HURT:
Well Beta, I appreciate your patience and I am so glad you agreed to do this interview. (BigHurt pulls out a chair and offers it to Beta.....)

HURT:
Let's start off with the general stats, Age, Area you live, education, connection, job, etc.
BetaStorm:
Age?? Oh my, well I turned 28 last Dec and I live on the east coast (north of MD, south of NY). I think education is a good thing :) - in Jan 97, I threw off the shackles of the corporate world and returned to school (after a 10 year absence) to get my BA's in Criminal Justice and Women's Studies, I'm also looking at grabbing a minor in Management Information Systems. Being an adult student is great since I don't live on campus and am use to the work load - it's bad though, since I don't live on campus and thus do not get that 'fat' ethernet connection (I'm on a USR X2 modem which normally connects at 28.8 due to bad phone lines). There is no cable modem or ADSL option in my area and an ISDN line will require that I sign over my first born male child to the phone company to pay for the installation and monthly charges. Job?? Um, let's not go 'there'.

HURT:
The specs on your computer you play TF on :
BetaStorm:
Spec's on my system are great :). Back last summer I built a PentII 233 and it's running on 64 megs of RAM, have a Monster Sound Card (which I highly recommend), Monster 3-D (wanting a Voodoo2), crappy little vid card :(, 16x cd rom, yadda yadda yadda... oh, and my sweet 17" Sony monitor which cuts of my radio during GL TF and gives my cats radiation.

HURT:
How did you stumble into the TF scene?
BetaStorm:
How long is this interview again? :) Well, I guess I'd have to blame LibTech[OSKI] for this in general. I met him through needing tech support with QuakeSpy back in spring(?) of '97 (I needed help, he offered it). Then after I got on the Beta Test team for it we became very close friends and through him I met the other OSKI members. I resisted TF with a passion since I was a confirmed CTF player and was also forced to answer a lot of QuakeWorld/TF related questions in irc which I felt were all TFS's fault and caused me many headaches. :) I had 'known' Clan OSKI for about 6 months or so when in November last year I let Hyperion, MrBuzzcut and Oskilla talk me into going on a TF server with them to see TF and maybe actually learn it. I really have to give them credit for this since they took something I thought would be very confusing and made it incredibly simple for me. We went on private servers and they showed me the map layouts, class specifics, taught me 'tricks' and most important, educated me on 'game etiquette' like discarding, "pass on the right, Beta!", and team communication. The whole clan was great in taking time to teach me tactics and being patient with my learning curve. I think being a CTF player really helped me out as well, since I'm used to defense positions and team work. Actually, that's all a big lie :). I was dating DrSmooth before I started playing TF and in the interest of keeping him mentally stable, I made the deep sacrifice and starting playing TF. (ok, so that's really the lie, so what?). :)

HURT:
As a female, do you feel like you get different treatment while playing?
BetaStorm:
Oh, I see, the first 2 were the 'easy' questions :). For one thing, it depends on whether or not the people I'm playing with know I'm female. I've had some pretty 'ugly' experiences on public servers due to people knowing my gender. Namely bullshit name calling and there was one occasion on a public server when my 'team' trapped me in the upper resupply and unloaded their rockets, grenades and nails on me in a corner (there were 6 of them) because they "didn't want a damn girl on our team". I've always played 'fair' in TF, I don't cheat and if I make a mistake (like killing a team member) I apologize - so I don't think bad treatment is deserved. We all know that there are some truly lame, bored, mentally-challenged people out there playing TF - I think it comes with the territory (and hey, not like they'll ever get dates if they act this way in RL :). The only other 'different' treatment I've received was at the beginning when some people (who shall remain nameless) took 'action' on my behalf in games if I got killed. :) Kinda the 'protective white knight' syndrome. Luckily, they soon figured out that I can defend myself and if I get killed it's because I'm not paying attention - doh! Chivalry is nice, but not during a game when, if you're on the other team, I won't hesitate to shoot you. :)

HURT:
What % of TF'ers do you think are female?
BetaStorm:
Not nearly enough! :( If you judge it from my poll, we make up about 2% of the entire TF population. I hope there are more out there - but I only know of 5 (including myself) at this point who play on a regular basis. DJedi, GT and OSKI have female members - hopefully other clans do as well and I'm just not aware of it. :( It's hard to know the numbers since many females play with nicks that are either masculine or androgynous to avoid harassment.

HURT:
Being a prominent person in the TF community, do you hear from many female players?
BetaStorm:
Not as many as I would like. Like I said above, I only know of 4 other female players, 1 is in my clan, 2 others have emailed me recently and 1 I only know on reputation (we share some friends).

HURT:
I looked at your bio and see that your on the gamespy team, can you tell our readers what exactly you do with gamespy?
BetaStorm:
Well, I'm a beta tester for the software - I go through each release (pre-public) and check for bugs, errors and misspelling (that's a joke btw). When I started, I also did a lot of online tech support in the irc channel (sometimes 8- 9 hours worth in a single night). I did email support for GL QuakeWorld issues/problems (though that slowed to a trickle when Brett Jacobs wrote the GL setup guide). I haven't been able to do much online support recently, I guess I "burned out" a bit at the end of last year - spending that much time online can do that to a person :). With picking up Keeg's and school, I haven't had time to get back to the support, though I still beta test for them.

HURT:
If you could change anything about TF you wanted, what would it be?....and why?
BetaStorm:
I guess I'll get spammed for this one but oh well... For one thing, depending on the map, I'd change some of the armor settings. Red armor on soldiers just bugs me... I get on one map and "boom" I'm grenading soldiers like there's no tomorrow... change maps and "poof" it's taking 4 grenades to bring them down. I'm not saying lessen it (though I wouldn't object) but maybe make certain it's uniform across maps. More servers playing different maps!! I'm probably the last person who loves 2fort4/5 (then again I'm still 'new') but even I'd like a change. There are some great maps out there, like BAM4, yet I see it on maybe 3 servers.

HURT:
Those of us who have been around for a long time in TF have seen it evolve over time. I feel the public games have changed both for the bad and good....what is your opinion on the good ole public game now?
BetaStorm:
Well, gee Mr. Oldie, I'm not certain I can answer that :). I can say that since I started playing, public servers seem to be getting worse and not better. The CWBL and TeamPlay settings will take time to cut down the number of assholes out there though (I have hope). I feel the main problem we're having as a community is, quite frankly, boredom. People have been waiting for TF2 and so far, with the exception of new maps, there's not much different going on.

HURT:
How did you come to join Keeg's Fortress, and how is it working with Gibkeeg and Eloh?
BetaStorm:
Heehee, funny story really. DrSmooth was here for a visit, we were drinking heavily and I saw the Keeg mail about needing a third person. I answered it that night and the next day woke up not remembering I'd done this :). I didn't remember it until the Keeg's wrote me back accepting me for the position. I was too embarrassed at that point to say no. I already knew both Keeg's from being around OSKI so much anyway, it was a 'logical' fit. They are both great guys who've I've met in person and though we 'lost' Eloh, PlagueBearer is a wonderful addition to our crew. :) I think our site works well because we each have different opinions on certain issues and give each other the freedom to express those opinions without worrying that we'll offend each other. For instance, Gib and I don't always agree on everything, but it doesn't interfere with our friendship. I could not work on a site were the people involved tried to influence my choice of friends, my ideals or my opinions. We have a healthy amount of respect for each other and with that comes the freedom to make our own decisions.

HURT:
What would you like to see carried over from TF1 to TF2?
BetaStorm:
Well, the class variation I think is wonderful, like the change from TF 2.1 to TF 2.7 in the addition of spies and engineers. I think both classes bring a lot to the game and the variation of classes makes it (imho) better than, say, CTF. Right now I feel that TF1 has the most robust map code of any mod out there, I hope (and it seems) that this is a tradition that can be carried over into TF2.

HURT:
What would you not like to see carried over?
BetaStorm:
Cheats :). Seriously, I wrote to TFS a while back regarding those (couple of swear words) death messages...
It may not be a big thing with the majority of players, but I get real tired of seeing "BetaStorm grenades himself". I also don't like the fact that there aren't any female player models. TFS has told me that the 'gendered' death messages have been removed for TF2 and that they are leaving the possibility open for female player mdls - however, they want the program able to run on 16mgs, so unless there is room left over after the essentials are in, I'll probably not get this wish :(.

HURT:
Do you think there are too many 'News' pages for TF?
BetaStorm:
At the risk of making my own self redunant, yes I do. This isn't an easy question to answer since I believe in variety and choice - thus I think there needs to be a healthy abundance of TF news. The flip side to that is that there are pages out there that offer little to no content, are updated only once every 3 months, lack good reasons for people to visit (like files, news, etc.) and seem to serve only one purpose which is to give their creator a web page with his/her name on it. It is one thing to have a personal page and call it "news" and another to have the time, energy and willpower to stick with and create a good site. Luckily, that is the minority and not the majority of good sites out there. One thing that keeps cropping up on this issue is that many pages are put up but it doesn't seem like their creators understand the patience needed before your site becomes 'established'. If they don't get a bunch hits shortly after opening, they yank down the site. I was incredibly lucky to come aboard Keeg's, which already had been around, and help 'revive' it. It's very different to work on a page that already has a following than to try and create a brand new site. I appreciate the work that people put into launching any new page, however, I get a bit tired of new sites trying to gain popularity by wanting the other sites to update about them every time they change a font, add a graphic, move, move again, etc. I have no problem with announcing a new site, but there's a limit to what the other pages can do for it. I'd suggest to people if they want to get involved with doing TF news - check out some of the sites already up and see if they need volunteers. Get your 'feet wet' first before trying to launch a entirely new site. There is a lot more to doing this than just updating here and there.

HURT:
Is there a certain type page we need to enhance the TF scene?
BetaStorm:
I have never understood why all these other companies have 'finger' updates, yet not TFS. I think it would be great for them to do plan updates that would keep us informed on the status of their efforts. I've emailed them to see if they would be interested in letting me set this for them (granted, with them at TFCon, I'm waiting on a reply).

HURT:
The TFO is probably the biggest TF event that has gone off well, what are your thoughts on it and are there any other types of big events you would like to see attempted?
BetaStorm:
Well, I wasn't involved with TFO (and wasn't around for the first one) but it looked great!! I was involved with FortressFest last year and I thought that went over pretty well considering the large amount of people who were playing. (Shameless self promotion starting) I think the News Site scrimmage will be good (though small) once it gets started. One thing TF has over other mods is the strong sense of community (which I feel with TF is stronger than with CTF, DM). If you give TF players something to play in, they tend to show up in mass to support it. Whether your talking clan tourneys or large gaming opportunities open to all, the point is to play the game. I'd love to see a large lan/convention put together for TF where people could meet in person and play (and not just having a server running TF at some other event - an event devoted to TF which is organized well).

HURT:
Where would you like to see the online gaming scene 1 year from now?
BetaStorm:
Well, I guess as always for me, I'd like to see more women getting involved in programming, map making, etc for online games. There's a chicken and egg argument about this though: Do women stay away from online games due to the fact that they don't offer equal representation to women? Or is it that they don't offer equal representation (like player models) because women don't make up a large part of the market? It's hard to say exactly how the 'problem' started from either perspective. Quake2 was great in offering female characters, female sounds etc. and there are women out there who disagree with the "shape" of the Q2 female player. My thoughts on that are more along the lines that, yes I don't exactly look like the female player in Q2 - however I've yet to meet any males that play quake who look like hard bodied marines. It's a game, based on fantasy and that 'fantasy' will be relative to whoever is creating it. (oh, side note: yes, women have Lara Croft, but I don't want to play Tomb Raider, I want to play TF, damnit! :)


HURT:
Again I'd like to thank Beta for the time she obviously put into this interview and wish her all the luck in the world as she continues her studies. I hope maybe this will bring out the females that I'm sure are out there already fraggin all of us to death.