Please Note that these questions were choose by different members of swat 4 community.
Question 1) Tell us something about yourself. Your history with swat, your previous clan, etc., prior to Swat 4 news.
I got the 2-pack SWAT CD as part of a purchase for an old computer in late 2007. I started playing multi-player in 2008 and loved the VIP Escort mode. Being born and brought-up on 1.0, I got accustomed to the rules of no camping, spawning etc. I wanted to join a clan and considered the 3 most popular servers on 1.0, which were «|US|», {FAB} and |Fs| at the time. The two latter choices only had servers based in America which wasn’t ideal ping-wise, so I chose USA Swat Team. They also had a pretty nice and unique clan tag lol, although many other clans have now since copied it.
Question 2) Why did you start Swat 4 news? Where did you get the idea of doing something like this? Who were the gamers who help you in this?
I decided to start S4N in 2012 because I realised there was no real website that addressed the whole Swat community. Part of the motivation also came from the failure of S|A*, because I saw many clan jumpers and some fools who would start clan after clan before closing each one as it inevitably failed. I also used S4N as a kind of side-job to studying, earning a little money from the blog adverts (though everything earned got pumped back in tournaments).
Question 3) You have always been accused of hiding your identity on servers. Why is that?
Question 4) It always seems that you have a certain favorite clan and players and at the same time you have been accused of targeting certain people you don’t like. Do you think as a founder of Swat 4 news you should show favoritism?
Hmm, quite an aggressive question :D. Personally, I don’t believe there is too much favouritism. I try to be as neutral as possible – as somebody who has Indian roots there have been posts about whether the influx of Indian players, lead by legendary dictator Scarecrow, was actually destroying the community. Early on there were three successive articles on MrElie, and some people said that S4N was just a hate-blog about him, but I still believe that 99% of players agreed deep-down with such posts at the time. Then there’s clans like SoH who are always negatively written about but again, it’s something that not many normal people would disagree with.
Question 5) What do you want to say to gamers who are still connected to this dying game?
For me the death of UAC confirmed the death of the game, also when I saw a particular player join a well-established clan late last year (not naming names), I knew it truly symbolised the end. All I can say to the loyal gamers out there is: don’t worry, there is still the Facebook group for entertainment! On a serious note though, we are working on something which could provide one last SWAT 4 hurrah (tournament), a sort of stop-gap UAC. At the moment it needs some testing and there is a likely chance it might not even work. But we keep you updated..
Question 1) Tell us something about yourself. Your history with swat, your previous clan, etc., prior to Swat 4 news.
I got the 2-pack SWAT CD as part of a purchase for an old computer in late 2007. I started playing multi-player in 2008 and loved the VIP Escort mode. Being born and brought-up on 1.0, I got accustomed to the rules of no camping, spawning etc. I wanted to join a clan and considered the 3 most popular servers on 1.0, which were «|US|», {FAB} and |Fs| at the time. The two latter choices only had servers based in America which wasn’t ideal ping-wise, so I chose USA Swat Team. They also had a pretty nice and unique clan tag lol, although many other clans have now since copied it.
Anyway, I played in US
actively for three years and learnt many things. I remember the clan splitting
in two around 2009(?), as Ultimate Force (UF) got formed. The leadership of US
then changed approx. 2010, and I didn’t like some of the decisions that were
made. I voiced my opinions and eventually got kicked from the clan. In 2011, I
decided to use the experience gained to try and start my own little venture. I
contacted a German friend who owned a wealth of servers, and we began what ultimately
became a disaster called Swat Allstars S|A*.
The clan survived maybe 2
months before it got closed due to poor recruitment, and for the past 3 years I
have been playing freelance. Probably my biggest regret is that during all this
time, I hardly played any tournaments or properly experienced the ‘golden era’
of Swat; instead I was part of a community focused on achieving a high Game
Tracker rank and ensuring the VIP was within tazer range if someone camped..
Question 2) Why did you start Swat 4 news? Where did you get the idea of doing something like this? Who were the gamers who help you in this?
I decided to start S4N in 2012 because I realised there was no real website that addressed the whole Swat community. Part of the motivation also came from the failure of S|A*, because I saw many clan jumpers and some fools who would start clan after clan before closing each one as it inevitably failed. I also used S4N as a kind of side-job to studying, earning a little money from the blog adverts (though everything earned got pumped back in tournaments).
The blog was initially only
planned to last for a year or so but thanks to Mig and a few other people who
gave contributions (Sex, Pimp, Dida, Troczu, Actind, Linux, James) we have gone
on to last a lot longer with over 400 articles!
Question 3) You have always been accused of hiding your identity on servers. Why is that?
When you sometimes post
negative things about certain clans, it is difficult to then enter their server
or forum with your real name. I would say about 60% of ‘news’ posted on this
blog originates from information gained by playing on servers, therefore it is
important that you can access the server and don’t get banned for using your known
nick (or for using ‘cheats’). Of course, there are certain measures to find out
identities of people without being admin of a server, but surprisingly not a
lot of people use them.
Question 4) It always seems that you have a certain favorite clan and players and at the same time you have been accused of targeting certain people you don’t like. Do you think as a founder of Swat 4 news you should show favoritism?
Hmm, quite an aggressive question :D. Personally, I don’t believe there is too much favouritism. I try to be as neutral as possible – as somebody who has Indian roots there have been posts about whether the influx of Indian players, lead by legendary dictator Scarecrow, was actually destroying the community. Early on there were three successive articles on MrElie, and some people said that S4N was just a hate-blog about him, but I still believe that 99% of players agreed deep-down with such posts at the time. Then there’s clans like SoH who are always negatively written about but again, it’s something that not many normal people would disagree with.
Question 5) What do you want to say to gamers who are still connected to this dying game?
For me the death of UAC confirmed the death of the game, also when I saw a particular player join a well-established clan late last year (not naming names), I knew it truly symbolised the end. All I can say to the loyal gamers out there is: don’t worry, there is still the Facebook group for entertainment! On a serious note though, we are working on something which could provide one last SWAT 4 hurrah (tournament), a sort of stop-gap UAC. At the moment it needs some testing and there is a likely chance it might not even work. But we keep you updated..
After the epic flop of
Takedown, games like BF3, CS:GO and Insurgency seem to be the main options for those
who have moved on. I have recently played a little CS and while I believe it is
completely different to Swat (especially shooting), it would be a decent recommendation
for the ‘next game’, although the new R6 looks promising.