Leadership in Albion Online is a world which is wide, wild,wily, and wise. Often the interactions and perspectives of leaders and diplomats happen outside of the view of the common line member and gatherer.This interview is an attempt to bring some of that hidden perspective to light.

As part of my interview process with the significant leadership, diplomats, and shotcallers of Albion online, I used a standard set of questions for each person that is being interviewed. These views and expressed opinions are their own and, except where the interviewee is the alliance leader, are not reflective ofthe views or official position of their organization at large.

The following interviewee is none other than Artista, a known face amongst the Brazilian community in Albion and the current GuildMaster of Made in BR. Partof the SQUAD alliance.

Zytum: For those who are unfamiliar with you, who are you and what do you do?

Artista: I’m a brother to those who are nice to my boys and I, and an enemy to those who disrespect us. My aim is to make a strong guild with a nice community for people who enjoyall kinds of PvP.

Zytum: What can you tell me about the Brazilian community that people that are not part of it might not know. Specific problems you encounter, interesting facts or fun stories that shaped the community within Albion.

Artista: People tend to see us as big internet trolls or harmful players, but that isn’t true. Brazilians are a playful bunch, we like making jokes about everything and having a good laugh with others who enjoy having fun. Some people can get the wrong idea and see us in a bad way. I don’t have problems with this, but I think that people should give Brazilians a chance and that they’d be grateful they did afterwards.

There is a funny story from the start of the guild actually, there was this new player Cayuub, we had a big ZvZ coming and he didn’t have the time to set his gear or know what was good to wear in fights like those. So, he came with the only equipment he had in his bank to the fight. As we waited for the fight to start KingMojo saw this guy’s gear. Flat t4 knight gear and a 4.1 longbow, this became known as the famous Cayuub build and we even did Cley Hill bandits with it later on the same day.

Zytum: How’d you get your start in Albion? Did you start with planning to help run an alliance or be a guild leader as you are now?

Artista: I came to Albion not that long ago, I had a brief period in the League of Legends competitive scene and came fromthere looking for something that I could enjoy without having to worry about organizing things. I wasn’t looking to be a Guild Leader or anything like that. I just wanted to enjoy fighting people and have good battles. However, as soon as I came to Albion, people gave me the Warlord role in the new starter guild I joined.

From then on people trusted me with the Officer role and 2 months after that the GM for this small guild stopped playing. This gave people the opportunity to choose a new GM, they voted and elected me. From there, HopeWeedInside (Made in BR’s righthand) and myself helped the new guild grow into what Made in BR is today. We are still working at it, making it grow stronger and stronger so that we can become a force to be respected.

Zytum: What, for you, was the hardest part of growing (into) your alliance? What do you struggle most withnow?

Artista: The hardest part for me is finding players that really do want to be hardcore ZvZ players. Most players enjoy thefights but don’t understand the cost of becoming a strong ZvZ player.

Happily, I’ve been able to find players that love what we do as a guild. The only ‘problem’ I have found as a part of SQUAD is the fact that most of our enemies tend to run from fights and it has become hard to find good ZvZ fights. I think that’s the downside for us as the strongest ZvZ alliance at the moment.

Zytum: How would you explain your current situation when it comes to diplomacy with other guilds/alliances?Do you dedicate a lot of time to matters related to diplomacy in a daily basis?

Artista: We are in a good place right now, guilds in the alliance love playing with us and we’re respected by our enemies. I don’t have any specific rivals, but if your red, you’re dead.

As too dedicating time to diplomacy. I spend a lot of time working on diplomacy and solving internal and external problems. I put a lot of time into thinking about what is best for the guild and what I could do to help grow the guild. If you want to be the best, you have to work.

Zytum: What would you say is the biggest issue amongst your members? Combat looting, evading CTAs,disrespectful behavior with other alliance members?

Artista: We had trouble with combat looting earlier on, but the players learned fast, it isn’t a problem anymore.

The biggest issue nowadays would be how impatience in fights. They want to kill everything and they want to do it fast, but setting up groups, strategy and maneuvering takes time. It’s something that only Zerg leaders and players who’ve experience with strategy games would appreciate, I think.

Zytum: You defined your guildas a heavily ZvZ focused guild, what would you say are your daily struggles compared to other guilds that might be more focused in GvGs or other activities?

Artista: The real struggle for us is with our gatherers as they don’t have the easiest ways to escape if they need it. We have also become more proficient in fighting inside enemy territories and more aware of movement in combat and the like.

I don’t think this is a problem so much as it has made us better. You have to win over adversity to become stronger and at the end of the day we take what we want when we want, while our enemies cower.

Zytum: Do you ever feel leaders are sometimes in the position of creating more problems than they solve?

Artista: Oh yeah, that’s for sure. Wars begin because of the greed of leaders and in a game all about PvP it happens morethan ever.

Greed, ego, and lust for power are all common things in Albion and it’s what makes the game great. We need these troubles for the content they bring.

Zytum: Let’s talk regional – Alot of recent attention has been paid to Mercia and their residents. What are your thoughts on the region and the diplomatic and political situation?

Artista: I believe Mercia will always be the jewel of Albion. I you want to show that you are powerful you need to own Mercia. Previously this was based entirely on GvG strength, but with the recent changes we can see that it isn’t like that anymore.

The ones that rule Mercia currently aren’t the real powerful ones. For sure, they’re big and experienced, but they definitely aren’t gods. Now we have Made in BR here,let’s see what chaos we can bring to them. POE can kiss my ass.

Zytum: Does the situation in Mercia differ greatly fromCumbria and Anglia in your opinion? Do you think those differences are caused by player actions or because of the mechanics implemented by SBI?

Artista: Anglia and Cumbria are boring right now, not much going on there aside from mage raiding and castles and this isn’t enough. I think both players and SBI play a part in this. Players don’t seem tobe much interested in the other regions as they are in Mercia for logical reason. They’ve got these two big alliances coexisting in Anglia without much trouble and there are a few smaller groups grabbing what they can from Anglia without much interference.

SBI needs to think of a way to make action there worth the cost. It doesn’t need to be like the other regions, it could have different objectives in each region for players to commit to, making them attractive to players. Cutting energy and season points by half from mages however won’t help resurrect this dead region.I can see their point for lowering the energy income because of Nimue but this has killed action in these other continents.

Zytum: As the last question of this interview. What do you think SBI needs to do moving forward to try and improve the quality of the game? This includes major and minor changes such as modifying alliances, solving bugs, etcetera.

Artista: I think that SBI should focus on new objectives that smaller zergs can challenge for. This would bring new life to Anglia and Cumbria for bothsmaller and larger guilds. Crystal GvG’s are cool but it remains something that not everybody can do because you still need to own territories to be able toplay.

Maybe more work on Hardcore Expeditions can be done, perhaps something like EndlessTower (https://wiki.ragnarevival.com/wiki/Endless_Tower)and that kind of grind would make it harder and way more fun than it is now. I hate Hardcore Expeditions as they are right now.

Lastly, they should focus on what they have done and improve what doesn’t work or appeal anymore like Solo Dungeons or Faction Warfare.

Zytum: It’s been a pleasure having you for this interview, Artista. I hope you continue to have fun with your guildmates and enjoy this game as much as you can. Cheers!

Artista: Thanks for having me, and keep up the good work man



Editors Note: If you know anyone that you think that we should interview please join us in our discord and let us know! https://discord.gg/6rPPdJA

