The Alphaville Herald

Rumors of our Death are Greatly Exaggerated. Interview with Acting SSG Overlord Greg-

by Alphaville Herald on 08/08/04 at 5:22 pm

When the history of Alphaville is written, the Simulated Shadow Government (SSG) will figure prominently. In recent months, most of the original officers of the SSG (Mia Wallace, Snow White, etc) have moved on to other MMORPGs (SWG, City of Heroes, etc.) and the SSG has become a kind of ?Uberguild? that operates across games and platforms. It is fair to say that the TSO diaspora has weakened the SSG significantly in Alphaville, but in this interview the current acting Overloard, Greg-, insists that they are still operational and quite healthy, thank you.

urizenus_sklar: OK soldier: name, rank, and serial number please.
Greg-: Greg-, Second in Command, and no serial number… yet
urizenus_sklar: And you are Second in Command of the SSG?
Greg-: Thats me, recently promoted
urizenus_sklar: Is Storme still Overlord?
Greg-: Well, that?s hard to say at the time being, she hasn?t been around alot and we are considering a replacement
urizenus_sklar: Are you a possible replacement?
Greg-: Its a possibility, while she is gone or until we get a new overlord, i’m the acting overlord
urizenus_sklar: What other jobs do you have in the SSG for alphaville
Greg-: My current jobs include: Master Cheif of Intelligence, Ambassador of Goodwill, Head Executive Advisor, and Four Star General
urizenus_sklar: That’s a lot of portfolios to carry. Why so many?
Greg-: Two reasons, while storme was assigning duties when she first became overlord, she saw me as her most trusted… also we were in a crunch for executives at the time so we had to give multiple jobs to all the executives
urizenus_sklar: How many executives are active now?
Greg-: Currently we only have 4-5, focusing on getting a larger base of lower ranks
Greg-: From there we will see who is executive material
urizenus_sklar: ok, two questions: 1) how many members do you have (i.e. on your spam list) and (2) how many *active* members do you have (an hour a day online or more)
Greg-: Both those questions are hard for me, I just returned from vacation so my spam list isn’t up to date, I would say 40-50 members, with a large majority of them active
urizenus_sklar: Do you still hold the shadowland neighborhood?
Greg-: Yes we do, We still have Shadow Land currently, but we no longer have Shadow Lake
urizenus_sklar: Well, a lot of people in the game thing that the SSG is now defunct in Alphaville (although very active in SWG). How do you respond to these people.
Greg-: I respond to them with our name oddly enough, Simulated Shadow Government, If we want to disappear and stay out of the public eye we can, unlike some of the other groups out there. We are here I assure you, just cant see us.
urizenus_sklar: Well, that has *always* been the name, but it used to be very visible, and is in fact currently very visible on SWG. Accordingly, some might say that the SSG has become a shadow of its former self.
Greg-: Yes, we were in the public eye, we often are. But no one can deny that we still are rebuilding SSG in TSO after some blows, and I think that the last thing we need is bringing attention to ourselves, so for now we will be sitting in the shadows rebuilding strength until i’m or until the new overlord is satisfied to get back out and start the good fight again.
urizenus_sklar: Well, given the elimination of tagging and the departure of mafias from Alphaville, one might ask whether the SSG still has a mission here? What is there to do now? What is the purpose now?
Greg-: Well there are still mafias in TSO, they aren?t of course as large as they were or as active, but we will be here to stop them from coming back, our mission is to try and keep alphaville a clean fun place to live, more importantly SSG is a group of friends, we are here to have fun, and try to make sure that everyone else is.
urizenus_sklar: Well, why can’t we rely upon the Alphaville Government to stop the mafias and troublemakers?
Greg-: Because last I heard, the government wasn’t doing to well – to say the least
urizenus_sklar: you mean because of their problems with the Simulated Soviet Union?
Greg-: Yes
urizenus_sklar: Well, what are *you* going to do about the SSU — clearly they are the sort of organization that the SSG is supposed to fight
Greg-: For the time being i’ve declared a platform of non-involvment, the only other thing that I can say is: solutions to the SSU-AVG problem are being discussed.
urizenus_sklar: well, what are the options?
urizenus_sklar: would you consider an alliance with one of the parties?
Greg-: I’m not ready to give any information like that, we dont want the situation getting worse because of us
urizenus_sklar: What are some of the other organizations whose activities you currently monitor in alphaville
Greg-: SSU, and AVG of course, and there are a few smaller organizations not expected to grow into anything serious
urizenus_sklar: such as
Greg-: Well before I give names I would like to note that any names given are not under threat of attack nor are their spies in their organizations: After that we are watching Montanas, X-Mafia, and one or two others i’d rather not discuss
urizenus_sklar: Does X-mafia still have a presence here? in alphaville?
Greg-: They have a few members, just under observation for any threats to alphaville, like I said not worried about them alot
urizenus_sklar: what about scam houses? you watching those?
Greg-: We are doing our best to do everything we used to do as far as mafias, scammers, and other threats to alpha… But as I said we are still tight on members and that is our primary focus
urizenus_sklar: In its heyday, the SSG was criticized by many people for using methods that were unnecessarily brutal (house demos for example). Do you have any comment on those accusations?
Greg-: House demo was a tactic used under a particular overlord [no names mentioned] that is not exactly seen as one of our best, house demolition was not then nor is it now an encouraged tactic in SSG, I in no way promote it with our current SSG members
urizenus_sklar: So you are renouncing the tactics of previous SSG overlords?
Greg-: Some of them I do, yes.
urizenus_sklar: Well, do you wish to issue a formal apology to the people whose houses were demoed by the SSG in previous regimes?
Greg-: Well I do feel sorry for those that this happened to, I don?t approve, however these are my personal feelings and I don?t fell like anyone but the Overlord of SSG has the authority to do something like a formal apology, however I do extend my personal one.
urizenus_sklar: In the past the SSG had persons placed in all the top money and skill houses. Is that still the case?
Greg-: I’m not ready to tell you that either, sorry.
urizenus_sklar: Well, Snow White was happy to say it was the case last year, and the co-founder of SSG, Jen, says it is still the case.
urizenus_sklar: Still don’t want to comment?
Greg-: Still no comment, sorry.
urizenus_sklar: Are you in regular contact with Jen and Piers these days?
Greg-: No i’m not
urizenus_sklar: Do they ever issue directives to the SSG in alphaville?
Greg-: If they ever do, i’ve never received them
Greg-: I can?t say for sure though, as i’ve been acting overlord for a short while
urizenus_sklar: You never received the directive to vote for Ashley during the Alphaville Elections?
Greg-: I was away most of the time during the Alphaville Elections, so I never received one, no.
urizenus_sklar: Let’s talk about tso generally now. a lot of people think the game is dying. Is that your sense too?
Greg-: I wouldn?t go as far to say its dying, as one of my old friends said once: “Its not dying, just a little sick.”
urizenus_sklar: But you’ve seen so many SSG members leave for SWG and other games… Doesn’t that make you wonder if you shouldn’t move on too?
Greg-: Well TSO was my first home, and it will have to take alot for me to move on to a different game.
urizenus_sklar: Do you think Maxis is doing a good job of running the game?
Greg-: Well I can?t say they are doing the best they could do, but its been proven over and over that bitching over it wont change their minds, so why bother. I’ve always loved the game after a patch from maxis, hopefully it will always be that way.
urizenus_sklar: IS the SSG accepting new members?
Greg-: Yes we are
urizenus_sklar: What are the requirements for joining these days?
Greg-: Not much, agreeing with our cause, and allowing us to subject you to as thorough of a background check as we can do
urizenus_sklar: And in one sentence, what is the mission or cause?
Greg-: To make sure everyone has fun, both SSG and Alpha.
urizenus_sklar: If they want to join, then who should they contact?
Greg-: New recruits should always contact myself, but they can get more information from one of our SSG Executives
urizenus_sklar: so they can IM you in alphaville?
Greg-: Anybody can talk to me anytime anywhere about anything. My name is Greg- In alphaville and Greg- in yahoo
urizenus_sklar: And is the SSG web site still active if they want more information?
Greg-: No the information on the website www.simshadow.com is dated, we are working on correcting it
Greg-: well the tso division of it is
urizenus_sklar: ok, good luck with that.
urizenus_sklar: Anything to add?
Greg-: Just that SSG is here, and expect us showing up at an alphaville near you!
urizenus_sklar: thanks Greg-!
Greg-: Your welcome!