This week we had the pleasure of having a chat with Darkfall’s very own event-organizer extraordinaire Ninogan Swiftstep! Faced with our barrage of questions Ninogan performed admirably and indeed gave us a very enjoyable and charming interview!

Thraiax: So, to start with: how long have you been with Darkfall?

Ninogan Swiftstep: Oh I’m not completely sure.. In  2007 I first learned of Darkfall I think. I played in beta for awhile with some friends and since then I’ve been playing since launch ^^

Thraiax: Aha  a loyal supporter then for sometime! hehe

So tell us a bit about Ninogan Swiftstep and her life and accomplishments in Agon.

Ninogan Swiftstep: Hm.. where to begin. I guess I can say something about the name. I have always played under the name Ninogan but since I needed a last name in Darkfall I needed to come up with something. I remember that the autogenerated names had a lot of Swift-something. Like “Swiftarrow” but I wanted something I came up with myself so I named her Swiftstep. My closest friend named his character Lillis Slowfoot   He’s a human male. In-game I played for ages in The Duchy of Wessex which was the main clan in the Hyperion alliance. I started making in-game videos during that time which I’d never done before

They became very popular very quickly so I just started recording as soon as we did a siege or had some fun PvP and now I have almost 200,000 views on Youtube and a lot of subscribers and fans who are really nice ^^ I’ve played in a bunch of clans since Hyperion fell like Akatsuki, FruitCups and currently GET GOOD.

The thing I’m most proud of is the Darkfall Tournament that me and Lillis Slowfoot started. That has been really successful and we’ve had plenty of exciting tournaments so far and many more to come I hope.

Thraiax: Aye indeed, on this side of the fence we’ve all been watching your events with great interest.  They always seem quite fun! So what drove, and indeed still drives you, to creating these amazing events?

Ninogan Swiftstep: For me Darkfall is all about PvP and there weren’t any of these kind of events happening that often so I wanted to create something that would be re-occuring and when I play MMMORPG’s I tend to spend a lot of time on them and then I want to make the most of it and do a lot for both myself and the community. It’s no fun being an unknown random player so I do what I can to stand out and have fun which has it’s positive and negative effects ^^

Thraiax: Aye I can only agree there.    And you seem to be doing a great job of it so far..you even have an interview!  So you’ve said that Darkfall is about PvP,   is that what has attracted you to our humble game? Or are there other elements that keep you coming back for more?

Ninogan Swiftstep: Ohh your text just became green o_O Cool. PvP is definitely why I decided to play Darkfall and why I still stick with it. I used to play Ultima Online and even though I mostly PvP’d in that game I enjoyed other things as well just like in Darkfall I do like other aspects as well but I focus mainly on the PvP. I tried [EDIT: another online pvp game whose name has been edited out for diplomatic reasons ] for awhile and it was awful because PvE and the world were awful. Darkfall is more well rounded and the PvE is really good and I like knowing that I can do and enjoy other aspects than just PvP even though I mostly stick with just PvPing.

Besides PvP I like crafting as well and I have a lot of professions leveled up. Crafting in itself is kinda static though but I like crafting stuff and then selling and trading with other players. That’s fun.

Thraiax: Yeah I totally didn’t just change my font now.. *coughs*

The crafting and player-driven economy is definately something that must be able to add an extra social element to the experience.  Especially if you buy from someone famous!

So, You’re actually a fully and professionaly sponsored player of Darkfall.   Tell us a bit about that and what this entails!

Ninogan Swiftstep: Yeah I usually advertise my Silverbranches or Eredans I sell as Queen of Mirdain mounts or bows   Since I got a vendor I’ve sold a lot so it seems to be effective. Quick thanks to everyone that has bought from me at my vendor in Harjik (Shameless plug sorry). Haha yeah the sponsor thing just came out of the blue one day. I was contacted by Danny Ramkvist the chief marketing officer at ZOWIE GEAR who had seen my videos on YouTube and asked me if I’d be interested in a sponsorship. I said yes because.. why not? I’ve been sponsored by Zowie for awhile now and they’ve been really cool and helped me out with prizes for my tournaments and they hook me up with lots of nice stuff. I’ve actually had people send me emails showing off their newly bought zowie mousepads that they bought after they saw that I used it which is pretty cool ^^

Thraiax: (Nothing wrong at all with shameless plugs   feel free to use and abuse our interview! hehe).  I can only imagine that it must add an element of pride to have been picked by a sponsor like that.

Going back to the game then, any memorable experiences you’d like to share? Be they epic or a complete fail moment..

Ninogan Swiftstep: I guess I should plug my youtube channel (youtube.com/ninogan) -_^. There’s so many memorable things that I’ve experienced in Darkfall. That’s another great thing about doing videos is that I can look back and remember some fantastic sieges that I’ve been at in the past. When it comes to sieges I still miss the old days of Hyperion and Coalition of the Chillin’ and the huge territorial wars that we had back then. It was amazing fun and I remember having to set my alarm clock to 04:00 in the morning several times and then spending more than an hour riding in formation (which was so stupid  ) with my brothers and sisters in Wessex to whichever siege we were going to. That was fun.. fun and tiresome. I’ve had so many complete fail moments during all my PvP trips I can’t single one out ;P

Or actually..

I once did a 200,000g duel wager against a guy I knew I was much better than when it came to melee and archery fighting. He wanted mounts to be allowed as well but I didn’t because for the longest time I was terrible at fighting mounts but I accepted one regular mount to be allowed. When we fought I got him down to 20% in no time and I was at 90% health myself and he then spawned his mounts and in a matter of seconds I was dead. That was probably the only time I got abit angry when I died >_< Afterwards I got my friend Ohh Yeah to duel me over and over on a mount until I learned to dodge them. I know no longer fear mounts

Thraiax: (plug noted!) Haha  its a whole different world from infantry to cavalry eh? And aye, there is no greater motivator than being thrashed in combat..   I speak from experience! So before we wrap up, and coming back to shameless plugs once again..   do you have a message for the players and/or devs or perhaps simply a shout-out to your brothers and sisters today?

Ninogan Swiftstep: Oh yes! Thanks devs for implementing offline skilling! I really hope it won’t just be swimming, riding and other not so important skills but other more important ones as well! MEAT CALCULATOR of EU-1 just informed me that he had 23 MEAT BALLS, which is a number equal to his age in December. I’m better than Awesomefusion & The Kebab at Archery. That’s all! This interview was really fun, thanks ^_^!

Thraiax: We’ll pass the message along then!  And the pleasure is all ours Ninogan, was lovely chatting to you and getting to know a little more about you!