An Interview with Gastón Nogueira

In November 2014 I went on my own epic quest in search for a very specific type of player, I needed someone who perfectly encapsulated the soul of "Evernight". This player had to know their class, have seen the game grow from its humble beginnings, and was socially involved with the server both online and offline. I scoured the server for days. I climbed the Party Tree to see over the rolling hills. I left no stone unturned in the Barrows of Bree-Land. I hauled myself up to the top of Colossus for a better view. But alas, nothing.

Until, finally, I stumbled across Old Tom Bombadil by accident. Old Tom recommended a player by the name of Gastón Nogueira. I searched for this player high and low. I eventually found him leading a raid against Draigoch.

In between helping his kinnies and keeping the Evernight Facebook Group free from trolls, Gastón allowed me to interview him. So sit back, relax, and enjoy our little interview with one of Evernight's favourite players.

In the past 3 years you have played on Evernight, which as been one of your favourite memories?

I remember one particular moment. By that time, I was levelling one of my characters alongside with a kinnie called Eph. We levelled together almost from the beginning and by that time we were level 74. We arrived to the first region of Rohan, The Wold. And we started to do the epic quests, in order to get our Warsteed. When I got my Warsteed as a reward from a quest. I remember standing in front of the NPC that gave me the reward and looking at the Warsteed skill. Just looking at it. Enjoying the moment. And then... I clicked it. The horn sounded so loud. I think I imagined the echo of that sound in my room. And suddenly I was riding a huge Warsteed. I could almost feel the power of this horse. I went to the fields and the wind was blowing in my face and I knew that Lotro wasn't going to be the same game any more, for me. I remember the song I was listening in that moment... learning to ride.

Which class do you feel has progressed the most in regards to Developers exploring new horizons?

I think Lore Masters has become an excellent class. They managed to re create this class. The AOEs are so powerful, and the crowd control... oh my God! You can see on World chat, people asking for a Lore Master for particular raids. It is awesome to see how people ask for this particular class to join a raid or instance. You could need a tank, a healer or DPS... but needing a specific class for it´s amazing crow control abilities? That is awesome, and I think that proves that Lore Masters have become a very powerful class with a good work from the devs.

Which class do you feel needs improvement?

The obvious answer for this question should be Beornings. I think Turbine released Beornings without completing the work on it. An this could be good or bad for some people. Some people might see at this as a good thing because they feel like they are working on it as well, giving feedback on the forums and commenting what things things should be improved or changed. But some people might see this like a bad thing. They want a finished class for their money and both opinions are acceptable... the true thing is that Beornings need more work. To be honest, I was expecting that the bear form were something different from regular bears. I expected a different look than other bears that you could find on landscape. something for unique, like size, or shape. But we will see. Some people don´t like the Beorning and I read comments like: "It´s not new... it´s something like a mix of all classes and I don´t like that". I'd agree with that, but I think It´s a good thing, having the versatility to perform well either is Tanking, DPS or Crowd Control. I see Beornings like an awesome class in the future.

What would you say causes a kinship to thrive?

Wow, this is a tough question. I will say that things outside the game are as important as the things inside the game. Let´s talk about in-game things. Raiding is important for a kinship, but not from the "hardcore/pro" point of view. It´s important because a kinship needs common goals. Being proud or achieving things together. hopefully this aspect is going to be improved with the next update, because Turbine is going to add kinship deeds and this is going to be awesome for the sake of unity and common goals. Second, try to avoid drama. There is no future for a kinship flooded of drama. A kind and funny kin chat is always important as well. Helping each other is an obvious thing in a kinship, crafting, helping with quests, etc. In Defiance we have this rule that forces kinnies to try several times to complete a quest before asking for help. So that way, they can sit and think about the situation, try other trait trees and at the end become better players. If you couldn't complete your quest, of course, we are going to help you, but first you have to try hard.

About outside the game, a good social platform is a must. Either is a Facebook group, using RaidCall, any form of communication when kinnies are not logged in the game. This improves the social aspect of the kinship, makes bounds between different members of the kinship. On an officers level, having a different Facebook group than the kinship one is very good. Officers can discuss things about the kinship, promotes, demotes, expelling people, you can vote easily and it's like a eternal officers meeting.

How do you deal with troublemakers in a kinship?

Argh! Troublemakers. well... /sigh We have a lot of troublemakers on Evernight, you know that. We don´t want to be involved in any kind of trouble in Defiance, we want our name as clean as possible. We kicked out people who were doing wrong things in a server level, people started to ignore that annoying person and we didn't want the people say: "Yeah... (name) is in Defiance". No. We don´t want that. If we have someone making trouble inside the kinship we talk to the member first, try to make sense with them and actually we give them another chance to chance their behaviour. One chance. We understand that we are dealing with grown person, and one chance is enough. If they don't change... well... there are a lot of other kinship that this person can join. There is no place in Defiance for troublemakers. We talk about it in the officers group and vote kick/stay.

I see that some people don't have an exciting life, or important things don't happen in their lives. So their life is Lord of the Rings Online. So the drama kicks in when important things happens in LOTRO. Like being kicked from a kinship, or a demote or anything. That is as important as it could be in real life. That´s why you see people actually crying about being kicked from a kinship, or being demoted or people who feel extremely frustrated about not being able to complete an instance... I mean.. it´s a game for god sake! Trolls are a big issue nowadays. People creating characters with similar names than other players just to throw dirt on their reputation. The medicine for trolls is ignoring them. Simple as that.

Thank you for giving us your time, Gastón! And thank you for helping keep Evernight an awesome place to play in. Until next time. See you in game!