Late last Saturday we saw the Users online page become markedly more colourful with the appointments on two new players to the position of Help Desk Operator, and one of those players was FlyingDeathSquirrel. In this article we have a chat with him to find out more about the player behind the Help Desk.
Finding FlyingDeathSquirrel’s name on the users online page has certainly become easier, and so we had no excuse for not going to find him for an interview; and that’s exactly what we did.
Firstly, we tried to find out a little more about FlyingDeathSquirrel, he told us he has played “very actively [but] intermittently since the autumn of 2003.” Adding, “Yes, I remember the spinning barrel.” This is all FlyingDeathSquirrel told us about himself, so we went digging and spoke to his crew boss and ex-HDO, BettyB. She told us “He's mostly known as DevHead,” it gets better... “he runs around the CF pantless and throwing his nuts around.” The perfect role model for you youngsters then! Betty added, with her more serious crew boos hat on, “He was UG for EH for a while last round, did some nice shooting.”
So we know he’s been around for a while, but why does FlyingDeathSquirrel think he got asked to take on the HDO role, apart from being willing to run around pantless in the High Rollers Forum? He told us that “when people have legitimate questions about the game, I do my best to actually answer them...either in BM or on the GF whenever I saw them, assuming someone else didn't already answer them” which although it sounds simple, is exactly what the Elite Guard must be looking for in an HDO.
So how was FlyingDeathSquirrel asked to take his new job? He told the Buzz that he was simply “sent a BM from Riserva asking if I'd like to become an HDO.” Well that was easy. We asked if he’d ever considered turning down the job, he told us that he initially considered turning down the job as he was worried about “the amount of extra time I may have to put in, and also trying to do my best to help people and still end up getting bashed by some users; I've seen it so much before. But, I figured, it's unavoidable.“ and then thought ”I don't really have a whole lot to do right now, so I figured I may as well help out.”
So now that FlyingDeathSquirrel is a HDO, what does he think of it so far? He said that “The only difference for me now is that I have Help Desk tickets to answer (which doesn't bother me) and that I'm now constantly paranoid about my death, but I do have some more names lined up, so oh well.” When we pressed him for the best and worst parts of the job after a week he added that the best was “being able to actually help people and finding my name really quickly on the Users Online page.” While the worst was realising “that I'm lacking a fair amount of knowledge about BL and then I have to go research some things.” With the variety and amount of questions asked to the Help Desk, it’s no surprise that FlyingDeathSquirrel has to still find out the answers to some things!
We ended the interview by asking if FlyingDeathSquirrel had any ambitions to eventually advance within the staff and join the ranks of the Elite Guard, he said “I don't think I would ever be able to adequately and appropriately fulfill the duties presented by wearing the magical green cape. So, no, I don't plan on it; I never know when real life will call me away again.”
We quickly spoke to a couple of members of the Elite Guard to see why they decided FlyingDeathSquirrel would make a good HDO. Riserva said that simply, “He's active, knows whos who and what's what... He met the criteria for HDO” with Aldarion adding, “He has the coolest name I've ever seen”.
That is true. Congratulations to the HDO with the coolest name ever, good luck!
