,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, An interview of Dz (kuski of month on December 2001): ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' -= When did you start playing? =- I first time played Elasto Mania May 2000. I saw few guys playing it on our computer class at school. At first it looked ridicilous and I didnt want to try it. Then one day I got so bored at school I thought "well let's try then how stupid that game is", and later on same evening, I was playing at home too. -= Ex-teams and why did you change teams? =- My first team TAAF was found by me and my brother, NPhoBiaz. It was great time of course as first real team. We took quickly 3 new members, Are, SveinR and our webmaster Myrdhel after we all had been breaking each others times on moposites top10 level pack rates, which was extremely fun. Then after half year or so, we wanted to experience new challenges with NPho and we decided to leave TAAF which wasn't easy thing to do. The new challenges meant forming a world class multiplayer team with best multiplayers there are, MoorZe & JAnen. Our team, Chrono Crossers really ruled the multi tables and we were very proud of ourselves. Then some months later NPhoBiaz decided to leave our team and joined c0ol. After that I started to play more and more Internals as single player and started to think of joining a pro internal team. I was declined from WRS which was very understandable, my total wasn't that good yet, about 45 mins. Then SRX broke down due to some players cheating and I saw my change there and contacted the remaining players TheGepi & DirtyCash. After some discussions we decided to form a team together, UkC, which was DC's old team. All went good till mrDJ made comeback as EML and DC left our team and formed a new one with him. Gepi was retiring and so UkC were falling aparts. I was really frustrated and made it clear to myself, no more playing around with teams. I had and got some really good friends at #across on IRCnet and so was founed my present team, Rhyme of Elasto Mania. Not that boring team history, huh? -= Current total =- 40:43:61 -= Across Career briefly? Any WRs?, World Cup I and II and so on.. =- No Across Career, played few times and didn't like at all. -= Do you still like Across? Why/why not =- - -= How did you get Across/Elma? Was it your worst mistake? or the best? =- I got Elma from school. If there will be a new version of the game, I will gladly actually buy it. :) It's definietly not a mistake, I've had fun times with Elma and will have in the future too. -= Favourite internals / most irritating internals =- I like mainly every tricky levels where there are lots of different ways to finish it. To name some, Tricks Abound, Apple Harvest, ZigZag and Turnaround are great levels and fun to play. I dont like those levs where you must hoyl for every possible hundreads to get a wr. Of course sometimes if I find something new it might change the situation, good example would be my first wr on Over & Under. -= Your own best WRs? =- None of them are actually "great" which means they can be done alot better but personally I like my haircut ride, and tricks abound is pritty nice too. -= Best WRs in your opinion? =- Best hoyled wrs must be warm up and twin peaks. To look a bit more challenging levels there are some really nice times like ones on serpents tale and expert system. -= Are there some kind of external contests you like? =- I played alot and still play some moposites top10 level pack rates. Are's Hoylä Competition and POP's 2 external contests are very nice too. -= Best lgr in your mind? What lgr do you use? =- Mainly the default one. Sometimes I change to across lgr just for fun. -= Mention some good things you have gotten with Across/elma? =- There are many of them. I've got good friends to chat with at #across and had fun time with them. The feeling to get good times is great too. The most practical advantage must be great finger dexerity. :) -= Mention some bad things you have gotten from Across/elma? =- Sometimes earlier days I just had to play truant from school to get to play Elma, which wasn't always that smart. I recommend you don't try it yourself. :) -= What is the most frustrating thing you have faced in your career? =- To me one thing happends way too often: I play some lev and get "easily" close-to-wr time. Then I might keep playing days and days without a single improvement on the time, that is very frustrating. -= The biggest mistake of your Elma career? =- I don't recall having any actual big mistakes on my career. There surely are some but not anything worth mentioning. -= Cheating in Elma, what feelings? Do you use level unlocker/nitro etc? =- Cheating in any way which ruins the main idea of the game is of course very bad thing. Fortunately there hasn't been any(?) known cheating for long time. Personally I use nitro for merging replays which is very nice feature and should be included on elma's basic features. -= Best kuskis and teams? What are the things you value in another kuski/team? I think to be a good kuski you always, if possible, have to prefer finding out new ways and styles rather than just pure hoyling to get a wr. Nothing motivates you more driving a wr than finding a new style somewhere. Jokke, Psy, Deadelous and pajen are great examples of what i mean. -= Your best achievements? =- Propably to get 5 new wrs on same table, think it was 77. Other intresting thing is that 2 times of them were the only PRA times left there, since then they haven't got any wrs. :) Also becoming a number 1 of total time list was very nice too, not to forget this player of month award. :) -= Do you do any other neat finger-related stuff like playing violin, repairing watches, pick pocketing etc? Not really. -= How much did you play in your sickest period? How much these days? =- These days I don't play that much I used before, but still quite alot whenever I got time and motivation. At summer I had quite alot time to play, especially at work where I just played most of the time Elma. The sickest period? Well it was propably at that same summer. I remember one crazy weekend when I played absolutely too much, maybe about 15-20 hours. :) -= Best memories with elma? =- All wrs i've made, especially the first one was very cool and I will never forget the feeling after it. Getting to know with other players has been very funny too. -= Best Elma friends? =- There are many of them, especially every single REM member, we've had so much fun together on our team channel on IRCnet. I don't want to pick up any names, I would forget half of them anyway =) -= What do YOU think should be improved in an eventual new version of elma? =- Not much, just some little fixes and stuff. Everything I could possible imagine can be found under Mopolauta's "Elma wishlist" topics. -= Do you have a life when playing elma? =- Hehe, that sentence really is badly formed =D To be serious, yep I got other life too. I like to hang around with my friends and I even got a real sport, floorball and i'm pritty good at it =) -= How about battles? =- Battles are one of the best things there are. For all those players who cannot or don't want to visit #across on IRCnet, you've missed alot! -= You've got some negative feedback about playing elma from your friends? =- Well not really negative, but I sure have got feedback. Every time I start to talk about Elma(??) my friends just start to laugh. I just can't figure out what's so funny about it. :) -= What games do you like beside Elma? =- I'm don't really like to play alot of games (except Elma), but there are some other games I play too like Red Alert 2 (Karlis I WILL kick your ass some day!) and some old nes & snes games. -= Have you thought about if you could stop playing Elma soon, or anytime? =- No I have never thought about quitting. -= What gets you still playing Elma =- It's just the simplity of the game, I just love it. There are always something you can try to reach for. -= Are you at the top of your career now? If not, when? =- Well, I don't belive we can get worse with playing so logically I don't think I'm at top of my career yet and I've no idea when I could be there. At least I hope I'm not yet :) -= Was it a surprise to be voted for the kuski of month? =- Yep, I didn't done anything big last month so it was a little suprise for me. -= Mopolauta, any opinions? =- There are often much intresting stuff and I read it almost daily. -= Opinions about Elma Crime, MUe's animations and stuff like that. =- Haven't seen it. :/ -= You are the updater of your own page. How it's feeling? =- It's cool. There's even new offical OLP Finnish Record's list, if anyone doesn't know, so check that list and send your times there! My contest is quite popular too and my honour goes to team ReC which has been ruling it for long time now. Why don't you challenge them today! -= Your relation to OLP =- I can't find many suitable levels for me on OLP so I don't play it alot. -= Why that nick, Dz? =- Well, I just had to follow the custom and be stylish so I shortened it to Dz ;) It doesn't really mean anything, just made it up times ago. -= Your real life. Do you have it (school/work, other interests etc)? =- Yep, I'm going last year on highschool and after that it's army time for me as well. -= Write something about the game, fellow kuskis, moposite, #across, whatever =- I want to thank Abula for huge effort on Elma scene, you've made alot of things possible for everyone. What would Elma be without The Moposite? Dz 5 January 2002