Interview with Firus - Written by Terywj
[collapse=The Interview]The weather wasn't really suited for a beach day, but I had already rescheduled numerous times, so we decided to show. Hampton still had a lot of people, and knowing that I found my way over to a dining sector and waited for the interviewee to show up. I saw a kid around my age with a Sonic shirt and duct-taped shoes and mentioned him over.
"So Firus, how we doing today? Drive wasn't too bad?" I asked. "Nah. Fairfield is far but not too far," he laughed. A waitress asked for drinks, Firus got a Code Red Mountain Dew and I got a Sprite. I pulled out my notebook entitled "Interviews" and started writing.
Terywj: So Firus, could you tell us about yourself? Name, age, general stuff like that?
Firus: Sure. My name is John Adams (yes, like the president). I'm 17, turning 18 this October and am a Junior in high school (soon to be a Senior). Not quite sure what I want to study in college yet, but I'm thinking of majoring in Communications at the moment.
Terywj: As we know, you joined Smashboards in early 2008. How'd you find the site, and what was your motivation behind joining?
Firus: Well, in September 2007, I had joined Nintendo's NSider Forums as a way of anticipating Brawl in a community. When those got shut down, I ended up lurking YouTube for videos and using that for discussions of the game. I met someone there who I talked to a bit, and he mentioned SmashBoards a little bit. At the time, I was very anti-competitive, intending to tell competitive players how silly they were (on top of actually discussing the game, of course), but shortly after I joined I wound up realizing how silly I was being.
Terywj: Why did you choose the name Firus?
Firus: Back in 2006, I had joined the forums from a site called The Mystical Forest Zone, host of the sprite comic InSONICnia -- and the site that got me started on spriting. While starting on spriting, I decided I wanted to make my own fan Sonic character, to give myself an internet nickname, as the one I had currently adapted was the username from my Runescape account, Pyro8maniac, and I wasn't particularly fond of it. I ended up making a hedgehog similar to Shadow, with longer spines, an overall red color, and blue stripes. I had created him to be a sort of fire-y character, and when trying to come up with ideas for the name, someone suggested "Firus". I liked it, and I adapted the name "FirustheHedgehog" -- and more recently, Firus -- as my nickname for...pretty much everything, except in real life.
Terywj: Where did your SWF career start, and how did you come about to the PokeCenter?
Firus: I started off posting exclusively in the Brawl forums, mostly the General Brawl Discussion. About a month after joining, once I had developed a disappointment in Brawl, I started moving to other parts of the forum. Having been a long-time Pokémon fan, I was a little surprised I hadn't posted in the Poké Center before, and I started lurking and posting. I immediately fell in love with the community and all of the creative ideas that people -- most notably, Spire -- were putting out about how the games could be improved.
Terywj: You later started the Custom Pokemon Shop, along with Spire VII and other members. Looking back on it know what do you think of it? What of its impact on the PokeCenter?
Firus: Looking back, The Custom Pokémon Shop was...well, it was great for its first few months. Once the summer ended, the spriters stopped spriting as regularly, we started having to implement rules to stop the overflow of requests which we had been able to handle during the summer, and that's ultimately where things started to go downhill. However, I view its first few months in the summer as being absolutely amazing. We built up a great community with the Shop, I made friends with people and become social, rather than posting awkwardly like a robot as I had been before; and while it eventually did have to be shut down, I think it did have a positive impact on the PC.
Terywj: Speaking of spriting, what made you get a start on spriting? And what is your favorite sprite?
Firus: Sometime while looking up things about Metroid Fusion, I stumbled upon The Spriter's Resource's sprite section for the game. I really loved manipulating the sprites, just putting on a background, laying out objects, and setting up a scene with them. One day I visited that page and realized that it was a part of a larger site with an entire archive of sprites. I moved to the Sonic section and began to want to sprite with those, starting with recolors of Knuckles and Shadow (before I realized that you didn't have to do pixel-by-pixel recoloring). One day I found a site on Google explaining how to fuse Pokémon together and I immediately loved the idea of it and taught myself how to.
My favorite sprite would have to be Spire's Regimagma. It is the most creative, beautiful sprite I've seen, and even though it is far too realistic to fit into a Pokémon game, I love it.
I swear I heard a seagull say "That's right!"
Terywj: What about your favorite Pokemon(s)?
Firus: I'd have to say that Cubone and Tropius would have to tie for my favorite Pokémon. I've taken so many personality tests telling me that I'm most like Cubone that I eventually took a liking to it -- realizing that I am actually pretty similar to it. Tropius was a Pokémon that I initially considered to be forgettable and odd, but as I've realized how much I love third gen and realized how much Tropius is a symbol of Hoenn, I've come to love it.
Terywj: With the newest batch of Black / White Pokemon revealed yesterday, what do you think about the Fifth Generation of Pokemon so far?
Firus: I'm slightly conflicted on that matter at the moment, because I feel like I won't be able to fully come to a conclusion on the matter until I've gotten used to them and potentially even seen them in game. Right now, however, I'm pretty impressed. The Pokémon are all pretty different from what we've seen before, which I love.
Terywj: Straying away from Pokemon, the most annoying video game moment in history to you is?
Firus: Hm, that's a tough one...I'm probably forgetting something at the moment, but the first thing that comes to mind is the ending of Donkey Kong Country. I recall playing the Game Boy Color version at my grandparents' house once, and beating K. Rool. Proud of myself, I put the game down while the credits rolled. I came back to it a few minutes later to find that K. Rool was not, in fact, dead, and he killed me before I could do anything.
Terywj: Aside from video gaming, what other hobbies do you have?
Firus: My main hobby besides video gaming would probably have to be writing. I love writing, although I have a lot of trouble writing if I don't have inspiration. Listening to music is another hobby I have -- it seems odd to call it a hobby, but I love listening to music so much that I consider it to be one.
We sipped our drinks quietly as the waves crashed against the sea. People were noisy today, but that's just what the beach is.
Terywj: What type of music do you listen to, any favorite musicians or groups you'd like to recommend?
Firus: I tend to focus around Alternative Rock, but I really love a bit of everything -- Pop, Metal, JPop, Video Game Music, Electronic, Classic Rock, etc. The Ataris would have to be either my favorite band or close to it, if only for their work on So Long, Astoria; and recently, I've really gotten into Tool's music, specifically their 10,000 Days album.
Terywj: Favorite color, book, and frozen pizza?
Firus: Blue, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and...I actually haven't eaten frozen pizza in years (oddly enough), so it's hard to say.
Terywj: What do you think of the PokeCenter community in its current stage? And what'll happen when Black / White hits Japan?
Firus: I love it right now. The PokéCenter Member Pokédex is a testament to how many people we have from different time periods of the PC -- people who disappeared for periods of time have come back, people who have been there for years are still there. I feel like we have a great balance of general discussion, projects, and competitivity, so no matter how you play and discuss the games, you've got a place in the community. As for when Black and White hit Japan, I imagine we're going to get somewhat of an influx of members. I'd say the PC would get more active, but the PC at the moment is far more active than I ever remember it being, so it's hard for me to imagine that.
Terywj: If you were to have dinner with a member of the PokeCenter and anyone currently living, who would you pick?
Firus: Man, that's a tough one. I'd have to say Spire and my AP US History teacher, Mr. Dasher (he's an awesome teacher) -- but if I could host a Poké Center party with everyone from the PC, I would do it in an instant.
Terywj: And as a final question; I heard you like Mudkips?
Firus laughed before answering.
Firus: You must've heard wrong. He smiled.
Terywj: Thanks for the interview, Firus.
Firus: No problem! Thanks for interviewing me, it was fun!
On the road home, I knew these interviews would be a great insight onto the awesome members of the PokeCenter, and couldn't wait to interview someone else.[/collapse]
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