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Tópico: Interview with Jon "The Polar Bear" Beagles - AWESOME! |
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#1 colocada 11 Out 2011, 00:07:34 (Editado em 11 Out 2011, 00:08:22 por Jun Ho)
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Enjoy this awesome interview with a great mate and amazing person! Keri Lov.....err I mean Jon Beagles!
1) Hello! Can I ask for your full name and occupation please?
Jonathan William Beagles and male gigolo New Business Executive; essentially that boils down to Telemarketing/Cold Calling but with a little more freedom and initiative than your average Telemarketing role :)
2) How did you find GPRO, and what spurred you on to stay?
I played another F1 game but felt very isolated and confused by TimeF1 or whatever it was called (btw I do know what it's called ;) ), and was advised by someone that there was a more community focused game I could try. I played both F1Clock and GPRO at the same time, but had to make a decision after about 1 season about which one to go for. And I've regretted been happy with that decision ever since ;)
3) Firstly, congratulations on getting married! How does it feel now to become a married man?
Firstly? But thanks :) And it's amazing; she's wonderful, cooks for me and makes me so happy in every way. She even lets me go on GPRO...mostly. :)
4) Let us talk about Versant. How did it all start?
Well, that's a bit of a tale. I hope you're sitting comfortably...The Twilight Zone was a team born by Tomasz Wypych, Dan Reed and several other managers (Phil Tipton, Michael Hincapie, both Lukasz's, Chris Carter and Peter Bartnik amongst others - apologies to any I may have forgotten) that I was fortunate enough to be approached by.
Chris had seen something (to this day, I'm not quite sure what though) and asked me to join the team...and things continued with TZT - as it was known - for several relatively good seasons. I was pretty lazy but did just enough to survive...generally the team was good but relied heavily on Tomasz's knowledge of Elite and extrapolating backwards from that.
And this proved to be a bit of an issue when Tomasz eventually left with one of the Lukasz's to Martini (causing a lot of resentment) and causing disarray in the ranks; and in Season 15 Chris Carter stepped up and changed the team name to Versant with a new vision of a team that contributed and learned together. Or something like that. Anyway Chris left shortly afterwards (talk about seeing an idea through!) and after a couple of other guys turned their hand to leading Versant yours truly stepped up and have been there ever since.
5) Did you ever think that the team could become such a force in the teams championship, constantly appearing in the top 30?
When I took over and we took on Ernesto Brito in S15 (http://www.gpro.net/gb/ManagerProfile.asp?IDM=78085) to keep our forum in place with the requisite amount of supporters you can imagine that I was less than confident with our 240th placed finish. So then, NO! But things soon got much better with some brilliant additions to the team (they should know who they are) and so from then on I've had a lot of confidence in what we can achieve.
6) Did the points deduction affect your long term plans?
Well as when it came in it had been a good time since anyone had left I think only Kiran was affected from our team, and only for 1 season. So we felt it was a bonus for our long-term commitment to the team...moving forward it has certainly encouraged us to put up with more RL difficulties for people. Whether that's a good thing or not I'm not sure...so to answer your question, ermm, yes - a bit.
7) I can see you never reached Master, even with a good team. How come?
Probably other commitments, bad luck and not having enough motivation to put the required effort in. Though the game has got so competitive in recent times, and I enjoy the other parts (silly games, team leadership etc) so much I may never get there myself. That said, if we crack the formulas we have plans to crack then it may be that I can get there by implementing what we find out. Who knows...
8) Now let us get to the GPRO Meetings. How hard was it to host the first one in the UK?
Wow, what a task that was! Logistical nightmare, but with a lot of help from my good friend Stefan we put it all in place; the night out, bowling, karting, second night out, and then the hire of a pub for a day to watch the world cup and the F1 race. Epic times, and totally worth it :)
9) Did you ever think to get that many people in Manchester?
Well, at one point no! We had people dropping out left, right and centre on us (mostly English people, grr) and I was rather concerned. It was brilliant that people made the effort though (especially Marcelo for coming so far!) and I hope they had a good time when they did show up.
10) What about the meeting this year? Was it better than 2010, worse, or the same?
Oooooh...good question. I was a lot less stressed than in 2010, and did slightly better in the Karting...plus Latvian women. Wow. So I probably enjoyed the experience in 2011 more, but have a somewhat biased view of 2010 being organised better. You did still did a good job though Viesturs ;)
11) Versant won the inaugural table football tournament against the struggling Edifice. Any words for them, and how did you feel after winning that? ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSNw_nLF7CE )
Well Jun, I thought it was a professional performance by Tarnawski at the back, who really showed some Polish grit in defence whilst Beagles skill up front was simply mesmerising. As Team Leader I was delighted. Edifice were unlucky though; in that they drew such superior opposition ;)
12) Now, silly games. What was the first ever game you created/hosted?
Oh God; I'm not even sure... *checks* ah yes, QRO! Quiz Racing Online came from my love of F1 Trivia and GPFRO and it just hit me that the two concepts could be combined. So I created a new game and it was born.
However if you're asking about the 1st game I ever created in my life outside GPRO it would be a game using Pokemon cards for my 3 little brothers *cringes* when I was about 12 years old.
13) The creation of TERG. Who created it, and how did the concept get made?
It was created by Greg Miles, who had some great ideas but wasn't great at seeing them through. His initial concept was good and I was the 1st person to join TERG (see post #4 for proof - /gb/forum/ViewTopic.asp?TopicId=5682&Page=1) but when things started to slow down thanks to Greg dropping the ball a bit I stepped in and took over the reins. It was hell at first to work out how to do things so quickly but I soon learned the ropes and got everything in order.
14) Everyone must be wondering, how the hell you can host 3-4 games in a row (but now lowered due to time I presume?)
When I was at Uni (08/09) I had time to host as many games as I wanted, but since then in 2010 I was living on my own so had evenings and weekends all to myself and now in 2011 I live with my lovely wife, which limits my time yet further. Which sadly means I now can only do 1 at a time (thanks Tim-O for stepping in to save TERG btw!) and so F1 Revisited takes up my time right now. Off the back of that I am a real night owl so will often up until 3:30 CET to do stuff if it needs doing, as I only need 5-6 hours sleep to function most days.
15) Will we expect any more games from you in the future, maybe the re-release of QRO?
There will always be another season of QRO. Probably. It's one that haunts me and keeps pulling me back in to making it. It's a question of when. It's probably the same with COMBAT - it's all just a matter of time though. If I could have any superpower I would have Bernard's Watch. Google it if you've never seen the show.
16) Finally, since the Elite championship is nearly finished, who do YOU think will win TERG and TMRG?
Hmmmm, Erik Sindkov for TMRG for sure; great guy. Outside shot at Markus Toivonen though :)
As for TERG Laila is the merchant of nearly and a constant surprise package, and she is the "Penske Princess" but versus "The Power" that is 2 times champ Atis Praudins I'm not so sure. No-one has ever won TERG 3 times (only Atis and Tomasz Wypych have won it twice) so a part of me would like to see that; though having met both the challengers I'd be ok with either doing so.
Thanks for the questions Jun, nice to talk about some things I don't usually get to say :)
BONUS VIDEO: Beagles naked! :) PM me for link :)
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#2 colocada 11 Out 2011, 00:14:27
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Great interview with a great guy who I'm pleased forgave me for rejecting him the first time he came calling but soon realised my mistake.
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#3 colocada 11 Out 2011, 00:18:36
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How can anyone thumb it down?
Good job Jun.
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#4 colocada 11 Out 2011, 00:23:10
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Finally an interesting interviewee.
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#5 colocada 11 Out 2011, 00:27:05 (Editado em 11 Out 2011, 00:29:18 por Daryl Gee)
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Quote ( Jun Ho @ October 11th 2011,00:07:34 )
some brilliant additions to the team (they should know who they are)
Those were epic days; Thompson-Wurly banter was the stuff of legend.
Nice interview Jon&Jun.
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#6 colocada 11 Out 2011, 00:39:30
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Quote ( Daryl Gee @ October 11th 2011,00:27:05 )
Those were epic days; Thompson-Wurly banter was the stuff of legend.
Ah I do miss that; the team are a lot more focused and we still have fun together...but the banter levels at that time were crazy high. Possibly the greatest banter seen in a forum. Ever ;)
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#7 colocada 11 Out 2011, 00:39:40
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This was a great read..... thoroughly enjoyed it
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#8 colocada 11 Out 2011, 00:40:41
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I can't believe its taken so long to interview this man. Also about time we had someone worthy of being interviewed; a bloody big legend.
I can honestly say Versant is the best team in the game for community and spirit and its great to see the boys up there in the standings consistently.
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#9 colocada 11 Out 2011, 00:41:49
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Quote ( Daryl Gee @ October 11th 2011,00:27:05 )
Those were epic days; Thompson-Wurly banter was the stuff of legend.
That took a full week & a half to read through. Some of it involved changing pants after weeing myself with laughter.
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#10 colocada 11 Out 2011, 00:49:33
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Good ol' read, and it's good to see good things happening to good people, Beagles has made the GPRO forums a sterling place to be and a great organiser!
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#11 colocada 11 Out 2011, 00:50:57
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Awesome read from an awesome guy.
I dont think a lot of people truly know how much time he puts into GPRO, running a team and all the games in so much massive detail.
If there was a hall of fame for GPRO dedication, I would like to see it with Beagles in it :-)
Great interview.
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#13 colocada 11 Out 2011, 07:42:10
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Have to agree with Keri, that greate interview. Was fun to read. Jun forget to ask one question after 3 one. Wehn will have babies? :D
Jon you are great guy yourself as well, best of luck.
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Great interview, with a great guy. Well done Jun :) Enjoyed reading it. Just not the meeting part, I know the 2011 meeting sucked, you guys liked it here only because of women :P
Thanks for the great time reading this :)
EDIT: Oh yeah, The Polar Bear... great memories :P
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#15 colocada 11 Out 2011, 10:18:20
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Quote ( Jun Ho @ October 11th 2011,00:07:34 )
Well, at one point no! We had people dropping out left, right and centre on us (mostly English people, grr)
Cold feet syndrome. I got it a little but wasn't the reason that stopped me going (I was actually on holiday then IIRC in the Lake District).
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#16 colocada 11 Out 2011, 10:26:36
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Good stuff.
I always enjoy reading the histories of the team in these interviews.
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#17 colocada 11 Out 2011, 10:51:29
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Nice interview Jun/Jon.
Tim is doing a great job with TERG, but I do miss your team introductions/summaries and historic stats.
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#18 colocada 11 Out 2011, 11:10:21
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Great Interview. I do miss those TZT days. The only team i've ever been in with all members on msn every race. Was a good laugh!
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#19 colocada 11 Out 2011, 14:30:04
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Quote ( Erik Šindikov @ October 11th 2011,07:42:10 )
Wehn will have babies? :D
Late 20s by the sounds of the missus' plans...so about 4-5 years.
Quote ( Dan Reed @ October 11th 2011,11:10:21 )
The only team i've ever been in with all members on msn every race. Was a good laugh!
Oh yeah, forgot the MSN chats. Epic cools...we mostly chat on the team forum during the race these days btw.
Quote ( Alan Tansley @ October 11th 2011,10:51:29 )
Tim is doing a great job with TERG, but I do miss your team introductions/summaries and historic stats.
Issue is that F1R takes up so much of my time and I love doing it. By the end I still liked doing TERG but it was always going to be a 2nd priority. UNLESS the website took away a lot of the grunt work...may have another stab at that with a mate that knows about these things who's joined GPRO recently.
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#20 colocada 11 Out 2011, 14:34:04
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Great interview! Really fun to read :)
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#21 colocada 11 Out 2011, 14:57:22
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Really a pleasure to read it :)
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#22 colocada 11 Out 2011, 15:05:22
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Nice interview, a good read!
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#23 colocada 12 Out 2011, 00:37:00
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Woop! Now YOU guys will have a say into who I should be interviewing! Just PM me with the person you like to see get interviewed, and I will try to get it done! :)
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#24 colocada 12 Out 2011, 00:51:18
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Surely Justinas is in line for one? :-)
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#25 colocada 14 Out 2011, 13:46:26
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The next interview will be with *drum roll*
Riley Morrell!
I have had a lot of nominations from people, and thanks very much!
Unfortunately, the majority of them did not want to be interviewed, and one of them wants to wait until sometime in the future, so I feel it is best to learn how hard the game is from a noobs perspective :D
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#26 colocada 14 Out 2011, 13:48:06
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#27 colocada 14 Out 2011, 13:51:35
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Quote ( Jun Ho @ October 14th 2011,13:46:26 )
Unfortunately, the majority of them did not want to be interviewed
So now you're stuck with me! :P
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