A (long) Q&A with speclang

I am publishing this at 1:00am so I’m very sorry if this is not polished.

1. How stressful is it to keep up with the news around the server? how much time do you spend on discord just checking the news?

Contrary to popular belief, although I do read the Reddit and some of the Discord pretty regularly, I don’t really keep up with the news until around Friday or Saturday. It does generally help to keep some awareness of what’s happening throughout Civ throughout the week, but it’s not like I’m focusing on it.

It’s only stressful when large chunks of drama happen all at once (for example, as I’m writing this). I’d probably guess I only spend maybe about 6 hours actively looking at/interviewing people for the news — it’s quite low, but sometimes all the information is just there.

2. How much have you made from the newsletter in total?

In diamonds?? I think the balance on the newsletter account is around 1200d, with about +50-100d per week now. I’m planning to use the funds for wiki bounties, but we’ll see how that goes.

In real dollars? Last summer I ran a ko-fi to support myself a little bit but that didn’t seem fair especially since CivMC has a patreon too. I only think I made about $200 from the newsletter total, although if you want to increase that number the ko-fi is still running.

3. How did the newsletter start?

I don’t have the answer right now but I’ll answer it when I can, sometime next week!

4. did you turn your back on new england teams with the move

For those who didn’t notice, last summer I recently moved from Boston out to Seattle. However, I’m always a Red Sox fan. That’s no question.

To be honest, I haven’t really followed sports teams outside of baseball? I don’t think it helped that the Patriots were doing garbage, and Seattle having no basketball team means I’m technically still a Celtics fan (although I am hoping the Sonics return). Call me a fair weather Boston sports fan.

5. Do it jiggle? Do it clap? Does it fit in them jeans?

Apple bottom jeans, boots with the fur, shawty got the whole dang club looking at her

Baggy sweatpants, Reeboks with the straps, then she turned around and gave that big booty a slap

She hit the floor, next thing you know shawty got low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low

6. speclang I miss my wife Gwua how to cope

I don’t have the answer right now but I’ll answer it when I can, sometime next week!

7. How’s your day going? I know these news letters aren’t easy to write but I enjoy reading them a lot, I hope your day’s going well :>

If you’re asking on a non-Monday or non-Sunday, pretty good. If you’re asking on Monday or Sunday, please refer to my therapist

8. What has been your favorite PNW hike (or bit of nature) so far?

I haven’t been on any hikes yet (~3 months still makes me a bit of a PNW bloomer), but during Labor Day weekend I went out to Bainbridge Island. A nice little vacation spot with large forests a short boat ride away, very cool!

If I ever find someone with a car, my bucket list hike would be to get out to Mount Si one of these days, but it’s crowded as hell already so that’s good luck to me.

9. What nation/continent would you like to see more news from?

Honestly I don’t think South America gets as much news coverage as people think it does.

Oh you’re probably talking about Civ — I think in that case much of the Eastern Continent doesn’t produce as much content as I used to see. Yoahtl does tend to keep their news a little closer to their chest than most, and then whatever news comes out of there is something along the lines of the next Exyria drama. I miss covering wholesome buildfriend content out there, but I think it might just be cursed.

10. Will you support peace in our time?

Of course. More peace in our time means less news in our newsletter

11. You tell us all about stories of Civ players and nations, but what’s your story? Why did you decide to join Civ.

I think it’s very much the same as many other players — I was looking for a place a city building community and probably found an ad that had Mount Augusta on 2.0 Unfortunately, I stumbled upon this server just as 2.0 was ending in early 2016. Obviously disappointed, but then I found the server once again on day 2 of CivTemp, and have been pretty hooked ever since.

What I think most people don’t realize is the rest of the story, because it’s quite long and literally had nothing to do with writing. But in short:

• I played in Concordia in 3.0, which was the successor to Commonwealth in 2.0. Unlike many other people I literally got thrust into a leadership position that I didn’t want, but I missed a lot of post-launch. Besides, I don’t think it changed much since 3.0 was garbage
• I poked around Devoted 3.0 a little bit but mainly came back when a new iteration of Commonwealth was founded for CivEx, and then moved over quickly to CivClassic. Most people probably know the deal with that, with the Somber War raids, and literal irrelevance after. I did help organize the country’s Olympics that year and honestly, I thought it was fine enough.
• Afterwards, I got absorbed into friend groups around Mount Augusta and was part of Mount September for quite a bit, even though I literally didn’t do anything.

11b. Why take on the newsletter instead of play the regular side of the server like everyone else?

Nobody really tells you this, but leading nations are really exhausting. There’s a reason why I just wanted to build and do all the worldbuilding stuff but not lead a nation.

So when CivMC was launching, I knew I wasn’t going to lead a nation or really play in the conventional manner. Early in the server I was going to join Icenia but I slowly got pulled into the Pavian machine.

Something I didn’t mention was that I got involved in editing CivWiki and produced a lot of content through 2019 and early 2020. There’s something about creating content that just appealed to me a lot more than leading a nation or building new towns that I would ultimately have to lead. Not to mention it’s free upvotes and everyone literally just loves content, god knows that Civ has such a dirth of marketable content over the years.

It’s especially difficult these days since Classics, with everyone hiding in their discords, it’s hard to know what’s going on. There used to be weeks on CivClassics where nobody would post on the subreddit despite the fact things were happening.

11c. What’s your favorite part about Civ, and what makes you keep coming back to write more?

Now, I do love the Civ genre and think it’s such a unique way of playing Minecraft which is one part of Civ. The more organic worldbuilding aspect and complexity will just always appeal to me so much more. It’s the same reason why I like videos that literally discuss 75-player diplomacy, love playing complex Euro boardgames, and really want people to play Insane Monopoly one of these days.

I think the other part of coming back though is that while I like writing, the consistency of doing so each week is like a ritual in a way. It both keeps up my writing skills plus some responsibility each week. Especially during the last year, while I was unemployed, this was very much something that kept me sane for a while.

12. The inevitable will occur, and you will stop writing the newsletter. However, you stated you were going to try and make efforts to pass it on to others, to continue the newsletter for Civ to enjoy. How do you plan to do this, and are there any prospective candidates you feel will become your replacement?

I don’t want to reveal my hand too much, but while I don’t have a plan I do have some candidates in mind — that is they are willing to be more committed. Having a few new publications this last summer has really been helpful and more people have been generally contributing.

13. What are some of your favorite nation themes or region aesthetics? If you were designing a server map, what kind of terrain would you include?

I don’t have the answer right now but I’ll answer it when I can, sometime next week!

14. Hey, this is less of a question and more of a request. Do you think you could ask what kind of feature updates people want? Last week seems to have had a lot of answers to the tune of “change the meta” or “add new features” but beyond backpacks (and guns ofc) there aren’t many actual ideas.

I’ve been trying to add more useful polls but it’s hard. This is especially because normally, this is pretty much the responses you get. Civ players don’t usually articulate words this much.

15. In your opinion, which, with you being the curator of the newsletter, is as close to objective fact as an opinion can get, what is the best number?

I mean, it’s 42. Like that’s not even my call, that’s just an inherent fact of the universe.