[Interview] Maf: Who?

[Venerable 2,967]

Maf: Who?

 

It was a boring Saturday afternoon when I first asked @Maf if he'd like to be interviewed. Needless to say, it took nearly a month for him to respond to my request. He did respond, eventually, and so began a long journey of questions and answers - a bit too long, to be honest, but more on that in the "Bloopers" section.

I won't spoil anything or make your life more boring than that Saturday afternoon, so jump right in!

 

Venerable:

It's cliché time! You need no introduction, Maf, but y'know, it's 2023, and you're just old. I think a micro-textwall on who you are and why you're here and why the chicken crossed the road would be very cool^TM!

 

Maf:

As tempting as it may be to pull a Robert Downey Jr-style "you know who I am", I imagine that my forum pseudo-fame may be dwindling, so not everyone may be completely familiar with my history in Tanki at this point.
Well... Hello everyone, my name is Maf and I was born at a very young age in a little town called Moscow, 27 years ago. Been living in the UAE since I was 11, which is around the same time I came up with my current username, albeit in a much "cringier" form. I discovered Tanki through an online ad in summer of 2011, and became a helper in late 2014. Why am I here? Because 12 years ago the game really stood out from the plethora of crappy 2D flash games I used to play and instantly got me hooked. Why am I still here? Who knows. Old habits die hard, I guess.

 

Spoiler

 

 

Venerable:

Being born at a very young age and starting your Tanki journey more than a decade ago — now that is a flex. 

You said that Tanki stood out among the plethora of games that you used to play. What other games did you play? What was so special about Tanki that got you hooked? 

 

Maf:

I've played 3D games before — my first was most likely Hard Truck 2, followed by GTA San Andreas and a couple others as well. But a full 3D game meant that you had to buy a physical copy and install it on your PC.

Back then, "online game" just meant going on some Flash games website and playing a game with either a side or top-down view of the playing area. Don't get me wrong, some of these games were absolutely amazing — among my favourites were Gemcraft, Robokill, and BloonsTD. I had tons of fun with these and many others, but none were 3D.

So you can imagine my pure amazement when I opened this "Tanki Online" game, expecting to either see another crappy 2D game or a prompt to buy and install something, but I was instead immediately loaded into a 3D tank battle arena and told to go shoot at enemy tanks. It was such an experience that I still vividly remember my first moments from the very first battle I played.

Besides, third-person driving/shooting games have been my "thing" for a while, as evident from the first two 3D games I mentioned above. Driving around in a Rhino in GTA SA was one of my favourite activities, so Tanki was a natural fit.

Also, I believe that having all teammates and enemies be real players also piqued my interest. There were only a couple multiplayer games I played before (such as a Russian version of Bomberman on the mail.ru site), but this was the first where the other players were embodied in these 3D tanks, which I could fully interact with.

 

 

Venerable:

There's one point that resonates with me: online 3D game. I don't like to download stuff on my laptop. And as you mentioned, being able to interact with real people via 3D tanks without having to install anything is a huge plus point. 

So, you started playing the game in 2011. I know two of your previous nicknames from your "10 000 Posts | Tanki Memories" memoir(?), but how many nicknames did you really have? What are the stories behind those nicknames?

 

Maf:

Those two nicknames are pretty much it. I always had "Maf" in my name and the original nickname, "Mafioza" is supposed to be "mafioso" — a member of the Italian mafia. But I was 11 when I came up with it and didn't know any better. Fun fact: the actual members of the Sicilian Mafia don't use that word to refer to themselves, and its use was popularised by creative works like plays, books and movies.

A few years later I joined Tanki and used the same name, but with 121 on the end because I never expected to keep playing the game and wanted to quickly come up with something that isn't taken. So I ended up with MAFIOZA121. I played with that name for 3 years, until I became a helper and crystals became easier to save up. So after a while I changed my name to MAFlOS0, but with an "L" instead of an "i" and a zero instead of "O", so it still looked rather stupid with certain fonts.

After a while, someone told me that "Mafioso" is available, so I switched to that, getting rid of the dumb-looking ALLCAPS and substitute letters. And, finally, I switched to "Maf" soon after becoming admin, since everyone called me "Maf" anyway, and I didn't want to seem like I'm glorifying organised crime, especially considering that I joined the administration. Plus, 3-letter names are cool. Weirdly enough, it wasn't possible to create a new account named "Maf' at the time, but the help desk allowed me to take the name anyway.

I'm some variation of "Maf" on pretty much all online platforms that don't require a real name. For example, in Minecraft I'm "Mafio", and on Steam I'm "Moof". I think it's a pretty cool name that has some character, as opposed to just using some random word like Venerable.

 

 

Venerable:

Ah yes, the mafia. The community sure did enjoy milking that nickname of yours, eh? Hang on - not the community. I think it was just the TO Newspaper. :x also don't mock my nickname, it's got a wonderful story of its own

That's a neat story. Highly relatable, I must say. And it allows me to segue into your Helper journey, so... tell me all about it - the when, the why, the how!

 

Maf:

Back in 2013, despite being 16 years old, I was still an easily impressed kid that didn't know any better, so the idea of becoming a moderator in a game I played a lot seemed like the ultimate flex. It's the highest possible achievement one can attain at that point in life, and it's the most honourable way to gain respect (yeah, right). To me, moderators were celebrities, so even seeing one in battle was a cool experience, let alone being friends with one. Forget becoming one - that seemed impossible.

So when one of the girls in our Tanki club became a consultant helper, I already thought I was one of the cool kids — being in the same club as an official helper. But then other members of our club started getting helper jobs too and suddenly I found myself surrounded by various mods and helpers of all kinds, many of which were just my goofy friends who didn't seem like the type of elite characters for whom I thought the helper jobs were reserved. So I thought to myself "hey, maybe I can try that too?". But the Russian community seemed to be oversaturated with people applying for helper jobs, so I decided I'd try abusing my bilingual privilege and apply in the less populated English community.

At the time, I wrongly assumed that the only way for admins to assess a player's engagement in the game is from forum posts, so for 3 months I was posting in various threads on the EN forum, while continuing to trash-talk in chat, blissfully unaware of the existence of chat logs. Side note — I was never particularly toxic online past the age of 14 and I only ever had 2 or 3 profanity bans, nevertheless, the things I said in chat were often not fit for an aspiring helper. Anyway, after three months I "farmed up" 1000 forum posts and thought it would be a good time to apply for chat moderator. So I did, and after a couple weeks I got a PM from Ostrica, politely telling me that while my application is appreciated, perhaps I should stop wasting her time would be more suitable for the forum.

WeirdButOK.jpg

So I applied for the forum. And again after a few weeks I got a reply, but this time from a forum admin (who shall not be named, as I fear for my life), and on Skype (which was the official helper communication platform until around 2018). I remember the moment vividly, because I was definitely excited and freaking out. But what they wrote was simple: "Hello. Did you share your account"?

OhCrap.gif

As a matter of fact, I did. It wasn't much (gave it to a friend for summer so that he could collect my daily gifts while I had no internet), but I immediately realised that they probably have tools to check it and now I'm busted. So I decided to tell the truth, and the admin told me that in these situations they usually block accounts, but they "like the way [I] write", so they're gonna give me a chance and accept me as a candidate. Wow.

So that's the story of how my incredible writing prowess saved my Tanki account and how I became a forum moderator candidate. Got accepted in December 2014, passed candidacy within a month, and immediately started getting Helper of the Month every time starting in February 2015. What can I say, I was a tiny bit obsessed. Hard to believe that was over 8 years ago.

 

 

Venerable:

That is... ahem *cough* *sneeze*. That is fascinating. 8 years of being a Helper - that is mighty impressive (although you should definitely go outside and touch grass, as some people would like to remind you)!

Seriously though, you started off as a Forum Moderator, ended up becoming a Forum Administrator in 2019, and joined a few other Helper groups along the way -  you make it look so easy. I think very few people know that you were also a Wiki Administrator once upon a time. What was that like? Which other Helper groups were you a part of (and perhaps an admin of)?

 

Maf:

Up until around 2016 I still had ambitions to join other helper teams. The only position I actually applied for was Battle Mod, but they rejected me. As W. E. Hickson wrote in his poem, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again", so, naturally, after that first rejection I gave up and never applied for another helper job since. For the most part, I was always just part of the forum team, but this suddenly changed when, in 2020, Ostrica suddenly approached me with an offer to become wiki admin.

Having never been involved in the wiki community myself, I was obviously confused. Turns out there was some drama with the previous wiki admin, who abruptly left and appointed a replacement without consulting the head admins, and they were not happy with this approach. I had good relations with the wiki team at the time, but I didn't really want the extra responsibility. Nevertheless, Ostrica insisted that I accept, so I did, and thus became a wiki admin without a single wiki edit. This isn't unusual in the real world, where managers may get appointed to manage a team for their leadership skills, despite having little to no experience in the actual process. Whether this is a correct approach is highly debatable, but I digress. My wiki experience was quite pleasant and I stayed in the team for a while, leaving a year later with Stratosphere as my replacement.

I went from wiki admin back to forum mod for just a week, only for CooperO to quit and leave me in charge of the forum. Since then, I've been a forum admin for three years and went back to forum mod early this year, only briefly getting involved in "side gigs" like some translations and proofreading. Little-known fact is that I actually got an offer to become EN community manager at one point, but I rejected it in favour of better opportunities IRL. Marcus is doing a far better job than I ever could anyway. At this point I have no plans to further advance my "tanki career".

 

 

Venerable:

I don't know if you noticed, but W.E. in "W.E. Hickson" could very well be "Wiki Editor". Coincidence? I THINK NOT!

Anyway, how much wiki-editing did you actually do? Admins are (in)famous for not working after, y'know, promotion...

Spoiler

 

 

Maf:

My first task as a wiki admin was... to create a user page for myself, which is typically something that a candidate does to practice when they join. So I did that. And, believe it or not, but the page still exists, so feast your eyes!

The number of total edits there says 150, although that page is nothing but a simple table without any fancy counters, which needs to be manually updated (as you can tell by the outdated rank and forum position). But I guess we can assume that in my one year of being a wiki admin I made at least 150 edits. Most of my duties were purely administrative and I left the wiki editing to the actual editors - Marc and Hexed - who could do it much faster and better than me.

 

 

Venerable:

Ooooh yeah those User Pages... I remember going through yours. In fact, that's where I came across your "10 000 Posts" article for the very first time, and I was impressed. I truly was. Not only by your Tanki experiences, but also by your writing prowess. Did you ever consider joining the Newspaper team (EN or RU)? Or perhaps the Help Site team?

 

Maf:

Funnily enough, I always had a sort of light-hearted hatred for anything to do with the newspaper. I'd always make fun of the newspaper team for being "inferior" and "useless". As a joke, of course. In reality I often enjoyed reading the articles and many of the newspaper editors were my friends.

That being said, I never considered joining the team. I don't know if the job seemed tedious or "not glamorous enough", but I just never saw the appeal. Same for the help site — I appreciated it as a resource and I gave their team advice on how to improve it, but never felt like joining.

 

 

Venerable:

Fair enough, I get that. Nevertheless, you did end up writing walls of text in the Ideas & Suggestions section (and still do)! 
What's your thought process while composing a reply to topics/posts in that section? Surely you weren't so good at it from day one - or were you? 

It is quite challenging to give feedback to someone online when you're in a position of influence - you never know how your message gets interpreted by the receiver. What's your secret to effective online communication?

 

Maf:

I'd like to believe that I'm pretty good at thinking critically and explaining things in great detail. I'm also very keen on understanding the game mechanics of any game I play, including Tanki Online.

As a result, when I found the I&S section on the forum, I naturally wanted to get involved in the discussions there. I love to discuss the benefits and disadvantages of an idea, ponder about how it's going to work, and perhaps point out some important consequences that the OP missed, while offering my own improvements.

There's a common misconception that I choose to work with ideas because I like the feeling of power it gives me — to be able to accept or reject someone's proposal, and therefore potentially change the way the game develops. The truth is that I was doing this long before I became a helper, and I've always done it because I enjoyed it, rather than for reward or some malicious intent.

So when it comes to forming responses to ideas, I just try to imagine how the idea will work when implemented, and think about all the nuances of it. Then I try to share feedback in the form of constructive criticism, where I point out what's good about the idea, if it has good potential, what problems it has, how it can be improved, and whether it's something that devs are likely to work on in any foreseeable future.

As for the "secret to effective online communication", I could write a whole separate essay about that, but the main trick is to be respectful to other people, avoid condescending tones and sarcasm, and stay civil. It always gets people stumped when they realise that they can't "trigger" you with their insults, and especially if after a long argument you suddenly decide to agree with them. It's also generally helpful (online and IRL) to keep an open mind and consider the possibility that you might be wrong, and realise that it's okay to admit it and change your mind.

 

 

Venerable:

Your work in the I&S section gives you the opportunity to interact with a wide variety of players: from enthusiastic and articulate tankers to common trolls. But one also comes across such players in other sections of the forum, battle/lobby chats, and even Discord servers. How would you rate the Tanki community in general? 

 

Maf:

The Tanki community is definitely interesting. Over the years I've talked to and had to deal with the widest range of characters. Some are sophisticated, others are plain old trolls; some are humble, others think the world revolves around them; some are overly negative, others are overly positive. Overall it's been a great experience, and I'm glad that I could encounter such a huge variety of people. I'd give the community a solid 5/7 — a perfect score!

 

 

Venerable:

Five out of seven? I must say, this is a grading scale like no other I've seen before.

What I have seen before, though, is you at work (and not at work). There's no denying that you've achieved a lot in the Tanki world, and I'm sure you're doing great in real life too. If something terrible happens tomorrow and your Forum account is the only thing that the world can turn to and rely upon for survival, what would your last post be? What message would you leave for the world to see?

 

Maf:

"They never should have killed that gorilla..."

 

 

Venerable:

You are so right, that gorilla was the one thing keeping this world together... 

Guys, that's it. The end. And if our past selves are reading this, please make sure that no one kills the gorilla. 

Thank you so much, Maf, for accepting my interview request! It was super fun, it really was. So, bye (until we chat again)!

 

Maf:

*Refuses to elaborate*
*Leaves*

 

P.S.
Credits to @Seraphina for the spooky avatar!

P.P.S.
Not to brag, but we started this interview in April and completed it in just 6 months, finishing swiftly ahead of schedule!
Any fast-paced publishers in need of quick writers are welcome to send their job offers to my PM!

Spoiler

 

Venerable

[Maf 32,300]

RIP Harambe

[Helios 722]

Damn nice, all I know about Maf is he likes to leave in MM as soon as he gets killed 

[LyT 222]

Hawwwwww Mafi, the Cutie Pie (Rude Guy). I must say Venerable is a fine interviewer.

[AncientFire 1,894]

i thought this interview would have a serious tone to it

i found sarcasm (the good kind) and humour (also the good kind)

I'd give it a solid 5 out of 7 

[Person_Random 4,991]

Solid interview; nothing like weaving together a lot of background about Maf with a ton of amazing dialogue and humor. Thoroughly enjoyed the read!

On 10/11/2023 at 2:23 PM, Venerable said:

Anyway, how much wiki-editing did you actually do? Admins are (in)famous for not working after, y'know, promotion...

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Yeah, employment security can do that to you... not that I've had any experience with that :trolldespair:

[mjmj5558 2,346]

On 10/11/2023 at 11:23 PM, Venerable said:

I went from wiki admin back to forum mod for just a week, only for CooperO to quit and leave me in charge of the forum. Since then, I've been a forum admin for three years

I always thought Maf was a forum admin since like 2016, as him being an admin felt like a natural thing.

Anyway, nice interview.

[Lose 881]

banger

[Incorp 2,084]

Alright, gonna read this later. Glad i came online :D

[Incorp 2,084]

Man so many stuff I wanna say but cannot gather my words, so one word will do! Welldone.

[DefkwargX 152]

Lmao

 

[Sacrifice 2,278]

I enjoyed the interview style. @Venerable you lead the questions in a story like manner and honestly I couldn’t tell the difference between this interview and some of the others I have read on popular blogs. You always amaze me with the humorous touch (and the spoilers with behind the scenes were certainly enjoyable much).