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VR
CANCER

PAGAN
by PAGAN
Views: 1,833
All pages by PAGAN
Page last updated: Jun 29 2011
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The reason we are all here is that a man who loves goth had a genius idea one day. That man is Cancer our Prince. I simply had to interview him...

Out in the Nevada desert, a tall impressive building stands, high above all the others, that is VR Towers. Right at the very top is Cancer's domain, the penthouse suite, and so I began the long journey towards the most interesting interview I would ever do.

As the lift travelled the hundreds of floors, I wondered if I would get to see the Prince himself because I knew just how busy he was making Vampire Rave even better for us all. I hoped his butler would let me in...

Eventually, I came to the door, glanced around for the bell and found a huge brass knocker (a relic from some gothic mansion, I imagined). I took a deep breath, and knocked...

"Come in" said a voice, I opened the door and saw the Supercomputer that took up almost the entire suite, some 5000 cubic feet. I gasped then because I saw the Prince himself walking towards me. "Oh you've seen my computer" he said "thats a little something I threw together at lunchtime, now, I only have 5 minutes, so please start right away".

Who is Cancer, I asked a little awed:

"I received my first computer in 1980. It was a TI-99 4a. It had no hard drive. It had no disk drive. If you wanted to save a program, you saved it to an audio cassette tape. It typically took 3-5 minutes to load a single program from a tape.

There were no computer programs. If you wanted your computer to do something, you had to tell it what to do. That's when I learned to program. I was 8.

Since 1980 I have kept up with technology standards, right through today. I have a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems from Arizona State.

My life is, more or less, consumed with my work. I've gotten to a point in my life where I can focus on the projects I want to take on. It's a far better situation than working on projects others have contracted you to do".



An interesting answer but I could see he wanted to get back to his work, so I asked my next question right away. There are so many of us who eat, sleep and breath Vampire Rave, how did you come up with such a brilliant concept?

He answered:

"Vampire Rave wasn't born over night. It started as an idea to host actual Vampire Raves, back when I was running Vampire Radio in the late 1990s. I ended Vampire Radio in 2002 and the Vampire Rave project went on indefinite hold. In 2003 I started up Acrimony.org, a gothic/paranormal magazine. In 2004 I had a little free time so I started up Vampire Rave. The idea had morphed from a club website into a vampire database website.

By late 2004 Vampire Rave was taking up all my time and I was forced to abandon Acrimony. I've always wanted to restart Acrimony, and add a more modern flair (Acrimony was distributed in print format and electronically via PDF). I have plans for a new and improved Acrimony, but I have so many pending projects, it's difficult to know if I'll ever get it done.

In 2004 there weren't many social networking websites. I had never heard of MySpace at that point (although it did exist). Facebook was just starting up, but membership was limited to college students only.

For a solid year (June 2004 - mid 2005) I worked, slept, and breathed Vampire Rave. All I did was improve upon the site. It continued to change, and continues to change today".


Do you have any funny moments you can share with us during your reign of VR?

"Everything I can think of would be an inside joke, and wouldn't make sense to the average Joe".


I nodded then, I was the average Joe...The site is already amazing, but you constantly work to improve it. Can you tell me a little about what you have been working on just recently?

"In late 2004 I knew I had a hit with Vampire Rave. It's why I kept working so feverishly on it, trying to improve it. At that time I had a project concept I code named Shadow of the Moon. It was a vampire/werewolf game, and a direct extension of Vampire Rave.

I started work on Shadow of the Moon, but after a few weeks I abandoned the project. In 2004 the technology did not exist to accomplish what I wanted to do. I had this idea in my head, and I couldn't translate it into a system that would deploy over a web platform.

Web browsers are inherently static and one-way in nature. You request a web page, your browser fetches it, then your browser, for all intents and purposes, shuts down. It doesn't care if you request another page or not. It has done its job and it will just sit there until *you* ask it to fetch another page. We call this statelessness. The web browser has no state.

Two-way server-client communication through a web browser has always been difficult. Plugins were developed to address the problem. My concept called for a game that didn't require any plugins or downloads. It needed to just play, and it had to play in a web browser.

I couldn't accomplish this is 2004. However, over the past year there have been some exciting new web technologies that make my original concept possible. In June I decided to take the project back up, and that is what I am currently working on. I scraped the old code name and came up with a new one: Rave Wars.

Rave Wars is a browser-based multi-player game. It requires zero downloads to play, but if you want sound you'll need to have Flash installed. I acquiesced a little on my 'no download' policy to include Flash, but just about every computer has Flash installed. Plus the game will play without it, there just won't be any sound.

It's hard to fit Rave Wars into a game category other than browser-based and multi-player. It's kind of like an RPG, and it's kind of like a MUD, but it's definitely in a class by itself. Rave Wars has so many new and unique features it may launch an entirely new game category.

If you've ever played a browser-based game before you've probably been disappointed. Rave Wars is something new. It is rich both visually and audibly. It has a compelling storyline and offers true multi-player all in a web platform. I'm not going to go into too many details about the game (I'll leave that for when the game goes public), but imagine this:

There's a very high-level player online. She's one of the most powerful players in the game. She's worked hard, leveled her character up, obtained all the top equipment, and is near unbeatable. No one has been able to take her down one-on-one in months.

But Rave Wars is multiplayer.

Six lower level players decide to team up. They form a group and go after our powerful hero. Together, they are able to take her down and they all share in the spoils. This all happens in real-time, blow-by-blow, in the browser.

The game will be a direct part of Vampire Rave. You'll log into Vampire Rave, then click the Rave Wars link if you want to play."


As soon as he talked technical stuff my mind started to wonder but I nodded appropriately and hoped he didn't realise he talked way over my head then. I would simply just have to wait to find out what it all meant...

As I listened to the Prince explain his work, I noticed a small camp bed in the corner strewn with Starcraft II paraphernelia, surely he didn't sleep there I thought, but then, he probably did. I knew that he had only one day off in all the six years of the site and that was his birthday this year. Do you ever take time out for yourself? What does Cancer do for fun?

"Actually I've had 3 days off since I started work on the Rave Wars project, which I started in early June. I took one day off for my birthday, then two days off to play a little Starcraft 2 when I just couldn't code anymore. Looking forward, I don't plan on taking any more days off until Rave Wars launches publicly in September 2010. I never work less than 8 hours a day. 10-12 hours per day is the norm.

I really am doing the work of 6-12 people. I'm not just doing all the programming, I'm doing all the database work, all the graphical work, all the audio work, everything. This project is bigger than Vampire Rave itself. Although I've been working on it for more than two months now, I am flying through it. I am able to work very fast, as I have gotten very good at what I do.

As to fun, living near Las Vegas has its perks. I'll leave it at that".


Wow. Here was a man who was wholly committed to the site. Even Bill Gates had holidays. I asked him: You've given us games, webcams and now this new Member Page feature, how do you keep coming up with fresh new ideas each time, and is there a point where you will think "thats it, I'm satisfied" ?

" Vampire Rave has always been my vision. I don't create updates or new features because it's what other people want. I do it because it's what I want.

When that changes, the updates will cease".


I decided not to take up any more of his time. My last question was: if you could do anything at all that you wanted, what would it be?

He thought about that for a moment, then smiled and said:

"I've accomplished just about everything I want to accomplish. I'm a pilot. That was a big one. The next step is getting my own plane. I take a lot of 'working vacations'. I work online, so I can work from anywhere. I love to travel. I've been to every US state, most of Canada, and a fair amount of Mexico. I've also travelled Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Monaco, France, and Germany.

There are always new destinations. Traveling is probably my favorite hobby and the main reason I became a pilot".


It was then I realised that none of us fully appreciated Cancer's hard work. I firmly resolved to never moan about site issues and all our flaming and rating dramas would have to stop too. I also vowed to tell everyone they needed to stop getting so involved in VR drama, but it was then I understood why the site was just so brilliant...

We make love, we learn, create, squabble, and moan because this place is our world and we are simply all doing what we do in real life. Genius, its genius.

I bowed and thanked Cancer for his time, knowing that the minute I left, he would be back to work, maintaining the VR updates.

A true Prince, he never once complained...Thank you Cancer.

*UPDATE: In an effort to be taken seriously, Cancer has shedded his handsome Prince image and has just recently been experimenting with a variety of new looks for his avatar...there was plenty monkey-business afoot...


All pages by PAGAN
Page last updated: Jun 29 2011



COMMENTS

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imagesinwords
imagesinwords
07:02 Jun 26 2011

Thanks for bringing this back :) The Member Pages area is definitely a great place for your interviews.





PAGAN
PAGAN
07:07 Jun 26 2011

Thanks! Its the ideal place I think to have them all together. I really wanted to share how great VR characters are, and some of the absolute best are the folk I have had the honour of speaking to. These folk make this place special for me.





ToxicKitten
ToxicKitten
09:43 Jun 26 2011

Awesome.





Elemental
Elemental
16:21 Jun 26 2011

I also enjoy reading your interviews. Your creativity and curiosity shine through.





Deity
Deity
18:18 Jun 26 2011

What? He didn't mention his monkeys? Blasphemy!


Either way, great interview. ;)





WinterRaven
WinterRaven
18:41 Jun 26 2011

Great reading for sure. I always enjoy reading them.





Nightgame
Nightgame
18:48 Jun 26 2011

I was so hoping you'd use the member pages for your interviews. I love your way with words and making interviews both fun and interesting. Thank you





NocturnalMistress
NocturnalMistress
20:35 Jun 26 2011

Who ya gonna interview next?

;) (I ♥ your interviews!)





Fizbop
Fizbop
21:19 Jun 26 2011

great review





birra
birra
21:54 Jun 26 2011

I agree with Images - looking forward to seeing all of the interviews in one place.





B4Death
B4Death
20:25 Jun 27 2011

Very interesting I enjoyed reading it





tr1n1ty01
tr1n1ty01
00:58 Jun 28 2011

Very nice Pagan!





Joli
Joli
17:23 Jun 29 2011

Deity, I heard...word on the street is...that the MONKEYS do the coding! Cancer is just their front man, a brand for the people, but the monkeys are pulling the strings, man.





PAGAN
PAGAN
17:33 Jun 29 2011

...so thats what it is, Joli. LOL!





Aja
Aja
09:59 Jul 02 2011

I also enjoy reading your interviews.
Lovely






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