Asandir's interviews with Newgrounds forum users

This week's interview features the user iMini.

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When did you find Newgrounds and why did you join? Why did you choose the username iMini?

iMini:

"I can't say for sure entirely why I joined Newgrounds, I just can't remember, I was only 14 at the time (I'm 21 now), I know I used to enjoy a lot of the content on the site, mainly flash games, I think the last one I really had a tonne of fun with was Newgrounds Rumble, that was an excellent game! I used to really enjoy game parodies too, Metal Gear Awesome is probably my favourite non-collab on here. The forums were nice too, so I've spent a lot of time on there over the years (nearly at 10,000 posts!).

I changed my name because I thought H-A-X-O-R-Z was a bit immature, I'd grown out of it. My friends IRL all call me "Mini", I wasn't exactly a late-bloomer, but it was a long time before I got any height (I'm a reasonable 5ft 7" now), I like the Apple style branding of having an "i" at the start of their products, so I took that and made myself iMini! I went through a few aliases since H-A-X-O-R-Z, such as OMG A Noob, TheChrist and Mini M3 Jr (I think Mini M3 Jr might outdate H-A-X-O-R-Z)."

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Do you think that you changed over the time you were here, as user, or also in real life?

iMini:

"Most definitely, I look through my post history occasionally and cringe at some of the stuff I have written, I signed up on the brink of puberty and I'm all done with that now, I've matured a lot, but I can still get really easily wound up, especially here, I suppose maybe that's a persona I've adopted? I can be a dick sometimes is what I'm trying to say, but if I get to know a user I tend to be friendlier to them. Yeah, I've grown up in real life too, I've moved out of my parents, moved to a whole other city actually."

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Are there any other users that you like, and how do they affect you?

iMini:

"I like a fair few of the regulars in the Video Games forum, I really like Dean though, he's pretty awesome, I used to play with him a lot on Xbox Live but his University work got in the way of that quite a bit and I don't think we've played in over a year now! I often speak with Bartmasta, I don't know if that was his account name here, Bart his name is, we also get a long pretty well. I also used to talk to Lagamuffin (or in his latter days, simply "Oliver"), but we just kind of drifted apart, shame really. I try to be get a long with the people I see on the forums often; RightWingGamer, Tramps, Jackho, Simon, etc, but I've never really befriended any of them."

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Are there any users that you would consider enemies or that you just don't like?

iMini:

"Definitely not, I've had spats and arguments with some users in the past but I'm not holding any grudges right now. I remember once seeing a user go off on a huge rant regarding the forums and at one point mentioned me by naming for being a "subtle fanboy", as I'd say things that might sound like a legitimate complaint about a game, he called me out for hating on MGS4, I claimed I'd lost interest in the series because of its convoluted plot, but he saw right through me and brought up that I was just trying to bring the series down because I lacked the ability to play it (I didn't own a PS3 at the time). I actually really love MGS4 now I've played it, and I'm really excited for MGS5!"

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What is your opinion about the forums? Is there one forum that you prefer? And is there another forum user that you want to see getting interviewed by me?

iMini:

"I only go on the Video Games forum any more, I think the General section has turned to utter garbage, it reminds me of /b/, not that there's anything wrong with /b/, but I don't think that the stupid attitude works here. There's a lot of troll comments, you know? I'm just not a fan of that and turn to Reddit for any kind of serious discussion and I go to 4chan if I want that kind of stupid, but somehow entertaining attitude.

I'd like to see Dean get interviewed, he's a really nice guy, he's a mod and he's been here for a long time."

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I guess that you have an opinion about the moderators of Newgrounds. Do you think that they do a great job or not?

iMini:

"I think in my experience they do a fairly good job, it can get a little shitty sometimes, but overall it's not bad, sometimes a post that's spam, or advertising or something else against the rules can go days before one of the mods gives it a look over, but they do catch a lot of threads that are shitty before they gain any traction."

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Would you like to become a moderator on Newgrounds? If so, what kind of moderator?

iMini:

"I'm not entirely fussed about that kind of thing, I'd only be interested in being a forum mod, and even then only in the VG forum, but it's not something I'm going to change my attitude to get."

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You were a member before the redesign 2007. Tell me how you experienced Newgrounds back then and what changes you liked about the redesign.

iMini:

"I liked almost everything about the redesign, the level cap was bumped from 30 to 60, it made progressing up levels a hell of a lot easier (There used to be a set amount of XP between the lower levels, up until something like 9 or 11 and after that the amount of XP needed to level up would increase exponentially, I think you needed to vote something like 50 days before a level up, whereas the lower levels before that were something like a week to level up. I know there were a bunch of featured added, and the site looked a whole lot nicer, but I can't think of any specific that I really liked about it, I'd have to spend time with the old site to really know.

The redesign also introduced the VG forum, which as you should now by now, was a great thing in my opinion."

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The redesign happened last year. Tell me what you think about it. What do you like and what is not so good?

iMini:

"I have very little opinion on the new redesign, I don't like the level icons anywhere near as much as the old ones (I'm not a fan of pixel art), and the improvements to the flash, art and audio portals I have little interest in, it didn't really affect me, you know?

I know they updated the forums recently and it now supports more characters so I can finally type £ Huzzah!"

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Skindred is your favourite band. Tell our readers why you like them and talk about some of your favourite songs and how you experienced their live concerts.

iMini:

"Well, they're a Reggae-Metal band from Wales and I think they're excellent of course. I first got into them through new friends in College at around the age of 16, they showed me a softer song of theirs called "The Fear" and I fell in love with it, when I actually started listening to them though, I found a completely new band in them that I liked even more. I saw them live first in 2010 at a music festival, the lead singer is a very talented showman, he really knows how to make the crowd laugh and brings a fantastic energy to their sets, I've never seen anything quite like it. I've seen them 6 or 7 times now, and I'm perhaps going to see them again this year in Amsterdam in November, and definitely again in January here in the UK, as they're doing a tour in support of their album due out early next year. They have a number of tracks I would consider excellent; Nobody, Bruises, Pressure, The Fear, Roots Rock Riot, Trouble, Rat Race, State of Emergency, Destroy The Dancefloor, Rude Boy for Life, Stand For Something, Cut Dem, Doom Riff, Guntalk, Make Your Mark, Own You, Bad Man Ah Bad Man, Game Over, Electric Avenue and their latest track Ninja is phenomenal. Out of those I'd say Electric Avenue, Ninja, Trouble, Roots Rock Riot and Bruises were my favourites."

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In your recent posts you showcased that you like The Binding of Isaac, a rather popular indie game. Tell our readers what you like about this game.

iMini:

"Well, it's a procedurally generated rogue-like game, where you play an infant as he makes his way through various floors facing off against grotesque monsters, there are hundreds of pick ups with unique effects, and many of them synergise well together, Quad Shot + Spider shot will make every enemy you hit take a load of damage and slows their speed, Ipecac + Technology will create a mega powerful laser beam that will destroy almost anything instantly. It's very difficult, but very rewarding. There are also 13 endings and the game gets progressively harder as you unlock them, as well as challenge runs and various characters to choose from. It's one of my favourite games ever."

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Which game has been so far your favourite for this year? If you look back 5 years, which games released in that time period were in your opinion the most important ones?

iMini:

"Tough One. I haven't played a lot of this year AAA games, but I recently got Payday 2 and Splinter Cell Blacklist and they're very good, but I have almost no doubts I will enjoy GTA V the most out of any game I play this year. In the past 5 years I'd say some of the most out standing games would be:

Telltale's The Walking Dead, taking place in The Walking Dead universe you play as Lee and make your way through the game in hope of escape, it's very good and there are a lot of tough decisions to make, it's primarily point-and-click but there's some occasional shooting. The reason you play is for the choices you have to make. Do you save the potential love interest, or the intellegent, but nerdy guy? You have 4 pieces of food, but there are 9 people in your group, who do you give the food to? Towards the end it gets incredibly emotional, I've never had an experience like it, I cried, it's got to be the saddest thing I've ever seen in media, I get teary eyed thinking about, the final scenes are just, unbelievable, I was left in awe by that game.

GTA IV and the expansions were excellent, I loved Yusuf Amir in The Ballad of Gay Tony.

Battlefield 3 is my personal multiplayer game of choice, it's a bit late into its life cycle to be getting into it now, you'll just run and get shot a lot because you won't have the map knowledge to be competitive.

Portal 2 was also fantastic, it's another game you play for the characters, GlaDOS is like an ice queen, but her sarcastic insults can be so amusing, Wheatly is a bumbling but lovable idiot, he provides hilarious comic relief, and of course Cave Johnson who stole the fucking show, he's such an extravagant character, doesn't care much for safety regulations, and is incredibly manly, I can't really describe it."

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The next generation of consoles is coming, with the soon releases of both the Playstation 4 and Xbox One. What do you like and dislike about the new consoles? Which of the announced games are you looking forward the most?

iMini:

"I don't dislike anything really about the new consoles, I certainly prefer the PS4 over the Xbox One, but I find myself constantly defending it, people give the Xbox One such a hard time, but Microsoft has resolved a lot of issues but people are still really butthurt about it.

I'm really looking forward to The Crew, which is an open world racing game, it looks like it could be a serious competitor against the likes of Need for Speed and Midnight Club! It has an absolutely massive world, anything you can see, you can drive to. I'm also in awe of Tom Clancy's The Division, which is a third person shooter, I think it's been described as an persistent, online, team based third person shooter/action rpg. It looks pretty good, but I can't tell you a lot about it because not a lot has been revealed."

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Every person has secrets. Can you tell one of yours or something else that we didn't know about you yet?

iMini:

"I used to be a dinosaur. A Stegosaurus to be exact."

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What can we expect from you in the future, iMini?

iMini:

"10,000 posts, rants and generally the same shit I've been doing for the past 2 years."

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Now you are filled with more knowledge about iMini, dear reader.Feel free to leave a comment here, saying what you think about the interview, requesting users to get interviews is also appreciated. Tune in next week :3

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