Player Spotlight: The Duke

This month’s Player Spotlight focuses on alliance leader of Shade and long time Illy player, The Duke . The dev team and fellow community would like to extend a thank you to one of our community leaders. Learn more about the Player Spotlight program at our website and nominate players by sending an email to community@illyriad.co.uk. 

GM Luna

What brought you to Illyriad and how long have you been playing?

I had a real life friend who started playing about a month before me. He more or less convinced me to give the game a try. It just so happened that around the same time i started playing I lost my job and with the excess free time I spent it here getting to know the community. The community was what really kept me intrigued and kept me logging in. I honestly can’t count the times I’ve logged in and just talked to people in Alliance Chat and not even touched my cities.

I’ve been playing since May 12, 2011.

Have you played many other online games or been active in other online communities?

I played Evony for a couple of weeks but nothing ever came of it. I played stronghold and age of empires periodically against people but nothings ever kept my interest for long. One of the major reasons I feel Illyriad has kept me playing and others haven’t is the interactions with the GM’s and the game is constantly evolving, changing, and growing.

Any hidden talents or interesting hobbies outside of gaming?

My major hobbies are sports. Growing up I was a basketball junkie. I can remember nights at 2-3 am playing at the local courts with the older kids. We moved around a lot, so as a kid I used athletics to make friends.

What keeps you playing Illyriad?

I think I covered this pretty well already but the interactions the players get to have with the GM’s. I don’t visit GC as much as I used to but I have a lot of people I can call my friends in my alliance Shade- and the community that we have built and are building there is great. The GM’s don’t get complacent like in other games. There’s always something coming up and being worked on- whether it’s a tourney/factions/ the broken lands…ect ect.

If I was to quit and re-visit in a year the game would be different from it is now.

What’s your favorite aspect of the game?

Tournies. As soon as one is over I’m looking forward to the next one. Most the veteran players can tell you killing NPC’s is fun and all – but it’s not the same as going against another player(s) armies. You don’t have to worry about a NPC coming back for revenge.

What’s your proudest achievement in game so far?

I’ve had a lot of personal goals I’ve been able to accomplish like reaching the top 10 alliances, reaching 100k population(190k now lol ), making the stats pages for capture attempts and more. My proudest achievement however is simply tenured time here in illyriad. A lot has changed since I started and I like talking about old times with people who were around back then and didn’t just read something in the forums.

What are you most looking forward to for the future of Illyriad?

Factions.

I think this will add a whole new aspect to everything. Trading, sov, and armies. I think factions are going to e the most complex addition we have had.

What area of the game do you think needs the most improvement?

Communication.

I know a lot of players may think a lot of different things here- but as an alliance leader I can honestly tell you the way the mail is done is terrible. Alliance Forums not being able to delete old threads.

Theres no private chat channels for leaders. We can of course make do with things out of game via skype ect… but this is my biggest grievance in the game so far.

What advice would you give a new player in Illyriad?

The game is complex. There’s not a whole lot you can do to kill yourself in the beginning so stick around for a while. Make some friends in GC. Message the people your city was spawned beside. If your anything like me- you can get to know the people- and the fact that your building a city is just a bonus factor.