Interview by Moxx for Late night encounters #6

As my feet vagly move me across the steaming hot surface in the middle of the city center, I pull up my mp3-player and change song; Queff - Honey. As these loud and bouncy beats hit my ears in an instant, I can feel my brain freeze out the other people around. It's me in my own world, versus the rest. As I see people watch me, I can't bother my mind with what they want, I'm in my zone. My eyes hit the ground in front of me, here we go, time to walk. My focus is on where I'm going, nothing can bother me. The music keep bouncing in my ears as I keep walking towards my destination, eyes at the ground.

I hit up my computer and see FragGyver online, someone I haven't talked to in quite a while. So I hit him up and this is how it all went down.



Moxx: So hey FragGyver, how about you introduce yourself to our readers?

FragGyver: Hello there, I'm Chris working as a computing officer in a big hotel and well, liked videogames for around 20 years now.


Moxx: How about that, 20 years that's a long time. How did you get involved in the whole KZ-experience?

FragGyver: Back then, i guess its been around 2004 or so, we used to play rather big lan parties at a friends house and someone had those funny 1.6 mod maps called kreedz. We played those after some funwars late at night. If i remember correct, my first map has been giantbean. Most of my friends didnt liked them too much, since checkpoints and amx mods werent available at that time and climbing was rather frustrating. My good friend FragMcCracken and i got hooked and found some servers to spec the "pros" and were so amazed that we kept playing from that time. I remember seeing ROFFLJAAAA playing was the point where i was like "dude, look at that man i wanna be able to do this too"


Moxx: I see where you're coming from, is playing the maps what made you motivated to start mapping yourself?

FragGyver: Actually not. I was lucky enough to be able to witness the rise of videogames in general (yes, im old) so i started mapping with games like doom, heretic and such. I never did this on a professional level tho, it has always been just a fun hobby and will hopefully stay that way.


Moxx: So being into the whole game-scene for quite some time, how did it all start with mapping for KZ? And what kind of maps did you do?

FragGyver: Well i started mapping for cs 1.6 at the same time we had those mad lanparties. FragMcCracken got more and more involved in the jumping scene, while i was more playing some jump maps from time to time. He once asked me if we should try to make an official kz map and since i didnt had any other project at that time we started the kz_dp_medieval project. Before i had done mostly aim maps for different clans and communities.


Moxx: Interesting, being a mapper myself I remember the somewhat infamous group of mappers called Risk, can you tell me how that all got started? And what the purpose was?

FragGyver: Oh boy thats a rather long story. Ill try to get this as short as possible. It all started with Angies return to the kz_world as far as i remember. At that time the community wasnt that much satisfied with the whole mapchecking system (i know, its a never ending story). Angie tried to implement some new ideas to the site which wasnt really appreciated unfortunately. After some good old internet drama it ended up beeing seperated from xtreme-jumps.eu. Kreedz.com got relaunched and the whole map sections was moved to that site. All the people involved in this project became a pretty cool crew with guys like radon, dalailama, tommy, your host Moxx, FragMcCracken , dropsys, sadpuppy & shizuka and myself. Since we wanted to be seperated from that old system we thought about a new tag that would represent this new idea. And thats been when the "risk_"tag was born. So if you guys havent checked any risk map yet, now is the time to, because there are some very creative and cool designs available. It has been an awesome time, eventhough it was quite short because internet drama never ends well and so after around a year the mapping section went back to xtreme jumps and unfortunately many people left afterwards. So did i, because i have been really frustrated by the way it went down. About a week after this i tried out kzmod cause i didnt wanted to let go kreedz in general and a new story began


Moxx: We had a great run, but being the project somewhat "failed", (probably because of lack of motivation in people), do you still visit Xtreme-Jumps or play KZ (1.6)?

FragGyver: I still visit Xtreme-Jumps on a regular basis just because its such an awesome community with so many things going on thats its always fun to read the news and forum posts. I do not play anymore tho. Simply because i dont have the time to.


Moxx: You even got involved with KZmod back in the days, how did that all work out?

FragGyver: Another long story. Screw you! Well, as i said, after beeing frustrated by working as a Xtreme-Jumps admin i tried out kzmod for distraction. I tried it before at an early beta but didnt liked it that much. The newer version was much better and i really fell in love with it. Not only with the mod itself and its awesome opportunities but also with the chilled and rather mature community. I used to play with Millet and Petsku at the start and Millet convinced me to try mapping for source. I did a first map then and it was rather well received by Soulfather and since i loved their work i started helping out with textures. At some point Soulfather asked me if i were interested in becoming part of the team which i accepted without a doubt. Since then, around 3 and a half years have passed and i have done mapping, modeling, animating, sound scripting and all other sorts of stuff. Unfortunately, as any mod team, we lost quite a few people. The hardest one was probably Millet, because he is the most awesome guy on this planet. Never met a more creative and cool dude than him. So, if you read this Milletty get back on steam man ! Rumor has it, there will be a new map of him at the final release of Kreedz-Climbing Mod.


Moxx: Awesome, must have been rather interesting being involved in such detail with some of the biggest projects in KZ. How do you handle it?

FragGyver: Absolutely. The biggest props go out to Soulfather tho. Without him the mod would have already died many times. He is so freaking dedicated, eventhough he has a really busy real life, that he keeps pushing the mod consantly forward. And Raptor, our awesome programmer, is the one who made all this fun stuff actually work by writing thousands and thousands of line of code and solving problems none of us could solve.
At the time i joined i have been a student, so i "just" took the time i needed to work for the mod. At the summer of 2009 we worked with like 5 ppl for 12-15 hrs per day to get things done. And this was probably the best experience in mapping i ever had. We have, and sill have, a really nice team with only cool people and a great Executive Producer and even if the times were rough sometimes its always been pure fun working at this mod.


Moxx: That guy if someone deserves some real creds, keeping the project moving forward, through up an downs. Do you have any responsibilities nowadays on either site?

FragGyver: Well, nearly all the mapping stuff is done now. Now its bugfixing, testing and getting the code done. Since Raptor started University, Soulfather running a Bar and me beeing really busy at my job things go rather slowly. Im just doing some models from time to time now and am working on a little Tutorial for our Tag-Arena Gameplay that will be added within the final release. Should be out around next week so keep an eye on site updates
Uhhm the Tutorial Video not the Final Release that is. Dont wanna get expectations up ^^


Moxx: Being FragGyver and involved with so much, did you ever have a KZ-clan or Crew (other than Risk and KZmod)?

FragGyver: Well i never had a kzclan. I usually play with reallife friends, since nearly all of them are avid gamers. The only serious clan i was in, has been a L4d2 Clan playing at the esl versus ladder.


Moxx: So you were interested in normal CS 1.6 aswell?

FragGyver: Absolutely. I started playing Counter Strike with 1.3 i guess and kept playing funwars and pcws for quite a long time. Never been really good tho. For me it has always been the best competetive FPS. L4D is probably the best teambased FPS tho.



Moxx: Coolio, so it looks like we're running out of questions and time, how about a few shorties?

FragGyver: Shoot it!


Moxx: KZ in 1.6 or KZmod?

FragGyver: Both!


Moxx: Facebook or Google+?

FragGyver: Facebook if i have to choose, but meeting in real time is way more satisfying.


Moxx: Favourite KZ map? (1.6)

FragGyver: kz_cellblock


Moxx: Favourite bevrage?

FragGyver: Apple cider


Moxx: Okay well, it seem's times up for the both of us, thanks for agreeing to this. I've had a great time reminissing in old times, I bet you did too. Anything you'd like to end with? Shout-outs and so on?

FragGyver: Thanks for asking man, really appreciated since it came out of nowhere^^. Well, too many names on the list but i would like to thank Soulfather, Raptor, Millet, Petsku, FragMcCracken and everyone else who brought me into the crazy world of Kreedz Climbing. If you guys are interested in a great Kz Experience with many many options beyond jumping feel free to test Kreedz Climbing Mod on www.kzmod.com. I really enjoyed this little kz talk and i hope you guys out there will keep pushing this great scene forward and keep doing that awesome job at www.xtreme-jumps.eu . Cheers
AND OFC THE BIGGEST SHOUTOUT GOES TO MOXX FOR BEEING THE NICE GUY HE IS!