Archengeia Interview: The Rumination Don

Archengeia

Howdy, Enthusiacs! I found myself lost in Youtube, but alas! A wild Archengeia appeared! I tried to charge my Solar Beam, but he incapacitated me with a Tail Whip and ran off. In all seriousness, Archengeia was open to speaking with me, and I was quite thrilled! What follows is an interview I conducted recently with the Rumination Don himself and I hope you all enjoy!

Archengeia

Archengeia: The Rumination Don

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Vern: For those who haven’t subscribed yet, how would you describe your channel?

Archengeia: I do a variety of video types which include Roleplays, Short Discussions about a variety of topics, and of course the Ruminations wherein I try to analyze and provoke thought and discussion. These are primarily focused on video games but also span most of geek culture.

Vern: You’ve done a lot of videos in the four years that your channel has been active. What pushed you to start on the path to where you are today?

Archengeia: Ironically, the original reason I started doing the videos was as part of a joint blogging thing my friend Gary initiated for fun, and I discovered to my amusement that my gaming laptop had a webcam built in (which I did not purchase with intent). As someone who’s actually worked in television before, it seemed more natural to just talk into the camera rather than type it out like he did, so… I did.

Vern: I see your channel as a successful foray into what was once the undiscovered country known as Youtube. When you look back, what do you think contributed to your success?

Archengeia: I say without question that two things are responsible: luck and persistence. I could have, at many times, just stopped making videos, but doing so would have removed any possibility of success. And then I got lucky, more than once actually, in actually getting word of mouth out through viewers.

Vern: When did your channel begin to take off, in your opinion?

Archengeia: There’s really no question that the Mass Effect 3 debacle is when most people became aware of my channel, when I wasn’t even doing a rumination ironically. I got linked on Bioware’s forums and on the ME3 wiki, and it just sort of took off from there.

Vern: I remember a video you did explaining why you are not a game reviewer. Do you find that a lot of people simply assume that you are?

Archengeia: I haven’t received as many questions to that effect since doing that video, but prior I did get a lot of people both presuming I was (similar to other actual video game reviewers) or asking me questions in a vein of why I wasn’t acting more like a reviewer.

Vern: I completely respect that you took the time to say, “This is what my channel is. Deal with it.” With that in mind, what is the plan for your upcoming videos?

Archengeia: Once I get caught up at long last, I intend to push out regular Ruminations and Assessments, keep going with the Roleplays series, possibly continuing the D&D vlog in a new format, Short Discussions as they occur to me, making the Patreon exclusive videos as a thank you to my patrons, and finally introducing a new series I’ve been working on called Then And Now. And regular streaming, naturally.

Vern: Do you have a favorite Youtube channel at the moment?

Archengeia: Ironically, I don’t really watch Youtube or Twitch that much, mostly due to lack of time, but I do enjoy Geek & Sundry, Boogie2988 (when he’s not being Francis), ProJared, and the ever popular Smooth McGroove.

Vern: Do you have any advice for Youtubers that are just starting out?

Archengeia: Don’t have the expectation that it will take off so you never get discouraged or lose motivation. Do something you enjoy, rather than something that’s a chore or a job. And be persistent in continuing to produce videos.

Vern: Are you taking suggestions for other shows you can ruminate over? Our team here would love to get your episode-by-episode take on Sex in the City.

Archengeia: Sex And The City rumination: confirmed! …but yes I will be taking requests for Ruminations as soon as I finish the three games remaining in my queue.

Vern: You probably got this question a lot back in the day, but were you recording at your job at one point? And why?

Archengeia: Yes, I was. I worked as an overnight network engineer, and one of the things most people don’t understand about that type of job is 80% of the time you’re just doing maintenance and upkeep. It’s the other 20% of the time, when you’re in crisis mode, that your job exists for. So while running updates and otherwise cleaning up whatever customer was on the chop that night for the farm I would have spare time to do whatever, hence recording there. It was a far more quiet and isolated environment than at home.

Vern: Since Enterprise ended, I’ve been wondering if the time of Star Trek television shows has ended. Do you think we’ll see a new Star Trek series at some point?

Archengeia: Honestly, no. But I hope we do, right about the time when we rip the rights to it from youknowwho’s cold, dead hands.

Vern: And what do you hope they will take from other Star Trek shows in order to make it awesome?

Archengeia: Strong character focus, examination of real life issues in fictional situations, and a motivation to make something great rather than approaching it like just another job.

Vern: Speaking of Star Trek, what do you think about the J.J. Abrams movies?

Archengeia: I actually did a video about Into Darkness, but in short I feel that the 2009 movie was superior to the latter one. Both were enjoyable, but I doubt I’ll re-watch Into Darkness.

Vern: You must have other interests. What do you do to entertain yourself when you’re not recording or streaming?

Archengeia: As I’ve described before, I actually have done a lot of things, and maintain a lot of ‘hobbies’ as interests, I just don’t have the time to dedicate to all of them. I enjoy Formula One and racing in general, writing, composing music, exercise, speedrunning, GMing, and quite a few other things.

Vern: Rumination is a word that doesn’t get used often enough, yet you use it all the time. Are you trying to start a trend of using your favorite words in video titles?

Archengeia: No, no attempts to start trends here. I was just aiming for a word that I felt accurately described what I was doing. I try to be clear in my communication when I can.

Vern: What do you think about the recent ruling in the Philips/Nintendo patent dispute? Is it as big a deal as some think it may be?

Archengeia: I cannot say what I want to at length, but in summary I hope that Philips dies. In a fire.

Vern: What do you think the patent dispute will do for gaming in general, if anything at all?

Archengeia: Nothing new. Companies using this kind of legal [redacted] to try and cash grab from other companies that actually produce things has been happening for years. It’s just continuing.

Vern: Speaking of gaming, name one aspect of gaming you’d either like to see improved or axed. For example, I would like to see more RPGs that have blank character templates. If they’re going to insist that we make our own characters, they should dump the default templates and let us actually create our own characters.

Archengeia: As ever, the so-called ‘space trading and combat simulation’ genre is one of those types of games that died out in recent years (though appears to be making something of a comeback) and I’d like to see more done with that type of genre. I would also enjoy it if more features in games were optional rather than required, pretty much across the board.

Vern: When did you start gaming? In high school? In the crib?

Archengeia: The first video game I played was Pacman in the arcades, and I never really stopped.

Vern: In your opinion, how have video games changed for the better or for the worse? Or a bit of both?

Archengeia: Video games have become more accepted on a societal level, which I always find to be a good thing that people don’t need to be ostracized for their particular interests in life (within reason of course). On the flip side, video games have become prohibitively expensive to produce, which has severely limited what ‘mainstream’ games are capable of accomplishing, though the so-called ‘indie’ market has been expanding into this envelope of late.

Vern: What is your favorite Final Fantasy of the bunch?

Archengeia: I admittedly only say this about twice a week, but FFVI is my favorite by far.

Vern: Speaking of Final Fantasy, has the Final Fantasy franchise run its course or do you think they can push out a dozen more?

Archengeia: Depends on if they’re good or not. But in all seriousness, I think it would be both feasible and reasonable for the FF series to continue on past this point.

Vern: Do you think you’ll ever do a 24-hr marathon of a game? Were you already planning to? *gasp* Did I spoil your plan to the audience?

Archengeia: Actually the Final Fantasy Marathon WAS intended to be like this, but still recovering from the two surgeries and having just slammed my face into a wall for weeks on a contract job left me physically incapable. If health permits I’d like to in the future, though as to which game(s) to play, that I’ll keep quiet about.

Vern: Could you describe a favored memory of gaming over the course of your life?

Archengeia: As someone who’s been gaming since his single-digit years, gaming’s had a huge impact on my life, a lot of it positive. Picking just one moment is difficult, but I think I’ll go with the feeling of elation and excitement when I picked up the very first game I purchased with my own money; Super Mario Bros 3.

Vern: What is your opinion on kale?

Archengeia: It tastes terrible.

Vern: Do you find the comments on your videos helpful or do you not pay attention to them?

Archengeia: I actually rely a lot on user feedback in general (part of what I like so much about Twitch) and I make an effort to read every comment that comes in, and respond to as many as I have time for.

Vern: Spock or Tuvok?

Archengeia: Old Spock.

Vern: How did Storytime With Xahn come about?

Archengeia: Xahnastma, my sister, wanted to do something with videos as well in her spare time so hit on the idea of reading stories and whatnot, and it was not only well received but she started getting requests.

Vern: What is the most treasured game in your collection?

Archengeia: My original copy of Final Fantasy VI which is signed by Nobuo Uematsu.

Vern: You seem like a well-traveled sort of fella. Is there a place you’d like to visit or have already been and absolutely fell in love with?

Archengeia: Spain, in general. New Zealand, for obvious reasons. I also admittedly miss swimming in the waters around Maui.

Vern: Do you have anything you’d like to say to your subscribers?

Archengeia: My goal has always been twofold with my videos; to encourage thinking, and to entertain. If I succeed at these at least once, I call that a good day.

Vern: Thanks again for taking the time to do this!

Archengeia: Not a problem.

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Once again, I’d like to thank Archengeia for taking the time to speak with me. If you’d like to see more of him, visit his Youtube channel and Twitch channel (each of which will be listed below). Live long and prosper, folks!

Archengeia’s Youtube Channel

Archengeia’s Twitch Channel

Archengeia’s Google + Page

Archengeia’s Twitter Page

2 Responses to Archengeia Interview: The Rumination Don

  1. Baron Fang says:

    One of my fav Youtubers, great interview.

  2. Jamin says:

    Personally, I’ve always been curious as to why he considers ME2 to be more artistic than ME1. Then again, given that he seems almost enamored by some parts of ME3 that are riddled with problems (ME3 Ruminations), it would seem that he is often fooled by BioWare’s classic style-over-substance.

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