The Alphaville Herald

Interview with “Janette”

by Alphaville Herald on 17/04/04 at 9:57 pm

Recently I had a chance to pose a few questions to the person behind Alphaville’s current “most infamous” character. In this interview, he tells us what drove him to create “Janette,” how s/he feels about infamy, fellow Alpha’ citizens and The Sims Online.

Kale: Your character has become rather infamous, tell me a bit about how you started playing TSO and then we’ll move on.

Janette: Well, I first started playing TSO in around January of this year. I started off as a good character but was quickly bored of the game and after getting scammed for a rather large amount of money myself I wanted something more interesting to do. That’s when I created Janette which started off as just a house to house type of Griefer in FF, I then brought her to AV and slowly built up my FMFN business there.

Kale: “FMFN business”— what is that?

Janette: Free Money For Newbies

Kale: How do you run that? It’s widely believed that you scam people. Is that right?

Janette: Yes, things like 30 preserves for 300k and not paying them when finished and fake money doubles, stuff like that.

Kale: Okay, a couple questions on that point: Is it fun to scam people or why do you do it? Do you ever feel badly about it?

[Editor's note: At this point, Janette asked for a break and the interview resumed approximately four hours later.]

Kale: When we left off, I was asking how you run FMFN, why you engage in the scamming, if you enjoy it?

Janette: The scams are usually over exaggerated and non-existent payouts e.g. 300k for 30 preserves or 500k for die in pool. I engage in it because it’s just a fun way for me to play the game in the same way any other business is run out of enjoyment, it gets boring at times but for the most part I enjoy it.

Kale: Never feel badly about it or regret it?

Janette: Well I felt bad one time on a fake money transfer stealing 500k from someone, and I also occasionally feel bad about the things I say sometimes if I have perhaps taken my attack on someone too far and said something that would really hurt quite a lot to that person but most of the time, I don’t feel about handing over huge sums of money for a very simple task.

Kale: So, you recognize that real people are of course behind the characters, and things could get out of hand. Let me ask then, why is it fun for you? (Also, 500k— is that the biggest scam you’ve ever pulled off)?

Janette: Well, most of the things I say aren’t that bad so I don’t see why people have to take things so seriously from a person they have never met in irl. I can’t really explain how it’s fun it’s just like the fun from any other business I suppose, especially the really greedy ones who come onto my lot and say “WELL GIVE ME FREE MONEY THEN.” I think people with that sort of attitude definitely deserve to be scammed and if they are greedy enough to think someone is going to give them 300k for just coming onto the lot and demanding then they are scamming them selfs as much as anything (and 500k is the most I ever scammed of a single person, yes).

Kale: What do you do with the money you scam, or it’s purely for the thrill?

Janette: Well some of it I transfer to other cities, occasionally I will remodel and I have been scammed out of a lot myself in the past but apart from that money doesn’t really have a lot of use so it’s mostly for the enjoyment.

Kale: You’ve been doing this since January, right? Is it getting harder to scam people when you’re notorious for it— seems like that would be a problem. Have you noticed a change?

Janette: It’s harder to get scams now that I am more infamous but the good thing is I get more visitors now then I used to as a lot of people will just come to my lot and sit there for hours telling me how much they hate me.

Kale: Yes; I imagine so. Is that fun for you? We should talk about your notoriety— you’re #1 on the “most infamous” list, correct? How do you feel about that particularly (and generally, how do you feel about the new changes on TSO, eliminating the tagging, these rating lists, etc.)?

Janette: Well, the fame from being top of that list is good but I’m not sure how I feel about these changes as it’s much harder to get people to make you an enemy now and getting all those tags was one of the most fun parts. But still, keeping myself the most hated sim in Alpha through these new interactions should be an interesting challenge. I’m not sure I like the decay rate though – I have already gone down to #5 on the Meanest list.

Kale: Yeah, that’s a bit of a blow. Yet, so far it seems like you’re holding your own— you’re widely known as a “griefer.” What does that mean to you? What specific types of things do you do and say to people in order to earn infamy. Explain that to me a bit.

Janette: I just love the fame of being so widely known as a griefer. One thing I did to get the most hated record was pretend that I could not stand enemy links. That got me like 30 enemies a day. Generally I like to treat people as if they are much lower than me and always make them talk up to me, it’s amazing how many people think that I really believe this. Also If I get bored with my house I sometimes visit other peoples house and try and stir up trouble in the usual ways there.

Kale: “Stir up trouble in the usual ways”— what are those? Is it simply harassing, degrading talk?

Janette: Yes pretty much, but this becomes much harder when so many know you’re a griefer.

Kale: They ban you?

Janette: Yes quite a lot ban me on sight.

Kale: Yeah, that must be difficult. I’d like to talk a bit more about your relationships with others in the game, but first: is Janette your only character?

Janette: No, I have set up scam houses in other cities as well though most were set up with another “Janette” character.

Kale: No other characters in Alphaville? Care to give us any other names of characters you control?

Janette: At one time there was Manesh Patel running a similar house in IH but he is retired now, I did create a couple of trial accounts in AV but they are all gone now.

Kale: I would be interested to know how you see the interaction between your real life persona and Janette. Is Janette like the real you at all? Same gender? On a general level, you stated that you enjoy the satisfaction and challenge that comes with scamming and griefing, but you’ve also felt a bit of regret at times. It sounds a little complicated. How do you view the relationship between your off-line persona and Janette? Does playing her provide an outlet, some drama to life? I’d like to hear your thoughts on that sort of thing.

Janette: I wanted to keep the life of Janette and my real life separate, but it wasn’t easy for me to do. I think there are bits of the real me in Janette but mostly she just a fictional role I am playing, no she’s not the same gender but I don’t see why so many people make such a huge issue about that, it is a role-playing game after all. But I definitely do think that Janette is an outlet from real life as well as adding drama to it, its a great escape from reality and I think the problem is keeping sim life and real life separate, I have noticed lately that I am seeing more bits of Janette in my real life persona.

Kale: Fascinating—- does that worry you? You’ve admitted that Janette can be very harsh and demeaning to others— have you thought about cutting back a bit or how do plan to handle that, if it is becoming a problem?

Janette: It concerns me slightly, though I hadn’t given that much thought, I guess if I keep seeing Janette’s attitudes come out in the real me then I guess I will have to alter character of Janette as well spending less time playing her and basically trying forget about TSO stuff when it comes to reality.

Kale: Yeah, there’s an interesting connection there. I’d like to ask about Janette’s interactions with other characters. You said that you had been scammed out of a lot of money in the beginning and you pulled off a large scam that you regret. Who were the characters involved in those interactions, and how do you stand in relation to them now?

Janette: In general, I don’t hold grudges well and when I got scammed I just accepted it was gone and crying over it wouldn’t do any good so I while I was frustrated a bit so I don’t really hold any bad feelings to those who scammed me. As for the scams I felt bad about – this was usually large money transfers from people that had spent months on objects for their money, I do have a bit of guilt for taking their money even though it’s just game – these amounts have a real life value on e-bay but I don’t really have a relationship with them apart from regret somewhat.

Kale: I’d like to explore the idea of relationships on TSO, in general. We’ve got “villains” and “heroes” as some of the most famous characters, if you will. A lot of people would like to get rid of Janette. Do you worry about them? Do you think that could happen?

Janette: No, the only way I would leave is if I choose to. These so-called “heroes” have no power at all.

Kale: So, no worries there? I suppose your account could be cancelled. Does that bother you?

Janette: Yes, I suppose that could happen but I think if Maxis wanted me gone surely they could have come up with a way to get rid of me by now. I think they maybe like having people like me in the game to add diversity.

Kale: So, you believe that surely Maxis knows who you are and what you’re up to and still wants to keep you as a villain?

Janette: Yes, I think that could be it, I mean why would they release top 100 infamous/meanest sims if they didn’t want villains in the game.

Kale: Fair point. There have been and presently remain some infamous characters: Voleur/Evangeline/Eva, Viva T, Grandma Celestie, Lucianna—- have you been responsible for any of those characters? Also, I don’t imagine you just automatically step into this. Did some villains take you under their wings and teach you the ropes when you began?

Janette: No, I’m not responsible for any of those and I just got started by seeing a few scam houses and liking the idea of it really.

Kale: One hears talk about “honor amongst thieves.” Can you tell me how your relationship w/ the other “villains” presently on TSO is going? Do you compete to see who can be the meanest; is there hostility? Or is there some kinship amongst you?

Janette: Well, there’s quite of drama going on there at the moment. Some of us get along well together but others such as Viva T for example seem to be against everyone, including other scammers.

Kale: Tell me about the drama— what actions have been taken, or just a lot of ugly words? Also, who do you consider your best friend in Alpha’; seems like it would be hard to get next to Janette?

Janette: Well most of the drama hasn’t been more than words but there was a case where “someone” got into Luci’s account and got it banned. As for my best friend – I’m not really sure I don’t have any friends that I’m close to but 2 of the people I get along with quite well are Celestie and Lucianna.

Kale: It’s unknown who got into Lucianna’s account? That one sounds pretty serious.

Janette: Yes well I can’t really say anymore on that.

Kale: Understood. I’m about ready to wrap it up; just a couple more questions here. You said that the boredom associated with trying to be a “good person” on TSO drove you to create Janette (maybe there’s a lesson in there about “idle hands” and whatnot) but are you satisfied being the villain and playing TSO now or would you like to see some changes to the game in order to make it more interesting. If so, what would you suggest?

Janette: I’m not sure I’m satisfied being the villain, I have thought lately about maybe trying something different but I think the game definitely needs a lot of changes to make it more interesting, at the moment the games really about coming up with your own fun, I guess it needs more to do and something that you can work towards, there needs to be more than just working, skilling, greening (and chatting).

Kale: Well, thank you for your time today. Perhaps a good note to end on: how do you envision Janette’s future? What do you want for her and what can the citizens of Alphaville expect from you next?

Janette: I haven’t quite decided where to take Janette yet, I thought about retiring Janette as I had a couple of ideas for some new characters to run the scamming business or perhaps even go good – but whatever I decide to do the Citizens can expect me to be around for a while yet.