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An archived Hellgate: London feature. See the Hellgate Archives for more.

Interview: Introducing Kaiser Hwang, Flagship's new CM.
Date: April 25, 2007
Source: inGame.de.

inHellgate.de Interview

inHellgate.de: Hello Kaiser, welcome to the (german) community! Most of our readers do not know very much of you. Could you describe yourself, e.g. what are you favorite games, how did you come to Flagship / Ping-0 and what have you done before?

Kaiser: Thanks! Let's see. My favorite game of all time has to be Street Fighter II. I think I wasted half my childhood trying to beat people at my local convenience store!

Before Flagship I did a number of things. During college some guys I knew in the computer science department started a company called Audiogalaxy, a music-sharing site, and I went to work there as a web developer. Of course, the RIAA essentially shut us down, so after that I asked myself, "What now?" I've always wanted to work in games (I told my mom I wanted to work for Nintendo when I was 7!), so I ended up at IGN, and then later PSM. While I loved being press for a lot of reasons, being on the other side (at a developer) has always been the ultimate goal. Now I'm here!

inHellgate.de: Have you been allowed to play the game before you applied to the job? ;)

Kaiser: Actually, no. Because I always worked on the console side of the press (Xbox and PlayStation), I never had an opportunity to play Hellgate: London. Now it's a different story. ;)

inHellgate.de: Can you explain what exactly you are doing as the new Senior Community Manager? Could you also explain how you will work together with Ivan and Brennan - what is your mission?

Kaiser: My mission is to make Ivan and Brennan my personal cooks because there's nothing... oh, wait, that's my other mission. ;)

As Senior Community Manager, I'll have a number of responsibilities. Most importantly, I'll be making sure that the Hellgate: London community has a voice, and can communicate not only with us here at Flagship, but also with each other. The game is great for multiplayer, after all. J I definitely want to the Hellgate community to the best out there -- and seeing the support that's already out there without the game even in stores, I don't have many doubts it will be.

As you may or may not know, Ivan is spending more time these days writing for the game, and Brennan is working on lots of video-related stuff for both the game, and for the community. Though they both try their best to be everywhere at once (y'know, like Muad'Dib...), the more they have to do, the less time they have to do each thing. Ultimately, the three of us will work together on everything, but you'll likely be seeing me more often than not.

inHellgate.de: Why is your job different from other Community Managers (not those from Flagship). What makes it more interesting?

Kaiser: Hmm. I'm not quite sure what types of responsibilities other CM's have at other companies, so I can't say exactly. I can say that the community for Hellgate: London seems to be incredibly loyal and genuinely excited, and that makes my job great! Personally, this is the best community I've every interacted with, so that's a huge change in and of itself. One thing I'd like to do is get more feedback on what types of things all of you would like to see from us (see below). So far, working with everyone in the community has been really awesome!

inHellgate.de: In the last few months, it has been very quiet around Hellgate. We have a special thread in our forums where the community asked questions to Ivan related to the game. This thread has not been updated from Ivan for weeks. Can the community hope that you restart this thread and visit/answer it? What else are you going to change?

Kaiser: You bet! I've yet to look through all the threads, but I'll definitely take over for Ivan. As I mentioned before, he's pretty busy writing stuff for the game (in between his android romance novels), so I'll gladly take and answer any questions you might have for the game. Ultimately, I want to be here for all of you, so let me ask you guys a question: what types of stuff would you like to see from us? If it's stuff we're allowed to show/talk about, I'll do my best to get it done!

inHellgate.de: What is you personal impression of the game Hellgate: London? When is Flagship going to present us more informations related to an alpha?

Kaiser: Being a big fan of action-rpg games, I'm loving Hellgate: London so far. I've yet to get really deep into it (don’t forget I'm new!), but so far, I'm super excited for the game. As for the alpha, we haven't made any announcements yet, but there's definitely one in the works. You can bet I'll keep everyone informed when that time comes.

inHellgate.de: How long did it take to acclimatize to the weird humor at Flagship's?"

Kaiser: Haha, well, I've known some of these guys for some time now before Flagship, so I'm used to it. J Funny, though, they don't seem to get any of my jokes! Maybe I'm the weird one here...

inHellgate.de: Last question so far: Is there anything you want to say to the community, especially to the german community?

Kaiser: First of all, the German community is freakin' awesome! While everyone worldwide is showing an amazing amount of support for the game, I might be a little biased since my first name is Kaiser. ;)

In all seriousness, there's nothing better than seeing such an active and enthusiastic community for Hellgate: London. When the game ships, it's you guys who will define how good the experience will be -- which takes away all my worries. All of us here really, really appreciate each and every single one of you out there, and we're doing our best to make sure this game will both meet and exceed all of your expectations.