Interview with Kreegle

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Gimp Mask
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Interview with Kreegle

Post by Gimp Mask »

Ok I didn't actually interview him, I would like to but I can't be bothered with the detective work (I tried his 15yr old email address not long ago and was surprised to discover that it was actually defunct, makes me wonder if I should even bother trying to send him a message on ICQ). This interview is from the GameSpy site, dated feb 2001 and is probably more interesting than my interviews anyway. Hope you enjoy.

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Fallout Protection: Duck and Cover

With Fallout Tactics coming soon, we learn more about our Fallout hosted site.
By Joost "Silverdawn" Loijens

The RPGs Fallout and Fallout 2 are classics from Black Isle Studios, and Interplay is currently developing the tactical game Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel with Australian developer Micro Forté. All these games are covered at RPGPlanet's new, hosted site Duck and Cover. We learn about this venerable Fallout site from the Site Director Nick "Kreegle" Bayer.


GameSpy: What is a Kreegle? It sounds like a new style of potato chip.

Kreegle: A Kreegle is just a twisted part of my imagination - nothing in particular, really. I just needed a unique name as a login one day (I've forgotten what I was registering for now…) and for some strange reason "Kreegle" came to mind. Someone told me once that there was a Dr. Kreegle in some comic book, but I've never seen it. Kreegle-Kut potato chips sound promising though…


GameSpy: Who is the man behind the chip?

Kreegle: My real name is Nick Bayer, and I live in Melbourne, Australia. When I'm not spending all my time working on the computer, I'm writing music or mixing it (I'd still be DJ'ing if I didn't sell my turntables). What else? I enjoy reading books, I watch a lot of movies, going out to clubs / bars with friends is always high on my "like a lot" list. My favourite book would probably be Magician by Raymond E. Feist, and I couldn't pick a favourite film. An American Werewolf In London, Brazil, Magnolia and The Thin Red Line are the first few good movies that pop into mind. Oh, and I'm a vegetarian - which a lot of meat eaters find highly amusing.


GameSpy: Duck and Cover is an established site in the Fallout community. What are the history of the site and the significance of its name?

Kreegle: Duck and cover was started in 1998 -- it was one of the first ever Fallout fan sites created (No Mutants Allowed was the very first, as far as I know). Jay was the guy who built it up from scratch and looked after it for the first few years. It wasn't until around mid 2000 that the reigns were passed over to me - Jay was busy with college. Running the site by myself was an interesting experience - fun, but difficult at times. With Fallout Tactics in the making, I knew there was no chance that I'd be able to keep the old DAC up-to-date and alive if I didn't find a new host (I didn't even have full FTP access at the old site, so uploading things was basically impossible). Thankfully, RPGPlanet came to the rescue with a hosting offer and we gratefully accepted. After months of very painful work getting the design finished, we launched on RPGPlanet just after the new year… and here we are.

As for where the name Duck and Cover came from, there's a really great documentary titled "Atomic Café" which looks at the propaganda that the US government spat out during the early days of the bomb. About half-way through the documentary, there is a cool little black and white cartoon with "Bert the Turtle" (who is DAC's silent mascot, kinda), and his purpose it to teach kids how to "Duck and Cover"…

There was a turtle by the name of Bert
And Bert the Turtle was very alert
When danger frightened him, he never got hurt
He knew just what to do
He'd duck and cover
Duck and cover
He did what we all should learn to do
You and you and you and you
Duck and Cover!"



GameSpy: What is the Fallout community like these days?

Kreegle: Well, it's a strong and fanatical as always. It's a bit more lively now due to the fact that Fallout Tactics is going to be released soon - that's got most people excited. Then again, it has also rattled a few of the hardcore fans around. "It's not an RPG! It's not an RPG!" I can understand why they get so touchy about Tactics though… everyone has been dying for a follow up to Fallout 2 for years now. Recently, there have been a few rumours of Fallout 3 and Fallout Online - so that's grabbing their interest. The community is alive and well.


GameSpy: What feature of your site are you most proud of and why?

Kreegle: Apart from the big fan fiction section, I'd probably have to say the Fallout Tactics developer profiles. It took quite a bit of doing to get all of those profiles and put them together, but it's good to see that it all worked out in the end.


GameSpy: What aspects of the Fallout RPGs really appeal to you?

Kreegle: The non-linearity of the game, and the fact that you can be an absolute bad-ass. What other game lets you get married just so that you can sell your wife / husband into slavery? Fallout is a nice change from all of the fantasy RPG's out there - it's easier to "role-play" a lone wanderer in the wastelands than it is to role-play a forest elf.


GameSpy: What episode in either Fallout 1 or 2 do you remember vividly?

Kreegle: The first time I met the Master in the original Fallout… that's easily the first thing that jumps into my mind. He's a freaky sucka. The fact that I could talk him into killing himself… well… that made it all the more sweet.


GameSpy: Fallout Tactics is a squad-based tactical game set in the Fallout universe. What has Tactics taken from the Fallout RPGs in look and style?

Kreegle: Fallout was created with a distinct "retro-futuristic" look, kind of like those "weed of the future" documentaries from the 1950's. It's a slightly wacky and naive perception of the future, which suits the bizarre Fallout world perfectly. What makes the retro-future look of Fallout even more symbolic is the fact that everything in the world has decayed and fallen apart over time. The sleek cars have turned into rusty pieces of crap and the streets are littered with trash like broken chrome toasters.

Micro Forté have taken the same retro-futuristic look of Fallout and Fallout 2 and applied to Tactics - except this time in high-resolution and high-colour. And it looks VERY sweet, in my opinion. Most of the 50's stuff hasn't been seen yet - but Micro Forté have been working very hard on it (or so Parrish says).


GameSpy: Having played the Fallout Tactics multiplayer demo, what are some devious tactics you've devised?

Kreegle: There are quite a few nasty little tactics that work pretty well. Firstly, it doesn't matter if your defending or attacking - take things slowly. If you're using mines, put them in places that people won't expect to step on them - putting a mine in the centre entrance of the Assault map is useless. When attacking, don't be afraid to "fake" a direction and then go another way - if the defenders don't know where you are, you'll have a better chance of victory. Umm… I'm not going to say anymore - some things need to be kept a secret (like that fence at the top-left of the Assault base that you can actually walk across… oops).


GameSpy: What would you like to see improved in or added to Fallout Tactics before it is released?

Kreegle: An MP3 playlist would be nice…. Heh, well, there is one thing I'd like to see improved - a revamped sneak system. It's my opinion that the stealth character is not very useful at all (in multiplayer Tactics, anyway). At the moment, it's impossible to sneak up behind an enemy and attack them in hand-to-hand combat - the "perception" level of the enemy makes that impossible. Sneaking up from behind for the kill is definitely a thing I'd like to see.

I'd also like to see "instant-kills" for those characters who do manage to sneak up behind the enemy, like Tenchu on PlayStation. If you're able to get that close to the enemy without them knowing, you should be able to slit their throat or something… a one-hit death.

That's about it, really.


GameSpy: There are rumours that Fallout 3 may be a massively multiplayer online RPG. Do you think this will appeal to the current Fallout RPG fans? What would you find cool about this if it were true?

Kreegle: Well, I'd actually like to see Fallout 3 and Fallout Online as two completely separate games. Fallout 2 fans have been dying for another single player role-playing adventure… we've all heard whispers and rumours about Fallout 3 for a long time now - it was our beacon of hope. In fact, the instant anyone finished Fallout 2, they wanted Fallout 3. It's a well-documented and well-known phenomenon. Fallout fans NEED more Fallout RPG goodness. They need a single-player Fallout 3.

Fallout Online (or FOOL, if you prefer) is a really controversial topic amongst some Fallout fans… if you even mentioned it on some forums, you'd have your post erased and you might even get banned. The biggest argument against it is that it wouldn't be like the other Fallout games. How would the story be told? How would it work? I'd be interested in seeing a Fallout Online actually, but it would have to be made in a completely new way. There are too many MMORPGs, which are just "Level-up" races - trying to get your character to the next experience level. That isn't role-playing in my opinion. A dramatically new style of MMORPGs needs to be created before the genre runs out of steam…


GameSpy: What differences have you noticed between Australian and American developers and gamers?

Kreegle: I can't hold a conversation with American developers about Australian beers…

No, there are no real differences. All of them are nice guys, all very friendly. One of the coolest things about writing news for the Fallout series is interacting with the developers - Interplay, 14 Degrees East and Micro Forté have to be up the top of the list for being the nicest guys in the business.


GameSpy: Why do you like working on a fan site?

Kreegle: I love Fallout. I love writing. I love computers and the Internet - put them all together and you can see why I enjoy this so much. The main reason though… I know this sounds corny… is when people who like Fallout see me on IRC or GameSpy Arcade and say "Oh - you're Kreegle! Love your site man, you did an excellent job on blah blah blah…" I love that - it makes all the stressful and rough times worthwhile.
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