Meet the Team: Tateru Nino
Once a week our writers will give you a glimpse into their lives, to let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more Meet the Team.
What do you do for Massively.com?
I'm a general writer, though I act as the team specialist for collaborative virtual worlds (particularly Second Life), and legal analysis. I help brainstorm and do some proofreading, and examine the philosophy of MMOs and virtual environments.
What's your favorite MMO?
I spend more time with Second Life than anything else -- but NCsoft's CoX and Turbine's LotRO tie for first place for my MMO gaming time.%Gallery-33889%
What games are you playing now, and what are your characters?
For games, LotRO, CoX, Mabinogi and Dream of Mirror Online.
Sparkflower of Breeland, the human hunter in LotRO. Always selling stacks of stuff at the Auction House for a hundredth of their market prices or trading items. No wonder she's always poor.
Nightflower on CoX -- referred to as Tatwoman in the Planet of the Capes comic story arc. Progress is slow there. I keep the character more for work on comics, while I grind away with Cybercrat in the Rogue Isles, and assorted alts to keep up with various changes to power-sets and archetypes.
Why do you like MMOs so much?
Okay. I've spent a week thinking about that, and I'm no closer to the answer. Considering all that philosophical thinking I do, you'd think I'd have some clue by now, right? But no.
What accomplishment in-game are you most proud of?
Sparkflower sprinted from The Last Bridge to Rivendell at level 19, arriving at the gates of Imladris with about two points of morale. There never was a prettier sight than seeing the vale of Imladris open up in front of you, after being repeatedly mauled by bears and boars nearly twice your level.
That was nice, but it pales before convincing two battered wives to get out of their situations before they sustained any permanent maiming or death. That's got to take a place of pride, I suppose.
What's the most terrible, drama-filled, awful thing to happen to you in an MMO?
I'm not sure this qualifies, but I was in AmberMUSH on June 14, 1995, when there was a global announcement from the staff that Roger Zelazny, the author whose setting we were playing in had passed away from cancer and kidney failure an hour before. Everything and everyone just sort of ... stopped. It was sudden and shocking news.
There were long minutes of silence, initially from respect, and then from awkwardness. Players gathered over the next day or so, talking about their joy in Zelazny's work. Many were saddened that he wouldn't produce any more great work. Many players logged off and never returned, while others redoubled their efforts. It was a very human thing.
If you had 10 more hours to play every week, what would you spend them doing?
I'd either play more, or try to find a way to write more. Sleeping isn't an option, is it?
When you're not playing MMOs, what do you do?
I'm either writing or reading. I also do some single-player gaming. There's also my family, of course.
