Post by Chloe/Kat on Aug 12, 2011 15:38:43 GMT -6
Hello, DOA, and welcome to the first edition of Chloe's Corner where I select a member on the site to interview and post the results right here on the site. For my first episode I interviewed the owner of DOA himself:
Q: Please introduce yourself for the people that don't know you?
A: My name is Tom and I live in Kansas City, Kansas. Online I mainly go by the alias of Ayen on ToriJ. On here people can simply call me Maricul. I've been role playing for over six years and moderating for the same length of time. I love action/adventure movies, video games and comic books.
Q: What inspired you to create Dead on Arrival?
A: I wanted a place where the gloves could come off. Where creativity wasn't stumped by too many rules but instead encouraged as much as possible. We have had to set some restrictions in order to be fair to everyone but I think for the most part we're far more "free-form" than a lot of other sites out there now. Here you can play anything from an original to a canon, any version of said canon or you can completely reinvent them and make them your own.
If you have the patience you can create your own realm, civilizations, history, religion, languages, you can develop that realm further in the Downward Spiral board and invite other people to enjoy it. As long as it can be explained it's all good to us.
Q: Almost everyone here is familiar with Maricul in one form or another. How did you come up with the Maricul character and how much has she developed from her original concept?
A: I was a big fan of Ranma growing up and the 12th OVA of Ranma, the character of Akane Tendo's (the female who would go on to become Maricul playby) body is possessed by an evil spirit that is looking to take revenge upon Ranma. In order to do that she attempts to seduce him to catch him off guard. There's a scene that shows her robes starting to fall off and thus exposing herself to him and the concept of Maricul came to me through that. Bringing it to life by that point however was a disaster.
Maricul pretty much started out as a stupid bitch who made perverted comments. Nothing about her was consistent mainly because I was still growing as a RPer at that time and I haven't really matured yet. Over the years Maricul managed to stop being just a dumb bitch, stop stealing so much from Alucard as a character and became the woman you see today.
Q: How has Genesis evolved since the start of the site?
A: When we were just getting off the ground we didn't even have a name for the world or the continent. We simply referred to "Jherra" back then as the continent. In the beginning we only had Isafaro, Jherrazad, Moon Valley, Aircano and the Downward Spiral. The Crystal Expanse and Hallowton has yet to be invented. The world map was a lot more vague compared to now. We had Isafaro to the north, Jherrazad to the south, Moon Valley was off somewhere in a corner not really turning many heads, and Aircano was stuck inbetween Isafaro and Jherrazad which quickly made it an ideal "stepping stone" for a war between the two more major nations.
The Crystal Expanse and Hallowton was invented later on as the need for more areas to RP arise. After only just the first couple of weeks Jherrazad was flooded, Isafaro took heavy damage and Aircano blew up so I'm glad I added those areas when I did because after the first month I had to modify a total of four boards. It's the main reason I have the rule "no city-wide destruction" because I need these places to last. It's a double edged sword, keep blowing up all the locations we're not going to have anywhere left to RP.
A lot of the areas used in the board is a fusion of places I created a long time ago. Isafaro was originally a nation at war that I made for a book. Moon Valley was a small town I created for another novel, although originally located in the state of Kansas. Jherrazad was an idea that Alexis, Zira, Clash and I came up with for an older forum that Clash helped name, and later on into DOA's life Clash would help with the naming of the Crystal Expanse and Hallowton. He also came up with the Jherra name earlier for a continent that again we never got to use earlier. I thought up of Genesis myself to represent a realm and planet that was made first.
When Clash stepped down from his position as Mod and Alexis took over she helped to further develop the world of Genesis as can be seen in the "DOA Background Info" found up on the Welcome Table. Amoura provided the map finally giving us a visual reference of the world we're playing in. The world is still vague enough to where people can help further develop but now thanks to the Team we have a lot more information to serve as a foundation for further development and to make it easier for new members to ease into the world we've created.
Q: In your opinion, what has been the forum's greatest thread thus far?
A: The Valley of Death. No question. That thread raised the bar on what role players can accomplish if they just stick to character and allow the chips to fall where they may. I'd go as far as to say that of all the threads in the past six years I've been in, that was the best and it's going to be a fun challenge trying to top it.
Q: Did you ever think the forum would reach the level of success it's currently enjoying?
A: We're not too big, we're not too small, we have a nice based of members who remain as active as they can be to keep us alive and I couldn't ask for more. DOA has become a platform for a lot of my friends, new and old, to get together, meet each other for the first time, resume role playing after not having a place to play at for months, and for new people entirely to join in and befriend the rest of the group. It's definitely the most successful forum I had in a while and it has been made possible thanks to the people here.
Q: Not including your own, what are some of your favorite characters on the site (if any at all).
A: Not to seem like I'm favoring any one RPer but, if I had to choose Miracle is the first to come to mind. I like the research that was done with the character and how they interact with the others, remaining pure among the impure. Amoura would be added to that list too as she's probably one of the most developed characters on the site, though she had the advantage of developing her for years on various sites before coming here. Clash would get an honorable mention because that's a character nobody expected to become huge and...
...And I'd have to say I really like what Kara and Utena has done with those characters. Supergirl taking on the position of Superman and Utena becoming a psychopath killing people are things I never thought I'd see. Not on one of my sites anyway. I look forward to see what Bane does while here. Chloe and Ross' Sparda has really came into their own here as well.
Q: How do you manage to keep up with so many different characters, plots and threads all at once?
A: Not being in school or working certainly helps. I spend a lot of time on the computer, not something I brag about for obvious reasons, mainly because I'm a shut in for most of the year. I can't be out when it's too hot nor when it's too cold so... it's either this or television. I have a lot of energy to burn too. I always saw creativity to be one of my greatest gifts whether it's a parody meant to get a few laughs or a drawn out plot that I improvise out of my ass and going off of the reception I get for both, I must be doing something right.
Q: Please introduce yourself for the people that don't know you?
A: My name is Tom and I live in Kansas City, Kansas. Online I mainly go by the alias of Ayen on ToriJ. On here people can simply call me Maricul. I've been role playing for over six years and moderating for the same length of time. I love action/adventure movies, video games and comic books.
Q: What inspired you to create Dead on Arrival?
A: I wanted a place where the gloves could come off. Where creativity wasn't stumped by too many rules but instead encouraged as much as possible. We have had to set some restrictions in order to be fair to everyone but I think for the most part we're far more "free-form" than a lot of other sites out there now. Here you can play anything from an original to a canon, any version of said canon or you can completely reinvent them and make them your own.
If you have the patience you can create your own realm, civilizations, history, religion, languages, you can develop that realm further in the Downward Spiral board and invite other people to enjoy it. As long as it can be explained it's all good to us.
Q: Almost everyone here is familiar with Maricul in one form or another. How did you come up with the Maricul character and how much has she developed from her original concept?
A: I was a big fan of Ranma growing up and the 12th OVA of Ranma, the character of Akane Tendo's (the female who would go on to become Maricul playby) body is possessed by an evil spirit that is looking to take revenge upon Ranma. In order to do that she attempts to seduce him to catch him off guard. There's a scene that shows her robes starting to fall off and thus exposing herself to him and the concept of Maricul came to me through that. Bringing it to life by that point however was a disaster.
Maricul pretty much started out as a stupid bitch who made perverted comments. Nothing about her was consistent mainly because I was still growing as a RPer at that time and I haven't really matured yet. Over the years Maricul managed to stop being just a dumb bitch, stop stealing so much from Alucard as a character and became the woman you see today.
Q: How has Genesis evolved since the start of the site?
A: When we were just getting off the ground we didn't even have a name for the world or the continent. We simply referred to "Jherra" back then as the continent. In the beginning we only had Isafaro, Jherrazad, Moon Valley, Aircano and the Downward Spiral. The Crystal Expanse and Hallowton has yet to be invented. The world map was a lot more vague compared to now. We had Isafaro to the north, Jherrazad to the south, Moon Valley was off somewhere in a corner not really turning many heads, and Aircano was stuck inbetween Isafaro and Jherrazad which quickly made it an ideal "stepping stone" for a war between the two more major nations.
The Crystal Expanse and Hallowton was invented later on as the need for more areas to RP arise. After only just the first couple of weeks Jherrazad was flooded, Isafaro took heavy damage and Aircano blew up so I'm glad I added those areas when I did because after the first month I had to modify a total of four boards. It's the main reason I have the rule "no city-wide destruction" because I need these places to last. It's a double edged sword, keep blowing up all the locations we're not going to have anywhere left to RP.
A lot of the areas used in the board is a fusion of places I created a long time ago. Isafaro was originally a nation at war that I made for a book. Moon Valley was a small town I created for another novel, although originally located in the state of Kansas. Jherrazad was an idea that Alexis, Zira, Clash and I came up with for an older forum that Clash helped name, and later on into DOA's life Clash would help with the naming of the Crystal Expanse and Hallowton. He also came up with the Jherra name earlier for a continent that again we never got to use earlier. I thought up of Genesis myself to represent a realm and planet that was made first.
When Clash stepped down from his position as Mod and Alexis took over she helped to further develop the world of Genesis as can be seen in the "DOA Background Info" found up on the Welcome Table. Amoura provided the map finally giving us a visual reference of the world we're playing in. The world is still vague enough to where people can help further develop but now thanks to the Team we have a lot more information to serve as a foundation for further development and to make it easier for new members to ease into the world we've created.
Q: In your opinion, what has been the forum's greatest thread thus far?
A: The Valley of Death. No question. That thread raised the bar on what role players can accomplish if they just stick to character and allow the chips to fall where they may. I'd go as far as to say that of all the threads in the past six years I've been in, that was the best and it's going to be a fun challenge trying to top it.
Q: Did you ever think the forum would reach the level of success it's currently enjoying?
A: We're not too big, we're not too small, we have a nice based of members who remain as active as they can be to keep us alive and I couldn't ask for more. DOA has become a platform for a lot of my friends, new and old, to get together, meet each other for the first time, resume role playing after not having a place to play at for months, and for new people entirely to join in and befriend the rest of the group. It's definitely the most successful forum I had in a while and it has been made possible thanks to the people here.
Q: Not including your own, what are some of your favorite characters on the site (if any at all).
A: Not to seem like I'm favoring any one RPer but, if I had to choose Miracle is the first to come to mind. I like the research that was done with the character and how they interact with the others, remaining pure among the impure. Amoura would be added to that list too as she's probably one of the most developed characters on the site, though she had the advantage of developing her for years on various sites before coming here. Clash would get an honorable mention because that's a character nobody expected to become huge and...
...And I'd have to say I really like what Kara and Utena has done with those characters. Supergirl taking on the position of Superman and Utena becoming a psychopath killing people are things I never thought I'd see. Not on one of my sites anyway. I look forward to see what Bane does while here. Chloe and Ross' Sparda has really came into their own here as well.
Q: How do you manage to keep up with so many different characters, plots and threads all at once?
A: Not being in school or working certainly helps. I spend a lot of time on the computer, not something I brag about for obvious reasons, mainly because I'm a shut in for most of the year. I can't be out when it's too hot nor when it's too cold so... it's either this or television. I have a lot of energy to burn too. I always saw creativity to be one of my greatest gifts whether it's a parody meant to get a few laughs or a drawn out plot that I improvise out of my ass and going off of the reception I get for both, I must be doing something right.
