This week we're going to do things a little differently. We'll give you your weekly fix of news but instead of our Ask Astro Empires feature we have a full blown interview with Astro Empires right hand man, Xaman. With that in mind lets get the news out of the way shall we?
Ingame we have seen a further expansion to the Gamma Galaxies, opening G50-59. As always these galaxies will be closed to existing players for two weeks and only open for new players. Details are on the forums. Beyond our servers we are working with popular gaming site BBGsite.com to bring a contest for 25 free upgraded accounts (3 months). You will need to register to enter, do so on their site.
With the news out of the way let's get on with our sit down with Astro Empires Operations Manager, Xaman.
I started by asking him to give us a little information about himself.
"I’m just a regular Portuguese guy who likes to play browser MMOGs and happens to work in one."
Well how did it come about that you got involved with Astro Empires in the first place?
"Wizard is a friend since school days and he invited me to help him out when the game was launched. I was working in Barcelona at the time and installed the game forum and became the forum administrator."
Today you are working as the 'Operations Manager', could you tell us a little about what you do in your day to day job at Astro Empires?
"I do routine stuff such as supervising the customer support and game operators, looking for game abuse, checking the forum, doing backups and managing our marketing. The list goes on."
Until earlier this year you were also chief admin of the Astro Empires forum before handing it over to Ikari, what was behind that change?
"With the increase of my tasks and responsibilities within the game and company my time for the forum was decreased greatly, so I no longer could manage the forum as I did before due to time limitations. Ikari was one of our most trusted and competent moderators and after a while as super moderator he was invited to take the position of forum administrator. It was a good decision."
As you mentioned earlier you are responsible for operations and as such oversee the work of most of the Astro Empires staff. Could you let us know what its like to coordinate staff for an online game, including ones from other countries?
"We have a great working environment in our office and the relation with our volunteer staff (mods, translators) has been easy going and fun. It’s great to be able to communicate with people from different geographic locations and cultures and I’m very happy with the service they have provided us and still provide."
As we know English is not your first language, how do you cope with working day in and day out in another language?
"It’s fine, I speak English since I was 11 or 12 and have worked abroad for companies where English was the primary communication language."
On a lighter note, in previous weeks you have mentioned your pet cat, could you tell us a little about him?
"He’s lazy, loves to eat and sleep all the time and is the most gentle cat in the World. Never scratched anyone in his life, he behaves like a dog more than a cat some times, following me around and answering to his name."
A few weeks ago the moderators where asked about their phobia's. Do you have any interesting fears? Perhaps fear of failure when starting AE?
"Not really, when first starting with AE it was all done as a hobby, I didn’t have many expectations and didn’t earn any salary at all for some time, I did it for the fun and friendship for Wizard. Now that it has became a bit more serious and more people are involved the expectations have risen a bit, but nothing that will keep me from sleeping."
There have always been rumours that you play the game or rather did. Is there any truth to these rumours and if so where did you play?
"Sure, I used to play on the Alpha server for a while, although I tended not to interfere in the game too much for obvious reasons. Now I only play on the development server for testing purposes."
What kind of Television shows and films do you like?
"That would be a long list, but I guess one of my favorite kind of TV series and films are comedies. Recently I watched 'You don't mess with the Zohan' which was great and of course I love 'Star Wars'"
Thanks for the interview Xaman, just before we finish is there anything else you would like to pass onto our readers?
"Don’t do drugs and stay out of trouble? Seriously, hope you continue to enjoy our game as much as we enjoy providing it to you."
Alright guys that's everything for this week. As always if you want to submit questions for Astro Empires staff you can do so on the forums. Till next time, adeus
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