other MMO's? What attracted you to them?A: I've played a fair bit of WoW between Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2 to fill the gap. The thing that attracted me most was how I could make loads of gold by selling cats. My cunning business plan was to follow the same path in Stormwind over and over in hope I would find Lil' Timmy who was willing to part his poor white kitten to a caring and loving owner for just 10 silver. Then I would venture outside the gates, grabbed some regular cats along the way and sold the whole bunch for hundreds of gold to Horde players using the global auction house at Booty Bay. < I'm so sorry Timmy >
Q: When did you start playing GW2 and what got you involved in the game itself?A: I started playing GW2 during the first beta weekend and joined the community as "that_shaman" shortly after. The name refers to the Flame Legion Shaman boss that would show up in the Plains of Ashford, his reflect bubble managed to kill hundreds of new players over and over.
Q: What class do you main/ What is your least liked class and why?A: I'm absolutely in love with Elementalist, it's one of the most rewarding classes to play. I also like to play Guardian and Mesmer as well and don't have a least favourite from the remaining 5 (although I'm still working on getting a level 80 engineer).
Q: What is your preferred game mode/Have you been drawn to any other modes?A: I play PvE 90% of the time, but like to participate in casual sPvP matches as well.
Q: What is your favourite PvE content and why?A: Breaking out of maps.. But if it has to be intended content I would say jumping puzzles, general exploration and hanging out in Lion's Arch or Divinity's Reach.
Q: How do you feel about the upcoming expansion HoT?A: I'm really looking forward to it but I also have some concerns about it as well. First of all I really hope there will be a bit more variation to the zones than we've seen so far, if everything is just going to be jungle it will get old pretty fast. Second of all I will be really bummed if all the zones are going to be on fixed timers. If they are all set-up like Verdant Brink, the Silverwastes or Dry Top there's absolutely nothing dynamic about dynamic events any-more and instead of a living world the entire expansion is going to feel like a repetitive theme park ride where everybody is going to run the optimal event chains neglecting less rewarding events.
Q: What is your opinion on the lore of the game?A: The lore of the Guild Wars universe is very rich and it's very hard to find in game. When I was working on my historical guide I actually visited all locations to see if there was something relevant in GW2. To my surprise they did implement a lot of things, but almost all of these locations aren't recognizable without a guide. Adding NPC's, items or anything that would've told you about these locations would've been so much better.
Q: Is there a place, theme or person you would want new content to include?A: Most people want to go to Cantha or Elona but I would love to go north or east of Tyria instead. To the north-east you will find the Charr homelands: location of one the most beautiful regions in GW1. North of Kryta you have the mysterious woodland cascades: all knowledge about this region comes from that small section we got in GW1 and the books. And last but not least east of Ascalon: if the world maps we've found in game are correct, it's filled with giant mountains and lakes.
Q: What do you speculate as the next possible race?A: Tengu, Tengu or Tengu
Q: How did you get started with the community, what inspired you to get involved?I always look for an opportunity to learn about stuff and share it with other people, because I happen to love maps my very first post was about the world map and how it would fit all 5 dragons.. looking back on it I couldn't have been more wrong.
Q: What made you delve deep into GW2 files and start Datamining?A: The urge to take a look behind the scenes just to find out how it ticks and what's planned for the future, so data-mining is like second nature to me. The first time I explored the dat file was weeks before launch, I spend hours looking at all the models, tried to piece together the maps and listened to all music (this of course spoiled a lot of the game for me before launch).
A: After my first post I was mainly focused on posting maps and silly pictures for a whole year. On May 2nd 2013 I successfully got some results out of Gixxcel and decided to do my very first [Data-Mining] post.. this is where the data-mining story for shaman almost ended: The subreddit mods removed my post and wanted proof that the info actually came from the game files and not some leak. A few screenshots and a bit of explanation later they restored the post and things continued from there on.
Q: What do you make of your own mysterious image and fame within the community?A: Just a few weeks back the community couldn't decide if I was male or female and they were having a hilarious discussion about it. I had to step in before things got out of hand and had to spoil it for them. Having a bit of fame in the community still feels strange to me, but I would be lying if I said it isn't fun to have a random stranger recognize my big Charr in game (and I really try my hardest to answer all your messages, whispers, questions and marriage proposals)
Q: How much does the audience and community influence your production/creations?A: A lot. If things are well received (and it's fun for me to do) I will keep doing it. But if people have valid points of criticism I gladly listen to them. For example: my earliest data-mining posts had some of the items in the title. Somebody messaged me that he rather not see those spoilers on the front page, so from that moment on I decided all data-mining posts had to be labeled with just the patch name or date.
Q: What content do you create? Anything of note coming up soon?A: My data-mining posts are a still a regular thing, I think I've never missed an update since my 4 month break last year. Currently I'm working on completing the mobile trading post app and I'm updating the Historical Guide to include the new maps north of Divinity's Reach and D'Alessio Seaboard. In preparation for HoT I've already build a large part of the new world boss timer for dulfy.net, and behind the scenes I'm always working on loads of projects I won't talk about until satisfied. Most of the non data-mining related videos (e.g. interlude) aren't planned, these just happen when I'm bored and suddenly have a silly script in mind.
Q: Do you have any advice for people wanting to follow in your footsteps?A: Never reveal everything you know. Sometimes it's better to wait for the right moment or never mention it at all.
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