[Community Spotlight] Wayne3100

Hello all and welcome to February's Community Spotlight! My apologies for it being a few days late

This month's interview features.... Wayne3100. Normally, this introduction would be the part where I would talk about how important the interviewed member has been for the site and how awesome they are as a person, but that doesn't feel quite right in this case. Instead, let's just get right to it; I asked Branmuffin17, trusted moderator and interviewee of the first Community Spotlight, to work with me on setting up a list of questions about my time on the site, my experience playing SMITE and my personal life, which I have answered below. Enjoy!

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1. Let's start by talking about your history on SMITEFire. When did you first start helping out on the site and what made you decide to do so?

As a lot of you will know, my history on the MOBAFire Network (MFN) did not start here, but on MOBAFire; I joined that website in August of 2011 because I was an avid League of Legends player at the time and was looking to improve my level of play. I also had plans to write a guide of my own (for Vayne), though I never ended up publishing that. Almost 3 years after joining MOBAFire, I successfully applied for a position as Community Manager. Roughly one year after that, I was introduced to SMITE by a member of MOBAFire, and after trying it out and realizing I liked the game, I decided to help out Mowen on SMITEFire due to the site not having a dedicated Community Manager. Even though my main job was still to help out on MOBAFire and it wasn't strictly my responsibility to do anything here, I've basically stuck around ever since to help out with database edits and general site moderation.

2. In November of last year, Mowen announced that you had been chosen as the new dedicated Community Manager for SMITEFire. How did this change impact the amount of work you do on the site, and do you still work for MOBAFire and/or the other network sites as well?

While the amount of time I invest into my work hasn't necessarily changed as part of the changes made in November (this is still a part-time job for me), my focus has completely shifted. Before, I would have to make sure everything was in order on MOBAFire before I could spend time helping out on SMITEFire and - to a lesser extent - HeroesFire and VaingloryFire. Now, SMITEFire is my #1 priority and basically the only network site I'm still active on, which means I can invest more time into the site and don't have to shy away from working on bigger projects beyond "the regular stuff" (e.g. posting news & updating the database whenever a patch goes live). As an example, one of those projects has been setting up this series of interviews :)

3. Are there any features that you want to add to SMITEFire but can't (for any reason)? What can we expect in the (near) future?

Of course! I think the feature I would like to have added the most is the addition of matchups and notes (for purchase orders) in guide cheatsheets, though I'm unsure whether those updates will be implemented separately or as part of a bigger site update (which would take more time to implement). For these changes as well as pretty much any other update I'd like to see implemented, the reason I can't do so myself is because - quite obviously - I don't actually do any of the coding. That is also the main reason why I tend to err on the side of caution whenever it comes to talking about when a certain update will be added to the site; it's ultimately not something I have complete control over. Following some big updates which have recently been made (and are still being worked on) for MOBAFire, I know the development team is looking to bring a comprehensive update to some of the other network sites this year, but I haven't talked to them about the timeline / order in which the sites will be updated. Luckily, due to the aforementioned changes made in November, I now have a lot more time to bug the developers about that, so I'll get right on that >:D

4. What about personal content, do you have any plans in regards to guide writing or other content to share on the site?

Remember that Vayne guide I mentioned which I never ended up publishing? Yeeaah, well... The thing is, over my years of being a community member on MOBAFire, I've often started working on a new guide for a champion which I was actively playing at the time and/or a champion for which a good guide didn't exist yet on the site, but I never published any of them. Unfortunately, we're not talking about that happening once, or twice, or even three times... In total, I've started working on guides for 25 different champions, without any of them ever being released. Admittedly, some of those attempts were more serious than others (I would say I only invested several hours into 3 or 4 of those), but while I would like to claim that I'll definitely write a guide on SMITEFire one day, my past experience makes me hesitant to promise anything in that regard :P As for "other content", I am planning on playing a lot more SMITE this season and opening a ranked thread on SMITEFire to track my progress, so you can look forward to that.

5. Finally, we couldn't help but notice that your forum name ends with the number 3100. Is there a story behind that?

There is, though unfortunately, it's rather boring. I first chose the name "Wayne3100" when I was creating a new email address, because I didn't want to go for a standard "first name + last name" email address. Instead, I tried my first name combined with my favorite number (3), but that was already taken. So I tried Wayne3000; still taken. Finally, I settled on 3100 and have stuck to it for many online accounts since. More recently, I've started using the nickname "Sereth" a lot more often, inspired by this character in a game called Dust: An Elysian Tail. I've thought about asking for my name to be changed to that on SMITEFire as well, but that would probably be confusing more than anything else.

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6. Let's move on to talk more about your experience playing SMITE. When did you first start playing the game and how much do you play the game nowadays?

As I mentioned in an earlier question, I first started playing the game because I was introduced to it by a MOBAFire member; this happened back in 2015. After joining SMITEFire and playing the game casually for a few months, I stopped playing the game before even reaching level 30 (I think I was level 23 at the time). Last year, I somewhat randomly played a few games of SMITE again and got hooked pretty much instantly. Since then, I have more than doubled my account level by either playing Conquest solo or Arena games with a few friends who I dragged into playing as well. Unfortunately, I've haven't had/made any time to play SMITE since the start of Season 5. Combined with the fact that it hasn't always been my main MOBA, this means my overall level of experience is much, much lower than that of most regulars on these forums (for reference, I've only played the game for approximately 141 hours according to my Smiteguru profile). I'm hoping that opening a ranked thread (see end of question 4) will motivate me to work on that this season.

7. What are your top 3 favorite SMITE gods and why?

My top 3 probably consists of Bellona, Janus and Neith (in that order). Bellona has been my favorite Goddess by far ever since I first started playing; beyond enjoying the Warrior role the most I just absolutely love the versatility of her kit and her general playstyle. Janus is fun to me mainly because of his portals and the combos in which those can be used (though I won't pretend like I never mess up horribly while attempting to execute those). Finally, Neith is in there mainly because of how easy she is to play; I don't think she's the greatest pick out there atm, but I tend to do well on her, which makes her a lot more enjoyable to play as a result.

8. What gods do you hate, either as an opponent or playing as them?

While hate is a bit of a strong word, I would say there are three mechanics that I dislike dealing with, with each of them tied to a specific God or Goddess. Number one is stealth (looking at you, Loki), which I believe is a generally troublesome/unhealthy mechanic in any MOBA. On a more personal level, the second one I get annoyed by is anything which disorients me or makes me lose control of my character, with the worst offender being Serqet's Cobra's Kiss. Finally, I also dislike being temporarily removed from the map by an ability such as Ne Zha's ultimate. As for Gods I dislike playing, I'm not sure whether I should go for ones I haven't tried yet because they don't appeal to me at all or whether to limit it to ones I've actually played. In any case, at the top of the list without a doubt is Cupid, who is basically the Teemo of SMITE for me (for those of you who haven't played LoL, Teemo is a small, annoying champion that is only ever played by people who have no soul). I've only ever played him once (in an awful, awful, awful temporary queue in which everyone played as level 18 Cupid from the start) and I probably won't touch him ever again.

9. We know from your background of working for MOBAFire that you're primarily a LoL player. What was the biggest difference that you needed to get used to when you first started playing SMITE? What do you like most about LoL that SMITE doesn't have or vice versa?

First things first, I was primarily a LoL player: I played the game actively from December 2010 to the start of 2016, and quit in June that same year. Nowadays, I would consider SMITE my main MOBA, though - as said - I don't play it often enough. The biggest difference between League of Legends and SMITE was obviously the camera angle, though I remember feeling like that difference was a good thing when I first started playing SMITE, since it felt refreshing/new to me at the time. In fact, even after getting used to it I'd probably still say I prefer SMITE's camera angle over the standard top-down approach. The main thing I disliked about SMITE compared to League was how much the jungler was found sharing XP in (the mid/solo) lane instead of actually being in the jungle and planning ganks. Having said that, I feel like increasing the map size and making camps spawn quicker so junglers almost always have some of their camps up was a step in the right direction towards fixing that.

10. Finally, if you had the power to add one or more gods/goddesses to SMITE, which ones would they be?

Unfortunately, my knowledge when it comes to mythology is rather limited, but I'd like to see the Egyptian God Set(h) due to his relationship to Osiris and the Greek god Morpheus, simply because I think having a "dream god" to work with could make for a very fun/interesting kit.

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11. In this final section, let's talk a little more about your life outside of SMITEFire. Do you have any other part-time jobs outside of this one, and if so, what do you do?

No, I'm a full-time student who is currently studying Game Technology in the Netherlands; I expect to graduate early next year. I also haven't had any other part-time jobs before this, since I never had need for it financially and I wanted to focus on school instead.

12. Where do you live, and what's it like (in terms of culture, climate, etc.)? Do you dream of moving elsewhere later in life?

I currently live with my parents in a Dutch city called Almere, which is roughly 30 minutes away from Amsterdam by car. The city is currently the 7th largest of the entire country and has been rather rapidly growing both in terms of physical size as well as the number of inhabitants over recent years. With that said, it was also voted to be the ugliest city of the entire country less than 10 years ago, so I'm not sure why it seems to attract so many new people :^) I've lived in Almere for most of my life (I think I was 2 years old when my parents moved here), but honestly I wouldn't say I have a very strong connection to it. I will probably move elsewhere in the Netherlands once I'm done studying, though my dream would be to live in Vancouver one day; I've only been there once but I was very, very impressed by it. As for the climate/weather, it's not much unlike the rest of the country: generally cold (which I don't mind), and it rains way too often (which I do mind).

13. What are your main hobbies?

Traditionally, I've always been into playing games - shocker! - and playing/watching sports (see next question). More recently, however, another hobby/interest I've picked up is writing, specifically for games. Seeing as I especially enjoy playing single player games which feature a strong story (the prime example being The Last of Us), I've recently been working on parts of a story of my own. Obviously, I don't honestly expect that story to ever be turned into an actual game by a big studio, but I'm still enjoying the process of writing it :)

14. Do you play any sports? What is the worst injury you've had?

I've been into sports from a young age. My "main" sport is and always has been football (I'm sorry, but I refuse to call it by its American name), which I started playing when I was 7 or 8 years old. Since all of the other kids always wanted to play as a striker, I played mostly in midfield or defense at first, and eventually even became a goalkeeper for a few years. However, a few years later, we went from playing with little goals to normal sized ones, which were much too big for me to cover. I played another year in defense after that before taking a temporary break. A few years later (age 14/15), I was really into watching competitive tennis (with Andy Rod**** being my favorite player at the time), so I decided to give playing that a shot instead. As soon as the trainers realized I was good enough to return most of their simple shots without hitting the net or hitting it out of the court entirely, I became part of a select group of players who were chosen to face much tougher opposition. While I still enjoyed playing, these opponents were mostly players who had already been playing for several years, meaning I had very little chance against them. As a result, I quit after roughly 2 years of playing. Around the age of 18 I moved back to football again, this time playing in the senior squad. After a few more years of playing in defense, I took a break from playing any sports because my life was too busy at the time to go to practice regularly. Finally, 2 years ago I started playing table tennis (see picture), which I still thoroughly enjoy doing. I might return to football again one day, but for the time being I think I'll stick to this. Throughout my time playing different sports, I've been lucky enough never to seriously be injured; while enemies may have stepped on my toes or kicked me in the shin a few times during my time playing football, I never broke any bones or anything like that.

15. Final question: What is your favorite style of food and what is your all time favorite dish? Also, are you a good cook yourself?

There are lots of types of food which I enjoy eating, but I'd have to say my favorite among them is Italian. My favorite dish is a classic spaghetti bolognese, though lasagna or a good pizza aren't too far behind. As for my own cooking skills, I do tend to cook roughly once a week while I'm at home and I would say I'm pretty decent at it. As proof of the fact that I've cooked something at least once in my life, here's a picture of a recent dish I made: to the left is a salad consisting of white grapes, cheese, walnuts and arugula (with a vinegar and mustard dressing), to the right is an oven dish consisting of baguette (lightly dipped in a mixture of olive oil & garlic) covered with chicken, sweet onions and slices of tomato. Tasted pretty good :)

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Did it feel weird to have to write out your own interview?

Yeah let's not kid ourselves... I pretty much did no work on this. Wayne did a great job as usual, this time regarding himself.

Awesome interview dude! Neat to hear about your personal interests and cool to see an "action" shot of you in your new hobby. I wanna see video of you playing like Forrest Gump! (also the food looked delicious)

3 years... woah

Wayne, you already had my respect and now it just frecking multiplied like, one trillion times. Wow dude.

Hope you have fun with writing! I've picked up the habit last year and it has done wonders for me!

I felt offended when you mentioned my main Cupid :V. I think Ratatoskr is more like Teemo from League of Legends, Cupid is only love <3. Besides what a good interview, nice to know about you and the Smitefire.

That was a fun read, and I even learned some new things about you! Like wanting to live in Vancouver and I didn't realize you played that many sports! Also Wayne you need to give me that salad recipe because it looks DELICIOUS!!

Nice interview, I like the action shot of your game face. :D

Hope you're having fun and the community's treating you well over here. I still miss you on MOBAFire, buddy. :(

Let me know if you ever finish a guide and I'll check it out. I've played very little Smite so I'll probably be totally lost but I wouldn't miss it for the world regardless! ^_^