Interview: Boush #9

Today we bring you an interview with Boush, a happily married sky pirate from Ratchet. Enjoy!

Firewire: As you might already know my first questions are: Your afk age, gender and home country.

Boush: 21 years old, Male, Finland.

Firewire: So let's dive right in. You just told me that someone made fan art of your character. How did that happen?

Boush: The first picture with Boush's grin was actually some free sketch Rickarla made for me, as I won the lottery in her art thread (got randomly chosen). The other two are commissions, since I like her style, especially how she draws goblins. I am not very good at drawing anatomy myself, nor motion or different poses so it felt natural to ask an artist like her.

Firewire: Commission means you paid her to draw the pictures?

Boush: Yes, in gold (heh). The armor one was 30k, and the old spice one was 5k.

Firewire: That's an interesting way of gold making I must say.

Boush: Well, with her talent and how happy I am with the result, I can't complain. Money well deserved.

Firewire: How do you use your fan art for WoW role-play? Do you just show it off on the forums, or is there any other use of the art?

Boush: It's really mostly for myself to look at and get a gleeful smile. But people have been making points in RP about how his armor looks so heavy and so magnificent, how does he manage with it and/or did he craft it himself? So yeah, it creates RP in a minor sense for those that are interested about the character more deeply. But for a complete randomer? Not so much. I don't push it into other people's faces really.

Firewire: Would you tell us since when you play WoW and what brought you into RP?

Boush: I've been playing since vanilla on a shared account, but got my own around TBC since my cousin wanted the account for himself. My first own character was a tauren shaman called Nakasu, on Sunstrider PVP server. But I truly began RPing at the end of TBC, near the beginning of WotLK back on The Sha'tar RP server. Years passed and stuff happened, and now I'm here. So around eight years of RP in total.

Firewire: If you need to guess, how many different characters did you play in these eight years?

Boush: I had Nakasu, the shaman, Naani, a female tauren druid, and Anselm, undead warrior. Also an undead rogue named Tristan or something, but that was pretty much it.

Firewire: And Boush of course, right?

Boush: Oh yeah. When I got to Argent Dawn, Boush developed one year after my arrival. Then came Hokima, my Zandalari troll, and later Pavoka, my monster hunter. I also have a few other minor characters but they're not nearly as relevant for me. Pavoka's a tauren. Also drew him a couple of days ago:

http://lu0l4mursu.deviantart.com/art/Pavoka-Thunderhorn-colored-With-text-and-lore-557463752

Firewire: Looking back, who of these did you play the most, or did you have the most fun with?

Boush: Boush, of course. He's been my main ever since I created him. I have had so many fun things with him both IC and OOC that I can't even start counting them all. He's really the joker and smile bringer of the group for me. And he's also the most invested character, with Hokima being a close second and Pavoka on 3rd place. Boush is also my most visible avatar, so many people recognize him both IC and OOC, and I have a lot of friends OOC and IC over him.

Firewire: Could you maybe tell us a little bit about Boush then? Maybe a little story that shows what kind of goblin/guy he is?

Boush: Sure thing. Boush hails from the Undermine, from one of its most notorious slums. He was sold to slavery for mines by his mother when he was around five, because times were hard and he wouldn't survive without food in their home anyway. A fortunate gas explosion destroyed the foreman camp and burnt the records, during which he was able to escape the mines and scurried to the streets. There he survived with the other street rascals, doing what job he could, and stole food and other things to stay alive. He also picked up his craft of engineering around that time, and later found his father, with who he started a diving company. Things happened and his father died, and he wanted out from Undermine. He sold his mother to the alchemists union and paid a trip to Kalimdor to work under Gazlowe. He has been just about everywhere, from constructing Orgrimmar to the Isle of Conquest oil rig assembly. He's not a stranger to neutrality either, and he's been working as far away as Ironforge and Stormwind. These days he's a hardened tinker and a warrior who takes no crap from people who try to push him around. He's married to a lovely goblin lady called Kreena, they currently have two children, and live in Ratchet above his workshop.

(For anyone who has met Boush, he has a good sense of humour and a positive view on life, even with all the crap in it.)

Firewire: That opens up a lot of questions. I hope you got time. First I'd like to ask you about the story of Undermine. It's a goblin city right? But it's not in the game at the moment, correct?

Boush: Aye. It's located on one of the islands near Kezan, or below it. There are sources that differ, but it's basically a big GTA style town with notorious slums, and glamorous trade princes' palaces right next to each other. What became of it after Cataclysm since Kezan's eruption is unknown.

Firewire: Is Undermine the birthplace of all goblins? What role does the city take within goblin society?

Boush: Not all goblins, but it was their first home. Since goblins were slaves to the trolls. But after absorbing the strange effects from Kaja-mite which made them intelligent, they overthrew the trolls and established their home under the mountain. It's home to many trade princes and different goblin organizations such as the alchemists' and the tinkers' unions, so I imagine it's got a ring to it. But goblins are a widespread, opportunistic race, so they don't care much for their roots, I'd wager. Boush for one enjoys Ratchet over all things.

Firewire: Second: You mentioned that Boush worked in Ironforge and Stormwind. Is that lore you invented, or was that RP that actually happend in game?

Boush: Obviously it's a bit hard to RP in the said places as a goblin, but it's part of his story. I also got several stories of his visits and time there written down, but due to some of them containing adult material, I don't publish them as they are. I have a few more forum aimed stories for those, though, but still in progress. But to answer how'd he end up in said cities; First he went to work during one Winter Veil in Ironforge. Things happened, he got hooked up with one gnome girl he met around the time he spent there and they had a short relationship. Meanwhile he worked for a dwarf as a fixer, as he was rather skilled with some machinery. Eventually he began craving back for Ratchet, but the gnome wouldn't leave Ironforge, so they split on good terms. He went for Stormwind to hitch a ride with other neutrals, but ended up working a couple of weeks in the dwarven district before leaving with a caravan to Stranglethorn, from there to Tel'Abim, and then back to Ratchet.

Firewire: That brings me to my third question. Boush is married to Kreena at the moment. They both have two children with each other. I'm guessing this is a player to player relationship as well? Does it end within the borders of WoW RP or not?

Boush: Not at all, we're a pair IRL as well. She's my girlfriend who lives in Norway.

Firewire: That's quite a distance still. Did you two meet in WoW for the first time? Or did you know each other before that?

Boush: Aye. We met almost eight years ago in WoW, but the feelings we have these days developed roughly four years ago. We have our third anniversary in the winter. The distance is long, but I am working to move there myself, learn the language and start work.

Firewire: Is there a date of the wedding already?

Boush: Hah, not at all. We live day by day, we don't really plan too much ahead. But I could well imagine that happening.

Firewire: Meeting a girl in a game, then deciding to live with that girl in a different country, learning a different language sounds pretty life changing to me. Would you say that WoW is more than just a game?

Boush: It's the world's biggest dating site, hah. But for real, I think I'd never have this fluent and good grasp on English without it, nor so vast amount of cultural knowledge. If anything, it's a phase I'd recommed everyone to try at least once in their life. You also meet great people like Fyne, Perroy, Mance, Moody, Matowa, Dark, and many others, sharing awesome tales about IRL and other stuff.

Firewire: Let's make a swing back into the realm of RP. Would you share your favorite storyline or RP event with us, at least a short version of it?

Boush: Ahh, what a tough question. I really have so many good ones, but I got to say I -really- enjoyed the Gnometheus even we had with the Iron Vulture. We were hunting for an ancient gnome artifact, Bloat (Fyne), Djem, Moody and me. We also had our NPC crew - like Murder, the gnoll - with us. We ended up fighting Zandalari trolls and sea monsters, before finally catching an epic gnome artifact, ending with a small cinematic some person had made of it. And then there was the Abyss campaign, during which the crew (the same combo) and Feranos with his ogre and Ransul from Blackguard fought off a group of naga and killed their warlord together, with me as a DM. It was amazing. All in all, best part about Iron Vulture, while they're rare, are the events. I also have many warm memories of The Hallowed Balls, all of which I host annually during Hallow's End.

Firewire: Purely out of personal interest I'm coming back to your monster hunter character you mentioned earlier. I always thought that WoW would make an awesome monster hunter game, if they would just add something like a list, or a card collection for every monster you kill, you catch, or whatever. How does your RP monster hunter work out? Like how do you play a monster hunter IC?

Boush: Most of his ventures are stories I write, the latest one being his black dragon hunt, as it is quite hard to find evil RPers that want their characters get killed/hunted. Most of the RP comes from people asking about him and him telling stories about how he got each trophy of his armor he carries (he wears a set of trophies on his armor and braids a strand of his mane in honor of the hunt). But there was a moment during WoD when he helped to kill a Gronn, or well, actually solo killed it, since the melee had such a terrible time killing it.

Firewire: Could you tell us a little bit about the story of the guild you are currently in, so others get a picture what you guys are up to?

Boush: We're the best airship pirates the Azeroth has ever known; The Crew of Iron Vulture! We're the terror of the skies, liberating dead (and alive) people of the burden of their pockets' and belongings' weight, working for our own goals. With the ship crashed, the crew is scattered around the world to make up money to get the great machine back up to the sky, to blot out the sun. We're led by the infamous Captain Carnage, the best goblin pirate there is to this date on Azeroth.

http://lu0l4mursu.deviantart.com/art/The-Iron-vulture-454633274

Firewire: Do you have any ideas how to change WoW to improve the RP experience, beside toy cooldowns, armor customization, and cross-faction communication?

Boush: Remove orks. No but seriously, add more customization in the sense of your character's looks; Update worgen and goblin models, give us the ability to haul bags, banners and the like, not just the armor/gear we wear. That's about it really, since WoW is otherwise a pretty good RP ground, all things considered.

Firewire: Usually I ask people what their favorite place in WoW is. You seem to have a special relationship to Ratchet. Could you tell us a little more about it?

Boush: It's really the look of it that I enjoy. I mean I love Kezan, Booty Bay and other places too, but ever since I first started WoW, these places have always been the set up places of "adventure". Taking a ship or wyvern to start an epic adventure of some sorts, but first taking a look in the greedy goblin town to see if there's anything you might need for your travels. That, and it's run by Gazlowe, my 2nd favourite lore character.

Firewire: Who is your favorite than?

Boush: Cairne Bloodhoof, hands down. Epic bull, got me into WoW the first time I started. That guy had serious charisma, and an amazing storyline and personality. Was really sad to see such a good character go.

Firewire: Is there someone you would like me to interview next, and would you like to ask that person a certain question?

Boush: Perroy, definitely. And ask him how'd he end up in the Forsaken RP scene in the first place, never asked him.

Firewire: Anything else you'd like to share or add? Any shout outs?

Boush: If anything, big shout outs to Brigante and the Sunhawks, and the late Gnomish Territorial Army. Both guilds are/were amazing and have wonderful people in them, all of which I have had great pleasure RPing with.

Firewire: Thank you so much for your time and this interview. It always blows my mind how many nice people you can meet while playing a videogame. All the best to you!

Boush: Likewise. It has been a pleasure, truly. Looking forward to RPing with you.