Hello Igiss, what other names have you been known by in the Freelancer Community?

Igiss was my only nickname for about 8 years now, but I often sign personal messages and mails with my real name - Alexander.

What part of the world do you live in?

Moscow, Russia

How old are you?

Will be 24 in just a few days from this interview's date.

How many years have you played Freelancer?

First encountered this game about 4,5 years ago, a year before Discovery project was started. Completed single player campaign, explored most of the world, and was really impressed.

After a long interrupt, I've returned to play FL, and soon started to create the first Discovery version. That was in late spring'2005.

Since then, I spend more time testing the mod than playing. Still, in a certain way, all this time I was playing the game.

Have you released or helped to build a mod? Please describe it.

Discovery Freelancer, I suppose that now nearly everyone from the Freelancer community has heard of it by now.

This is the sole project for Freelancer I ever worked on.

In the beginning, I was doing nearly everything for the mod, which included not only modding maintaining web services, some basic artwork, administering server, even moderating our forums. Later, my role was reduced to modding only. Last year, when Discovery 4.85 was being developed, we had to gather a whole team consistent of our community members to maintain various aspects of development, like modelling, programming, balance, testing etc.

Have you written a tutorial? Please tell us about it.

All I can remember is writing guides for our system designers. Never considered myself a source of unique Freelancer modding knowledge that is worth sharing. So, I was mostly reading tutorials that others wrote, not writing anything new.

Have you created any tools for the community to use? What does it do?

None, I'm not a programmer.

Have you ever been an Admin of a mod community or website?

Once again, Discovery is the only one.

Okay, let's get to the meat and potatoes! How and when did you first get involved in the wonderful game of Freelancer?

No idea how it was, but I was first involved about 4,5 years ago, a relatively long time after its release. Game was beautiful right from the start, when Freeport explodes.

Spent a lot of time later figuring out where the explosion took place, and how did Trent end up on Manhattan after that. Maybe sometime later Discovery will explain how he could get so far from Sigma-17...

What aspects of Freelancer are you most interested in?

Exploring the world, discovering various new things. Hence the name of the mod I'm making!

What groups / clans have you been affiliated with?

I've never been into any Freelancer groups or clans.

List your accomplishments and projects you have participated in.

Discovery Freelancer mod, Discovery website and forums.

List any awards, offices or positions you have held.

Discovery has received Mod of the Year-2006 award as the best mod of the year for a simulation game (genre award) on ModDB.com, but that's not my personal award, it belongs to the mod, and everyone who helped me working on it. Nothing else I can mention.

How has the Freelancer scene changed since you started playing?

If by "scene" you mean the Freelancer community on the whole, I have to say that I was never deeply involved with it. Had enough concerns related to Discovery community itself, and simply lacked time to visit other forums and websites regularly.

In addition to that, I was often surprised (and disappointed) by the hostilities between some of the notable FL community leaders in the past, by unhealthy competition that took place back in the old TLR times, and tried to stay away from such things.

Although I still have good memories on the "old TLR" and what it was, we did not have any similar central hub for the whole community ever since it was gone.

Are you currently active on any servers?

I appear on Discovery testing servers and on the Discovery main server, but not too often.

What mod really stands out in your mind?

My personal three favourites, apart from Discovery, are Evolutions, Epsilon and Nightstalker's Universe.

Other outstanding mods that come in mind are WTS-World, Crossfire, Freeworlds and Tekagi's.

What do you find most interesting about Freelancer...the single player aspect, clan wars, being a pirate, a cop, vanilla servers, hugely modded, Star wars, what?

For me, the most interesting in the game was that it's easily moddable... as for gameplay itself, I find role-playing server game the most interesting.

What will be your role in Freelancer in the coming years?

I'm planning to continue with the Discovery project until the very end of the universe.

Describe in detail any memorable Freelancer experiences.

The most memorable were my first-time single-player experiences. First impression can never be forgotten.

Why do you spend countless hours building mods, making tools, answering questions or writing tutorials?

Because that's what I like to do, because I can see the result of what I'm spending time for... and, because others rely on me doing my job about the mod.

What other games do you regularly play?

My favourites are Morrowind, City of Villains, GTA and Half-Life game series, but I'm playing a lot of various PC games that are being released.

Do you have any hobbies other than games?

Cinema, reading, writing. That's all I can name.

Is there anything new coming up in the future for you?

Not anything that I can tell about in this interview.

How do you view the future of Freelancer?

Surprisingly enough, the game is still popular, and those few large modding projects that are still on the run attract quite a lot of player attention. Freelancer engine has a lot of potential, game is comfortable and fun to play, and despite dated graphics I think that we still have many years before the last FL server in existence will close down.

Can you recommend any others in the community for an interview?

Korrd is the first who deserves an interview, he's the longest-running Discovery server admin and has been with us right from the start. Of the others who helped me during all this time, it's hard to select few who may be eligible. I'd name Majkp, Fellow Hoodlum, Xoria and Kuraine. Caylith, yes! She's leaving for the US Navy soon, and won't be here for too long. Try to get one from her while she's still here.

Are there any last things you would like to add?

Thanks for the opportunity. I hardly remember when was the last time I gave an interview

Thank you for the interview! It is the contribution of folks like you that help to keep the game and the community alive!