By Macphisto Angelus. Editor

Once in awhile something happens in OpenLife for me that really makes me think of how lucky I am to be here. One such occasion occurred a little while back as I got the honor to meet and interview Gino and Linda McAllister. For those not familiar with these two wonderful people they are the owners of the Exodus region.
I covered Exodus awhile back on my blog and the intention was to follow that up with an interview with Gino and Linda. Now the project has grown even more as I intend to check in from time to time on the McAllisters along with their partner Grimmie and cover
how things are progressing on the region.
I may make an alt to explore Role Playing for the first time and doing that at Exodus. I will blog about my adventures and what I learn when I do that.
So expect more on Exodus, The people behind it and maybe a newbie roleplayer's account of learning that aspect of OpenLife.
Here is the interview. These are some very nice folks who I am now proud to call friends. I recommend you seek them out and say Hi sometime. :)
Mac: First of all, thank you Gino and Linda for taking the time to speak to OLX about your sim “Exodus”.
LM: Your welcome :)
Mac: How did you hear about OpenLife and when did you come here?
GM: Well tbh Mac, we got scammed out of our sim in SL and bumbed into a big wall when it came to help from LL. We knew we would never get the cash again to buy a new sim there. So we began searching for a new place.
LM: And I was looking in 2007 for a new grid...and I found 1...HIPIHI..Chinese grid. well, that was short, they did not speak English at all.
GM: and we don't speak Chinese :D
LM: I did say Hi in world...and got back...??? lol. I think hi is something else in Chinese lol
GM: Sayanora? o.O
Mac: LOL
LM: So I looked further..and there was OL..feb. this year.
Mac: What about OpenLife made you decide to stay?
GM: To me first of all, Sakai. I ran into him the first day I came on the grid.
Mac: What do you think is the best improvement OpenLife has seen since you came here?
GM: The stability and 3D mesh upload ability.
Mac: That will be fun! I can’t wait to see the meshes.
LM: Yeah, and the support is getting better and better.
GM: 2 thumbs up for the support and effort by OL team.
LM: The new viewer looks great, even the search is starting to work and all the SL related stuff is out like linden dollars.
Mac: That is a great move forward for OLG.
LM: Yes, then more...eeem...how do you say, getting away from LL.
GM: Yes, I am glad to see them grow and how they pull loose from LL and their crappy Sl.
Mac: Me too.
Mac: If you could pick one feature for OpenLife what would you choose?
LM: Better animations, and more shapes of prims.
GM: DB connected to sims would be cool. This would make it tons easier to implement things like a looting system and level up ability by experience gain for kills.
LM: There will always stay working with prims, cos not everybody can work with mesh.
Mac: True.
GM: Server based scripting ability that would be a nice thing.
Mac: There is an incredible boom in Private Cluster sells lately. I heard Exodus was the first ever Private Cluster sale. How long have you owned Exodus?
GM: 4 months now.
LM: That was a special request of us to Sakai, and he understand us with a blink of a eye :D
GM: Yes, it was awesome all they did for us to meet our request.
Mac: He definitely tries to do everything he can.
LM: We were hoping that he was willing to make that offer for us, 1 sim, in the middle of nowhere, and he did HURRAY :D

GM: Yes, and he has some great ideas, but the effort he does to meet up to your requests and expectations is what makes me vouch for OLG.
Mac: You were ahead of the game.
GM: The very first private sim.
Mac: What is your vision and hope for the Exodus sim?
GM: TBH, I just want a beautiful medieval role-play sim and see people having fun.
LM: to make the best RP sim of the grid, not only the builds, but also our combat system.
Mac: Did you buy it to be a RP sim or did you have other ideals at first?
GM: we always intended it to become Exodus.
Mac: Please explain a little about Role Playing for those of us who have never been involved. Is it hard to do?
GM: Role playing is taking part in a special kind of game with other players. You choose a role and a fight class to play. At our place you can also choose your race to play.
LM: If you enter the sim, dress and act like a knight for example.
GM: Or become a zombie haunting the lands lurking for brains.
LM: Act like if you are in a play of Romeo and Juliet. ;)
GM: Shakespeare is a wonderful stimulator for RP. ^^
Mac: What would you recommend a brand new RPer that wants to get involved to do?
GM: Depends, you always should choose what your heart desires.
LM: Just listen first to old RPers...watch and learn.
GM: Start in low rp rings, be the squire of a knight. Or a helping hand of the tavern wench.
LM: But we are not heavy RP...we need space for fun.
GM: Easy roles where you have more freedom.
LM: Like..if in RL you washing machine is broken, you will play it on the sim in a other kind of way like.. the waterwheel of my hobbits house is broken, and now I can’t do the laundry...or something like that.
GM: Or just say it in OOC (out of character) usually this is a text line between (( and )).
Mac: If I were to join the RP community would you recommend that I make a different avatar and give it a back story or would I use my main and switch between RP and normal mode?
LM: We don't mind. What you like to do, but sometimes people like to have a zombie, and don't want a name like James, but something else.
GM: We would leave you free to decide this for yourself. The switch between RP and OOC is simple. Our system meter has an OOC chat function build into it. Simply type /22 before your sentence.
LM: Well..James the zombie sounds kinda fun. ^^
Mac: LOL! What classes of races will be used in the RP world of Exodus?
LM: OMG, lots! Gino…hehe.
GM: Rogues, Elementals, Pirate, Warrior, Ranger, Paladin, Monk, ect. Will be fight classes. Races would be hobbits, humans, elves, Forsaken (undead) and Gnomes for now. If we are able to grow we will implement orcs goblins, beast men..
LM: We need more sims lol. :P
GM: A good example can be gotten from games like Warhammer, and World of Warcraft.
Mac: I used to play TONS of Guild Wars, would that help me?
GM: yes, definitely. We used some things from GW in our system.
Mac: You provide wonderful avatars for people to suit up and get started here. Does one of you work on that and another on builds or is it a team effort on everything?
GM: I made the avatars, but mostly we work together. Grimmie does the Forsaken area and is a huge help to us when it comes to zombie stuff.
LM: We yell if we need something, so we jump in. Then Gino is text something, and start to cry, then I fix it lol
Mac: LOL! How did you meet Grimmie?
GM: When we had our sim Shiver Peaks ( GUILD WARS FTW :P ) in SL. We also delivered our system to another RP sim holder in SL.
Mac: Aww I wish I had seen that sim.
LM: We still got pics. :D
Mac: I would love to see them sometime.
LM: grimmie is a great guy! And he never built before, so we help him a bit. We told him, go prim crazy on your graveyard...and he did!
GM: We teach him whenever he needs to know something.
LM: And we are so proud of him. We helped him a bit, not much though.
GM: We also consider Exodus to be our sim, the 3 of us.
Mac: Nice. I see you have residential areas, will you be renting those out for RPers?
GM: I wasn’t really thinking about renting them in the form of payment rental. Our main goal is to have most for free, and try to get by on donations we get from our players.
LM: We thinking of...for example, if there is a tavern wench, and she is committed to the Inn, she can get a house. But we did not really talk about it.
Mac: How much time do you get to work on Exodus in a typical week?
GM: A lot!
LM: Too much lol! 10 hours?
GM: 10 to 16 hours a day. We been on a long break lately because it got a bit stress.
LM: And we needed some inspiration too. Those ideas do not come up like a fart. :P
Mac: LOL!
GM: If we aren’t playing WOW or GW, we are doing something that has to do with developments for the sim.
LM: That’s the hard part, getting a nice idea for a build, and then MAKE it..
Mac: Is there any priority project you are working on with Exodus or do you move from project to project as you feel like it?
GM: Well, I as typical ADHD person often jump from one thing to the other and work at 5 projects at once lol.
LM: I try to do 1 thing a time...but..
Mac: Gino.. I totally relate!
LM: OMG!
GM: xD
Mac: What is the next big step for Exodus?
GM: Getting the system up and running.
LM: Yep.
GM: Develop our experience gain and level up ability once more. A looting system and npc's.
LM: Our scripts are so complicated; we hope we can do it.
GM: I am unfamiliar with Python.
LM: Our bloodfly...is a flying (prim) beast, you can shoot at, and hit with a sword and the fly will die, if you’re not half dead :P...

GM: We want more npc's not only to fight but also to get little quests from and the ability to loot them.
LM: That script is complicated, but that’s the interactivity we want to bring in.
GM: Our biggest project we will get will be the professions.
LM: Falling through a bridge..we could do that in SL, but OL not...yet. Falling parts in the cave...
GM: Yes, in Sl we had tons of interactive builds and maze with a lot of different traps.
LM: Some peeps were afraid to go in to our caves lol. And drowning state, if you stay underwater too long, you will die. Falling damage...if you fall too high from a mountain…dead or half health.
Mac: So much imagination involved.
LM: I was working on some spells, but that never worked the way I want. Like..if you fall, a monk could heal you. poison arrows...that gives you health degen. Potions, to get rid of poison and such..
GM: We do have scrolls and potions for healing.
GM: furniture reestablishes your stamina. If you don't eat and food drops below 5% your health will deteriorate as you are starving.
LM: A nice rug to rest on, to get your stamina back. Food!..or you will faint hehehe.
Mac: Wow. This sounds so fun.
LM: We had it all in SL, Mac. But OL is limited in this all.
GM: We got the 3.1 version of the system working perfectly with lsl mono. Waiting for OLG's scripting engine to be ready to transfer everything.
LM: And we build the bows, and swords...do the animations, sounds, particles...eeem... shields hammers...all kinds. Did you see my bow last night?
Mac: Yes.. it reminded me of GW when I saw it.
LM: Sorry..I’m spamming :D
Mac: No, you are not. :)
GM: She is totally excited.
LM: My best selling bow in SL. Yeah I am, cos we make it all. :D
Mac: I have Drow that never got to RP that would have looked awesome with that bow. :)
GM: :) dark elfs are cool.
Mac: Gino, I heard you work in the 3D gaming market? Would you like to share what you do in there?
GM: lol I buy games and play them? lol I don’t know where people got the idea that I am a game designer for my job. I do this as a hobby. I do have the dream to one day make it my job.
Mac: I think you would do great at it. :)
GM: Already got over 10 years experience with some programs like 3Ds Max, Hex workshop, Photoshop.. Zbrush. These are also the programs I use to develop for Exodus... not forgetting Audacity for the sound files.
Mac: Linda, how about you? Are you in the game design market?
LM: No, I just play games like Gino. I’m in RL the nerd, I’m a computer system manager.
Mac: If someone reading wanted to join with you on Exodus for RPing, what should they do?
GM: First of all they should write their desired role and background story for their avatar in a notecard and address one of us 3.
LM: We only have 1 Inn, and many Innkeepers is not the idea for now.
GM: We will then see what we can do to implement his wishes into our RP.
LM: In SL we had the ability to give a tag on the avatar, can't in OL yet.
GM: Auditions are for RL theaters, this is a game and it should stay like that.
Mac: What advice would you give to others who want to come to OpenLife and what should they expect?
LM: Download all your textures LOL..kidding!
Mac: LOL!
LM: No..I would say, keep in mind that it is Beta...and many new things are coming soon. Be a pioneer, and live like it :)
GM: Expect the best being created. Roam free and look around there are very nice builds all over. DEFFO compare abilities with other grids, specially the sculpties for example. Drop Sl and stick to OLG. :P
Mac: I am amazed at how I was able to leave SL for OLG. I have a lot of history and items there but I have honestly not looked back since I made the choice.
LM: Same for us, we had fun, but also nasty things. And we take the things like our wedding pics with us. And now it’s okay...we are happy.
GM: smart people won’t, some people sadly don’t realize it. They nag about small bugs and dropout too early not seeing OLG's true potential.
Mac: Yes, I wonder if many ever heard of a beta test or been in one before lol.
GM: I don’t think so,. I think for many Sl actually was their first.
LM: Well I did beta test many games, always fun. :)
Mac: I LOVE beta testing. And the bugs that come with it. The bugs add a charm that a finished product never has.
GM: Same here, same here, always fun to do.
LM: I like the stress tests lol. Everybody freaking out hehehe.
GM: Every game has bugs even PS3 ones. :D
Mac: Yep! In the Sims online we made games out of the bugs. We missed them when they were fixed.
GM: Hahaha
LM: LOL
Mac: Do you have any final thoughts you would like to share with our readers?
LM: eeem I need money? Lol
Mac: LOL!
GM: If you come to visit Exodus bare in mind we are still in FULL development. A true W.I.P.
LM: But no kidding now, we could use some donations so if there is somebody out there want to help us, we would be very happy.
GM: Keep visiting to see the evolution and we promise you to bring the biggest most innovating and realistic role play system the online world ever seen. :)
LM: Play it if you were that knight or ranger you want to be. :)
Mac: Great.. I believe that! Hopefully someone will send you some money to make it happen soon. :)
LM: We are not rich...that why we only have 1 sim.
GM: If donations are made, people should know all will be put into further expanding of the area. And sometimes developing things cost us money too. Like the music for the church I will implement. Had to buy cd's with Gregorian chant music for this.
Mac: yes, I am sure there will always be ongoing expenses.
GM: That’s the life of a game designer. :D
Mac: LOL
LM: lol
Mac: And really.. that is exactly what you three are.
LM: thanks. :D
Mac: Thank you both so much for your time.
GM: Thank you so much for the interest and all your work in this blog and interview. I am looking forward to see how it evolves :)
LM: Me too :)
Mac: Thank you. I can't wait to keep covering Exodus. :)
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