Toni Stradling: I am here today in an empty irish park as technical issues prevent us from being on the beach at charm with Christal Aya who has kindly agreed to give up some of her time to tell us a few things about her life on here and in Tiny Empires
Toni Stradling: Christal welcome and
thanks for joining me today
Christal Aya: Thanks, my pleasure.
Christal Aya: It's nice that you're taking
time to do this, Toni.
Toni Stradling: Oh I enjoy this it gives me a chance to meet other members of the kingdom.
Toni Stradling: perhaps I may start by asking you how you came to hear of the empires game?Christal Aya: OK sure.
Christal Aya: Well, back in 2008 I was running two live music venues in SL (Red Rock, a rock club, and Mama's, a blues club) and spent a lot of time going to see performers at other clubs. Through that I met Bratt Lunasea, who was running a club and he managed to recruit me for his downline in Charm. It took a lot of convincing, but he was tenacious. *laughs*
Christal Aya: He was pretty heavily into it at the time and, well, once I start something... I got into it pretty heavily as well.
Toni Stradling: right, i wonder how he managed to convince you to join this game?
Christal Aya: Well after I asked a million questions about it and what the point of it was, and he got tired of it -- he used to call me "the interrogator" -- he simply said "Just try it! Does there HAVE to be a point?!"... or something like that. So anyways, I figured what the heck and got the trial HUD. I was pretty busy at the time so I didn't know if I'd stick with it, but I did. It kind of lures you in and then the social aspect kept me in it.
Toni Stradling: yes it can be quite addictive especially at the begining I think, what did you enjoy about it at the start and do you still enjoy the same aspects of it now?
Christal Aya: Well, to be honest, I haven't been in SL much recently and haven't been actively recruiting, plus my downline is very quiet, so we are just content to remain in Charm, which has always treated us well. I play from time to time and try to keep up to date. I have a lot of respect for Rexx and Francine and how they've kept the Kingdom alive.
Christal Aya: As to what I enjoyed about it when I was active... meeting people. I mean when you are actively recruiting, you are constantly reaching out to new people and stariting converstaions, and the bribes also instigate conversations. I made a lot of good friends that way. Still have many of the kings and queens in my friends list and keep up with them.
Christal Aya: My very first recruit was Swankhaven Blitz, and he was a complete pitbull when it came to the game. He built his downline quickly so I mostly ended up in a support role to help him with training new recruits and helping plan "princess parties" lol.
Christal Aya: He ascended fairly quickly to create a kingdom called "Swank" after that, which has since morphed into another name.
Toni Stradling:: princess parties?
Christal Aya laughs at the memory.
Christal Aya: Oh yes. He mostly recruited ladies and one of the rewards for them when they achieved princess status was to hold a party. There would be a "watch" as they approached 1000 acres, and then I would send out a big announcement and we would plan a party, usually at a club somewhere, with music and dancing.
Toni Stradling: actually that sounds like a good idea
Christal Aya: It was actually very nice for them to receive that recognition, and a good way to make sure you let everybody know that you were personally interested in them. There was a point when we were having these parties once a week, and sometimes more than one princess was celebrated at a party. So we grew quickly.
Christal Aya: About that time, all the Charm lines were growing quickly so there were a lot of princes and princesses ascending to their own king and queendoms. That would have been in probably the late summer or fall of 2008.
Christal Aya: Charm was in the top 10 and could have been bigger if the lines had stayed, but Rexx insisted that we all promote people striking out on their own. It was a matter of pride for him that they felt confident and excited to create their own domains.
Toni Stradling: yes was that about the time we had that 24 hour party?
Christal Aya: I don't recall that one.... I do know that AMS was having a lot of parties at that time.... crazy parties :)
Christal Aya: Much pole dancing and nudity and... well... fun fun fun :)
Toni Stradling: well I probably passed on those parties
Christal Aya: lol
Christal Aya: I wasn't in the AMS group so only heard about them second hand.
Christal Aya: We all used to spend a lot of time at the AMS sim playing games and in voice.
Toni Stradling: there is a criticism I have heard about the game that after awhile it loses its attraction as one gets so high that people stop bribing you or even that you reach a maximum land holding how do you feel about this?
Christal Aya: I think that's a reasonable concern. I mean, with the exception of an extension I think you can buy with gold bars, everybody is limited to 2000 acres. However you can give your acres away to your downline or others you are recruiting when you get to that level. I haven't yet hit 2000 acres yet as I kept giving them away. But I think with anything, people eventually start to lose energy if they aren't stimulated anew..
Christal Aya: Plus, the introduction of TE 3000 really hurt the original TE. Everybody switched over there for something new. I wasn't willing really to make the investment, so I didn't move, but many did.
Christal Aya: I'm not sure how well that game is going. To me, it just seemed like more of the same. I mean, when you are starting up a downline it can be a LOT of work if you want to do it right, and that comes with many rewards, but unless there is something REALLY fresh to pursue, yes, people become apathetic.
Christal Aya: To be fair, I think the emperor tweaks the game now and again. I mean with different HUDs and such that you can buy, but I don't think it's enough.
Christal Aya: There are tons of kingdoms created and evolving even now as far as I can see, so there are still many playing the game. I have actually heard old-timers in SL who complain they are seeing a larger problem and that is with SL not growing at the same rate that it was back in the day... so the problem may be larger than TE.
Toni Stradling: I have found the 3000 game to have no social element at all to be honest with you as everyone already knows you are not going to accept a bribe and nobody has even tried
Christal Aya: Well people used to bribe me a lot back when I was actively playing... even after I became a VIcereine, so I don't think it has to do with levels necesarrily, but rather an overall apathy or something. Perhaps the level of training and investment isn't there as it once was. Dunno.
Christal Aya: It would be interesting to get the perspective of a new player, in Charm or a smaller growing kingdom, to compare.
Toni Stradling: yes good point, well you have been succesful in this game i notice you have something after your name on the standings which I do not have it looks like a very thin book could you tell us what this represents?
Christal Aya: One moment, let me look at the standings page....
Christal Aya: Ok, so I have four symbols. The only one that you don't have in comparison is the disaster research symbol. There are three things that you can research: Famine, Disease, and Crime Waves. The Federation HUD makes offers that give you 20 turns to spend gold on researching one of these things and you can save your population from these disasters without even attending the HUD if you have fully researched one of them. You can only research one at a time. I chose to research Famine, so that symbol is a stem of wheat. The Disease symbol is a red cross. I can't recall what the symbol for Crime Wave is, but it protects your "imaginary" population from crime waves and your downline from sabotage I believe. Here is a link for more info: http://malixu.me.uk/tinyempires/index.php?title=Citizens.
Toni Stradling: ahhhh thank you for that information I shall look out for that offer.
Toni Stradling: Like me then you have always been in charm have you ever had any temptation to try another kingdom?
Toni Stradling: good we are happy that you are happy here, is there anything at present that you feel charm should be doing which it is not?
Christal Aya: Gee, I can't really think of anything myself. I think that question would best be posed to a really active player, perhaps some at different stages of the progress up the levels. That would offer you a more current and fresh perspective.
Toni Stradling: fair comment, do you have any regrets about anything that has happened in your empires life?
Christal Aya: I suppose that is true in SL and RL as well :)
Christal Aya: But It all worked out in the end
Toni Stradling: and have you ever had any aspirations to be a queen yourself?
Christal Aya: I have completed the path to royalty, just to say I have done it, so I could, theoretically, ascend any time, but I have no desire to do so.
Christal Aya: Several reasons. By the time I reached that point initially, I was working a full time job with a lot of overtime, I was running two music clubs in SL, which was taking 20 to 30 hours a week, so I didn't have the time to commit to it, and after that I was partnered for a couple of years. Make no mistake, it is a lot of time to run a kingdom. Also, I was and still am perfectly content to support Charm. I am proud to remain a princess here.
Toni Stradling: well it certainly sounds like you have had a very full second life
Christal Aya: It's been pretty good. :)
Toni Stradling: may I ask you about your empires nickname I actually found two for you are you the royal star shooter or the royal sleeping beauty?
Christal Aya: Royal Sleeping Beauty
Christal Aya: Well it was back after I had just become a princess, there was a group of us that used to spend a lot of time on voice playing Greedy Greedy or trivia or just shooting the crap about whatever. That was a lot of fun. Many times that we were on voice, however, and it was late in the night for the people in the SLT time zone, like Rexx, or early morning for people in the UK or Europe, and afternoon for the people in Australia. But for me, it would have been 2, 3 or 4 am.... sooooo as you can imagine, I sometimes drifted off while my mic was still on.
Christal Aya: Eruanna, one of my direct subjects, is in Holland and Rexx is in California and they conspired to give me that name one night when they caught me (softly?) snoring into my mic lol.
Toni Stradling: ha ha I like that story
Christal Aya: *grins*
Christal Aya: So who is going to interview YOU Toni?
Toni Stradling: I do not think anyone is interested in interviewing me I have no funny stories to tell
Christal Aya: I wouldn't sell yourself short. I might take a swing at it. :)
Christal Aya: lol
Toni Stradling: Well Christal it was kind of you to come here today and share your thoughts with us, I hope this venue has not proved to cold for you
Christal Aya: Glad I wore my jacket. It's a beautiful sim by the looks of it. I might poke around a bit if that's ok.
Christal Aya: And thanks Toni. Good luck with your interviews.
Toni Stradling: thank you
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