PvP PTSD & Norwegian Mayhem – A War Dragons Therapy Session

0:00 Hey everybody, welcome back to the Space Tomatoes podcast with I'm your host Alex. I almost forgot my name there for a second. And I'm Havoc. That's Havoc. Hey, Havoc, how are you today? I'm doing great. Off to a great start. We have a special guest today.

0:40 Hello, Spani. Welcome. Hello, thanks for having me. Thank you for showing up. We had a little miscommunication, left you hanging here for a little bit. We apologize for the error that we made. My time zones and such, you know, I completely messed up. So I'm an hour I should have been, but on time from when I thought I should have been, which wasn't when I should have been. So I should myself. We'll just blame you constantly. Everyone else does, so it's all right. But glad you're here. Happy to have you here. What part of the world do you hail from, if you don't mind sharing? Yeah, I live in Norway.

1:20 Norway. I think that's a first for us. I don't think we've ever had anybody from Norway on the show. true and true viking awesome part of my uh my heritage or lineage or whatever you want to call it is a norwegian i don't know much about it a little bit but not too much come visit me i'll teach you all right can you throw an axe i have actually thrown an axe uh always when you do that team bonding at work you have to throw axes for some reason awesome awesome we do that in construction here, but we throw axes at each other. I have some co-workers that I wouldn't mind throwing axe on, but I don't think that would be approved.

2:07 Yeah, HR, maybe. Maybe worse. Who knows? Hopefully they're not watching. Probably not. Chances are pretty slim they're not. Well, awesome. So, Spawny, correct me if I'm wrong, but you were the leader for Fiery River, correct? Nope. I've never been on Fiery River. I was on Top Gun. Top Gun. Okay. I'm so sorry. I've seen my brain. I'm pretty useless. Yeah, you are male. This is true. Prone to stupidity. Yeah. So, no, I was never on Fiery.

2:51 So, So, yeah. But I was in Sampa. You had that right. Well, very cool. Very cool. So how long did you quit or are you still playing or what's that all going on? Now you mean? I'm still playing. And I just returned to the mothership, which is Top Gun TG. so I've been there since last event and so I was talking briefly to Alex while we were waiting for you and I told him that I'm going back there to see if I can get my mojo back we all know how the game are at the moment and it is stale and it is a bit repetitive but I do hope that it will be fun again.

3:51 And it's at least that is fun for me. The PvP is boring as shit, to be honest. Yeah. You mean the non-Atlas PvP or just PvP in general? The non-Atlas PvP. Yeah. All of them. especially crystal caves yeah i mean all the events are are pretty much i i think that there's like one of them that's new from when i first started the game in 2017 2016 so and and it's still you know as lx likes to say two lefts two rights and you're home Yep. I think actually there are two because I started in July 2018. And I remember when they introduced Temple.

4:51 Oh, that's right. Temple Raid. Yeah. And then later Crystal Caves. Yep. Of course, when they, yeah. And they turned the plug out on the, oh God, what was the name? With the map. where you took area. I never mind. They ruined it. I know what you're talking about. The one where you basically came in and you had like a tile that was yours and that was your home. Yes. And then you attacked to like, you know, increase your territory and kind of, if you could, surround enemies and keep them in a little at their home option.

5:37 if you could optimally keep them at their home yeah i got i got to see a few uh maps that that from d1 back when dread was playing that were uh quite quite silly like i kind of remember enjoying that that event honestly yeah yeah i had some good memories of it i had some good times yeah when when you can cut off an enemy and keep them with you know they get one maybe two tiles the whole event it's it's a little satisfying yeah yeah i was in sapphire uh and uh we ruled that in sapphire it it was really fun i i enjoyed it so me and batshit i was on fifth legion back then and uh we went totally nuts oh yeah so uh yeah it was fun yeah i remember one event and and i can't remember oh yeah no i remember no it was is les voltares or whatever you know uh from the the silly vampire movie or whatever what was that twilight i think was where that came was that no it was diary of a vampire wasn't it i don't know you have the box set don't you no i don't anyway there was a guy kosa kosa popped that or something like that and uh he he was you know we were kind of you know going at each other in atlas and everything else and he came into lc and just

7:11 started trash talking me and uh i remember that event i i spent an inordinate amount of time and effort in just encircling their they happened to show up right next to us like they were our nearest neighbor and i just beelined it over there and just mega mega dumped i mean just keep dumping megagas and just circled them and just kept expanding that circle and every time they would get one tile i'd just immediately go smack that tile and kill them and we kept them inside that event that little bubble the whole event they couldn't get anything it was it was gratifying do you get any messages of appreciation from them no but he he didn't come into lc uh talking trash anymore after that one.

8:02 Yeah, that's fair enough. Kingdom Wars or something like that it was called. Yeah, Kingdom Wars. Yep. Old brains. So how long of a break did you take before you came back this last time? Me? Yeah, how long were you away from it? I've never taken a break. Oh, I thought you were... Oh, okay. Well, I was going, saying I was going back to Top Gun, but I've been all over the place. Oh, okay. I'm just interested. Yeah, I started, like I said, in July 2018. And then I joined, at level 30, I think, a team called Drago Attack, which is, of course, long gone.

8:51 And, well, it was a fun team. I mean, our leader was named Clam Eater. and that was quite a good description of the team, sort of. And then we merged with The Condemned, mostly because we liked the name of the team and that was a fun team. It was led by a woman called Sadie. Hi, Sadie, if you're listening to this. and she was an adult store manager. Yeah, she taught us a lot of stuff, believe me.

9:34 Oh, boy. And it was also the only team I've ever been on. And at the time, I thought this was normal, but we had a nude section with team members. Mostly breasts when it came to the women and not breasts when it came to the men. No? No, that was junk. And obviously it wasn't everyone, but it was quite an album. And I also had one officer, my fellow officer, who posted the ad pictures of male prostitutes in team chat, and no one raised an eyebrow.

10:23 Wow. So that was kind of normal on that team. It was a fun one. It really was. And it's also the only team I've ever been kicked from. Because as fun as it was, it was drama nonstop. I was going to say, you didn't share in the room. Would it be too much to ask? Sorry, I talked over your havoc. No, I was going to say, you didn't share in the room and you got kicked. No, actually, I didn't share in the room. And that was not why I was kicked. But to be honest, I really, really can't remember why.

11:06 Because it was, like I said, drama all the time. And I do have a temper. So I was probably pretty mean. But even though me and six or seven others got kicked mid-advent, uh tvp and we were in a room with another team strategizing and suddenly we were gone from the team mid-event and and uh then i think it was a week after about half the team members had left So they wanted me back, but I didn't.

11:51 And that was when I joined my first Atlas team, which was Paddy Dragons. Okay, Paddy Dragons, yeah. Yeah, and they were arachnid back then. Not that I really cared, because I didn't know anything about alliances or politics, because I came from a non-Atlas team and all I knew was what I had read in the forums. So Dread and NMO and all those were kind of something far, far away, like a fairy tale almost.

12:35 And so, yeah, Peddra again. And I was there about a year, but I wasn't allowed to do anything. in Atlas really, except hitting guards, every PvP. And maybe that was a smart thing because I would have done a lot of stuff. But anyway and then back then it was enough that he was semi in LC and probably funny a little bit So do you guys remember Paper Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He recruited me to Fifth Legion. And that's really when my Atlas career started with Batshit, George, England Surfer, Paper, Leah, and all of them.

13:22 and they kind of took me under the wings, especially paper when it comes to Atlas. He taught me a lot of stuff and the other taught me a lot of stuff being an officer because I had obviously never been an officer in Atlas either. So I played for quite a long while in fish and then I went to Top Gun, TG. and I had six months there. It was really good. And then Sampe War, part of that. And I was in leadership in Top Gun when Sampe War started.

14:10 So obviously everything that went on, I didn't know about. But either way, war started. Sina promised to not take any sides, neither to Dominus or to Semper. And the first two months were pretty quiet. I mean, we couldn't take anything from Dom and they couldn't take anything from us. The turning point was when First Reb traded them in and we were suddenly open. I think Ferry was opened nine castles, and Top Gun five, if I remember correctly.

14:55 And then it just went downhill from there. So, but it was rough. I mean, we had thousands of attacks every Atlas day for months. Those silly dread people out there doing character building all day, every day. you this was after dread had uh disbanded but obviously a lot of dread people went to creed yeah empire a and d and so forth so um i mean am i fond of those teams no did i cry when some of them went under no do i see when i look behind that something needed to happen.

15:47 I mean, both Dom and Semper, Dread, Gone, that was not balance in the game at all. Yeah. So something had to happen. But the way it went down was, I mean, the toxic shit, the intrigues, the drama, that wasn't necessary. Yeah. Yeah, no, it definitely shook things up. You know, for all the, you know, all the dissatisfaction with the big alliances and everything, there, you know, for what it's worth, for the most part, there was a lot more balance, I think, in Atlas at that time, right?

16:35 Now, it wouldn't be so if you were directly, you know, in Dredd's crosshairs or their five TAs crosshairs, right? obviously but in general there was a lot more balance and i think once they left that void opened up and and man it got messy real messy friends you know friendly teams that have been you know with each other for a long time were suddenly fighting and yeah it got it got weird yeah it did and of course up to then i had mostly seen the dread side i mean i mean when i was on we had the great honor of being trappers.

17:15 We weren't allowed to hit, but we went in with 20, 30 trappers and traps and dread and company eight. I don't know, Alex, if you remember that. No, not very well. I've kind of blocked everything out. I've tried to. So I only saw the dread side And I don't know really how the other side felt about it or if they felt very dominated by Dredd and Semper back then. I'm not sure really.

17:57 But I think the only big fight that I was involved with was with Royal World. and I was on Fisht then and of course Fisht being a Sapphire team in Semper we were we got beaten pretty bad by Royal Road but of course they lost because the rest of Semper and Dome was too much for them but yeah but it was fun back then it was really fun so and we got beaten pretty hard during Sump of War.

18:40 And at the end, we really, Top Gun didn't really have any other choice than to semi-disband, which we did. And that was when I went to Fires' Clan. Fires' Clan, that was it. FC, I'm so sorry, I said Fiery River earlier. But I was an FC. Yes. and pretty much the reason that a group of us went to FC back then was because that was the only team that ever under the sample wall from that side actually tried to help. And they got beaten up pretty badly for it, but they helped.

19:24 And we also had some teams on the Dread side that will remain unnamed that also helped us in the dark. Not by fighting or because we told them, you're too small, you will be crushed, so stay out of it. But they helped and supported in other ways. And thank you guys for that. And so, yeah, went to FC. And that was hell of a team. That was, I mean, we got beaten up by A&D and Empire and God knows who didn't smash us. But it was a really good team, and the people were amazing.

20:09 And I really miss FC. But it was fun while it lasted. What happened to them? Did they disband? They disbanded, but that was because most of the leadership was burned out. and no one really wanted to take over. So we decided to disband. But it was the best we had been in a long while when we disbanded. So it wasn't because we were broken or anything. It was just, well, we couldn't get people to take over leadership.

20:50 And that was that. So then I went to foreign forces. Oh, OK. I didn't know you were on WE. I was. I came in, as Casey said, that she lost quite a lot of members when Odin quit. One of the times Odin quit. Right. And most of the AD people, like Akai, they left. Many retired. And I joined then. and then we kind of rebuilt. We were in TA then with 7-Eleven and SS and World Risen came a little bit later and, of course, MD also a bit later.

21:43 And that was a really good TA, very active TA, a good TA, lots of raids, very fun. And then, of course, the war between A&D and Crete slash Nisi were in the emerging. So SS jumped over to A&D and the rest of us continued. And some wanted to join A&D side and some wanted to join Crete side. and I didn't want to join either side because my wet dream, which I knew wasn't really going to happen, but a wet dream is a wet dream, right, was that Creed and A&D would destroy each other, even though I knew that wouldn't happen.

22:37 And so, I mean, we were kind of between a hard rock and a hard place, damned if you do, damned if you don't. when there is a split in leadership about strategy and there are splits in the team about. So when war enforcers joined the A&D side, or joined the A&D side, they never really joined. They joined the TA, but then half the team left. So there wasn't much help for A&D, really. So that was that. Okay. Yeah, that must have been after I quit because they were still kind of at each other at that point.

23:18 And then I had three weeks in B-Web, or four maybe, because World Risen took most of my group or my people when I asked them to, but there were no room for me really. So then I went to B-Web for a while waiting for a spot, and then I went to World Risen. Yeah, so B-Web actually disbanded, didn't they? Yeah, they did. Well, first, they had just been hit by that ban wave when I joined. A lot of the players got banned.

24:00 And then I joined with some other people joined, and they disbanded after I left. Not because I left, but a while after I had left and gone to UWR. You never know. It could have been that they just missed your sparkling personality. Maybe. You know, without Spawny, we're nothing. That's it. Disband the team. Yeah. Well, I have been a bit unlucky like that. I mean, I fifth disbanded, but that was after I left. and then of course Top Gun disbanded then I was leadership so but I kind of don't think I am to blame for that one I blame more Creed actually and Empire and then I joined FC and they so my history aren't that good really yeah so here's for anyone listening Spawny's awesome bring Spawny onto your team but don't ever let her go or you'll disband it's just that's the way it works yeah maybe okay so and then after WR I've and I'm gonna get hate mail for this I decided I wanna be a pirate arrr arrr

25:31 I don't want any more of this shit. I want to be a pirate. So I went to Jokers. Oh, okay. And Insane Jokers, because I had actually promised Forsworn, who was the previous leader of Jokers, that I would join them at some point. Obviously, well, he had left when I joined, but still, I went to Jokers. And that didn last very long really And I still wanted to be a pirate because I had just been a pirate for a few weeks.

26:12 And then we joined six years. Okay. And that was the team that I've been on until last week. And it was a pirate team when I joined, and but we decided that we wanted to rebuild. So when I left now, we had all of 11 castles. That's a lot of castles for a pirate team. Yeah, so we are kind of, Fixius is still kind of pirates at heart in that matter that they really don't care who they hit, that side or whatever. But of course, as Castles owner and with Infra and everything, they are not Pirates anymore.

27:00 So what do you think about the proposed or coming changes to PRIMS for the Pirates? What are your thoughts on that? I'm not sure that more of the same will help. I mean, they took away the G2, and there are about the same amount of pirates. Some have taken castles and guards, and some new pirates have emerged. Is piracy a problem? Yes, it is. Yeah. Is it intended gameplay? No, it's not.

27:42 But like I said, I don't know if the prim thing, because the picture, what's wrong with Atlas is more complex than that. I mean, you have the decline of the player base. You have way too many castles for the teams and player base that are now. Oh, yeah. I think that maybe a mix of a carrot and the whip will work better than just the whip. Maybe one should do something about cooldowns. I mean, 15-hour cooldown on the T5 red, if I remember correctly.

28:25 Yeah. Yeah, it's insane. No, I definitely agree with that. But I, yeah, I think, you know, there's, I don't know, I think you're right, right? Throwing out just punishment for not playing a certain way is not really going to get you there, especially if the punishment really isn't that big of a deal. I mean, and it kind of is, right? I mean, if you're going in there with, you know, silver prims against, you know, G2s, your glory is going to suffer. that being said there should be more incentive to actually hold castles as opposed to disincentivizing not holding them and and i think uh there's a big thing for that and like you said the cooldowns are a huge a massive part of that you know you literally take you know once you get to t4 or above it's over one half of an entire day where you have to be active and paying attention to that castle because there's nothing you can do you you just have to fight you know and so you know the fact that you only have a you know short window until the cooldown happens whether you want to or not and then the very long cooldown really in my eyes disincentivizes holding castles right and then like you said if you you know i was showing a few screenshots in game there are just tons i mean tons of castles t5s t4s everywhere that you could just go take there's nobody on

30:02 them nobody wants them so they're the competitive nature of you know there's some form of scarcity to castles doesn't even exist so you once again have disincentivized people from holding castles you know I know how they can fix it what did you say? I know how they can fix it if PJ's listening they just need to add a new currency maybe two they just did they just did maybe make it only purchasable in the largest packs no way to earn it otherwise that would fix all the game problems of course of course I think I also think that on the T4s, maybe that shouldn't be 100% glory.

30:53 T5's fine. Shorter cooldowns. And I wish they also could take away some of the castles that are there because there are, as you said, there are too many. There are way too many. It's depressing. I think they should reset it to not the first release, but the first, after the first land grab of Atlas, they should, they should cut it at that, right? Because after that one, they went in and added a bunch more T5s and T4s, if I recall correctly, because there was a problem with some certain big teams owning all of the T5s and nobody else could even have a T5. And so I think you've, you know, yeah, agreed, drop the castles.

31:40 Right now, you know, a player on my old team did some work with the API. There's only 38,000 players in the game, right? So if you were to look at the number of teams that have, you know, even if you just went to low activity teams, right, and just take low activity and up and count those teams, you could come up with a pretty reasonable number for the amount of castles that should be in the map and there's probably you know double or triple the needed amount i also think they did a mistake opening up atlas for everyone yeah i i i do and i don't i think personally i think the way they should have is they should have made Atlas a little, a little more league specific, right? So maybe pair up gold and platinum, platinum and sapphire, sapphire and diamond, you know what I mean? So you're trimming it down. So the platinum teams aren't out there with diamond teams running around and, you know, things of that nature. Uh, some, some kind of segmentation like that, I think would have been good because it would have opened up more dynamic con combat because right now you've got, you know, if you were to take alliances completely out of the equation, you've got a situation where you got

33:11 to kind of hunt and peck. If you're say in, in Sapphire three, right? Um, is there a Sapphire three? No platinum one. There's only two Sapphires, right? Or is there a three? I can't remember. anyway you've got a situation where if you know you're going to look around the map and you're going to find teams that are too small and just too easy to beat on and then teams that are too big but the teams that fit in your range they're hard to find and most of the time you're going to have to go through teams that are probably less desirable for you either really bad glory or you know for some reason they're friends with some big team and you've got to go hop over some really big team's castle and you just get beat up before you even get to your objective right and then another thing that i personally think should be rolled back is the 30 seconds to hop castles right i just think it should be rolled back you cannot on most phones you cannot load the game and then enter atlas and then go and select your prim and and do your action inside of a 30 second window it's not possible i'm not sure i follow you on the league thing because then when you go up and down in leagues and um do you lose your property or whatever um And besides, you do have the APR thing that also should be fixed, by the way.

34:47 Oh, yeah, the APR is terminally broken. Yeah. And I think, unfortunately, and this doesn't go for every pirate team, obviously, but I think they will also be hitting down with just Silver Prince. because like you said, the glory for them otherwise will be shit. So I hope it works, but I'm not sure I believe it will. Yeah, I mean, well, to be honest with you, almost everyone hits down, right? I mean, at the end of the day, if you go looking for a fighter, you're looking for one you can win and you know you can win or, hey, I'm not sure, we might lose this and it might be really bad for us if we do.

35:35 you know the that's the choice that's made and so you know like you know my old team sapphire 2 right we would get attacked by the likes of war enforcers and btk and sand slingers and you know things of this we are we were never never matched with those people not not in any way shape or form but we still got pummeled by them so and there's a reason for that you know of course oh we wanted to get into this area well sure but you you know you've got you know seven teams back there that just can't match you yeah well we just want the area it's it's one of those things you're always going to find that in a game so it's tough you know but there's there is no incentive to go after teams that are matched closer to you in fact you're disincentivized from doing so and there's no incentive to be a smaller team getting pummeled on a by a bigger team you know what i mean in fact it's it's all punishment yeah i do know what you mean i've been on both sides yeah being punished and punished same i mean i i have you know and i will admit you know given the choice between a a completely fair match or beating on someone that we know has some weaknesses yeah we're going to take the weaknesses why because we want to win you know what i mean that's the name of the game is to win it's conquest it's conquer it's not you know you know

37:10 five rounds the bell dings and then it goes to you know some determination that's not the desired outcome it's conquer yeah i it is often how it plays out but on the other hand i do remember fights with equal teams where it went back and forth and it was fun yes and it was really fun those were the days of the big alliances really and i think the alliances really helped like i said bring balance people you know see see them as an obstacle and yes they were for a a portion of the game right for a portion of the players but for a very large amount of the players they brought some kind of balance you know you had you know dom fighting you know uh they were pretty equally met you know royal road and and dread going at it you know fairly evenly matched um and then you you know you get down and and you looked at the the rankings of the teams and it was like the rankings of the teams in dom were one thing and then in semper would be another thing and then you know as you go down that list of you know the smaller player you know smaller teams you know you have the different alliances and they were fairly evenly matched and they fought amongst each other the same tier of alliances and when that alliance structure broke down

38:44 the next thing you know you've got you know these top tier alliances you know hitting teams that they would have you know that would have been two alliances lower that would have been fighting each other now it the top tier fighting these lower you know folks and it broke down pretty quickly It isn easy finding targets now and if you and obviously if you are the top dog you always have to hit down it just how far down you hit really yeah yeah but you know hey the game's still around which is which is somewhat surprising to me and somewhat not i mean the community around it the game itself is that's the surprising part The thing that, you know, War Dragons still has in my eyes is that camaraderie, that community.

39:34 It's more than just a game. These are people that have become friends. And that they did really well. Whether they meant to or not, that occurred in this particular game and has not in a lot of games. I think it must have been a happy accident. But they did succeed with that one. And of course, the forums and everything around that was a big part of it. And yeah, yeah. And I've met many friends and quite a bit of foes during the Weedy journey we all have had. Oh, yeah, for sure.

40:15 I think the smartest thing they ever did was putting the biggest jerk they could find in charge of the player satisfaction aspect of the game. Oh, gee. it's it's bag on jared day here we are at space tomatoes bring out your dead oh my goodness oh my that guy sure did come across uh you know like i i at one point on a forum i remember i was thanking someone and for some reason i thought he had said it and i was like hey thanks for that that information is really helpful and blah blah blah and you know he just went on tirade about how he didn't do it and it wasn't wasn't him that wrote that and you should be thinking you know i was like dude you don't have to be like that you really don't and i i imagine you have to try hard to be like that oh it definitely gave a different aspect of the the forums there for a while i i enjoyed them though i mean despite all that fact that i still uh enjoyed my time there until they they i guess they kind of get rid of them that was after they did yeah they moved them moved them to discord which blows but whatever the forums were cool i liked it that was the first game i'd ever been on that i think it's the first game that i'd ever played that actually had an active forum forum where they actually engaged you know staff

41:47 engaged with the players and you know not just the forum but the creators faction and the uh what was the other one they had a players faction and you know they they put these things on that kind of helped i think nudge towards community yeah some of the first i saw on the forums It was a guy called Jeff, and he wrote a weekly bulletin of the wars in D1. And being a little player down, way down, you know, in Platinum and Gold, etc., that was like, ooh.

42:32 But he quit for some reason, but those were good. that was the only knowledge I really had on D1 was his articles about the weekly articles about the drama and wars in D1 I thought it was NMO or something my introduction to my introduction to D1 was interesting there was a glitch for some reason and we got thrown into D1 lc like our lc was d1's lc and i always thought lc is pretty toxic like just avoid that mess you know what i mean and then we got thrown into d1 lc and i was just like i don't i don't know how how to yeah i was dumbfounded i'm like wow the level of troll in this this lc is I mean almost beyond comprehension I was just like get me out of here It's like kindergarten now compared to how it was Oh really?

43:40 I don't know if what has happened to humankind but everyone is offended by everything these days Oh I'm offended by that You are? Deal with it I'd have to agree with you though there is a lot of offended people running around there is so yeah but I don't I mean I was in D1 a long time and I really don't miss it I'm really happy we are going up and down from D1 no from D1 Sapphire 1 to D2 and just staying alive and doing PvP is enough now for D2.

44:28 So it isn't what it was. Yeah, no, I saw a list of who's in D1 now, and I was like, what? How? And, you know, I mean, it just, you know, the really top tier teams have almost all, not all of them, but almost all of them disappeared. Nowadays, you want to stay out of the one. Yeah, right. You lose them, of course. So, yeah. So do you see yourself in five years still playing War Dragons? Oh, God, no. In years?

45:10 If I do, do you see yourself having this podcast in five years, my friend? Yes. Yeah, well, if I still play, then I'll come back. Awesome. Yeah. So the podcast has been not exclusively, but the podcast has been quite focused on war dragons. But that's not the intent. The intent is war dragons are where, you know, we kind of came from, where the idea from this kind of sprouted with LX and Kroth at the time. And, you know, the idea is that this will broaden and we've got some people hopefully lined up. I don't want to say we have them lined up because that seems to be challenging.

45:57 But we've got people lined up that we want to talk with that, you know, are doing things like agronomy or AI or, you know, other technology, et cetera. So we'll be bringing on other subject matter experts in areas that we're interested in and interested in learning about. as well as maintaining contact with the War Dragons community for as long as that happens to continue to exist. We won't. I'm sorry. No, you go ahead. If War Dragons 2 ever comes out, we're going to be the first ones to have a podcast all about it and telling them how terrible Pocket Gems is.

46:40 Well, they are pretty terrible, aren't they? So, yes. We should do that. We should go on a War Dragon, not a war dragons a pg tirade and we'll just download their games and play them for like an hour just to get a feel for them delete them and then just come on here and just rip them apart i i have several dozen old podcasts you can listen to that that's basically all that we did oh really that's so bad that was my vent to get it all out there you go so uh sponnie what do you what do you do for fun besides war dragons and stuff i mean you know norway there's at least i've seen pictures and and stuff it seems like there's just a ton to do outdoors and other stuff what do you do for fun well i love traveling and mostly you're never a prophet or or see you on country but uh i travel mostly abroad but if i don't travel four times a year abroad then that's a failure kind of So traveling, indeed. I also love to read, which is mostly an indoor activity, I have to admit. And I also do art.

48:02 Oh, nice. So what kind of, so, okay, let me reverse a little bit. So what are you reading currently? Currently, I'm reading an epic fantasy by John Gwynn. Okay. How is it? It's good. It's really good. Awesome. So, this is the third and last series he's written, and this one is situated in a Norse mythic landscape inspired, and he has actually stolen quite a bit from Norwegian folk tales in it.

48:42 so that's annoying me kind of but besides that it's a really really good book but I also I am mostly into epic fantasy like Robin Hobb George Martin obviously Game of Thrones I read the books long before the TV series and I also enjoy history that's real history and And of course, some really good serial killer novels to get out my aggression is also good.

49:23 Awesome. So I kind of read like others take drugs, right? It's like the game. It's an escape from reality and just block your head, block everything out and enjoy an adventure. Oh, yeah, for sure. So what's your favorite destination? What's the one that just, you know, kind of always bubbles up to the top of the list when you travel? Oh, God, that is such a difficult question, because there are so many amazing places. Florida? But I have to advertise for my homeland, which is Iceland.

50:05 Oh, nice. Nice. That's the green one. For anyone watching, just in case you didn't know, like if you're from the United States you probably don't know but the green one is Iceland the icy one is Greenland just the way it is so you're alright although Iceland do have a fair share of glaciers oh yeah absolutely but in general if you look at like satellite imagery most of Greenland is ice and most of Iceland is green which is weird but okay that's kind of tricky well i'm guessing you know hey back in the day maybe they mistook which one was which and when they named it you know what i mean like hey you're you're on a wood boat you're you're going over there and you you land and you're like yeah well this is pretty much like what we thought it was but it's all ice is this greenland and they're like yeah of course it's greenland okay well this is greenland now no maybe maybe they should make the names of places more descriptive like uh humid swampy uh mosquito alligator land florida that would be good yeah see you know exactly where you're getting right right yeah well very cool that that that does sound cool so uh what do you have planned for trips coming up uh in the near future well i have i've kind of done one of them. We were six weeks in New Zealand and a little trip to Australia. So

51:39 I was away all of January. The next one isn't that exotic. We are going to England. Oh, okay. And that's this summer. And then I am going to Budapest in October. Wow. And actually back to England in November with my sister, because she insisted that we went to London this time. always go a week together in the fall or early winter. And this last year it was Dublin, and before that it was Edinburgh. She likes the UK. She gets to decide where we go.

52:20 So she doesn't like good food? Well, she does. But, you know, they have other restaurants than English Kitchen. Right, that's nice. But I do enjoy Italy as well, and Spain. and my husband runs a lot of marathons. So we kind of combine it. He runs one day and the rest of the time is mine. Oh, wonderful. Yeah. You might know my neighbors. They did a lot of marathons and they were telling me they were some of the only people that ran on all the continents. They did one in Antarctica. I didn't even know they had marathons in Antarctica. They do.

53:01 We actually have one in Norway as well that is on a frozen lake called the ice bug. Because why not? I think he's practicing to run away from me with all this marathon running, but he always comes back. So I guess it's okay then. Well, you know, just wait until he's about mile 20 and then you just like walk up to him, push him over. Yeah. And of course, like I said, art is also a big part of my free time, which is why I shouldn't really play.

53:43 I have enough to do, really. So when you say art, is that oil paint or watercolors or ceramics? I do mainly prints and acrylic paintings, but mostly prints, actually. Okay. So... Maybe you could share some with us online. I'd like to see them. Yeah, if you want to share some, we'll throw it in the podcast as well. Love to do that. So that's also kind of a reality escape. Just go in the flow and create. Very nice. And of course I work.

54:24 I have to say that I work as well. I do have to earn a living. Okay, all right. So here's a question I got for you. Let's say if my family and the LX's family and we decided one day, hey, let's go to Norway. What would you say for someone that you knew coming to Norway to go do what to go see, etc.? And, you know, I'm talking outside of like, oh, you know, the tourist stuff. I would definitely go to the Western part. And of course, I am biased because I grew up in a fjord.

55:05 And you have two big ones. And the second largest is where I grew up. And even though it is kind of a tourist destination, there are still pockets there which isn't and which are stunningly beautiful. And the eastern part where I live at the moment is stay away. Boring. hilly, flat, boring. But northern Norway is also really beautiful. And if you come, not maybe July, but if you come in June or August, they aren't that touristy either.

55:49 So isn't the eastern part of Norway a lot of farmland? Yeah, it is. I live in the capital though so I live in a city and I'll take the eastern part myself well you are welcome to visit you wouldn't be the first war dragon person to visit me so I'll take good care of you oh awesome and but it has its charm the eastern part as well but for a first time visit to Norway. Definitely the western parts and definitely up north.

56:30 Okay. It sounds like something I need to plan. I've always wanted to go. It depends what you like really because the the western part are more wild, more mountains and fjords and a lot of trees The northern part are more Well the landscape is dramatic but quite different But I should turn it around. If I was going to the U.S., where would you say that I should go? As a first-time traveler? Because there is so much to choose from.

57:10 There is. And the first question I would ask you is, what do you enjoy? because it's big. It's really, really big, right? So you, you know, if you like desert, okay, I've got areas to tell you to go. If you like, you know, mountains, I've got areas to tell you to go. If you like water areas, you see forests. Okay, what kind of forest? Do you want oak trees? Do you want gigantic, you know, redwoods and sequoias? Do you want pine forest, fir? So it's kind of hard to say what's a must see. But if you tell me what do you like to go do or see on vacation, that helps narrow it down.

57:57 Yeah, I know. And it's the same with Norway, really. It depends what you want to do and what you want to see and be prepared for shitty weather. Yeah. If you want to see some beautiful landscape, I mean, you can't go wrong with kind of the very well-known ones, right? um you know yosemite is gorgeous um yellowstone that's an amazing site um been to both of them okay the grand canyon is also pretty cool um you've been yeah i was telling alex before we before we started the only places i haven't been i only states are the midwestern one like cancer centers and unfortunately i haven't been to alaska i would really love to see alaska alaska's gorgeous um from what i've i haven't been either um from the midwest i i mean uh yeah i i don't you know i don't know there's there's not a whole lot that i would unless you like a lot of farmland which is what a lot of the midwest is that's pretty much your your options there a lot of outdoor stuff you know hunting fishing um you know things of that nature bird watching you know just being out in the middle of nowhere a lot of a lot of good places for that but not really you know like the great divide is just kind of lame i mean it's you know

59:29 the continental divide it just kind of looks like a an old riverbed almost you know kind of a deep riverbed but an old riverbed it's part of the reason we never went there i think it's pretty terrible i would never suggest yeah you've got to go see this if you're a geologist maybe but other than that i don't think so um you know but there's just plenty to do i mean nashville have you ever been to nashville tennessee yeah i've been to i haven't been a lot to tennessee unfortunately i've been to memphis and drove and passed but it not not seen uh i've been to that um i don't recall the name but the kind of the plateau that's a big higher up um and of course i've never been to that dolly thing but i've been in that area the dolly parton thing yeah yeah yeah that's that's a cool place to be um i mean you know you've got a lot of history here uh for us right it's it's very brief history comparatively but you know if you want there's a lot of civil war stuff around the area uh on the east coast not not in midwest so much um you've got forts you know and old plantations as well which is you know kind of a sobering experience um so yeah i don't know florida in july and august is pretty nice stay away from florida

1:01:08 just just don't there's crazy people down there and alligators and mosquitoes and it's really really really hot. And the drivers aren't that good either. Yeah, and the drivers are horrible. Yeah, I've been to Florida as well. It's okay by the coast. I mean, like Key West and... But I was stupid enough to park in Everglades open the car doors and that was a big mistake Very big mistake. But I don't... I'm sorry, Alex, but I don't think I would survive living there with those temperatures and that humidity.

1:01:55 It takes a little bit of getting used to. No, it doesn't. There's no getting used to it. You're not even used to it. You just hide inside. That's right. It's not getting used to it. That's hiding from it. Maybe that's, I don't know. Because when I like to travel personally, I like to thoroughly examine the inside of my accommodations thoroughly while I battle my crippling travel anxiety. So I'm used to it. I'm not a good traveler by any means. Well, you should. Come visit me. I'll feed you. All right. As long as it's not that stinky fish stuff that I've seen on the internet.

1:02:35 Oh, Lutefisk? Yeah, that's it. No, thank you. Well, you are our Norwegian descent, you said. Of course you have to have Lutefisk. That's what I've told. I don't think you could even get LX 10 feet from that without him initiating gag reflex or worse. Probably not. It is an acquired taste. I mean, I can remember not liking it as a kid. but now I actually do like it but it's enough to have it like once a year now here's the question do you like it enough to open it inside of your house oh yes because that's nothing compared to the Icelandic delicacy of half rotten shark that smells yeah alright I'm gonna have to this whole Norwegian trip here. I don't know about now, honestly, I'd try it. I'd give it a shot. I'd do my best not to launch my cookies, but you know, I'd give it a shot. Why not? I've had, you know, I've eaten durian fruit, which, you know, kind of a similar, well, not similar because it's sweet and, and pretty tasty as long as you plug your nose.

1:03:59 But the smell is awful. Yes, the smell is very much like raw sewage. It's terrible. Terrible. But it's really good when you eat it. So I'd try lute fisk. I don't know about rotten shark, but why not? If other people are eating it, sure, I'll give it a shot. I'd try it. It's more fermented than it is. they say in the old days they kind of buried it in sand and then peed on it but nowadays they hopefully just use ammoniac, is that a word in English? Yes So it is kind of matured and fermented and also an acquired taste but I do like it but when I bought it in Iceland and brought it home I am actually told to go out on the porch and eat it yeah I have a friend that he married someone from Norway and so I don't I think I think she actually is now living back in Norway but he was talking about that and he was like yeah they they have usually a picnic table outside or whatever and that's where you go and you open it up and then they bring out all the stuff and you know everyone it's kind of a tradition i guess right

1:05:31 yeah i'm quite i've never heard anyone eat lutefisk in a bit on a picnic but but maybe yeah i don't know i think it's more just being outside of the house and not opening it inside with the house. I see. But it doesn't... I mean, lutefisk is made of dry fish, like cod, and then you lay it in lye. And that's why it gets that kind of jelly consistency. So it smells lye, but nothing else, really. So I don't think the smell is that terrible, to be honest.

1:06:15 But we are all different, right? Yeah for sure Maybe it was the shark one that I was thinking of What that called That Iceland They don have it here in norway they are not civilized enough in norway to have that kind of i love it you know you reached peak civilization when you bury your when you what do you do with the the shark you don't bury it and pee it pee on it in the old days bury it is sound and pee on it oh okay so yeah you know you've reached peak civilization when you bury your food and pee on it. Yeah, that's how it is. I usually kind of joke because it was Norwegians that discovered Iceland, and they were Vikings that were thrown out because they had murdered and pillaged and raped and God knows what.

1:07:08 So I usually say that the fun people left for Iceland and the boring ones stayed in Norway. I see, yeah. Well, that does kind of make sense because the adventuring types did kind of take off, right? Yep, it did. All got thrown out. Well, you know, it's kind of a theme when you're constantly battling and trying to take over, right, I guess? Yeah, something like that. So, you know, been a long while. But they have actually taken quite a lot of research on the genealogy of Icelandic people.

1:07:50 And it's a lot of Celtic genes there, obviously from the slaves they took from Ireland. Yeah. So it's pretty mixed. yeah i mean honestly there's there's probably a ton of norwegian blood all throughout you know europe and and other places you know they i think they did a study that i saw too long ago where they found that the native tribes here in america actually had norwegian you know blood dna or whatever yeah scandinavian uh even i mean there were danish and swedish were viking as well and the danish was pretty much also very adventurous but when it comes to north america that's life ericsson and he was islantic yeah the norwegians say he was no region but he wasn't he was so that's how it is spawn is and it is like that we like it yeah well I think we're getting close to wrapping up our time here but there's one question that we always ask everyone from the war dragons community if you had to give a shout out to one player only one player who would it be Well, I knew that question would come, so I have thought about it.

1:09:24 And it is really, really difficult because one has met so many people and become friends with so many. But if I have to choose, I would choose I. And I've known him for a long time. He kind of took me under his wings when I joined Top Gun. And we have become close friends even outside the game. But that would be my Swedish friend.

1:10:04 Nice. Awesome. Awesome. All right. Well, I think that's about all we had for today. Thank you, everyone, for giving us your time. thank you for having me my moment of fame or in fame i'm not sure which but we'll see appreciate you coming by and that was great great talking to you yeah it was great having one well thank you people for uh joining us for another episode of the space tomatoes podcast give us a like thumbs up if you liked us thumbs down if you didn't leave a comment if you have ideas for a show suggestions for a guest, leave that in the comments. We'll open up a chat line with you and talk to you and see, you know, what works. Don't forget, you can also find us not just on YouTube, but also on Spotify, Apple podcast, I heart radio, and now on X social media app, formerly known as Twitter, right?

1:11:00 So, and most importantly, wherever you are, whenever you are listening to this, have an amazing day. Thanks for coming, everybody. Appreciate you. Thank you. Bye-bye.