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DarkMatters Presents - Interview with Nightwolfe


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Nightwolfe is the creator and owner of Wolfe's Lair, one of the oldest and largest fansites for Sacred on the net. Wolfe's lair is particularly well-known for the depth with which it has documented this game, paying particular attention to detailed quest guides and lengthy research in regards to game content. She also does work for the Sacred International Forum as it's reference writer and edits the forum's Faq Section. Of course Nightwolfe is a member of DarkMatters as well :) I'd like to thank Nightwolfe for her time and efforts both here and at Wolfe's Lair, and for taking the time to answer some interview questions. Thanks Nightwolfe!

 

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Can you give us a brief bio?

 

Oh jeez I always stink at bios, never sure what or how much to include. Let's see... I am pretty boring actually, I'm just a stay at home mom with too much time on my hands.

 

When you're not busy working on your site, what do you do to relax?

 

I play video games of course! My current obsession is Elder Scrolls: Oblivion on my new PS3. I looove to read. I also like to do crafty things while I watch TV like making chainmail jewelry or knitting.

 

Is there a special someone in your life... and perhaps some Mini-Nightwolfes running around?

 

I am married to the most wonderful man in the world, our third anniversary is coming up in a couple of weeks although we have been together for almost 9 yrs and we have a beautiful 6 yr old daughter.

 

Got a favorite dish you love to make or especially love to prepare for others?

 

Oh I am a horrible cook, probably the worst on earth! In case you don't believe me I'll tell you all a little story. We lived in an apartment for a short while that had a gas stove and I had never used a gas stove in my life. Well I attempted to make fried eggs but evidentially I had the stove on too high because when I put the butter in the pan it caught on fire. It totally destroyed the pan and scared the heck out of my husband who woke up to the smell of smoke! :D

 

What are some of your favorite snacks you can be seen munching on while working on your site or playing Sacred?

 

I don't really snack much, in fact I just don't eat as much as I probably should to begin with. But I just about always have a cup of coffee and a cigarette nearby when messing around on the computer.

 

What is your educational background?

 

I actually have no educational background. I dropped out of high school freshman year and got my GED. In my defense though I DID score very, very high on it. Looking back I wish I had found a way to take a few tests to just skip a few grades and graduate early rather than dropping out but I was only academically smart back then. I was a total idiot in most other ways. I did try college for a while when I was 16 but it just wasn't for me at the time and I ended up leaving. I do hope to go back one day if I can figure out what the heck I want to study.

 

What was it that inspired you to create Wolfe's Lair?

 

Kinda funny story actually, or I think it is anyway... One day I was playing and discovered the Unknown Warrior series. I had never heard anyone talk about it before and since there isn't any quest log message pointing you to the next part in the series I figured that just very few people had ever figured it out. Well at the time I was part of a clan that hasn't existed in years and we had a forum. So I wrote up a very simple text tutorial and posted it. Well I discovered pretty quickly that I was the ONLY person in my clan that pretty much ever did quests so none of them cared about my discovery. But I thought it was so neat that I wanted to share it with people. So I decided to create my own forum that would be open to everyone so I could post it there (plus by then I had made a few other discoveries). Then people started asking questions and I noticed that the same questions were being asked over and over so I started writing new tutorials to answer these common questions. Well it got to the point that I had so many tutorials on my simple Proboards forum and I was getting so many visitors coming to see them that I ended up having 5 different free image hosting accounts just to keep the images accessible with the bandwidth limits that the free accounts had. But I was still being flooded with requests and ideas for things people wanted to see on Wolfe's Lair. So I decided that I had to put it all on a normal webpage that would host its own images.

Besides being the busy owner of Wolfe's Lair, is there another job in your life, something else besides your attention to your site that sometimes pulls you away?

 

Well they say being a mother is a 24 hr a day job so I guess that counts. But no I am just a stay at home mom.

 

When did you realize that you'd been bitten by the video gaming bug?

 

Well about 8 yrs ago I thought video games were only for kids and guys. No really, I did! But my husband forced me to play a game called Blood Omen on his Playstation. I thought I was going to hate it until I realized that I had been playing for 5 hrs straight! LOL :) As soon as I finished that game I begged him for another and I just haven't stopped since.

 

Is Wolfe's Lair the first site you've created...where and when did you learn how to do all the coding?

 

Yes it is and when I started I had NO IDEA what the heck I was doing. I thought it was going to be so hard and the whole idea scared me at first. But it ended up not being that difficult after all. Of course I cheat, I used Microsoft Frontpage which does all the coding for me. Only once in a while have I had to write out any coding by hand and that is just to fix things that I can't get the program to do the way I want. But I am all self taught. The world wide web is such a WONDERFUL place!

 

Can you tell us a few games you've played which you especially enjoyed and why?

 

Well there is of course Blood Omen which as I said is what really got me into gaming. Also when I was a young kid I really loved the original Zelda on the first Nintendo system. I was addicted to Diablo and D2 for years. I also loved Final Fantasy VII and X, the Legend of the Dragoon and Kingdom Hearts. Right now I am totally obsessed with Oblivion. I just love RPGs! Particularly, ones that have tons and tons of quests and that keep you busy for a long playing experience. The bigger the world and the more customization you get the better.

 

Wolfe's lair is obviously the work of hundreds of hours... why such drive, what makes you keep looking to add to it?

 

Mostly it is you guys actually. As I explained above it started out really small with just a few things I wanted to share with people that I didn't think they might find themselves. But the more popular it became the more requests I got for info. and it just hasn't stopped. Now it is at a point where it is SO complete that on the rare occasions I think of something (or someone mentions something) that isn't included I feel like I HAVE to add it just because it is so close to having EVERYTHING that is SHOULD have everything LOL. I am such a perfectionist/completionist!

 

Do you ever sleep?

 

LOL of course I do! Although I will admit there were times that I would spend ten hours straight working on my site you have to take into consideration that I am a stay at home mom so I am home all day. Plus I'll take any excuse I can get to procrastinate when it comes to the housework haha.

 

I remember reading a while back that you had a precise "vision" of how you wanted your Sacred guides to look, what they would have as content compared to other quest FAQs that had been produced and that you wanted to improve upon them. Can you tell us what that difference was for you and what you wanted your guides to be noted for?

 

Well basically I just wanted them to be very, very easy to follow. I don't know how many times I have gotten stuck in a game and when I tried to read a tutorial somewhere it just made me more confused. So many guides out there are written in such a way that they just seem really vague or the people writing them are so experienced in the game that they forget to include some piece of info that a totally new player might need to know. The other thing with experienced players of all multiplayer games is that they tend to come up with common nicknames for places and then use those nicknames as landmarks when trying to explain something. Here I'll give you an example... say that someone wants to know where to find the Azathot "Bounty". A lot of people would tell the person that it can be found on the Western edge of the "Goblin Lawn". Well for new players that isn't telling them anything since they haven't a clue what the "Goblin Lawn" is. Not to mention the amount of things people tend to abbreviate in guides! So anyway, that really long explanation is just basically saying I wanted anyone and everyone to very, very easily be able to follow my guides. I didn't want them to have to guess at anything or wander around trying to find the exact locations for things. A huge part of my fix for that is that I used screenshots for EVERYTHING. That way there was no risk whatsoever of them not finding the right place or the right NPC or anything else.

 

It's wonderful how your work on Wolfe's Lair was so impressive that GameSpy, one of the internet's most popular gaming sites, sponsored you. Can you tell us how that happened, and how it affected your site?

 

Well it was pretty easy once I discovered them actually. I had tried many different free hosts that failed horribly because of their unreliability and bandwidth limits and then I heard about GameSpy so I filled out an application and linked them to my site. They looked at it and a week later said they were impressed and would love to host my site. I also really lucked out because they didn't yet have any sites dedicated to Sacred. If they had they might have decided they didn't need another one. The best thing about it is that I have unlimited storage and bandwidth with them so I never have to worry about the site being temporarily shut down or have to limit how much stuff I have available for you guys.

With the upcoming release of Sacred 2, many new Sacred fan and clan sites have sprouted up all over the net. How do you feel about this, and do you have any advice to others that want to build personal Sacred Fan sites as impressive as yours...Is there any secret?

 

To be honest I have never handled competition very well :) LOL. But I think it is great that so many people are showing such enthusiasm for the game that I looove so much. It is also very interesting to see what things different people tend to focus on when building there own sites. I obviously am a quest addict myself. The secret? You want to know the secret!?! How dare you even ask! ROFLOL 2biggrin.gif Honestly though the secret to my site it two different things... One is that I have lots and lots and LOTS of free time on my hands that I can dedicate to my site (many of those hours should probably have been put towards cleaning my house or other such things though). The second is that I have had a lot of people be really helpful. Particularly in the beginning I had AREA666 (Valencia on this forum) and Deonhower Colmyne who helped me by writing many of guides when they were on the forum as well as taking TONS of screenshots for me. Unfortunately, I have edited and updated so much since then that very little of their work is left. However, if it weren't for the two of them the whole project would have so overwhelmed me that there would be no Wolfe's Lair today.

 

With you as the creator and final say on all of the content that is on Wolfe's Lair, do you find contributions from the Sacred Community to be of help regarding research and game info?

 

Oh of course I do! For one the technical stuff is totally beyond me. Particularly the mathematical formulas for figuring stuff out. I am lucky if I can follow the already written formula let alone trying to come up with the formulas myself! Plus things in game can sometimes be a tad different depending on character, game version, patch, etc. and I don't have all versions with all the different stages of the patches and there are some characters that I just don't like to play so I often am asking people to check into this or that for me. Those are just two of the things that I absolutely depend on the community to help me with. But it also is very nice to not HAVE to do all the legwork for everything on the things I am capable of doing myself. I am especially going to be depending on the community to help me out a lot with the release of Sacred 2. There is no way I will be able to get guides up as fast as people will want them on everything people will want to see even WITH some help so I am going to be needing all the help I can get.

 

When you first began working on Wolfe's Lair did you find the task very daunting? Creating a resource like Wolfe's Lair is no doubt a big undertaking. And were there times when you just wanted to throw your hands up in the air and yell out... "There's so much to do!"

 

Oh definitely, I felt that way a hundred times. But then I would think "Hey I already did all this work and I refuse to trash it, but I also don't want a have an uncompleted site just sitting there with no updates either". So I kept working at it.

 

If you could reverse time to the early days of creating your Sacred site, and could change one thing in regards to how it got set up, what would it be?

 

I think it would just be the overall setup and look that it has now. I am really happy with it at the moment but before the current look I have probably had 10 or more different color schemes, graphic sets and layouts. Just updating these things on every page as I came up with better ways of doing things or better looks took hours and hours of work.

Regarding Sacred 2, what are your feelings regarding the two paths of light and dark? Do those two paths mean double the amount of documentation and work for you? How does the much larger size of Fallen Angel make you feel?

 

Well I have two totally different prospectives regarding the size of Sacred 2. As a gamer I am insanely excited, the bigger the better. I looove a game that takes me months to complete every aspect of. I especially LOVE choices! Where your decisions in game effect how the rest of the game/quest turns out. But from the prospective of the Wolfe's Lair creator I am screaming in terror. Ascaron what are you doing to me! Oh jeez, the amount of hours of work it will take just to do a single path is frightening, but two totally different paths!?! This is going to be a HUGE task. But don't worry guys! You will continue to see Sacred 2 on Wolfe's Lair and I greatly appreciate all the info. that Ascaron has been slowly leaking out about different aspects of the game. It allows me to get a bit of a head start in some areas. :)

What are you looking forward to the most from Sacred 2?

 

Hmmmm..... I don't know..... EVERYTHING! I really couldn't pick one thing. I mean there is the very interesting idea of the dark and light paths. There are all the new character types. The fact that it is a HUGE 3D world. The very cool special mounts. The amazing graphics. Not to mention the fact that a lot of old friends will be returning to us upon the release. There just isn't anything NOT to look forward to!

 

What does the future hold for NightWolfe?

 

Only time will tell.....

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hehe some great questions answers!

havent talked to you in a few days so nice ''seeing'' a sign of u still living :)

:D

 

PS: if u ever read this, u STILL into oblivion on that ps3?

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I sure am! I am getting close to the end though :devil: Right now I have complete all of the main and side quests of the original game and am working on an expansion pack called Shivering Isles that attaches to the Oblivion game.

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Oh you are playing it too Genenut? What are you stuck on?

 

Edit: Oops don't want to get too far off topic.... if you are stuck and want some help just PM me or message me anywhere you know how to reach me hehe :devil:

Edited by ~Night.Wolfe~
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Awesome read NightWolfe!

 

I would like to add my official thanks for all the work you've done on the SIF's FAQ section too, with all your efforts in all the places you've been busy, I can't even begin to count the number of people in the Sacred community that you've helped.

 

I'm really glad to hear you plan to continue your efforts for Sacred 2 :P

 

:devil:

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Love your answers Nightwolfe! Very thorough and not to mention funny. Had quite a few lol's especially "the secret!" :3lmao: Really you have done a wonderful job Nightwolfe. :bow:

 

The thing I was most curious about which you answered was that bit about how scary the project seemed at first. A very big job to say the least. Your perseverance certainly shows through in your faqs and site.

 

Big time kudos to you Nightwolfe! Once again it was so nice to read your answers. Very well written :gogo:

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Thank you again Nightwolfe. You put a lot of yourself into your answers and it looks like the fans really loved seeing the personal side of you that was an integral part of what it took to put Wolfe's Lair together. Dedication, hard work, good research and an ear for the fans. It's showing.

Great interview.

 

:3lmao:

 

gogo

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Another great interview gogo (do you really do the questions yourself?) :3lmao:

 

I have always admired Nightwolfe's site and now after hearing her explain things I marvel at how she has brought it all together, especially.... using her words "I am a stay at home mom".

 

Congratulations on your fantastic site and the recognition it so deserves, and thankyou so much for what you have given to the Sacred community Nightwolfe :gogo:

 

stubbs

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heh, yeah Stubbie, we have to come up with the questions ourselves. Most times, it seems like there's so much to ask, but we have to distill it down to something that goes deep but reads well. On this last batch, I bounced them off a few peeps here, and Myles and Schot came up with some good ideas.

 

Nightwolfe, of course, is the other half of the team here, with her passion for what she does shining in every one of her answers.

 

It came out great!

 

:help:

 

gogo

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  • 1 year later...

Another bump of respect to a long-standing and well-loved member of the Sacred 2 Community. Nightwolfe's Wolfe's Lair was the site that showed everyone the value of a high quality fan site devoted to the game. The complexity, detail and passion devoted to it by her shine on every page.

 

And she's wonderful to interview!

 

:)

 

gogo

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Another bump of respect to a long-standing and well-loved member of the Sacred 2 Community. Nightwolfe's Wolfe's Lair was the site that showed everyone the value of a high quality fan site devoted to the game. The complexity, detail and passion devoted to it by her shine on every page.

 

And she's wonderful to interview!

 

:lol:

 

gogo

Sadly it seems the site has been offline for the last few months. :yay:

At least when I try to go there I get redirected to a maintenance page.

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Nice interview Gogo. Nice person Nightwolf, quiet and er... well ... nice. Very nice. Great to hear of you again. :bow:

 

Wish I could say "see you on Oblivion" where I am fairly hooked too, but there seems to be a problem with the internet hook-up.

 

OMG that interview was nearly two years ago ! :P

Edited by Bondbug
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  • 1 year later...

 

 

OMG that interview was nearly two years ago ! :P

OMG this post is almost a year old! :P

 

Does anyone know if Nightwolfe is doing quests or other projects on the net? I haven't seen her for awhile, and because she has a built in love for quests I was just wondering if she's on another game?

 

:)

 

gogo

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No Gogo, she has had some problems with where she lives. A very unreliable power supply that keeps surging and burning out computers faster than she can afford to replace them. She is currently confined to a Netbook with minimum specs and is unable to play or do much anymore, especially online. I also know that she just started a new job recently and is struggling timewise, especially since her family has some health issues and she is having to hold it all together.

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And if anyone ever wants to hear what I am up to, just post in this thread because I have it set to send me an email alert whenever anyone does :thumbsup:

 

Yep as Podgie said I have had major computer issues although my most recent computer is a MUCH better one and I could probably play some games on it I tend to prefer the consoles. Right now I am playing Lost Odyssey and Fallout New Vegas on my Xbox 360. My Playstation 3 broke recently :sob:

 

Plus I am finally no longer a stay at home mom... In fact my job amuses me, since you all might remember how much I hated testing my own website. I always depended on the readers to let me know if anything wasn't working properly on it (and yes I do know that a lot has been messed up on it since the transfer I just haven't gotten around to fixing it yet. But my job now is a quality analyst for web pages.

 

So while I am waaay busier than I once was I do find the time to come on the net on a regular basis to mess around and check my forum even though months go by without posts now.

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Hey hey NightWolfe.

 

Big hugz to ya, and glad to hear that you are still around.

 

Gratz on landing a job, and I hope it works out.

 

Gone down the console route now, eh ? There sure has been some good games to be played on those bad boys, and they have moved on a hell of a lot over the years.

 

How's that Fallout New Vegas going ? I lurved FO3, very cool game.............well, the ending didn't quite cut it, but I got a lot o' fun hours outta the game.

 

All the best,

 

Steve. :)

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And if anyone ever wants to hear what I am up to, just post in this thread because I have it set to send me an email alert whenever anyone does :thumbsup:

 

 

Awesome...like the Bat phone!

 

 

 

Yep as Podgie said I have had major computer issues although my most recent computer is a MUCH better one and I could probably play some games on it I tend to prefer the consoles. Right now I am playing Lost Odyssey and Fallout New Vegas on my Xbox 360. My Playstation 3 broke recently :sob:

 

 

I'm sorry hearing you're still plagued by these electrical problems. Did they happen while you had Sacred original, or is this something that only started happening often around the time you got Sacred 2?

 

 

Plus I am finally no longer a stay at home mom... In fact my job amuses me, since you all might remember how much I hated testing my own website. I always depended on the readers to let me know if anything wasn't working properly on it (and yes I do know that a lot has been messed up on it since the transfer I just haven't gotten around to fixing it yet. But my job now is a quality analyst for web pages.

 

Nice work with the job! And...analyist? zomgod, nightwolfe, you've done well!. Remember that first day you started using web code at Dagirl's forum? From that to web analyist? You are great model of passion powering career... bravo

 

 

 

So while I am waaay busier than I once was I do find the time to come on the net on a regular basis to mess around and check my forum even though months go by without posts now.

 

Do you still have a copy of Sacred 2...is your new comp able to run it at all? Any chance of you being able to be teased to come back to Sacred world?

 

Thanks for posting back here nightwolfe, hearing from you has been a great surprise this Sunday, it feels just like an old Sacred game sunday again now ^^

 

:)

 

gogo

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