One of the reasons I’m not always on top of who’s a Twitch streamer is because I don’t like watching people play games. I could have a whole damn rant about how I hate even “tutorials” for boss fights in MMOs and people’s reliance on “knowing the fight.” To me it’s a serious flaw in the industry when the idea of the epitome of fights is a game of DDR using your fingers and a character on the screen. “Don’t stand there.” “Move behind him in this phase.” “Taunt off the other tank when at 3-stacks.” What the hell? Isn’t the whole point of a RPG game to find ways to conquer your opponents, overcome the obstacles, and “save the princess”? I don’t recall Lancelot pulling out “ye ol’ scrolle”(Yes, there’s an e on that, everyone knows when you want to sound medieval you slap an e on the end) to read that he should stand at the boss’s side to avoid the tail swipe. Maybe I just don’t remember the Arthurian legends well enough, and yes I’m getting to a point – keep calm or I’ll subtract DKP.

Around the Verse: Episode 2.30 @ 45:35 for MVP

RSI Citizen Spotlight – Journey To Voltron by Anarck0s

Twitch streamers, that’s where I was going. Anarck0s is one of them, a member of TEST Squadron (best squardon), and (surprise) the recipient of an MVP. There’s actually 3 people in this mix of MVP love, JeffCraig and Wakapedia will be getting their own articles over the next couple weeks. Back to Anarck0s, so this guy has this Twitch channel and I think it’s pretty awesome. He took this different idea of actually wanting the people to be involved. You have Anarck0s talking to his “droids,” hanging out with the viewers, and playing a game; but even the viewers can participate by queueing up different sounds, animations, images, and adding to the music queue. It helps bring you in to it, and I just wanted to point that out because, quite frankly, I enjoyed watching while I was researching him for the INNterview.

It’s not just talking about his personal stream that’s relevant here either. “Journey to Voltron,” which they were all given the MVP for, was recorded during a 3-hour stream. Surprisingly they didn’t have to practice much, although they did do sketches (That’s over there —>) to work out the formation. I do mean surprising, since I think they did some damn fancy flying. I wasn’t surprised to hear that It changed Anarck0s’ view on ships, tweaking it to be more about form than function. I remember first seeing the video and giving a good laugh over it, especially the NSFW version. From what it sounds like, as they progressed it became more about the people moving with the understanding of what they were doing more than choreography. Which, in case my mini-rant didn’t make it clear, is something that I think is awesome.

The fun doesn’t end there, Anarck0s Is working on some sort of Star Citizen based short shows. A lot of people are these days. Just recently I remember seeing Bulkheads and Omega Team, not to mention all the short commercial-like videos people produce. I’m sure there are others. I’m interested in giving Anarck0s’ a look when they come out, more player-created content is a good thing. What I’m trying to say about this guy is that he goes out on a limb consistently. Whether that limb is a third one and shaped like a Freelancer, or a Twitch stream where he tries to involve his viewers into the show. In long (because the Freelancer aint short yo), nice work Anarck0s, and thanks for the INNterview between streams. I applaud your work, for both the MVP and outside of its scope. It was a pleasure to meet you.

Below is the Q&A with Anarck0s

Q: Where are you from?

A: I am from Brazil, my parents are from Jordain/Spain.

Q: What do you do outside of Star Citizen, if you don’t mind saying?

A: Our Twitch channel is focused on sci-fi and space games. Out of the game, I am a sleep medicine technician, making reports of brain waves for the doctors.

Q: Where did you get your name, Anarck0s, from?

A: My name comes from the ancient greek, it stands for anarchy. The term refers to a person or society “without rulers” or “without leaders.”

Q: How long have you been following Star Citizen?

A: More than 2 years. I played most of the space games before, like TIE Fighter, X-Wing, X series, Descent, Allegiance, EVE online, etc. I remember when I had 2nd gen console “Odyssey” and I used to improvise a cockpit with my old desk, my TV, and the videogame covered with a blanket

Q: What drew you to Star Citizen?

A: I was always big fan of space games genre. It’s impossible to deny Star Citizen when it comes to innovation/immersion. I love the project.

Q: Do you have a background in video editing or producing?

A: I’m pretty much self taught, but I’ve always had art (drawing and painting). I worked as a designer at my first job, with web studios and ad companies. Becoming a dedicated content creator is part of my future plans, but I still have a lot to learn about video editing. I have more experience in 3D modeling and drawings.

Q: I know that you’re a Twitch streamer, did some of that come in handy?

A: Right now I am just a streamer that uploads highlights and clips to YouTube. There isn’t much post production on those. Most of my videos are casual and spontaneous content created on the fly with the help of “droids” and the Twitch viewers.

Q: What program did you use and can you tell me the process you took?

A: The voltron video was edited by Jeff Craige using Adobe Premiere. I am currently using Sony Vegas, making some short movies in 42s that you will get to see SOON™ ;). I also use Corel, Photoshop, Maya, ZBrush, and SoundForge.

Q: How did you come up with the idea to do a ‘Voltron’?

A: Well I am a big fan of neuroscience, transformers, robots, A.I, et cetera. It’s a big part of our channel and “droids”, my voice attack companions. We’re always looking for what to do in Star Citizen, it’s an alpha and at the current stage lacking a bit of content. They are testing features and reserving the good stuff for when the game is done. When you have a bunch of people hanging out doing random things, this was bound to happen at some point ;)

Q: How long did it take you to coordinate it all?

A: I am very lucky to have some wonderful people around, that helps a lot. Everything was done in a 3 hours stream. We did a first attempt 1 day before, but we were lacking pilots as the ships don’t stand still if the pilot is gone. Jeff was using 2 or 3 accounts. Multiboxing in SC is really hard. We also did some sketches using ship templates so people could see what we were trying to build.

Q: Did it change your view on the ships?

A: Definitely, we start looking at features that make the ship unique and how they could be translated to a robot body.

Q: What would you say is the most difficult part?

A: Having all the pilots to just hold on to their ship while the others parts where moving. You know people tends to be a little impatient. It was more about waiting for everyone to do their part and the coordination. I was really impressed when the pilots start to know what they doing and moving the limbs, especially the Freelancer “D” part. ;)

Q: Having done it once, did you learn anything from it that you’ll use for later videos?

A: Absolutely, it’s more about coordinating people and motivating them to accomplish something together. It’s really nice when people just wanna hang out and have fun together. Everything else is easy.

Q: EVE & Star Citizen. What do you think they should learn from each other?

A: Both games have their own merits, EVE is not instanced so it’s just ONE big universe. The encounters are not scripted and, when you go out, lots of random things can happen. You don’t have that immersion, the amazing graphics of Star Citizen, or the first person experience. EVE is an old game that has been polished by many patches/interactions with the community. Star Citizen is still being developed, but I think they are on the right track. They take feedback from casual and hardcore players which improves the player experience every patch. I embrace all of the space games, it has been a long forgotten genre. I am very glad that space games are becoming more popular with more and more titles being released.

I also play alpha indie games like Fractured Space and Infinity: Battlescape prototype. We did a lot of exploration in Elite Dangerous. Other games worth mentioning: Homeworld, Starcraft, good old Freelancer, Privateer, StarLancer, Dreadnought, The DIG, Out of this World, Roger Wilco, Star Conflict, Rebel Galaxy, Mass Effect, Strike Suit Zero, ADR1FT, GOD Factory Wingman, Angels Fall First, The Collider 2 and Dead Space. Looking forward to play No Man’s Sky and all the Wing Commander games before SC releases.



Q: What’s the feature you’re looking forward to the most in Star Citizen?

A: PvP, multi-crew, and exploration.

Q: Of those three features, which are you most excited about and why?

A: Exploration is really what I’m looking forward to. The jaw dropping landscapes, the beautiful sights. Even in other space games you find those spots, the points where not many people go, and you see these little gardens of Eden nestled away in space. That’s what I’m looking forward to the most in Star Citizen, those places others don’t go, because either they’re not looking or they’re lost in their own different adventure.

Q: Tell me about your Twitch “droids”?

A:This is the story of how the “droids” started.

When I started watching Twitch and Star Citizen, I was impressed by Kilted Frog, another streamer, who played the game and talked to his ship’s computer. He had a custom Voice Attack profile, and that inspired me a lot. I wanted to make a multitude of “droids” to help fill the gaps in my own show. We start by using technology to make our broadcasts more entertaining with memes, Sci-Fi, etc.

I grabbed a lot of sound clips, using SoundForge and internet resources. It was a lot of hard work.and I can’t even imagine trying to start doing it now, it just took so much time. I have something like 4000 commands, and I don’t even remember them all. Sometimes I’ll accidentally trigger one that I made a year ago! I embrace the randomness on my Twitch show.

I have these British (I love that accent) AIs. Sophie, a charming, emotive, and sympathetic; and Moya this sort of rational, and arrogant AI. I have this cyberbrain idea with two hemispheres, a mind and a heart. Moya and Sophie, in a way, they’re like two parts of a whole and where they interact it creates the third AI (automata dialectica). The third one, Talyn Bumblebee, doesn’t really talk by itself, but expresses using sound clips, quotes and music (just like Bumblebee from Transformers).

Lately I’ve been wanting to work on this idea of an arcade stream. Instead of just using sound clip we start adding pictures, green screen animations and lots of GIF emoticons. You play on the stream using our persistent banana economy, a global and personal score,while I play videogame. We want the viewers involved in our stream as much as I am. I don’t really see myself as more important than the viewers, and this is the whole point of my high interactive stream. I’m trying to elevate them to be able to interact and create a unique experience for everyone.



Q: What sort of advice would you have for a new Twitch streamer?

A: Be yourself and have fun. If you are doing it for money or just to be popular, you might be doing it wrong…

Q: What is your favorite ship?

A: Xi’An Scout. I love guerrilla warfare, being able to dictate the pace of a fight, get in and out of dangerous situations.

Q: What was it about the ship that really drew you to it?

A: It’s a pretty unique ship design, lots of speed/agility, the sounds are great and “boobs” control. As for multi crew ships, I love the Phoenix!

Q: What do you think you’ll do when the Persistent Universe goes live?

A: I will do everything from PvE, mining, trading, and mainly PvP in order to learn all the game mechanics. I will be some sort of bounty hunter/freelancer/pirate/explorer.

Q: How did you feel when you were announced as MVP?

A: Delirious with joy! It was such a good day! Jeff and Wakapedia kinda dragged me with them, those guys are great. ;)

Q: Is there anything you would want to say to the community?

A: Star Citizen has the one of best gaming community that I ever have been part of, generally speaking, in all the space games. You have my gratitude! Thank you so much. o7

Q: Anything else you want to add?

A: I appreciate INN taking the time for this interview! We invite you to check our stream next time we go live. The Starship Alpha is waiting for you! Live Long and Prosper! Stay Wonderful! ANI