Matt Christopher a.k.a Infern0

What is so special about Infern0 and what does he have to do with all those sites up there?? Well, our buddy Infern0 runs all of them. And that may not seem like to awful much of a feat to some of you guys/gals out there, or even to alot of us full time parents, with a full time job and this website. . . . but my hat gets tipped to Infern0 for running good sites and still trying to carry on a normal life.

I'm doing this interview SLIGHTLY different, because I want you to soak up what's said here and THEN see who it is that wrote them. . . This is one of them trick ( shock value ) interviews.

Before and After

1.) How'd you get started in the WebMastering Game and/or who was your inspiration.

Well I suppose I should introduce myself for a start. I’m Matt Christopher a.k.a. Infern0 mainly known for my work on the infamous PlanetBlood, I was born in sunny London, England. I love games, I love the Internet, I love communities and I love websites. So it’s no huge surprise that I run a website devoted to games.

I got started in the webmastering business through a game that stole the hearts of many people due to its wonderfully worked plotline and the fact that it came out after Quake 1 had made 3d graphics the norm: Blood. When Blood II was released there was a lot of hype from the surprisingly large Blood community…sadly the game didn’t live up to anyone’s expectations but, being a person who tries to find the best in everything, I began a website which focused on Blood II with my ex-partner Kable around Christmas ‘98.

The website became popular (back in those days known as "Caleb’s Crypt") and we were actually diverting some attention from the bigger, more established site which was planetblood.com. Inevitably, Chris Longden (the original site director of PlanetBlood) asked us to join them as a hosted site…and we accepted after some careful deliberation as we both agreed we could provide the visitors with some useful information and light-hearted commentary.

As Blood II was seen to be heading nowhere after an appalling patch, the PB staff were gradually fading away. I joined the ranks of the news-updaters after an appeal for help on the main page. By this time my partner Kable had left and I found myself running a hosted site AND doing the bulk of the news updating, I was thrown in at the deep end but stayed afloat with the help of the excellent staff.

Shortly after I found myself in the same position Mugwum had (another person who was left with the role of site director), I was running the site by myself and back then it was very busy. I ran it for a good few months on my own, and during the summer of ’99 I enlisted the help of the quite wonderful Reactor who proved to be a lifesaver when I went on holiday for two weeks…he held the fort during that time.

My main inspirations were the Brits who had managed to do so well in the GameSpy Network, John Bye, Chris Longden (who left PB to become a full-time coder for GSI) and Mugwum are three that spring to mind. Also big shout outs to everyone who visited Caleb’s Crypt (now known as "The Crypt") when it was starting out.

2.) What's the most outrageous thing you ever did ON your site.

Working on such low-profile sites usually means I don’t usually get outraged responses to anything I do. But I remember Mugwum’s classic "bitchslap Jason Hall" campaign where the spotlight was really put on Monolith for releasing such an unfinished game. It never actually changed anything to do with Blood II ultimately, but it got PlanetBlood some acclaim from popular news sites such as Voodoo Extreme and also will hopefully warn Monolith how violently the community can react when they feel they’ve been cheated.

EXCLUDE me, thats a given. . )

I am a huge fan of Codemasters, mainly because of their incredible talent at making solid, fun and hugely playable games. My uncle, Jon Hare, was the man who designed the famous (in the UK anyway, not sure about in the USA) football (soccer) game Sensible Soccer. He’s now working for Codemasters and they will undoubtedly continue to produce quality games.

Only allowed to choose two people, eh? Well it’s tough to choose between George Broussard and John Carmack. I love 3D Realms because I am such a massive fan of Duke Nukem, but then again all credit must go to ID Software for creating the genre, I believe Quake II is possibly the best online game of all time…Quake III? It’s a great game but still needs some more fine-tuning.

4.) What's the most annoying thing to deal with as a WebStud.

WebStud? Hehe, I’ll never get used to being called that. Surprisingly enough, I don’t get annoyed by people sending the same questions over and over again. That comes with the job and you have to expect that kind of thing.

What annoys me most are people who criticise, but don’t make it constructive or offer something that they think would help. It’s all very well to insult someone’s work, but at least state your reasons and exactly why you think them.

5.) Does your WIFE still nag you to "Get off that damn computer before I break it" now that your a famous WebDood.

Wife? Steady on mate, I’ve got years to burn before I get to that stage! I try not to let the PC control my life (how many people have said that before) and like to be active in the great outdoors too, there’s a world to explore beyond the glowing monitor.

6.) Tips you can give Web-Jedi in training

Don’t feel pressured or belittled by anyone. Some people higher up the ranks like to try and put you in your place, but you’re only fuelled by your own purpose and ambition, if you want to do something, just do it.

On the technical side, always be to the point and don’t babble too much with news updating. There’s a time and place for that and they’re called articles, people want to be able to see news and not have to wade through lines of rubbish.

7.) Drink of Choice

Stella.

8.) Tunes of Choice

I couldn’t live without my music. Nirvana have to be acknowledged for being such an inspirational group, The Red Hot Chili Peppers have been through so much shit but have always managed to keep playing. Dire Straits for being so original. No Doubt for their unique appearance. NOFX for being the essence of punk. Presidents of the USA for treating their music with a superb sense of humour. R.E.M for being R.E.M. The Ramones for being true rockers and all the local bands who I follow.

Right, individual songs - Chili Peppers: Get up and Jump, American Ghost Dance, Knock Me Down, Under the Bridge, Aeroplane, Otherside, Road Trippin’.

Nirvana: About a Girl, Lithium, Aneurysm, Frances Farmer.

No Doubt: Move On, Total Hate, Sunday Morning.

Think I’d better stop there before this gets too long.

9.) Babe of Choice

Gotta love Gwen Stefani of No Doubt for her in-your-face attitude, fun lyrics and brilliant punky image.

10.) The real answer to no. #9 for the married guys who had to say their wives.

I could try writing something hilarious here but I’d just make a fool of myself.

You manage to run three sites, keep them updated etc. , what . . . if anything do you have to say to the guys that havent touched their pages in months, but still consider themselves "Webmasters".

Phew. Well I’m sad to say The Crypt (www.planetblood.com/crypt) hasn’t had too much attention recently but as for PlanetBlood and EnSlaved (www.3dap.com/slavezero) I do try very hard to keep people informed of the latest happenings. When it comes down to it, it’s all for your visitors. All the big money-making websites would be nothing without their visitors but refuse to acknowledge them. I don’t make a lot of money, but I keep doing what I do simply because I don’t want to let my visitors down. I decided to be part of a website and I feel it’s my responsibility to deliver to them what they want to know.

I’ve seen too many people come and go without any concern for what happens to their site after they leave and I feel that is irresponsible. If they decide to leave a site they should at least make sure it’s in proper hands before they depart.

Now I’m not special, I just do what I have to do. But people who leave websites running untouched, when there’s no useful content there (resource sites that have long-standing info are a different matter) and expect people to visit and praise them are doing themselves no justice and should just take their site down as to not waste anyone’s time. Websites are meant to display useful, relevant text and multimedia...keep it that way.

Many thanks for giving me the chance to fill in this interview, you have a very unique, interesting and stylish site here and can say nothing else but "keep up the good work".

This is the part where I let you ALL know I "INTENTIONALLY" left one little part out of Infern0's interview for the shock factor I was getting at earlier. . . . the part I left out was the fact that this hard working intelligent man is

A whopping 16 years old, almost 1/2 my age with four times the websites. I have been through ALOT of people in this whole interview process, and one of the things that stuck out over and over was the hard work and dedication I saw pouring out of this guy on his sites. I'll tell you what, It's pretty damn easy to pick a gamesite based on the BIGGEST commercial game of the century, but imagine the hard work and dedication it takes to run fansites on games that are not garnering the spotlight they once did.

When all of you read this, I want you to jump over to one of these sites and see what a quality job he's doing over there... and it dont matter which, he put's forth 100% on all of them :^) Thank YOU, Infern0.