Hi Raza! First of all, can you introduce yourself.
I'm Jeroen Bolle, also known as bolln or raza on the net. I'm 18 years old and I currently study informationmanagement.
Why did you launch xfire.be, and what was the main goal of it ?
The original idea was to create a community portal for RtCW, where people would gather to discuss community-related topics.
There were already a few sites that tried doing that, but I wanted things differently. At that time, it was also pretty exciting
for me to create an entirely interactive website (I was 14 years old back then).
In Your opinion, how did you explain the success of Crossfire?
The first version of xfire was quite succesful because it was one of a kind. Several practical articles and daily news were posted.
Xfire always offered more community news, unlike other sites, swertcw for example, combined it with modding, mapping and other news.
I always concentrated on that one part, which was the most important part in my eyes, and continued developing a certain level of trust that made visitors come back again. When version 2 was released, everything became a lot more interactive and there was 10 times more content. The site ran on it's own, only me and tosspot adminned back then, and we rarely had to post news or articles.
How did your family react on the success of your website?
I've showed my parents it a few times, they were pretty impressed by the amount of visitors. I'm not sure they understood what I was doing really though. My brother, who is also involved in gaming, was pretty excited about it.
Sometimes, there were some h4x attacks on xfire... I smell some mafia problems ! :p
Well yeah, that's the problem with open content sites and a good amount of users. There are always a few kids who are too young to realise there are other ways to handle with frustration. I should've coded more security in the system, but I just didn't had or wanted to make time to do that.
In your POV, who are the three lamers of the wolf community?
As I'm not that involved in the community anymore, I cannot really say. The three that I can come up with and who literally disturbed the atmosphere on xfire are kamz, chaplja and tempest.
What are the persons who has contibute to develop the wolf community?
Defenitely TosspoT, he has done a hell of a lot. Also foonr and nellie have been pretty great contributors the last few months. I should also mention Celtic from swertcw, pack from xfire and boozze, tziek, fretn, and more.
Beside Xfire, You have also created a multigaming clan called Kreaturen, Can you tell us more about the results and the ambitions of the team, and if it's not sufficient, your hopes for the future?
Kreaturen grew from a group of friends who were pretty good at RtCW. Because of this friendship we were able to build a pretty stable organisation. When I brought my Enemy Territory (LeMs) team in, we took thing a bit more serious. From then on we established a good brand name people talked about and partnered with the best teams in their games. The four of us started working on fnatic back then. I still do marketing and sponsorship for fnatic. Kreaturen isn't doing too much lately. We've had a few teams over the years, but we're actually waiting to make a come back some day.
Why did you sell your webby to Tosspot ?
I wasn't as involved in the community anymore as I wanted to. TosspoT thought about taking it over and came with a good offer.
How much?
That's between him and me.
What does TosspoT taking over actually mean for Crossfire, will we see any changes?
The deal included the brand name xfire i've built the past 4 years, the website's code, the website's domain, the fragland partnership. Actually everything related to Crossfire. You'll have to ask toss what his actual plans are. From what he has told me, he just wants to keep expanding xfire's community in a similar way it has always been. He's a lot more involved than I am to do that.
I actually have quit gaming for more than a year now, so my intentions are a lot different than his. We've always been and always will be good friends. I'm sure xfire will just become bigger and better under his command.
Do you think someday you'll create a new community site for the release of ETQW or RTCW² ?
Not directly, I have a new project in mind and it probably won't be gaming related.
Let's talk about Esport. What do You think about its future? (Sponsors, LAns etc ..)
Esports will keep growing, that's for sure. Things will become a whole lot bigger the next few years. Especially with the new consoles coming up. I'm not sure if that's such a good thing for us. I hope the true nature of professional gaming will stay at pc-games, but the console market is a lot bigger and will eventually take a lot of the new attention away. For ET's sake, there won't be any professional LAN-parties, nor professional gaming teams who will sponsor ET teams. That's just how it is. There's no future for professional gaming in ET. Anyhow, maybe that can change with Quake Wars, but it looks like it will be a battlefield kind of game. I'm sure it will be very entertaining, but we'll have to see about the competetive part.
What Game do you play actually, and what are the games (Next gen) are you gonna play on the next months ?
I'm not gaming too much anymore, I only play some Quake 3 CPM on saturdays.
I'm not really looking forward to any games. Might want to test out the new Wii controller.
Something else to add?
Not really :)
Thanks to raza, kijux and cahistrom and shaq !
I'm Jeroen Bolle, also known as bolln or raza on the net. I'm 18 years old and I currently study informationmanagement.
Why did you launch xfire.be, and what was the main goal of it ?
The original idea was to create a community portal for RtCW, where people would gather to discuss community-related topics.
There were already a few sites that tried doing that, but I wanted things differently. At that time, it was also pretty exciting
for me to create an entirely interactive website (I was 14 years old back then).
In Your opinion, how did you explain the success of Crossfire?
The first version of xfire was quite succesful because it was one of a kind. Several practical articles and daily news were posted.
Xfire always offered more community news, unlike other sites, swertcw for example, combined it with modding, mapping and other news.
I always concentrated on that one part, which was the most important part in my eyes, and continued developing a certain level of trust that made visitors come back again. When version 2 was released, everything became a lot more interactive and there was 10 times more content. The site ran on it's own, only me and tosspot adminned back then, and we rarely had to post news or articles.
How did your family react on the success of your website?
I've showed my parents it a few times, they were pretty impressed by the amount of visitors. I'm not sure they understood what I was doing really though. My brother, who is also involved in gaming, was pretty excited about it.
Sometimes, there were some h4x attacks on xfire... I smell some mafia problems ! :p
Well yeah, that's the problem with open content sites and a good amount of users. There are always a few kids who are too young to realise there are other ways to handle with frustration. I should've coded more security in the system, but I just didn't had or wanted to make time to do that.
In your POV, who are the three lamers of the wolf community?
As I'm not that involved in the community anymore, I cannot really say. The three that I can come up with and who literally disturbed the atmosphere on xfire are kamz, chaplja and tempest.
What are the persons who has contibute to develop the wolf community?
Defenitely TosspoT, he has done a hell of a lot. Also foonr and nellie have been pretty great contributors the last few months. I should also mention Celtic from swertcw, pack from xfire and boozze, tziek, fretn, and more.
Beside Xfire, You have also created a multigaming clan called Kreaturen, Can you tell us more about the results and the ambitions of the team, and if it's not sufficient, your hopes for the future?
Kreaturen grew from a group of friends who were pretty good at RtCW. Because of this friendship we were able to build a pretty stable organisation. When I brought my Enemy Territory (LeMs) team in, we took thing a bit more serious. From then on we established a good brand name people talked about and partnered with the best teams in their games. The four of us started working on fnatic back then. I still do marketing and sponsorship for fnatic. Kreaturen isn't doing too much lately. We've had a few teams over the years, but we're actually waiting to make a come back some day.
Why did you sell your webby to Tosspot ?
I wasn't as involved in the community anymore as I wanted to. TosspoT thought about taking it over and came with a good offer.
How much?
That's between him and me.
What does TosspoT taking over actually mean for Crossfire, will we see any changes?
The deal included the brand name xfire i've built the past 4 years, the website's code, the website's domain, the fragland partnership. Actually everything related to Crossfire. You'll have to ask toss what his actual plans are. From what he has told me, he just wants to keep expanding xfire's community in a similar way it has always been. He's a lot more involved than I am to do that.
I actually have quit gaming for more than a year now, so my intentions are a lot different than his. We've always been and always will be good friends. I'm sure xfire will just become bigger and better under his command.
Do you think someday you'll create a new community site for the release of ETQW or RTCW² ?
Not directly, I have a new project in mind and it probably won't be gaming related.
Let's talk about Esport. What do You think about its future? (Sponsors, LAns etc ..)
Esports will keep growing, that's for sure. Things will become a whole lot bigger the next few years. Especially with the new consoles coming up. I'm not sure if that's such a good thing for us. I hope the true nature of professional gaming will stay at pc-games, but the console market is a lot bigger and will eventually take a lot of the new attention away. For ET's sake, there won't be any professional LAN-parties, nor professional gaming teams who will sponsor ET teams. That's just how it is. There's no future for professional gaming in ET. Anyhow, maybe that can change with Quake Wars, but it looks like it will be a battlefield kind of game. I'm sure it will be very entertaining, but we'll have to see about the competetive part.
What Game do you play actually, and what are the games (Next gen) are you gonna play on the next months ?
I'm not gaming too much anymore, I only play some Quake 3 CPM on saturdays.
I'm not really looking forward to any games. Might want to test out the new Wii controller.
Something else to add?
Not really :)
Thanks to raza, kijux and cahistrom and shaq !
