Interview: Cerebral Wolf

Our first introduction to the man known as Cerebral Wolf was confrontational to say the least. But after he learned our brand of media couldn't be intimidated, bribed or threatened we decided to settle on less adversarial relationship. Well known for his love of all things GSF, In this piece he sits down with us to explain his position with The Goons, his view on KDR, Stats and his promise that the infamous mercenary known as Protoman will get 'schooled in due time'.


So just what is your position within the Goons?
My position is that i'm the dictator,CEO, Grand Poobah of the Goon Dust Corp.

It seems one of The Goons first major causes in Dust is punishing the wayward mercs who cheat employers of ISK by not launching for battle, why?
I wouldn't say that "punishing mercs for not launching" is the correct term or even intention. We've simply found a mechanic that we can exploit to kill team mates who are stupid and sit in the mountains the whole match without capping points and generally being stupid fucking pubbies. The tears that we generate are just a simple plus point really. We've got a few other tricks up our sleeves right now too but i'm not quite ready to put those ones to the public just yet.

Should there be a fundamental change to the way mercs are compensated? Should there be a significant gap of the awards for the victorious and the defeated?
 It would be interesting to see the victors getting paid more or better benefits in public games i think, at least in terms of loot if not isk. I think it's safe to say we'll see much better improvements in corp games in the future.

What are some other aspects of Dust that need changing?
 Currently i think the core gameplay is much tighter than it was and it's really nice to see CCP focused on that right now, it's important that the very core of the game is spot on before they even think about messing with anything else, having said that i do think that the suggestion of separating or "weighing" a persons controller preference is a silly move though. Hopefully it's only CCP thinking out loud on the forums and looking for feedback rather than something they are seriously considering.

Explain your utter contempt for KDR. A merc cant do any actions when he cant stay alive. Do you dispute this?
We don't have a contempt for KD/R as such, we just don't feel it's as important as people think. Just look at EVE prior to Goon arrival, a lot of E-Bushido and E-Peen waving over KD/R etc with the likes of BoB and co and just look at how things have changed since then as the game and the community have evolved. It's all about the ISK now and i fully expect Dust to be the same in the future, this whole KD/R thing is a throw back to older FPS games and communities and Dust and it's community should already be well above that and it is in a lot of ways but some people just haven't adjusted to it yet or realised the importance of it long term. With clones being confirmed as a future asset and something that needs to be purchased for corp battles or SOV battles or whatever, it's also proving that we was right previously when we said that ISK is king as it's going to be perfectly possible for us to throw down 500 thousand clones on a district and just fight till we win no matter the KD/R. Obviously that's a simple way of looking at things there's other things to consider like capping points etc but the point still very much stands. Your KD/R won't count for as much as people seem to think it will when it comes to actually winning and holding SOV over something.

You seem to be one of the players most put off by some of the console players stats heavy outlook, why?
 I'm put off by people holding stats as the most important thing simply because good stats do not equal a corp being able to take, hold and defend a district or planet or system or even have the damn logistical capability to pull it off in the first place anyway. Those 24 or however many "core" players that some corps have may mean they win all their battles those people are in but they can't take on and hold off every single attempt on their assets over every single timezone or be in multiple districts or planets or systems at the same time. Its just simple numbers and logic and for some reason a lot of people can't get their head around it but they will realise in time as they have to adapt to the way things work in New Eden and a 24/7 365 days a year environment.

We hear whispers of Goon Ganking to come. Should even hisec Dust mercenaries be wary?
I think all mercs should be aware that they WILL get ganked at some point, hisec or not. It's just the nature of the game and how it will evolve. Everyone in EVE has to be aware it's possible to be ganked at any time and Dust is already no different with us being able to gank blues at will in game now even without messing about with LAV's etc.

Does the Dust NPE need enhancing?
The NPE needs a hell of a lot of work but it's really not much of a priority right now as far as i'm concerned, the community can teach people what the need to know with threads on the forum or videos on youtube, CCP's priority needs to be on game mechanics and content for the foreseeable future.

While much of the 'Burn New Eden' rhetoric has died down, how do you address an enemy who only desires upsetting the status quo, destruction and chaos?
 I've not forgot about Burn New Eden and i make sure that the EVE community is aware of it at every chance i get as it helps rally people to our cause which is ironic as it was originally meant to be a propaganda piece against us and it's proven to be a great recruitment tool for me if i'm honest, i still think the whole idea is very, very silly and poorly thought out but ZionShad's proven time and time again that while he's willing to do the effort and sometimes has some great ideas a lot of what he does is very naive.

In a recent forum thread some players seem unimpressed by your planetary forces, how would you address them?
I'll address him directly, Protoman's opinion means nothing to me, at the end of the day i'm on good terms with Imperfects and their leadership as community members and i couldn't really give a shit about the general Dust community feelings about my corp as a whole or me and neither does anyone in the corp. Someone has to be the bad guys and we've never claimed to be "good" by any sense of the word either. We're here with our own agenda and plans and we're not going to let some little 16 year old boy's opinion distract us from that. He's got a lot to learn still and his trolling needs a hell of a lot of work if he intends to provoke a reply from us, i've had some respect for what he's said from time to time on balance issues and things, the kid knows his mechanics but has fuck all experience with the metagame and will get schooled in due time. In fact some of his original quotes about wanting to "see goons fps accomplishments" has also proven to be another good recruitment tool for me within the goon community as anyone can see from our SA recruitment thread.. Quite a lot of goons have laughed at him over the last few months, even people that don't play Dust or EVE.

Have you identified any merc outfits that could provide useful assets to The Goons?
There's a few that we've got relationships with both officially and unofficially and that's the most i'm willing to say on that topic for now.

How can parties interested in affiliation join The Goons in Dust?
People who wish to get in touch with me can do it on skype, twitter, in game on either Dust or EVE or email me directly. All my details are kicking around for those who want to talk.

If you can, describe Dust one year from now.
 It's pretty impossible to talk about Dust in a years time as even CCP are making up a lot of things as they go along, they have a roadmap as such but that's not to say they have every single detail planned out and how the mechanics are going to work. That's something that we have to work with CCP on as a community along with the CSM.