Interview with W13, Owner of Zybez

I Hope you're doing great today, because I've had the chance of interviewing one of the coolest guys around in rs. His name is W13(nickname), and he is the owner of the popular zybez fansite! He was kind enough to answer some questions, mostly runescape-related, in an interview form over email.. heres's a couple questions I shot at him... Well before even beginning, I'd like to thank him incase he's reading this... Enjoy!


Q: First question: name some hobbies/passtimes that you do
A: painting, xbox360, web-surfing

Q: If you could invite any 5 people in the world to a dinner tonight, who would it be?
A: 5 of my Zybez staffers

Q: So when did you first start playing runescape, how did you discover it?
A: in early 2001, i saw my brother playing it, so I got interested.

Q: What did you enjoy doing most at that time? These days, what do you enjoy most in rs?
A: i enjoyed exploring rather than skilling back in the day. (which is weird because there's a lot more to explore now), Now I just enjoy skilling and loitering around.

Q: Now onto your site, how did the idea of making zybez come to mind?
A: runescape.com didn't have any official 'help', so I made it.

Q: At that time what motivated you to grow your fansite? what were your goals?
A: at that time, i didn't care much for it - but then once i saw other people were excited about Zybez, i started to push it a lot more - by working hard on it and advertising it using drop parties.

Q: When I look up, zybez is not even in the list of jagex supported fansites - What's up with that? Are you still ''at war'' with them from the time they wanted to take controll of your ad network? (I am convinced you took the right decision, w13, I think you are an example to follow!)
A: That list is used to force fansites to listen to Jagex's demands. Jagex can ask a fansite to do something in exchange for moving up a rank on that list. I feel that Jagex should look at fansites eye-to-eye, and just come to us and ask us for a favor rather than playing these immature games. Hopefully Jagex can see Zybez for who we are:  an organization, a community, and a news-reporting and publishing site.
My Response;  Jagex does not need to see zybez for who you are, the players will and are seeing zybez for what it is!

Q: Do you or other fansites have any limitations, since you use their copyrighted in-game screenshots/images?
A: The use of their in-game screenshots and images fall under "Fair Use" laws. That means that even though they are copyrighted, we are free to use them. Besides, we are advertising RuneScape to the world and keeping players loyal to the game. Many players stick around and keep paying their RuneScape memberships just because they're in a clan or because they're part of the Zybez community. (And as you know, Zybez is the home of clans).

Q:  Many long-time players are complaining that runescape is starting to lose it's charm, because it increasingly mimics other popular games (like WoW for instance). Do you think that jagex is pushing runescape in the right direction with the recent dungeoneering update, hp/constitution update, and the hd graphic update?
A: RuneScape pre-dates WoW. So if anything, WoW has copied RuneScape if there are any similarities. Dungeoneering (or "raiding" in WoW) has been on Jagex's mind since before WoW was released.

Q: What are 3 updates on runescape that you liked, and 2 that you liked less?
A: I liked the graphics updates. I also liked some unique skill updates like Farming, Herblore, and and Summoning. I can't say the same for unoriginal skills like Dungeoneering and Slayer.

Q: Did jagex, or jagex mods ever contact you ingame!?!? :)
A: Of course. I've played long enough to encounter lots of mods.

Q: During a poll I've had earlier on this blog, I've asked the question ''how many hours per week do you play runescape''. It turned out that 29% of respondants answered with ''more than 35 hours a week''... Do you think that addiction and dependance on rs is a problem that needs to be adressed? Do you have any life tips or message to tell to those addicted kids,teens, and young adults (and even adults) who might be reading these lines?
A: RuneScape teaches you that if you work hard at something, you can achieve it. If you want that level 70 in Attack, it won't just happen, you'll need to put effort into it. So, RuneScape players know that if they work hard at school, they can achieve high levels in real-life :)    Of course, I won't sit here and pretend to be an annoying parent-figure and tell RuneScape players, "study hard, limit time playing Rs" because I think that the best way to learn is to fall first. So if somebody's neglecting school and wasting away in front of RuneScape for 35+ hours a week, then when they find themselves scraping grease and burnt meat fragments off the floor with their finger-nails in a dirty restaurant, then they'll realize that they are a "noob" in real life and maybe try and level up. ;-)

-Cool, thanks again for this epic interview! I wish you and your fansites all the best for the future!
-w13: Thank you.

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Wow, epic answers! -what do you think?! I especially liked the second and the last answer, where he gave some valuable life lessons. I too think that many runescape players have skills and good values, it's just a matter of setting yourself goals in real life like you set yourself level (or gp) goals for runescape... Way to go W13!

P.S - If you guys have some of your own questions that you'd like to get answered by him, feel free to post them in the comments below. Otherwise, feel free to join his forum if you want... Have a good one!

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