Behind The Flock Walls: BloodyKing

The Dark Flock, unquestionably elite MAG clan, but also much more it seems. Few people know about the inner-workings of this mysterious group of black-clad Raven killers. Their inner workings are shrouded in mystery and secrecy and their control over their members can be described as "bordering on the obsessive." Few were privy to our first interview with Bloodyking when ~^~ officers Mudmaster_23 and Ry_Grimace insisted on sitting in. What transpired was an eerie, odd, troubling interview where our subject was fed answers, the interview was constantly disrupted by attempted humor of an Extremely Questionable and odd variety and there was an obvious attempt to decline answering altogether. Fortunately we secured another private interview with BloodyKing and even though it was apparent that the "feeding" of answers was still taking place. The following is what transpired:

mww:  bloodyking. explain it.

bloodyking:  What, my name?

 mww:  sure

bloodyking:  An amalgamation from a song I liked when I first got my PS3, plus in any FPS I play death follows me everywhere, whether it's me or my enemies, nothing lives long.

 mww:  that’s pretty detailed.

 mww:  let me get a few one word answers from you, ok?

 bloodyking:  uh.... ok?

 mww:  MAG

 bloodyking:  Great, but could have been greater.

 mww:  raven

 bloodyking:  Faction of choice

 mww:  sver

 bloodyking:  Cool masks

 mww:  valor

 bloodyking:  Steroids

 mww:  ~^~

 bloodyking:  A clan I am happy to be a part of.

 mww:  why arent you in the beta right now?

 bloodyking:  I played the beta a bit, but I prefer to play the actual game. I can't wait for 2.0 to drop, but I have plenty of clan-mates who play the beta, so I help keep our presence known in retail.

 mww:  top 3 issues in the beat that need fixing

bloodyking:  In general, 1. Lag, 2. Hit/Collision Detection 3. Electronics

 mww:  electronics? explain.

 bloodyking:  The way all the electronics currently work.

Specifically, the MS and SJ

 mww:  ok, go on.

 psnbloody:  The redundancies that currently exist (but will go away with 2.0) make it kind of silly. The SJ blocks detection at all speeds, which basically gives you OIC status in any mode, which is dumb. As for the MS, I think it is fine if it gets blocked by SJ, but now it doesn't even beep so you can't tell if it is actually doing anything. I haven't played with it for a while, but a few of us still have it, and aren't very happy.

And before I continue, I forgot our official disclaimer. "The views expressed in this commentary are solely the views of the individual, and are in no way representative of the Dark Flock as a whole."

mww: on that note, TDF has been described as a motion-sensor clan. respond:

 bloodyking:  MS clan? lol. Several members use it, and others have used it on occasion, but people have to remember that you can still show up on radar from doing things like running and shooting. Just because I have good peripheral awareness doesn't mean I use a MS.

 me:  let’s get all of the rumors out of the way."they're a bunch of lag-switchers!" respond:

 bloodyking:  Sorry to disappoint, but all of those jokes we make aren't true.  Grimace lives in the middle of nowhere, with an ISP that randomly moves its servers, and has an unstable connection, but I have seen him play on a stable connection and he is good.

Check the forums for speed-test results as a reference.

 mww:  i've seen posts where people accuse you of being zipper employees in god-mode, that you guys don’t even really EXIST. Care to comment?

 bloodyking:  hahaha I have not seen these, but sorry. I don't think any of our people even live near Zipper.

 mww:  last one: raptor2525's vids on youtube show his username as raptorIGN. does he work for them?

 bloodyking:  Not as far as i know. I think this was brought up in discussion once before and he said he does not work for IGN.

 mww:  understood. who is TDF's biggest rival?

 bloodyking:  Uhhh. one sec. lemme ask, because I don't know.

 mww:  keep in mind you're about to put a clan in the crosshairs.

 mww:  you can say NO ONE if you like.(types for an extended amount of time)

 psnbloody:  Currently, comment on that has been declined. So I don't know.

 mww:  (laughs) declined? who'd you ask? You’re not being fed answers again are you?

 bloodyking:  Officers, since they've been part of the clan longer and would know

If I don't know the answer to a question, I ask them. But for the record they do not filter what I say.

mww:  you're sure? some previous answers (in an earlier failed interview) seem to have been handed to you. i'd go as far as saying they answered for you. what say you?

bloodyking:  I answered all questions that I received on my own. I respect my clan’s rules of conduct, though, so any censoring was done by myself. BTW the connection in the previous interview sucked.

 mww:  was it the connection? did the interview seem odd to you at all?

 bloodyking:  It was the connection. Half the stuff I typed didn't get entered. It definitely was Google.

 mww:  when i gave the notes to SVER Guy he used the word "cultlike" when he described the control that ~^~ has over its members. respond.

 psnbloody:  lmao cultlike? I remember a mafia quote from the last interview. The Dark Flock is a clan that prefers to keep to itself, and the people in the clan are actually pretty good at self-regulation. We are a No Drama clan, and we like to keep it that way.

Members are not brainwashed or any silly thing like that.

 mww:  understood. earlier we were aware that there was a ~^~ information embargo after it was revealed we had a source inside the "walls of the flock". has this changed?

 bloodyking:  That little stint that got pulled with the 6d9 drama caused a lot of people to be very unhappy, and that is all I know. No embargo, just a reminder of what kind of clan we like to be.

 mww:  did you think it was a bit odd that two officers sat in during your previous interview? (another long-time typing session)

 bloodyking:  Actually while waiting for the first one, I asked Grim if he wanted to sit in, because we were both bored as hell, and he would be the person who I could ask questions to (like earlier in this interview) and Mud kinda got brought in later. I invited both of them in, as I have said before.

The fact that the chat was not cooperating with me caused it to be a little more one-sided than it was meant to be.

 mww:  it seemed a bit Controlled Environment and Overseer/Big Brother to us, I just mention it because its never happened in any other interview.

 bloodyking:  The other interviews weren't with the Flock. We live up to our namesake

 mww:  is there a spokesman we can go to for comments on stories now?

bloodyking: (obviously types to someone else) Uh, I don't think we have an official spokesman, but I am sure that the officers are the closest thing we've got.

 mww:  is say this because we ran an earlier interview and there seemed to be some incorrect info. we're re-running it now that the information has been verified. is there someone we can reach out to for comment?

 bloodyking:  Checking one sec (types to a contact)

 mww:  here: i'll ask you. we verified an earlier encounter where thirteen Dark Flock were beaten by eight 3C attackers. from the scores it seems the  battle was in a word; epic.

 mww:  sithis commented that they had always been the superior opponent, and that people liked you guys because they were the "bad guys" while you were "nice to everyone and made jokes afterwards" so people liked you and were glad to call you MAG’s #1 clan because you didn’t make them feel bad after they lost, response?

mww: you still there? (takes some time to respond typing to a contact)

 bloodyking:  If I was in it, then I remember very clearly. We were just messing around, bored out of our minds, and we were split evenly between letters. Close match, pretty epic for the day, but RG was also there, as Grezkev will tell you (He noob-tubed me).

I don't care what Sithis says, so no, I don't have a comment on that.

 mww:  ahhh. go on.

 bloodyking:  And our spokesperson would be theQube.

 mww:  much thanks, we'll direct correspondence to him from now on.

 mww:  tell me about the Rise of Raven.

 mww:  you there? (takes some time to respond typing to a contact)

 bloodyking:  OMG some guy on the forums was bugging me about that. We got roofs, players grew some balls and attitudes changed from "there is no way to win on Flores" to "We can do it!" That's the best I've got. People who jumped ship because we became the "New OP" contributed nothing.

The Rise of Raven really wasn't that big.

 mww:  how does it make you feel that you're the PMC of success now?

 bloodyking:  For me, I had played Raven for a long time, and had been around for several other times when we held all the contracts without any roofs, but as I played more, I stopped caring about the PMC and more about the people I played with. When I came back to Raven for the final time, I wanted to find a good home, and I did. That was all that mattered to me.

 mww:  GUN and 6D9 were among those "new ravens" can they truly fly the raven flag?

 bloodyking:  It all depends on why they vetted. From my understanding GUN is a temporary on Raven, and 6D9 was sick of Valor. People who change factions for good reason can always fly the new flag. Anyone who vets to ride coattails cannot, because they'll just leave when the coat changes hands again later.

 mww:  ah. well said.

mww: what's your opinion of The Fall of SVER?

 bloodyking:  And to prevent misunderstanding, I am not saying that either clan is riding coattails. There are a lot of people getting sick of Valor, and a deep-seeded hatred for SVER since it was the original "Easy Mode"

mww: copied and pasted that fast, didn't you? (it was obvious his handlers didn’t think his answer was PC enough)

 bloodyking:  SVER was just a mentality thing, like Raven. They heard the words "we got nerfed" and "Raven got buffed" and went pessimistic. It was like when people used to attack Absheron with randoms. Everyone though it was a fortress.

 mww:  but you agree they aren't the contract whore they once were, yes?

 bloodyking:  They still put up fights, but if you look some of them definitely switched to Acq, just as some Ravens switched out of it. Raven takes Dom, loses Acq, and vice versa for SVER

It's all give and take

 mww:  who's the best clan on MAG?

 bloodyking:  #$%@ if I know. No clan wars makes it impossible to tell. Every clan is unique, and has its strengths and weaknesses.

 mww:  if you had a vote, who would it be for?

 bloodyking:  I would abstain from voting without a set of parameters, and evidence for each clan based on them.

 mww:  tell Qube that was a great answer (it was obvious he was being fed answers at this point) if you weren't in TDF you'd be in the ____ clan.

 bloodyking:  lmao I'm not talking with Qube right now. I happen to be decent with logic myself. If I wasn't in the Dark Flock I would be in my own one-man clan.

 mww:  no clan. really?

 bloodyking:  Maybe in a clan with some of the other people I have met in this game, but most of them are inactive now.

 mww:  Do Japanese players really have an advantage due to lag?

 bloodyking:  Better connections plus server lag = Yes (simplified form)

 mww:  What was the best post ever?

 bloodyking:  Seen Me/Played with me Thread. Sadly, it is gone now.

 mww:  yes. it is. your opinion of the forum mods?

 bloodyking:  See StevoP80's sig. I think he still has it there.

 mww:  zipper's last influence mag (concerning leaving games) fell below the required 60% to pass. we posted the same topic in a poll and got a completely different response (over 80% said yes to penalties for leaving games) when we excluded server kicks. are they the real issue?

 bloodyking:  At the time the vote happened, and every time a new patch comes out, people get booted way too regularly by the servers, so yes that is the reason the vote got shot down, as many people posted on the MAG forums. They said they would have voted yes if server kicks weren't included.

 mww:  Who were you looking forward to matching up with in Clan Wars?

 bloodyking:  What Clan Wars?

If we had them, I would look forward to any match we went into.

 mww:  (laughs) IF they were implemented correctly, that is.

 mww:  no one you'd like to stick it to specifically?

 bloodyking:  Oh, I've got a few in mind, and I'm sure they know who they are, but I'll leave it at that.

 mww:  gotcha. what happens to MAG after the latest round of FPS's?

 bloodyking:  Player counts will drop as the player-base has grown stagnant, and fresh things will take them away. 2.0 will hopefully bring some new people in, and help retain some players, but the lack of Clan Wars has already caused a lot of people waiting for them to not come back, as well as more people dropping because of the lack of competition

 mww:  we ran a story yesterday about El_Capitrucho joining TDF. Text Qube and ask him to confirm or deny.

 bloodyking:  Capi joined us, yes.

 mww:  that's quite a roster. best player you've seen in MAG?

 bloodyking:  That's a hard one. I couldn't just name one. I've seen a lot of really good people in MAG, all at different things.

 mww: So with alt accounts, clan spying has gotten popular, has TDF been a victim of this yet?

 bloodyking:  We have a strict no alts policy, but nothing is fool-proof. And spying on other clans is stupid. Learn by playing against them, not by spying on them.