Talking with Malby (May 1998)
Sean "Malby" Malloy is well-known as the webmaster of Quake.AU, and is a member of Ash 'Ock. With a little luck he'll get to play sCary in DM4 via this Challenge ISDN stuff. He's sure to give sCary a good game. Malby kindly agreed to be a guinea pig for my hack interview attempt, for which I am really grateful. But that's a good example of the kind of guy he is - generous and helpful, except when he's in DM4 and has the upper hand!

Challenge-au:
What have you been up to lately? What�s with the new job and the move to Sydney?

Malby:
Working :)

Well, I have been employed by Xstream Digital Entertainment, I'll be doing a whole range of stuff, kind of the jack-of-all-trades really. Part of the job requires me working in Sydney, so I'm moving up for the job. I'm excited :)

Challenge-au:
Are you going to be able to keep up with Quake.AU?

Malby:
I hope so.. Addmitedly, the actual news side of the page doesn't keep me bogged down, its the other stuff, like the gossip, and url of the day (thankfully I have guys who seem to like seeing their name there, and help me out a LOT with it, (Hi HITman :))). I've been working on a files section for the site, but its turned into a rather large headache, and I'm dreading getting back into it. I guess I better soon. I'm not looking forward to maintaining that section =\

Challenge-au:
What�s it like running Quake.AU? How much time does it take? What�s a typical �Day in the life� for Malby?

Malby:
Well, I jump on IRC, try and dig up some goss, talk to a few quakers in ICQ, read my e-mail, and go hunting for any oz news I may be able to find out.. Then i'll look around on the gaming sites, looking for any "Interesting" gaming news, along with the usual droll of quake/quake2 news that seems to come out of the states =P  

Challenge-au:
How long have you been playing Quake? Is it true that seven introduced you to it? Who would win in a duel between you two today?  

Malby:
Sure is.. I met sev on IRC in #Canberra.. I went around to his place on a saturday night, so I get there, and he has 4 pc's on a LAN, and they're all playing Quake (I still had a dx2/66 and a dx2/50, so we were LAN'n Doom2 at my house, my brother and I that is). So I see Quake, and I'm like "WTF IS THIS?!?!?", I jumped on, and started playing with seven's config (still use the same basic config as I started out with) with mlook on, (I used the mouse in doom2 anyways, so it wasn't a big deal for me). Sure enough, I buy a p100 off of seven, and started playing reapers as soon as I got the pc.. about 1 week of playing reapers, I got a GOL account, and started playing against the GOL big nams (GoodAsh, Beast, Crazy Daisy, Alter Ego, Guzz, Flushmon, Delirium, Suicidal Skirt, Woodsy, Zenith, seven.. the list goes on) and had to learn how to play pretty quickly. (Got thrown in at the deep end :)). I have been playing Quake regularly for about a year now. Although I first played Quake March last year.

Challenge-au:
Have you been watching sCary�s weekly demos? Why don�t you copy him and do the same thing on Quake.AU (hehe couldn�t resist)?

Malby:
Nope, I haven't been watching his demos, I guess I should (For research purposes :P). I also found, that people don't like to have demo's of them playing put up on the web (myself included). I watch demos of myself playing, and I sit there and pick out all the little (and big) mistakes I made. I'm usually cringing when I watch my own demo's. I have been thinking about getting a demo's section back up on Quake.AU though (Used to have one).. All in good time :)  

Challenge-au:
You mentioned lately that you�ve started to enjoy Quake2. What is it that�s making the difference now?

Malby:
Well, when I first tried Quake2, I just thought "Blah, this isn't Quake".. I tried it again after the Frag-U finals, and took the attitude of "No, its not Quake, its a different game".. Tried it out, and really started to like it. The whole highlight of the game for me, would probably be the Railgun. Its the weapon, you will never get a feeling quite like it, after railing an opponent (maybe an axe frag in Quake, or midair shot). I just love the railgun.

Challenge-au:
What do you think the impact will be on Quake gamers from all these high-quality FPS games that are due out soon? Do you think ppl will get spread too thin?

Malby:
Lets look at Quake2 and QuakeWorld.. A lot of people dumped Quake completely after Quake2 came out, a few of those people came back to Quake afterwards, a few people switch between. They are two different games. Enjoyable for different reasons, and those qualities that first appealed to someone who played Quake, will pretty much guarentee, there will always be people playing it. I think that its safe to say, the same thing will happen with all of those other games too.. The one draw back of these new 3d Games that are coming out, is the PC's they are going to need to run them.. Thats another great thing about Quake, it still runs alright on a p100 with 16 megs of ram.. Most of those new games will be lucky to run on PC's with double that. So IMHO, I think Quake will still have a strong following. I can't see myself stopping playing it any time soon :)

Challenge-au:
Which players consistently give you a hard time in a Duel match? What do you like the most about the way they play?  

Malby:
Lets see.. depending on how I'm playing, Bitch can give me a hard time.. Hook ALWAYS gives me a hard time (beats me too), it isn't about who wins in those games.. Because when we play, there are a lot of "assy" shots and moves, and its enough to have you laughing out loud while your playing. I really like that. Quake is about fun.. DM4 is a fun map. I don't really play any other maps, because I don't know them like DM4.. For me Quake ='s DM4. fun fun fun. So anyone who is decent at DM4, is going to give me a hard time, but at the same time, a fun game. What i like most about DM4 players, is the aggresiveness. Theres nowhere to hide for very long, DM4 is really really fast, and DM4 players are generally agressive (Its why they play the map). So for me, its the speed/aggression that people play with on DM4. Other maps? theres another map other than DM4? hmm.. I must be living in a cupboard or somehting, and its name is the bad place =P

Challenge-au:
Are there any young talents coming through? What do you think can be done to encourage ppl or do you think nothing needs to be done?  

Malby:
For every person I mentioned here, there would be one I miss.. I can't really say that theres any one "Talent" that I have seen.. There are so many great players, and because of those great players, the newbies have to get good relatively quickly, so there are a deluge of up and comings, and then it calms down.. I'd have to say, that one player who impressed me, not with his skill, but how good he got in so little time, would be Dracs[UtB].. A few other players I shall mention, would be insane, reload, and spore.. Very good players (Spore has been around for a while) but reload and insane are fairly new.