PowerPlay περιοδικό

Hi dear readers,

today I will give you Vlady, the good spirit of PPM, the man who is there for every and each PPM user, the man that answers all the questions and is willing to help everyone... 

He is a really busy man and doesn't have a lot of spare time, but he gladly accepted to do this and stayed long after working hours to do this interview with me, so let's begin. 

- So who is Vlady, tell us a bit about yourself?

- I am 29 years old, I am single and I live in Bratislava most of the time. You won't be surprised to hear that I like sports, especially hockey. I play ball hockey every week. I also like listening to music. I am a big fan of classic heavy metal bands.

- Tell us about your work in PPM, what exactly is your duty, we know you have a lot of duties, and you are everywhere, but lets be more specific...

- Where do I start? I am the head of development. I prepare theoretical background for programmers. I am also responsible for all texts in the game. I first create the Slovak version and then translate it into English. Then these texts are translated to other languages by our translators who are under my supervision. I am the main PR guy and the main administrator. I appoint and supervise the captains who send me monthly reports about their work and community issues. I also cooperate with the gamemasters. Sometimes I even do some programming, fix small bugs or make small adjustments. I learned that while working for PPM. There is not much that I don't do :)

- Damn you're a busy man! Ok let's continue, how did you start to work for PPM?

- I just started working for a translation agency after graduating from the university in the fall of 2007. When I had a bit of free time I stumbled upon PPM. I registered and saw that there was no game to play, they were only starting with the development of hockey. But I noticed news that they were looking for translators written by Ivan (tuttle). I thought I could make some extra money, so I contacted him. He told me it's volunteer work, but I agreed to do it anyway. Soon after that, Ivan offered me the position of translators' supervisor. Still as a volunteer work. I accepted because I enjoyed doing it. When the full version of hockey was finally launched in April 2009, Ivan offered me a full time job and the rest, as they say, is history.

- Great story! Ok, tell us little about sports, hockey is ok, soccer has some issues according to feed back from users, and handball is still a baby, since you are "the good spirit off the PPM" what are your thoughts about this?

- If you mean game engines, I would say hockey is the one that could use some revamping. It was programmed back in ancient times when the guys had very little experience with these things. As a hockey fan, there is a lot that I could add to the engine, that's not there. I would change a lot of things if I could. Soccer is much more advanced in that regard. People who don't like soccer engine should realize that soccer is a sport where unexpected results happen very often due to low number of goals. The luck factor is much bigger than in hockey. One lucky goal can win you the game. Handball engine is the first one that I designed myself from scratch. I think that it's the best engine of the three already. Handball as a sport is definitely easier to programme than soccer or hockey. There aren't that many different plays that can happen in handball and everything can be put into numbers. There are a lot of stats in handball.

- There is a news about new duel game Army Duel, is this developing off new games influencing and slowing down development of PPM games?

- The development of each game is going on. It will not stop as long as the game exists. People will always want some new features or improvements. If we waited until something was finished, we wouldn't have anything but hockey. We need to launch new games and new projects to keep the business alive. If we don't, there won't be enough money to pay for the servers, staff (like myself) and other things connected with running these games.

- So to summarize the sports related part of the interview, are you satisfied with all that is done for now in handball, and do you feel it needs more tuning?

- As far as the engine goes, the tuning is done. I made the final changes two weeks ago. At least for this season. Time will tell whether further changes will be necessary. There is still some room for improvement. We might add some powerplay/shorthanded tactics, option to play passive game when you have lead in the final minutes or to play aggressively with tactical fouls when you need to turn the game around. The international cups will start next season and then the national teams will be the last big thing to do in handball. Then there are some projects we have prepared for all three sports.

- Ok, great news, now we can move on to some more relaxed subjects! Have you ever been in Croatia? And if yes, what do you think about it?

- I have been to Croatia several times for summer vacation and once on a PPM meeting in Zagreb. I have always enjoyed my vacation in Croatia. We don't have sea in Slovakia and Croatia is one of the most visited places by Slovaks during the summer. It's close and affordable, with beautifully clear water and sunny weather. The Zagreb experience was quite different. There was a lot of snow that time. We got a little tour of the historic center of the town by jackass9 and vateilika.

- I'm glad you like it and that you enjoyed your visit. You said at the beginning off the interview that you are heavy metal fan, can you tell us your favorite 3 songs?

- No, I can't. There are too many great songs to name just 3 of them. I can tell you my most favorite bands/musicians. They are Metallica, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Dio, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne and Yngwie Malmsteen.

- Ok, fair enough. Tell us, are you satisfied with the Croatian PPM support team and work we do?

- Yes, on the whole I can say I am. The translations are usually done quickly, I rarely had to send warnings to Croatian translators, the captain is also doing well, although he had some busy periods in the past when he couldn't dedicate as much time as we would like. And then we have you. You have helped us in a lot of areas outside of support team work that the readers have no idea about.

- Oh, thank you Vlady, you caught me by surprise there...well I'm glad to hear that, and we will continue to do as best as we can. 

It's getting late and I'm keeping this good, hard working man from his well deserved rest, so I'm going to finish by asking, is there anything you want to add, some message for our readers?

- Just relax and take it easy. Even if you lose a game that you should have won. Say some unpublishable words out loud and move on to the next game. Life is too short to be stressing about one or two lost games. You will get lucky next time.

- I agree completely on this one!

 Well it was a real privilege and pleasure to talk to you Vlady, thank you for all the information and patience, and for all the good work you do!

- You're welcome!

And that was Vlady exclusively for Croatian PPM magazine readers, I hope you enjoyed reading this and that you are satisfied with answers.

Until next interview I bid you farewell my dear readers.