An interview with Frey Petermeier "Admiral Frey"
Lead of XenoCorp ,
Co-Lead of Dynaverse.net
,founding member of the DGA, (basically a VERY busy man).
A little over a month ago Victor approached Frey with the idea of one of the
first interview by a major trek gaming site to a site which is basically making
sure that Taldrens legacy lives on...dynaverse.net. Frey is a VERY busy man,
helping with dynaverse.net, playing in GameSpy Arcade, running XenoCorp and even
running a fleet plus a very busy real life work schedule AND being a part of the
Dynaverse Gamers Association. We finally got the interview sent back and all of
us at STG would like to thank ADM Frey for his time in answering these
questions.
I think this interview will peak the interest of the SFC gamers out there
:)
Interview was via email between Victor and Frey, interview put on the net
by Katherine due to Victor's health issues and time away from the site.
Date of upload - 1/6/2005
STG
First of all, for the folks who
are reading this interview, tell us a bit about yourself.
Frey
My full name is Frey Petermeier,
and I’m 36 years old. I’ve been playing RPG’s and tabletops
for more than 20 years. Played Starfleet Battles in the day,
been there and loved it. Know Gary Gygax personally, and had
a blast on the RPG side of things until computers showed up.
Ever since then I’ve been “addicted”. Formed my own company
XenoCorp Inc. in May of 1994 as a computer shop until 1998
when I decided to focus on IT/IS as a career, not a hobby.
Starfleet Command was announced, I pre-ordered ;). The rest,
as they say, is History.
STG
Moving onto the website and association
that you are synonymous with, tell us about dynaverse.net
and the DGA.
Frey
Dynaverse.Net was created as a
transition from Taldren. Taldren was very involved in the
creation and ultimate purpose of Dynaverse.net with the sole
purpose to keep the game alive. The Dynaverse Gaming
Association was formed to protect that gaming experience.
Once Taldren realized that they were closing, a concerted
effort was made to make sure no one could try make the SFC
Community “pay to play” regarding the online Dynaverse2. We
also worked closely with Taldren to port over the original
Taldren Forums database in an effort to “ease” the
transition.
STG
So what was the event's which
led to the formation of the DGA and what is the DGA's goals?
Frey
Essentially, the DGA was formed to protect and
list the different services that are required to run the
online Dynaverse2 campaigns. While the DGA funds and is
ultimately responsible for the majority of Dynaverse.Nets
projects – for instance the Serverkit source we’re working
on to implement SQL support for the Orion Pirates online
server kit, the DGA doesn’t “own” Dynaverse.Net. I do.
The DGA’s goals? To further the SFC communities gaming
experience while continuing to promote positive, responsible
and vibrant community involvement. The DGA exists to prevent
anyone from trying to “make a buck” off the SFC Community.
This tradition has been in place since SFC1, and I think
it’s one of the reasons our community has continued to grow
and steadily increase. We’re here to offer anyone in the
community an opportunity to have the resources to better
enjoy this experience, and the community that’s embraced it.
STG
What aspects of the Starfleet
Command series of games does the DGA and dynaverse.net look
at? Is it only into the campaign aspect of the mini
franchise? The mods? Or is it basically everything?
Frey
Everything that has to do with SFC
– ALL versions. We’ve got support even for SFC1 in
continuing to make it playable for those users who’ve yet to
play the one that started it all. We’re continuing in our
efforts to bring a yet not realized aspect to the online
campaign by making SQL work with the OP serverkit. The stuff
we’re going to showcase in a few months will knock the socks
off players, and I think it’ll attract new players as well.
We’d love to expand our hosting services – since even before
Dynaverse.Net was launched XenoCorp has offered to host
community sites for free.
STG
Since dynaverse.met and the DGA
first formed back last year, whats the one thing you have
come across since dealing with a community the size of the
Starfleet Command fanbase?
Frey
Diversity – and the love of the
game. I’m serious; I’ve not really met people that were more
passionate about a game than the SFC community. Look, we’ve
been in existence for many years now, and our community
comprises a grand variety of diverse backgrounds – from
research chemists to high school students – and each and
every one can run a server, get in on the ongoing aspects of
the development, participate in whatever level they are
comfortable with because everything is community driven.
That’s important – in fact I think that’s one of the things
that stand out about this community – and the Star Trek
community as a whole is our dedication to diversity and the
understanding of the greater whole it can bring to us. We’ve
seen people who’ve never touched HTML create some awesome
stardocks because they ROCKED at making models and other
mods for the game. It expands people. Makes em think.
I love that.
STG
A lot of sites, including the
STG, are looking to the far future of Star Trek gaming. It
is now becomeing obvious that the older games are now
starting to lose players and the core gamers are left
playing. In the case of SFC 2 - OP and SFC 3 the core
players are numerous enough to keep the interest up. What
does the DGA have planned for the future for the gamers of
the SFC series?
Frey
Well, I’ve somewhat alluded to
that above. We’re going to “re-invent” the online campaign
experience. Take it to a level that has not been seen
before. We’re talking extended statistics, glicko’s over
multiple campaigns, online character history and the ability
to take the same character through all those multiple
campaigns that are created by different individuals and have
a consistant “history” of the characters adventures,
exploits, wins and losses. This is just the info side, wait
til you see the interface for the campaign players and Race
moderators. It’s awesome, and from some of the feedback
we’ve already received we really think this is going to be a
great thing for the community.
But it’s not just what we, meaning D.Net does – I think the
continued growth of the ST community in regards to gaming
requires much more inter-site support. Those of us that play
BridgeCommander may actually enjoy SFC, and vice versa. It’s
vitally important that sites that do so much for the
community like the STG, SFX.org, Starfleet Universe and
Dynaverse.net support one another in a professional manner.
As the Vulcans say “infinite diversity in infinite
combinations”, we’re all stronger as a whole if we’re
united.
We’re going to work hard in 2005 to implement a much
stronger relationship with our fellow ST sites, that’s a big
priority.
We’re also working hand in hand with Paramount to try and
get legitimate copies of Starfleet Command: Orion Pirates
available for purchase from Dynaverse.net via the DGA. We’re
working to offer these copies at a cost that only includes
the materials and the shipping and handling. That’s it. This
will combat the piracy of OP that’s currently going on by
making copies available that have valid unique CD keys while
keeping the game alive. That Paramount and the other
companies involved are willing to work with us on this is
awesome; it really shows their dedication to the ST and SFC
community. They really do appreciate the community that
loves these games, and it shows.
STG
The last trek gamers census of
the STG it showed that out of the 900+ trek gamers who took
part in the census that over 3/4ths of them had a copy of
Starfleet Command 2 - OP laying around somewhere but they
didnt play it for various reasons. Do you have anything to
say to them to entice them back into the SFC Series fold?
Frey
Two words – PROXY EXPLOSIONS!!
Seriously tho, with all the enhancements that are based on
actual SFB materials (like FireSouls OP Plus shiplists, I
mean come on 2000+ ships ?), the different enhancements that
Pestalence and NannerSlug, Cozbo and Chris Jones have done
have really made the game an incredible thing to
behold.We’ve got Co Op ace scripts, we’ve got sector assault
scripts, we’ve got Fleet Pick and Shiplist swappers,
everything. I mean, these guys are incredible. So I’d
venture a guess that those that had played OP when it was
first released and come back to it now will see a whole new
game, but the same mechanics and level of sophistication
that we love and have persisted.
STG
Regarding the big question that
lots of folks have been asking, why have so many people
moved on from Empires @ War into the Orion Pirates game?
Frey
Again, it’s all about community
involvement. Look at all the ST community. Bottom line is
that due to vision that Gene Roddenberry had and those
peoples it attracted, we’re blessed to have very creative
and talented people who constantly push themselves to make
things better for everyone – not just themselves. Everyone
does this for free – which really I think makes a huge
difference in regards to how it’s perceived, the dedication
and involvement some of these projects take is incredible –
and more incredible are the people that complete them.
Orion Pirates was, in my opinion, pre-judged. The graphics
are better, the gameplay is better. People that come back
now, and actually there’s been quite a few “old times”
coming back to the community, say so. I believe ‘em ;).
STG
The modding community have all
done a lot for the OP game. Does dynaverse.net or DGA have
anything planned for the modding community which will keep
them wanting more in the SFC Series?
Frey
I lead into these questions well,
don’t I? LOL, again seriously that’s what it’s all about.
What we’ve seen @ D.net is more than just creativeness
directed towards the game itself – we’ve got creative
writers who are writing incredible stories in our forums,
comedy writers making some great materials, and in more ways
than that the community is taking their love of Star Trek
and expressing it. That’s worth everything I do, every cent
I’ve spent, that pays it back in spades, so to speak.
STG
The release of the source code has been a
hot topic on many occaisions in the dynaverse.net forum.
When the source code is released, what will the DGA do with
it?
Frey
That’s a tough one. What can we do
with it? Same thing everyone else will do, I guess. I know
that a lot of people think the source code (client side,
Dynaverse.Net already has the serverkit source code) is like
some type of holy grail, but one has to ask oneself some
hard questions regarding that topic – How can we prevent
cheating? How can we stop people from re-engineering the
game and then marketing it? There’s a lot of questions
regarding the ethical and moral aspects of this that I don’t
think many are truly contemplating as they should.
Sometimes, it’s better to pass a locked door – even if you
have the key – than to take a chance and open it. Pandora’s
Box, all that.
As well I don’t think we’re – as in D.Net or the DGA - in a
position to dictate anything. If the client side source is
released, what’s the goal of this? Do we want to “fix”
stuff, perhaps add additional content or rather “activate”
some content that’s been there, but not implemented? Or do
we want to make it into something else? That’s where it gets
sticky, in my opinion. I respect what the creators of this
game did; it quite frankly changed a lot in my life, so I
don’t want to see that become someone else’s attempt at the
money train. ‘Nuff said.
STG
Do you think the release of the
source code will entice more gamers into the game?
Frey
If they’re not already playing the
game, then I honestly don’t know how much a source code
release would “entice” players. I think it might bring back
some older players, but we’ve seen that the SFC community
hasn’t followed the traditional when it comes to gaming
communities, just like the other ST related titles. Taldren
may have sailed gracefully, but we’re still here and we’ve
not seen our membership registration rate really drop, which
is awesome. New players are registering and coming to this
grand community, and they’re finding out about the other ST
related titles that are out there.
