The Wizard of PAX - Who The Frack Is Winfield?

Even though I have nothing against the guy, I've always wondered what the fascination towards him was all about. All that I think I know about him is that he used to or still does run a large town in UO, which started up quite a while ago. He probably got the handouts due to that, his endless fanboyism and that he is more mature than most. I think that if the team was set on giving someone those positions, that we could of ended up with someone far worse than him.

I agree with you, there definitely is favoritism going on. I think the team thinks that they are giving back to the community by letting people in the community do stuff like this. I think they think that it makes them be able to keep trying to brag about how well crowd funded projects work. I totally agree that there should be some sort of known fair opportunity for everyone to try get a position like that, not just all of a sudden announcing that someone obtained such a position without anyone else knowing about it beforehand.

I know I'm tired of having to go through community fanboy jokers here, especially to get something done. example, Violation for Dev+ irc access and the College of uneducated Arms for a Coat of Arms. We should never be put in a position to have to go through a community member for something that we paid for and are entitled too. These community members don't act like business people, from my experience they don't give a fuck if they act like a jackass when they are representing the company either. Taking derp to new levels.
I can't see Winfield being an asshat though but anything can happen.

I've known Winfield a long time , since 1998 when i 1st visited paxlair. He's a good guy. He has a lot of passion for UO and anything community related. Its not his fault they offered such high end pledges and i'm not sure how much he has pledged , but if you spent what he did, you would expect some attention from the devs as well. I don't fault him for that.

I couldn't really see Winfield trying to scheme his way up into a position like that, I think it most likely was offered to him and he accepted, or the discussion came up at one of the meetings where high pledgers get to visit RG and they went with it. I sure wouldn't expect anyone's attention no matter how much I pledged but I know a lot of the people in this community seem to think differently, it's all about getting stuff, especially when it comes to their idol. We also need to remember that there are people in this community that send the team gifts all the time. I see no other reason to send gifts like some of these people do other than that they are looking for attention, recognition, something a long those lines.

And yes I was involved with PaxLair in UO for s short time. He let me run a tavern in Pax at my request.

I think if Winfield did obtain the power to turn the game into an even more of a carebear fest, that he would. I'm almost certain that I'd disagree with the direction that he'd like to go.

I very well could be wrong but I'm judging from suggestions that I've seen him come up with and the fact that he's so into roleplaying. Out of all my years of gaming, I've never met a try hard roleplayer that doesn't have carebear views. I also played UO back then, I know all about how it was. I do think he's a decent guy and admit I really haven't spent that much time around him, maybe he is a full loot pk at heart and I'm just not able to realize it.

It's no surprise that SotA folks are reading the stuff here. Insane Membrane is probably the most well known banned-player in SotA.

So far, the small amount of posters on this forum has made for much better discussion, and for a largely-unmoderated forum, things have been impressively civil.

I want to speak about this point you bring up, mostly because I was one of those people who sent gifts (though I don't think I sent them all of the time)... and while I won't claim sending them was 100% without expectation of some expression of "thank you" from them, I wasn't doing it for public recognition or to get something either (except for the devs to consider adding something to the game that I hoped would enrich the world and benefit us all).

Several months ago, I sent port a bunch of different beer glasses (and perhaps something special to drink in them -- but I would never do that, because sending alcohol to TX is a big no-no!) from a particular Bavarian brewery that I copied from when creating this label:

s1365.photobucket.com/user/RedCombLP/media/logo1_zps6f4ea94e.png.html?sort=3&o=93
(compare to: daten2.verwaltungsportal.de/dateien/seitengenerator/augustiner_4c.jpg )

The glasses looked something like THIS (in fact, that listing is from the same seller in Germany who I bought my glasses from, and he is selling most of the same glasses that I bought for the the same prices I bought them for... though he gave me a slight discount on shipping since I bought so many of them).

If you watch various videos, including one of the PotA's right before Stephen left, you will see these glasses pop up here and there along with a very discreet "ty to the community for sending them." More about that later.

Anyway, I sent these glasses because in a dev hangout, Chris had mentioned alcohol would pretty much only exist to produce a drunken visual effect (and mess with the controls) and I personally thought there should be an actual reason for drinking (and maybe even a slight positive to it if done in moderation). I remembered how eating was beneficial in UO, I had experiences in games like FFXI and GW2 where food and drinks (or oils in GW2) would provide timed buffs that enhanced stats and made sense to use (if you could afford the added cost)...

So, I sent my glasses and bottled beverages to Port with a letter explaining my rationale for why alcohol should give a mild buff (and even debuff, if over consumed) in the game world, mostly based on the grounds that for some of the very poor in the middle ages, alcohol of some type was sometimes the only major source of calories a person got (and water was not always potable, though tails of its lack of purity are probably overexaggerated). I lobbied hardcore for alcohol to have a meaning in the game world, not just operating as some cheap party trick and drinking/brewing/etc dismissed as the lowbrow activities of frat boys.

I wrote up shitty little thank you cards to each of the people's names I saw on the stand-up corner (I probably missed some obvious people not on that list, like Dennis Loubet, but I tried to include everyone I could think of). I wanted to make sure every employee got a glass with some type of cool design on it (I tried to match the label and design to the person, though my justifications were pretty flimsy in some cases). For the "higher ups" like RG, Dallas, Starr, Chris, and maybe Rick, I sent two or more glasses (and made sure there were enough extra beverages) so they could maybe lend a glass (and fill it) to offer to somebody important to the project whom I had left out.  Still, I tried to thank every staff member I could for their hard work (and to be specific in what I was thanking them for if I could, but it was hard in some cases). I jokingly laid into Chris too (for when he answered that question about if alcohol would offer a buff by saying no), asking in each and every thank you card for the staff to let Chris know that they supported booze giving buffs (or some nonsense like that). I doubt many did, and they probably all thought I was foolish for sending what I did, but my main goal was to make an argument for alcoholic beverages to have a meaning in the game (and that's what I did).

I received a few PM thank you's, even a cool picture of one of the glasses with liquid inside and ready for consumption, and it felt cool to know that the staff received the gift and at least some appreciated the gesture. Then, shortly after, RG drops the bomb of the food system (and all the complexity there), and I would like to think part of the inspiration for something like that, and willingness to spend his time that way was his way of saying thanks for what I sent. It's too bad that alcohol still will have a mostly negative standing (based on a recent dev talk where it is discussed how alcohol in potions will make it so that players cannot just spam potions or they will make themselves sick), but I do think the Nature/Nutrition stuff and cooking and crafting system associated with it benefit the game by lending it a slightly deeper level of complexity. I have since sent a handful of disposable coasters (example) and a couple of books with some great pictures of labels on beer bottles, continuing to advocate that beer/wine/spirits should have *some* kind of beneficial property in the game (and pointing out the the Coat of Arms system could be adapted/utilized to create labels on things like beer coasters/bottle labels that would allow crafters to visually brand their items -- if they don't just let it die on the vine or claim it's not technically possible/shitcan it like they did companions/asset packs/input on NPC design).

Full disclosure, I was planning on being a brewer in the game (role-playing a kindly monk who cooked and brewed basic, at-cost provisions for players.... gifting all of my pledge rewards and add-on junk to these players in hopes of welcoming them to the game world), and I had made a thread sort of mimicking a wine/beer list from my establishment on the forum (a few people liked it, but it was nothing special). <-- yes, I admit I am one of those RP ppl that many of you probably hate with a passion. Still, I will confess that I was disappointed and my feelings were hurt when I didn't get a PM thank you from a couple of the devs (mostly Chris, because I called him out so hardcore in the letters and I even PM'ed him a couple of times about the issue, but I knew not to expect a response there). So, I guess I did expect something back, but I didn't want it publicly (kind of because I think if I had wanted that, it would have taken away from my push to have alcohol mean something more in game than just an item you can use too much of and queue some trippy visuals and goofy controls)... They've subsequently been cool about it, and talking about all of this here is really bad form on my part, but I bring it up because I want to establish that even with some of my selfish motivations for sending what I did, I still did it out of a genuine belief that they were glancing over the issue and going to make a big mistake. I had sent them PM's about it, wrote things in forums (maybe even made a thread about it -- can't remember), but the response there (where I was relatively unknown and not terribly popular) was so underwhelming that I went with a big, grandiose gift to make a point. Also, it seemed a genuine pity that many of the port staff don't know a THING about beer/wine/whatever. Some do, but I have a strong impression that to many of them, drinking is like a fratboy/irresponsible barfly type of behavior, and some of them they haven't exactly lived or experienced places in the world where drinking is a normal part of life (and not viewed in an entirely negative light).

With that said, RG's work on the food stuff (if even a bit of it was inspired or in any way motivated by what I sent) was a really cool thing to see, and I felt like that was a really cool result of sending them something (instead of applying that money to my pledge and then trying to use my status on the forum in the same way a lot of "dukes"/etc do).  Honestly, a lot of you are really hard on him (some of which is totally deserved, but some I think is not). He strikes me as a very creative, eccentric/brilliant person, who maybe deserves some criticism for not having a more day-to-day impact on things and for being too insulated by his money/prestige for too long, but honestly, I give him a pass on that stuff because I think if most of us had that kind of 'fuck you' money, we'd probably not give anywhere near the damn he does. Any leader has to delegate, has to trust that the people he has hired to execute the broad-plan have what it takes to realize the vision. RG owns ownership in all of this, but from where I'm sitting, I've seen him work hard and contribute mightily to this project and despite everything I believe the devs have too (I just think sometimes they are putting time and effort into things that undercut what they are trying to achieve). I wouldn't expect it would end well if RG meddled and micromanaged stuff that people on his team can handle better/faster (there are even teasing from Chris and maybe Starr about how Bzus probably hates Richard now for changing all the food stuff, an admission that there are tons of assets that need to be made because "someone" created all these new cooking recipes/etc), but I think RG has been pretty involved and has contributed in the best ways he is able. I even believe that they all care, at least most of them, but sometimes they shoot themselves in the foot and don't even realize they are doing it. I just think a lot of how they are going about things is just the smart way of approaching it, the business-savvy way, the traditional way of thinking about the business (despite how often they say they are doing it the  "dumb way" and they are using such a revolutionary crowd-sourced ecosystem tech v2.0!).

Maybe I'm wrong about that and many people think the cooking stuff now is pointlessly complex (and time wasted that will take away from other more important things), maybe some will despise me for doing that (and tell me I'm unethical and point to the Steam Review stuff and then my "lobbying" or Port via gifts and cry foul -- fair enough), but at the time I had different opinions of this game and its development and I felt like a good way to advocate for something was to send an example of its importance (the Reinheitsgebot/brewing tradition in-game, and the Bavarian brewery I referenced, both draw from a very rich and diverse cultural wellspring). It just seemed like the visuals of brew labels, coasters, within a persistent world where crafting and restaurants/pubs would be common place had to be championed at all cost. I had tried to make the case the best way I could on the forums, but clearly I am wordy and bad about explaining myself.

Hope this somehow, might explain (and demonstrate), how not every person gifts stuff wanting to be showered with adulation and rewards. I admit that I expected some response to my feedback from 1-2 individuals and was disappointed in not receiving it (but plenty of really cool people at port did express appreciation in their own way, and they were people I had interacted with and still feel very positively toward even if I'm a persona non gratis over there now). So, yeah, my gift was self-serving and selfishly motivated even if I genuinely believed the broader argument I was making would help make the game better for all people, but I didn't send it to become ONBE or get a Royal Warrant or any of that stuff. I just wanted brewing and drinking beer to be deeper than "whoa, the screen looks all weird now"... I was pleasantly surprised by the Nature+Nutrition stuff. It's possibly my gift had nothing to do with all of that, but if it even slightly inspired the care and attention that was devoted to it, I count what I did as a successful way that gifts can improve the game (without benefiting the player). A lot of the stuff people have gifted (like Frank's coins or Rild's stuff) will hopefully become craftable, collectible type items in the game and might lay the foundation for better systems to come in later installments. At least that was my hope before, now I'm pretty pessimistic despite what have been some marked improvements between builds (at least to me, experienced in my admittedly very limited time in-game).