Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Confess ...

I managed to get hold of Craban, the éminence grise, the puller of strings, the devil in disguise. Now, as he is safely locked up in my personal dungeon (the wine cellar), I will take the opportunity to extract the truth from this Tibian Titan by all means, shall it be poking with soft cushions or even making him sit in the comfy chair.
This is your one time chance to submit questions you always wanted to get answers to. Just post them in a comment to this thread and I will personally take care of the delivery.


I will of course tape this "interrogation" on camera.

Note: The person shown above is NOT crabs. It is a stunt double. In addition, the picture is fake, photoshoped, repainted. Crabs has never been arrested for being over 6ft tall.

Disclaimer: I reserve the right to drop questions, change questions, come up with my own questions and to actually do with this project anything I could possibly think of right now or in the near future. I cannot be held responsible for any damage this interview might do to your computer, your character or your government.

37 comments:

Anonymous said...

Euh, ok, "Hinterlassen Sie Ihren", what ever that means.

Alot of tibians quit tibia because it's to much of the same thing, so they do not have the energy to be in the same cave for levels and levels on. So they either quit or start botting, so my question is "will cipsoft work to prevent the loss of payers (tibians) by giving a wider collection of choices/stuff to do?" Right now it seems alot like a waste of time, because the modern tibian lives are:

1, hunting (often in the same place)
2, Skilling (endless of boring hours)
3, Making Runes (Doing 2 seconds of work every 5 minutes for hours)

Way to few quest, and the ones that exist are very boring. While some worlds are empty there are still very few choices for some people to hunt. Even though I (when i played tibia) tried to priorotize fun before exp/loot I still got tired of tibia because I hunted mainly the same way and there was never something new. Pking was the only thing that amused me, and it didn't amuse me that much.

I hope you will work to stop people from botting and I wish you good luck from now on.

Felippe said...

Haha I loved the introduction! You are really very very creative!

Anonymous said...

hehe very creative i herd about this site thx to tibianews and i was looking to the other months and the behind the scenes video was fun and the second i didnt understand since i dont speak german. pretty creative keep on with the good job :)

Anonymous said...

According to MMOGCHART.com, Tibia has 104,338 subscribers (March 2008).
Compared to e.g. RuneScape which has about 1,200,000 subscribers, Tibia is still far behind.

What do you intend to do to change that?
From what I see, your current concept does not work out as you barely bring in new features and instead rely on a basic concept (new areas/items/quests)

Anonymous said...

I have a few questions: =)

1. When do you expect the release of fiction fighters to be? I know you cannot give a ball-point figure. But will it most likely be next year or the year after?

2. With fiction fighters has there been any efforts to create a community/support departments. Or is it still in technical stages of creating the game?

Anonymous said...

As Darth Vader says: "There's no escape"

Good luck and be nice with answers, Craban xD

Anonymous said...

once there was a bug on the game-world Rubera,
and i know there come reset that day, so i decided to go pk,
and after reset i still have that banishment of pk,

and i e-mailed once to cipsoft.. and they ignored it.

why? :(

Anonymous said...

p.s hi Mercutio, when u come holland again? was fun to talk with u

Anonymous said...

well, one question... what quest is related to authorised person only door above topsy & turvy shop in Thais? One of the twins sends me to other when asked abut quest but second has nothing to offer...

Anonymous said...

1. Is it true that CipSoft could ban a lot of botters at once but they (you?) don't do it because they are afraid they would lose a lot of players and their money? (botters pay for premium too).

2. To gain money in Tibia You have to hunt or make runes. Have you ever though about other ways of gaining gold in Your game?

Anonymous said...

I know this is a question that is often asked, I just can't help but think is one of the most important questions.

Cheating is very common within Tibia, we've seen you guys ban hundreds of accounts, but cheaters are still growing strong. When can we expect a solution to common cheating (ex. bot & acc share)?

Unknown said...

I remember in a not so distant past, there were a few updates with lots of "anti-cheating" measures of all kinds. From not allowing people to push bodies to making monsters disappear after getting far away from their original places. Cheating was by far, less dangerous on those days.

Now, it feels a big part of tibia's "magic" is going down the sink due to the MASSIVE amount of cheaters seen every single day. Many fair players are leaving (I'm considering that idea aswell) and if feels nothing is done to combat this huge problem which may lead to a game totally leaded by "robots". Little by little we see more botters on hunting grounds than real players.

Yes, we hame GM's, volunteers guy who receive nearly nothing to work their asses off and try to save our game in their free time, but their number is way too low (43 in 74 game worlds) and their tools to fight that kind of problem are just too limited.

All we hear is "we're working on that", and see no results. Is it something REALLY being done ? Will we have an "anti-botting update" ? I'd gladly sacrifice a new area just to have that kind of scum away from our game.

It just doesn't feel this problem is taken by Cip as serious as it actually is. That scares me like hell!

I would love to hear something concrete about it, please give me some hope there guys.

Anonymous said...

I'd like to know if Mr Crabs is/was interested in the ideas that
the story writers used when making the quests and the roleplaying
on Tibia.
If he could say one story that he really thought: "OMG! Brilliant!".
And if there are still many stories that the players haven´t found yet.
Also how Mr Crabs see the roleplaying on Tibia nowadays.

For last:
As a musician, Mr Crabs, don´t you miss a sound on Tibia?

Thank you Mercutio!

Hugs for both! :D

Anonymous said...

I agree with above. We must see results to trust you guys.

Anonymous said...

I just want to know the same thing as everyone...

Is there any chance to finish with ALL botters on tibia?

Regards, Scott~

Anonymous said...

I'm the guy above and I talked about Leonardo's comment.

Unknown said...

Meh, just read my comment again and noticed the ton of little typos I have made. I guess and hope it's still understandable. Too bad there's no "edit" feature here.

Anonymous said...

Is there any possibility of streamlining the GM evaluation process? I know Bunyip shows us the need for caution, but I believe more GMs would drastically help Tibia. Please, some concrete details on how you select GMS and what is being done to accelerate the process. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Wtf.. since when is this place in english in the first place ?! Funny to be able to understand XD

okies lets see.... and forget who i am!! i have more or less untied myself from it, in order to post the questions ^.-

1- What is your personal opinion on cheaters (Macro/sharing/hacking) and the way that punishement is handled. Would you prefer it to be harsher, softer, longer and why?

2- How is it to work under the constant watch of Guido? (lol) What is the average mood in your "room" at the office, alongside Mercutio and Guido?

3- Under what reasons would you wake up in the morning and say "f- that! i quit this job". (dont you dare! ~hugs~ XD)

4- You have a reputation, among those that did not get to work with you or that did not get to see you "outside work", of being harsh and even bordering (if not full fledged) arrogant. How do you deal with this, do you actually give into it (and add to the reputation, sort of seeing it as a game or mask to wear) or does it actually frustrates you to see that your point of view is often mistaken for arrogance instead of simply the truth?

5- For the past few years, emphasys appears to have mostly been putted into punishing more minor violation rather than bigger ones. Tutors, for example had their tools increased to not only be able to report names, but also forums and in game statements. However the gamemaster team's tool additions appears to have been extremely limited. This has caused Cip to appear as more inclined into punishing players for their disruptive language (which sometimes, you need to hold the monitor upside down squint really hard and take a dozen of beers to actually see something offensive in there) rather than for the violations which greatly affects the game in itself. Ex: Macroing , which often leads to the rumors that Cip doesn't bother about botters or, even worse, that you own "NG".

6- Several servers are under the control of a handful players. They way the game is currently designed, it is possible for about 20 peoples to completly control a server according to their liking. Most of the time, this abuse is carried on with the help of cheating tools which often leads to peoples thinking its the tool in itself that makes the abuse. Is there any chances of seeing this abuse actually tackled down once and for all, so all players are fully capable of enjoying the game like it should be?

7- Rule 0 " Above all, you should treat other players respectfully and friendly, just as you would like to be treated yourself. If destructive and aggressive behaviour towards others makes you feel good, this is not the place for you, because this attitude will lead you nowhere except to a banishment. " , Any reasons why this rule, though clearly stated, is the most unenforced one? Any possibilities to see this changed ?

8- Perfect tibia, what is it for you? And i do not mean content wise because there, nothing will ever be perfect and new things will also be needed in order to keep peoples from appreciating the game.

9- Ever since a while, there is a door that is openned between Cip and the community. It goes without saying that you are among the precursor of it. Has your opinion on the community changed for the better and/or worse with this new openness and has it changed your opinion on the path that the game should take?

----

hmmm i think its all i got at the top of my head, for now <33

and please keep him away from the couch unless you want an interview filled with zzzZzzz XD

Take care both of you! ~huggles~ <3

Anonymous said...

Hi!

1-What is your favorite dish at the Olive Garden?

Zako's said...

1- What we (players) need to make a better community in Craban's Opinion?


2- When will we have news features like mining,forging,Alchemistry and etc.. to transform tibia in a non-only-rush level game?

3- The last!! What do you think about the ACTUAL Tibia?

Felipe said...

Im waiting the final result, you have very creativity.

Regards,
Felipe

Anonymous said...

blahblah random thanks stuff. Noew to buisiness!!!11one

1) What actually bothers you most about tibia?
2) Pretending it could be implemented instantly with no technical hiccups, what what you put into the game?
3) Hows the weather lately?

Anonymous said...

Hello MM.
Well, tibia was the first online rpg that I played. I started in the second half of 2004, the game was fine and blah blah blah, you know. I quit Tibia ‘cause I got frustrated, so many botters and so few solutions.
After the 7.4~7.6 update the most fucking terrible thing happened: Mass sharing/Mass botting/Mass account trading.
My question is based in the text above. “What CipSoft have in mind to reduce/eradicate this kind of rule breaker?”
‘Cause GameMasters can’t even handle 10% of botters. And Cip~ can’t expect too much of GMs since their all volunteers, as an advice I’d like to say that the old system of counselors could help GameMasters to keep the lands of Tibia clean, bots are pests keep that in mind.
I’m done, thanks for your time.

Anonymous said...

I would like to ask the following;

Why is it when you are close to leveling a skill (melee or shielding), your characters respective skill seems to weaken (i.e, you hit less/receive more damage)?

:)

Anonymous said...

What is the meaning of life?

Anonymous said...

The answer is 42.

Digan said...

Few simple questions.

What is the hardest part of your job?
What is the easiest part of your job?
How often are you on Tibia?

Lastly:

Do you like the new npc trade system? Or do you think that we could just have the npc chat channel and type "sell XX item", without worrying about being muted. Therefore making the selling of goods a whole bunch faster.

Tiago Paolini said...

Questions to Craban:

By reding your posts in the TibiaBR's forum, I have relized that you do understand a little of Portuguese. Did you learn Portuguese because of Tibia? How and why you learned Portuguese?

"Muito obrigado" for your attention :)

Anonymous said...

I'd like to think of a good question for Craban that doesn't really relate to the game, I for one would like to know more about all of the people that make this game work, but I can't think of one. The only question I can think of currently is:

Approximately how many solvable quests are there currently in Tibia?

Thanks Mercutio for coming up with the awesome ideas to get involved with your customers.

Anonymous said...

I am all for punishment for crimes but Tibia takes punishment to far.

On game worlds such as Dolera and Inferna character who worked very hard for several years are forced to quit because they are "hunted" off by botters which is very unfair for fair players to lose their work to people who cheat.

So I actually have two questions to you.

1. What if anything is going on to prevent programs such as Elfbot NG and Magebot being used?

2.Why is it that Cipsoft allows the punishment of players for no reason? There should be measures taken to prevent this from happening again.

Anonymous said...

Many game worlds are without Gamemasters to enforce the rules and ban the cheaters. I've played tibia for 7 years now and I can count how many times I've seen a gamemaster on my world(s) on two hands. This is rather pathetic and I wish that each game world would be assigned a Gamemaster from a different server for fairness.

Unknown said...

1. Hi there, had the pleasure of a visit from Craban not so long ago.. Wondering if you found the root of the bug yet?

2. When will Snails be implemented as a monster? :(

- An Eagerly awaiting Pet Snail Gary (Azura)

Anonymous said...

Don't you think it's too late to try to get rid of big part of botters? Every protection would be bypassed and botters would still bot.

@Scott'Spott:
I expected you, Sire. How is it going? :)
There is no way to finish all botters btw. Or Tibia would be the first to finish all botters ;p

Anonymous said...

Rubera Legend? xD

Well, I know you really understand
about botting but let Scott some hope!

By the way, will you hire the monkeys again? =p

Anonymous said...

@Teo:
I'm not saying there is nothing they can do to decrease number of botters. I'm just saying there is no way to get rid of botters (especially when you let botters cheat again after 6 months lol) because every detection will be bypassed.

I'm not gonna hire monkeys for now. We'll see what will happen or not.

Anonymous said...

Hey Wes, i'm fine, and you? I gave up hope about botters. They took over Tibia and theres nothing to do about it... btw, hope to see you back soon.

Regards, Scott~