One of the most long-lived Akarra shards is Emperium Xenos. It was started by a group of players back when the server files were made available. I sent a few questions to tbbw, who is in charge of the project now and also is running Akarra.net. Follow the jump to see his answers. And tbbw, your meatloaf is here, come and get it before it ruts.

Hello tbbw, tell us a little about yourself.

tbbw: I’m a 18 years old super model with silicone….. err… actually I’m just like any other regular guy Work at a Swedish computer store during the days. So I’m usually that annoying tech guy u call up when your email wont work.

How did you get involved in Whispers in Akarra?

tbbw: Well it was a friend named Nema (aka Wormer) that got me to play, a few months b4 the official one closed down. One day we where going to do a all weekend with ruis and yzor (well I was a lowbie at the time… so it was nema, yzor, ruis) where gonna run around in EG [Admin: Eastern Gate - a high level area in Akarra]

tbbw: So i quickly built a PC from space parts I had so we had two comps hooked up next to each other in my apartment. nema connected to quakenet and asked an admin to add an account under the name “tbbw”. We both logged in and he was giving me some starter help. Then the game freases and then connection times out. After a quick look at my cable modem and a lilmath in my brain made me realise that it’s Friday night and i forgot to pay the bill to my isp. I think that’s one of the first times i was pk’d… and i was still lvl0.

Please tell us a little about Emperium Xenos.

tbbw: Well i think it musta been a couple of years back actually. We all sat in the #daria channel (culda been #akarra my memory is getting bad or fuzzy form all the beer). It was December at the time, i was talking to the usual folks in there. A few days passed and i kinda did the same things i usaly did at the time. Just before Xmas i started to talk more and more with Gorgorath and he starts to talk about starting an rpg project. We spoke about it a bit more about it and at the 25:th December 2005 Emperium Xenos was born with four members. After we seen a lot of power struggle in other projects and drama was when the desition was made that EX would have a vote system where all the developers vote on a topic so no one feels left out or overrun. This system worked surprisingly good for us so it’s still used today.

How active is the shard now?

tbbw: Well not as active as we were two years ago. We still have members that regularly visit us that plays a lil now and then and a few newcomers. But i don’t think we will reach a new peak until the update is released.

You are currently running Akarra.net, what are your plans for the site?

tbbw: Well akarra.net was the home site of the original (when we shard ppl use the word “original” when talking about Akarra/WiA then we refer to the server project b4 it closed down) Akarra and the domain was free at the time so i bought it.

tbbw: First we wanted to point www.akarra.net to the Emperium Xenos website, but after a late night of coke and a wolf and his computer a php sub domain redirect script was written. So I changed my mind and made it so all the shard related web pages can have a sub domain and since Oxeye stopped with the WiA forum on their site one for that was needed as well. So my intentions with the www.akarra.net web page is more like a new place for the files and forum regarding the game Akarra.

What plans do you have for Xenos, in case the source code is released?

tbbw: A lot of people have asked me this recently. I’ve told ‘em all that the code base of the WiA game is BIG. I would like to read thru at least a chunk of it (of some selected areas) before i will make any official statements of what i want to do or can do with it.

Anything else you’d like to add?

tbbw: Where is my meatloaf? You said i would get meatloaf if i answered the questions!

Thanks for your time!

tbbw: Is this a trick question?