Fed Meet and Greet with Fancy

March 28, 2004

Watch out! The live Wirebreak is here.

Wirebreak waits for the camera to start rolling.

Wirebreak puts a spotlight on Fancy.

Fancy smiles and takes a bow.

Urissa squints at the bright light

"Welcome to tonight's Meet and Greet everyone!.", says Wirebreak.

"tonight's guest is the Fancy cat himself, Fancy!", exclaims Wirebreak.

Fancy perches on a stool, waving his tail around idly.

Chamberlain applauds

Urissa applauds

Fancy smiles and purrs.

Wirebreak asks, "tell us Fancy, how did you first come to find our little out of the way space?"

Fancy says, "I first found out about Federation on AOL."

Wirebreak asks, "the banner?"

"One day I saw their special featured site, Federation. I took a look at it, read through how to play it, and thought about playing over the course of the next several days.", says Fancy.

Wirebreak nods.

Wirebreak asks, "what was your first impression?"

"Finally on November 3, 1996, I started playing as FancyX2. That's like "Fancy times two" for Fancy-Fancy, the actual name of the character.", says Fancy.

Wirebreak asks, "who is the character anyways?"

Fancy says, "My first impression was that I'd like the game, but it might cost a bit to play it heavily."

"back in the pay per hour days..", says Wirebreak.

"As luck would have it, though, December 1996 was when AOL went flat-rate, allowing me to play all I wanted.", says Fancy.

Wirebreak nods.

Fancy says, "So I only had to watch the clock for the first month."

Wirebreak asks, "how far did you make it then?"

Fancy says, "And indeed I did enjoy playing the game. While Fed was still on AOL, I got up to Technocrat."

"do you remember any of the people that helped you back then?", asks Wirebreak.

Fancy says, "At first I thought I'd try to be an independent planet, and trader-friendly at that."

Wirebreak asks, "didn't work?"

Fancy says, "I remember Barbnurse of Mercy was one of the planet owners who let me build factories on her planet."

Fancy says, "The owner of Roissy was another. He had about 7 infrastructure builds on his planet, which really helped."

Fancy says, "Trying to be a trader-friendly planet in Sol worked only too well - for the traders."

Wirebreak says, "not well for you, I'd imagine"

Fancy says, "The first day, I had about 62 megs in my treasury. The next day, about 32 megs. The next day, 10. Then 2 megs. It became clear to me it wasn't working well for me."

Wirebreak nods.

Jazir chuckles

"So I abandoned that strategy, and jacked up all my markups to +20.", says Fancy.

Devor grins

"that help any?", asks Wirebreak.

Chamberlain winks and says, "Not much has changed there. Sol is still that way"

Wirebreak laughs.

Fancy says, "And I heard on the channel about how costly it is to have a low markup on a high-demand commodity."

Fancy says, "Yes, once I raised my markups, I started making money."

"making money is good", says Wirebreak.

Devor mutters something about you damn capitalists

"And then I started being persuaded that joining a duchy would also help. I looked around for the duchies that did not charge customs duties.", says Fancy.

Halcyon has just left.

Wirebreak nods.

"I saw several, including Onyx, Socal, Biotek, and others. I wrote those Dukes asking if I could join up. And eventually I got into Socal, with JRuffalo, now Ruff.", says Fancy.

Wirebreak nods.

Fancy says, "And some of the planets in there, I actively traded with, like Sweetums and Snugglepus. Fastpitch used to be in there, as well as Arizona, Local, Tartan, Bar, and others."

Devor grins at onyx

"And Muse. That was an interesting planet.", says Fancy.

"And I was in there when the duchies got expanded in capacity from 15 planets to 20.", says Fancy.

Wirebreak says, "oh cool"

"But shortly after that, Ruff needed to make room for a new planet of his girlfriend. I was the odd man out. But I quickly got admitted to Biotek.", says Fancy.

Fancy says, "That was shortly after I made Thane in May of 1997, 3 months after I got my planet."

Wirebreak says, "well that doesn't seem very fair"

Fancy says, "Actually, now that I think about it, it was in June. Around the same time that AOL announced that they were going to start charging for their games, and Fed had to make plans to move off AOL."

"But I still made Thane in May", says Fancy.

Wirebreak nods.

"I remember that time", says Wirebreak.

"that was about the time that I first started", says Wirebreak.

Fancy smiles.

Wirebreak says, "back when parties were actually held in the Tina"

"There were some new planets in Biotek that I then got acquainted with, like Jenna, Heather, and others.", says Fancy.

"Phaeze was another in Biotek.", says Fancy.

Fancy says, "And I learned how to run an exchange quite well, and figured out several tricks."

Wirebreak nods.

Fancy says, "If I had a bunch of small deficits in mining and industry, I'd fill them first with points, then with energy builds, and then fill additional commodities. I eliminated deficits, and watched my planet's profits grow."

Wirebreak nods.

"If they were in tech and leisure, education filled them.", says Fancy.

"who taught you?", asks Wirebreak.

Fancy says, "And if there was a munchie with significant production and demand, and production less than demand, I'd balance production and demand exactly and keep the stock of the commodity at zero. That way the munchies didn't get taken"

"...And it didn't go into deficit that way.", says Fancy.

Wirebreak nods.

Fancy says, "I figured out most of the tricks on my own. But I put the pieces together from things I had heard about exchange management on channel 9."

"what happened after Fed went to the web?", asks Wirebreak.

Fancy says, "I followed it there, and claimed my character on the web."

Wirebreak asks, "how long was it afterwards that you started Fedpardy?"

Fancy says, "It was frustrating, though, to have my planet closed down because of one of the new requirements the workbench suddenly demanded, and not have the workbench working to be able to fix it."

"I had played Fedpardy on AOL.", says Fancy.

"And I was pretty good at it.", smiles Fancy.

Wirebreak says, "that I don't doubt"

"And I continued to be good at it after the move to the web, too.", says Fancy with a wink.

"when did you start hosting it?", asks Wirebreak.

Fancy says, "Of course I did have some pretty tough competitors who could beat me on any given night. Almandot was among them. Audrey was another."

Jazir nods

Fancy says, "I think I started hosting it in 1999 or 2000."

Wirebreak says, "oh wow, so you've been doing it for awhile now"

Fancy says, "I had occasionally written categories for it, and the nights those categories were used, I had to sit out the game."

Devor asks, "audrey?"

"eaudrey?", asks Devor.

Fancy smiles and nods about doing it a while.

"who was the host then?", asks Wirebreak.

"Audrey was a female player, and often bounced. One of her signatures was to xt ::bounces::", says Fancy.

Fancy says, "Susan was the host before I took over."

Devor exclaims, "i knew audrey!!!"

"Ah", smiles Fancy.

Fancy says, "Susan was the Duchess of Treasure."

Wirebreak asks, "how long has it been running now?"

"The game has been running since at least 1996. And I think I had heard that Nickdanger had come up with the idea in 1995, so it's been running 8 or 9 years now.", says Fancy.

"And I've been running it for about half of that.", says Fancy.

"Fed's longest running game to date, I'd imagine..", says Wirebreak.

Fancy smiles and nods definitely.

Wirebreak asks, "any love interests you can tell us about?"

Fancy says, "Well, I first met a player in the Mars exchange one day while trading, named Phiddie. She promptly gave me a hug upon meeting, and I gave her one in return."

Wirebreak nods.

Wirebreak says, "that is normally how it starts"

"And we were great friends. I really loved her, but as it turns out, she was already taken. But we stayed very good friends.", says Fancy.

Wirebreak asks, "so no extra marital affair?"

"Later I met a woman who went by the name of Catspaws. We got along very well together, and loved each other, and I Fed married her back in 1998.", says Fancy.

"Right, no extra-marital affairs.", says Fancy.

Nuhira remembers soo many of these names

Fancy says, "However, Catspaws disappeared from Fed a month or two later, which made for a lonely time. I kept my interest in Fed with all the different events."

Fancy says, "And I got pretty good at all of them I tried - Scramble, Scavenger Hunt, Fedpardy, Hide and Seek, Seek or Hide, Team Flag, Singles Flag, and others."

Wirebreak raises an eyebrow.

"Seek or hide?", asks Wirebreak.

Fancy says, "Seek or Hide was the one where the winner of each round got the choice of whether he wanted to hide or seek the next round."

Fancy says, "So one of the players was the one who hid in that game, as opposed to the host in Hide AND Seek."

"interesting...", says Wirebreak.

Jazir nods

"any love interests now?", asks Wirebreak.

Fancy smiles and nods.

Wirebreak says, "oh do tell"

"A little over a year ago, I got to be one of the mystery guests on the Fed Dating Game. The one seeking a date that night was Antonia", smiles Fancy.

Fancy smiles, "She asked the questions of the mystery men, I answered those posed to me, and based on everyone's selections, she picked me"

Wirebreak nods.

"We went on a dinner date at Blue Rhonda's in Deep and had dinner there, and got to know each other.", says Fancy.

Wirebreak nods.

"After a few days in which we got to think about how things went, we got back together, and I gave her a tour of Toontown. The next night, she gave me a tour of Zorakus.", says Fancy.

Fancy smiles, "And the relationship grew from there"

Wirebreak nods.

Wirebreak won't mention his part in that whole thing.

Fancy grins and nods.

Devor grins

Chamberlain laughs

Chamberlain has a question

"She and I have been VERY happy together ever since. And May 10 last year, we got Fed married", smiles Fancy.

Wirebreak asks, "yes Chamberlain?"

Chamberlain asks, "What was Wirebreak's part in that whole thing, Fancy?"

Wirebreak laughs.

Devor offers up a round of applause

"Well, he told me a bit about her, about her history", says Fancy.

Chamberlain loves history

Wirebreak laughs.

Fancy says, "And I kept that all in mind."

Wirebreak winks and says, "that isn't all of it"

Nyhira winks and says, "ok, out with the rest of it"

"but I'm not going into that cause I would start feeling bad", says Wirebreak.

Wirebreak asks, "ok, any questions from the peanut gallery?"

Fancy says, "Wirebreak was also a very close friend of hers, I'll leave it at that."

"i have a question", Nuhira says.

"yes Nuhira?", asks Wirebreak.

Devor chuckles

"what was the new requirement that closed down your planet?", you ask.

Fancy says, "A requirement that all events had to send a text message."

Nuhira wishes that had never been invented

"I had an event in my puzzle that if triggered would seamlessly send a puzzler to a hidden puzzle location, as if the location had changed.", says Fancy.

Jazir nods

Fancy says, "And I think all objects had to have a text description, too."

Nuhira says, "can understand why that would take the fun out of your puzzle"

Fancy says, "I had one object visible, with another with no description. You would learn about the hidden object by examining the visible one."

Wirebreak nods.

"that would make it a lot more interesting", says Wirebreak.

Fancy says, "But apparently the reason all objects had to have a text description was because some planet had an aggressive spaceship that would start shooting at players as it entered the sector."

Fancy says, "And the players could never see it."

"So curbing that had side effects for me.", says Fancy.

Wirebreak nods.

"seems like it would have made more sense to make him change than change the game", Nuhira says.

"then they went and mode ships not aggrssive anymore", says Devor.

Wirebreak asks, "anyone else have a question?"

Fancy says, "It took until Halloween night in 1997 for the workbench to be functional again, so that I could finally change what the game was complaining about and get Toontown back open after 2 months on the web."

"2 months? yikes", says Wirebreak.

Fancy says, "Yep, all of September and October of 1997."

Wirebreak says, "I guess Alan is trying to make up for lost time in Fed2"

Fancy smiles and nods.

Fancy says, "He's doing quite a job there."

Wirebreak nods.

"he won't have it finished by the end of the year htough", says Wirebreak.

"as some people have suggested...", says Wirebreak.

"I kind of think of that as like getting to play this game 16 years ago.", says Fancy.

Wirebreak nods.

"it is definitely an experience", says Wirebreak.

"What prompted ya to finally take up fighting, Fancy?", smiles Jazir.

"The start of Fed 2, and the knowledge that this Fed will eventually close up when it's ready.", says Fancy.

Fancy says, "And everything here will be gone when that happens."

Wirebreak asks, "so getting your kicks while you can?"

Nuhira hopes then, that f2 never becomes ready

"My main hang-up was fear of dying without insurance.", says Fancy.

Karina never did learn to fight

Jazir nods and smiles

"Done fairly well for yourself in fighting, I'll say", smiles Jazir.

Wirebreak says, "it is a risk that we all take"

"I dipped my toe in the water with some practice, keeping a trigger active to get me out of the arena when my hull got under 10, and writing a trigger to immediately re-insure if I did get blown up.", says Fancy.

"We'll have to get you into the arena, Karina.", smiles Urissa.

Japresnik show his bruises as evidence of Fancy's fighting skilz

"hehe....that should be a sight", says Karina.

Nuhira has got plenty from him also

Urissa grins

Wirebreak is just happy to have him as a partner.

Fancy grins like the Cheshire Cat.

Wirebreak asks, "ok, now who is Fancy-Fancy?"

"Wirebreak-Wirebreak's partner?", asks Chamberlain.

Wirebreak laughs.

"He's the romantic cat in the Top Cat cartoons. Often seen early with a female cat, and getting called away from his dates by T.C. banging the trash can lids together.", says Fancy.

"a cat with a stutter", says Karina.

Wirebreak says, "oooooooh"

Fancy says, "I know they have pictures of Top Cat and the characters on the web. Any search should turn it up."

Wirebreak asks, "anyone else have a question for Fancy?"

Karina smiles, "Hanna Barbera cartoons"

Fancy smiles and nods.

Fancy winks and says, "Of course, I've done a few things you'd never see him do in the cartoons"

"I guess I'm just too young, lol", says Wirebreak.

Karina gets out her cane and hobbles

Nuhira laughs

Fancy says, "I think the Boomerang channel on cable has the cartoons on from time to time."

Wirebreak says, "oh well, if thats it then.."

"thank you for coming out everyone, and a special thanks to Fancy for being my guest tonight", says Wirebreak.

Urissa applauds

Karina applauds

Fancy stands up and takes a bow.

Chamberlain applauds

Fancy smiles at everyone in the room.

Art applauds.

"Join me in 2 weeks for another episode of Meet and Greet", smiles Wirebreak.

Nuhira says, "very nice fancy. thanks"

"You're welcome", smiles Fancy.

"thanks for hosting Wirebreak", says Karina.

Jazir claps for Fancy

Chamberlain smiles, "Thanks Fancy.. And thanks for hosting Wb"

"as usual, good interview wire", Nuhira smiles.

Fancy nods to Jazir and Chamberlain.

"thanks Fancy", says Karina.

"You're welcome, too, Karina", smiles Fancy.

Wirebreak says, "now to find a victi... guest for next time"

Karina smiles

Fancy grins and chuckles.