Outspark Blog

Welcome back, Outspark fans! It’s time for another installment of “Game Masters: A Closer Look”, where we get an intimate moment with some of our most popular GMs for Fiesta, Secret of the Solstice, Wind Slayer, and Project Powder.

For those of you who love cats, Patapon, stealing ice cream, and banning evildoers, we reveal to you one of our GMs who has established quite a fan base in Fiesta. She’s creative, she’s sassy, and she’s got her finger on the GM trigger! It’s time to shoot the breeze with [GM] Nekopon.

In-game handle: Nekopon
Name: Juchi, Neko, Ju
Hometown: Hong Kong: City of Arts, Dreams, and Smog.
Specialty: Making kids cry… I mean, making yummy chocolate chip cookies. Daydreaming. Drawing.

Straega: I’m sure there are a few curious folks out there that have wondered where “Nekopon” comes from. Would you care to indulge us?

Nekopon: It’s Neko, which means “cat” in Japanese, and a “Patapon”, a game from SCEJ. Can’t picture it? Here’s a doodle.

[For a few rather inattentive interview minutes Nekopon begins to fiddle on her laptop and then shoots this image over to me.]
 

Nekopon: If you haven’t played Patapon, it’s a crazy music game where the player assumes this role as the lord of these eyeball creatures. Amusing indeed.

Straega: Indeed. Another rather amusing thing here seems to be your ability to make children cry. Let’s not elaborate on that at the moment but do you have any other mostly-enjoyable activities that you tend to partake in, besides daydreaming, making kids cry, and baking delicious chocolate chip cookies?

Nekopon: Yes. I like doodling funny pictures of Silkypico and the other GMs.

Straega: Can we get a sample?

Nekopon: I call this one: Sad, Little Silky

Straega: That’s both cute, and a bit depressing. I’m curious about the story behind it now. I’ll have to ask him about it when it’s his turn.

Nekopon: In my spare time I like playing other awesome games. But on a normal day I work, go to school, and eat a lot. Tofu and other soy products are good!

Straega: So outside of work, what would you say is your favorite game and genre that you enjoy playing the most?

Nekopon: I can’t really name my favorite game because I love so many. I have my super laptop, PS2, XBOX360, and Wii. My favorite genres are RPGs like Final Fantasy, Zelda, Odin Sphere; Puzzles, Tactics, turn-based, such as Lumines and Big Brain Academy; but I also enjoy many other types of games. I play shooters like Bioshock and Halo, the Mario series platformers, music games like Patapon and DJ Max Portable, and Soul Calibur and Guilty Gear for fighting. No sports games for me, though Project Powder is an exception.

Straega: While playing any of these games on your computer, what might someone find you snacking on most of the time?

Nekopon: Lots and lots of chocolates. Milk, dark solids, or mint, the blended kind, not the cream variety. Surprisingly, I don’t like white chocolate or chocolate snacks like Snickers or M&Ms. They’re noob chocos.

Straega: I can see that you can appreciate poking fun once in awhile, and I’m sure that carries over in-game. So far, what’s been your most amusing moment as a GM?

Nekopon: I find that it’s really fun changing roles for each event. In the beginning, I was the leader of “Army of Darkness” on Epith and Bijou. “MWAHAHA, bow down to me, simpletons! I’ll crush you with my deadly army!”

Straega: Evil.

Nekopon: But in the end, I became Teva’s Angelic Assistant for Angels and Demons. “I will guide you all to the light! Believe in Teva, she will be your savior!”

Straega: Not so evil.

Nekopon: Maybe that’s just who I really am! I’m an angelic… kitty… or not.

Straega: Let’s say that you could take a proficiency, spell, attribute, anything from Fiesta and bring it to real life, what would it be?

Nekopon: “QUIET! I BAN JOO!” I’d take my awesome GM banning skills.

Straega: A cute, albeit obvious answer. I’m starting to understand how you go about making kids cry. Why choose that?

Nekopon: There’s nothing better than jailing bad people. Save this world from evilness!

Straega: Feisty kitty, Angelic indeed. Next question, If you could choose between being able to fly, turn invisible, or teleport which would you choose?

Nekopon: Let me see… I wouldn’t care to fly if I could teleport, since I’m sneaky-sneaky like that.

Straega: Cats are rather sneaky creatures.

Nekopon: But being invisible is even more sneaky-sneaky, isn’t it?

Straega: I suppose that’d depend on what you’d plan to do with it. What would you do with it?

Nekopon: I like listening to people’s conversations. It’s the only time you’ll ever hear the truth. There are other perks too, like munching ice cream from the kitchen before dinner.

Straega: Nosey. I can agree with the ice cream part, though I’m not sure you’d really need to be invisible to accomplish that.

Nekopon: …Unlike Rayse, I’d never thought about flying. I can’t even get around without walking into a door frame. Hence I don’t have a license either.

Straega: So you don’t drive? Well, let’s say that you had a warp stone right now, that could take you anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Nekopon: I’ve always wanted to visit Japan again since the last time I went, I didn’t get to go shopping as much as I wanted to. I’ve always been a huge Otaku; collecting stickers, posters, stationary, figurines, manga books, and so much more. I’d probably be stuck in Akiba all week long, my wallet would cry.

Straega: And I’m sure all the Nekopon fans who’d be wondering where you went would cry as well.

Much thanks to Nekopon for this interview. Check out her profile here and add her as a friend! Feel free to take part in her forum thread as well. Don’t forget to keep your eyes peeled this weekend for her in-game event “Neko’s Time Attack!” on Saturday from 2:00pm-4:00pm PST.