Welcome Marp Tarpton

[Sephorin]

I do look forward to working alongside him, Moo,

Meow is the old Moo?

Actually, I guess that's pretty obvious... which is probably why I didn't think of it.

Or... is he talking about a completely different third Moo, unrelated to TotallyMoo or TotallyMeow?

[MarpTarpton]

I do look forward to working alongside him, Moo,

Meow is the old Moo?

First day on the job and I'm already spilling the beans.

Meow* to whom I sincerely apologize for making such a comparison.

Cthulhu when?

Cthulhu was a jorbian goal and while I'm a Lovecraft fanatic at heart, I can only promise the continuation of subtle references rather than the inevitable consumption of the New World at the will of the Great Old One's maddening, tentacled rage.

[Procne]

I do look forward to working alongside him, Moo,

Meow is the old Moo?

First day on the job and I'm already spilling the beans.

Meow* to whom I sincerely apologize for making such a comparison.

First day?

[cannibalkirby]

Welcome to the developer team man Lookin' forward to see what you bring to the table

[Sephorin]

First day on the job and I'm already spilling the beans.

Meow* to whom I sincerely apologize for making such a comparison.

*slaps forehead*

Of course! It's obvious now that you said that. JC met TotallyMoo when she was still working at Paradox. They fell in love, got married, and they decided to take over Salem together. TotallyMoo quit her job at Paradox to help JC work on the Salem project full time. She couldn't take over her old monicker (still owned by Paradox), so she became TotallyMeow.

Thanks for clearing that up, Marp. And welcome to the circus that never ends.

[MarpTarpton]

First day?

First day on the forums. As this account. Out of my cage. Where the air is clean.

This is fun, let's keep going.

[MarpTarpton]

Of course! It's obvious now that you said that. JC met TotallyMoo when she was still working at Paradox. They fell in love, got married, and they decided to take over Salem together. TotallyMoo quit her job at Paradox to help JC work on the Salem project full time. She couldn't take over her old monicker (still owned by Paradox), so she became TotallyMeow.

Thanks for clearing that up, Marp. And welcome to the circus that never ends.

You forgot the part about the love child. But otherwise I'm very impressed at your clever deductive reasoning skills.

[Suffragium]

Okay, serious question.
What is your magnum opus in your opinion when it comes to something you've dedicated to Salem?

[MagicManICT]

Of course! It's obvious now that you said that. JC met TotallyMoo when she was still working at Paradox. They fell in love, got married, and they decided to take over Salem together. TotallyMoo quit her job at Paradox to help JC work on the Salem project full time. She couldn't take over her old monicker (still owned by Paradox), so she became TotallyMeow.

Thanks for clearing that up, Marp. And welcome to the circus that never ends.

You forgot the part about the love child. But otherwise I'm very impressed at your clever deductive reasoning skills.

Creative, yes. Clever... I'm not so sure on this part. I always thought Moo was a he, but what do I know. Some gals sound or act masculine and some guys sound or act feminine.

[MarpTarpton]

Okay, serious question.
What is your magnum opus in your opinion when it comes to something you've dedicated to Salem?

That is a great question, but unfortunately it's not finished yet. It's the project that first got me involved with Mortal Moment's acquisition of Salem (I was on the team with a prior development venture). It's a work in progress of which I am only partly responsible, but I'm very proud of my contribution to it and I hope players (especially new players) find it useful upon release. More on that soon, I hope.

Otherwise, most of my time so far has been spent consulting and designing rather than implementation, helping JC to come up with new systems or items and bringing them to the team. As John mentioned, I bug him a lot about Witchcraft, and with good reason. But there's no sense in bugging him if we don't know how we want it to fit in the game. If you take that mindset of mentally dissecting ideas for balance (in gameplay, genre, setting, scope, time allotment, ...) and apply it to nearly every new planned feature, then you'd have a typical week's worth of discussion coverage. And I think it's important to emphasize that a lot of discussion and consulting goes into things before they are put in the game to test. As an existing world with a dedicated player base, too big of a step in the wrong direction could have very negative consequences and that is something we always want to avoid. 99% of the time things aren't just flung into the game, but are rather hashed over from a hundred different angles and tested prior. 1% of the time we enjoy living dangerously and consuming tears.

I have made some of the 3D ground models in-game (the Turtle is my favorite so far, hail Franklin) and I write a fair amount when needed (Cash shop descriptions, inspirational blurbs, etc). Otherwise I do what I'm asked, mention to JC when his ideas are good (most of the time), make a lot of noise when I think ideas are not so good (it happens), and try to get nice things implemented on a semi-often basis to keep you guys satisfied with our progress.

So. Looks like that turned away form the original question a bit! Hope it was good enough to also explain my role in general at this stage of the project.