Interview with Bonedancer; GM of Sinster

With the chaotic environment that will inevitably follow the first 24 hours of retail, many of the most prominent PvP guilds have already declared what server they will be playing on in order to bring anyone who wishes to compete with the big dogs, straight to them.

At the time of this writing, over 75 guilds have chosen to compete on what has come to be known as “the best of the best server” ( PST - Kil'Jaeden and Central - Archimonde)

The guild known as Sinister(http://www.afraidyet.net), lead by Bonedancer, is the guild responsible for the early organization of the PvP server. This guild is well known for its PvP everywhere that they play, from Ultima Online through Lineage 2, but perhaps best for their PvP in Shadowbane both in beta and the first few months of Scorn, as the leading guild of the Rollin' 30s nation.

As the guild Sinister prepares for their descent into World of Warcraft, I was given the chance to sit down and chat a bit with their leader, Bonedancer.

<Arkons> Most people know who Sinister is, but for those who don't what are some of your more notable accomplishments?

<BoneDancr> Sinister started on Ultima Online on the Great Lakes server and have consistently been in the top 3 guilds for every game on every server in which we have participated. We don't claim to win them all (who can?) but we are consistently strong.
Most of our infamy comes however from Shadowbane where we had a long beta career and a short follow up into final on the Scorn server.

<Arkons> Sinister is almost guaranteed to be a substantial force on the server ... But what specifically is going to make you guys the dominating force on the pvp server?

<BoneDancr> Tough question. Frankly there are so many good guilds out there now and many of them follow a template for success similar to ours. Time is so critical to these games and most of us are past our college/younger years that we get inevitably get outleveled. Where we make up the difference is in the TEAM work. This isn't your usual get together and kill a dragon guild, if you don't act as a brother to your teammate then you don't last on our tag

<Arkons> Who do you feel will be your biggest competition out of the guilds that have already pledged to be fighting against you?

<BoneDancr> Nurfed, there isn't even a close second. They dominated the beta both in PVE content and in PVP. I don't think they lost any duels, certainly not any I watched. Old allies from Shadowbane they were and one of the few to ever beat a Sinister team at our Fight Nights. Nevertheless as Ivan Drago once said: "I must break you" :)

<Arkons> Who on your own side (Alliance) do you think will be the most influential?

<BoneDancr> On our side I suspect TR, DIE, & Blackguard to be influential.

<Arkons> What is it about WoW pvp that appeals to you and your guild?

<BoneDancr> Most of my guild was not fortunate enough to participate in the beta so I can't speak for them. I was fortunate to have access to one of the few accounts floating around our guild. The games PVP mechanism has an extremely high amount of choices to pick. Lets see there is Class lines, race lines, trade skill lines, then there is the actual reactionary times in the game (something many pvp games have discouraged). A fight in WOW can and MOST OF
<BoneDancr> and that more then anything else is what attracts us.

<Arkons>How much of a factor do you think PvE will be in WoW; for example do you foresee any problems like you did on Sullon Zek with Ruin because of being outleveled and out geared?

<BoneDancr> That will happen in this game and every MMO released from now on. There are to many people that have figured out that time equals advantage nowadays to get around it. Its not that big of a deal really if you manage to stick it out you will still be competitive in the end. In the last days of our time on SZ we were extremely competitive with Ruin and would win more then our share of fights. It's even less of a problem in WOW where instances prevent people from ruining another guilds ability to catch up and compete.

<Arkons> Do you think WoW will be the new EQ. I.E. will it be the game that people really play again rather than being another burn out alla Shadowbane, L2 etc. etc.? And if yes, what makes it so?

<BoneDancr> You know I think I should get out of the prediction business cause frankly I've been excited about every new game that has come out. I think just like so many others I'm just hooked on the new. That being said I think WOW has done something marvelous with this MMO, it has STOLEN the best of every game I've played to date. The PVE from Everquest, AC'esque PVP, community building of UO, auction house trader skills alla Final Fantasy. The key to it isn't in the content that is in the game when it releases but the content they add after release; if Blizzard keeps pumping out the gerbil pellets we will keep playing and if they don't eventually, inevitably we will move on. For now though, this is the game and sweet Jesus is it fun.

Thanks to Bonedancer for the interview and good luck to Sinister in retail, I'll see you guys on the battlefield.

Sinister's website can be found at http://www.afraidyet.net

- written by Arkons