"Zap" and "Mrs-Zap" Traveling through Entropia Universe is an adventure, but it is even more enjoyable when you have someone special along to share the experience. This week’s Wednesday’s Who’s Who showcases a married couple in real life who also live, love and play in time and space in another world that so many of us call our second home. ZAP At 34, Zap works for a subcontractor of the largest internet service provider (ISP) in the nordic countries building and maintaining internet/mobile connections for companies, communities, and towns. He loves to travel around and spend as much Summer time as possible in the archipelagos. MRS-ZAP Also 34, Mrs-Z and Zap live in Turku, Finland, and have known each other since they were in school. That would make them childhood sweethearts, as they have been together for 14 years. They have no children of their own, she shares, "but we have 3 God Sons we can borrow to do fun stuff with, and then return them to their parents." She confirms that every Summer they disappear for a while and enjoy the beauty and tranquility of the Finnish archipelago. "We spend time on our island boating and fishing, and just plain relaxing from the hectic city life," says Mrs-Z. It seems that even their Husky dog Storm gets to enjoy the getaways. IN SEARCH OF Zap was looking for an MMORPG that was free to start with no monthly fees when he stumbled upon Project Entropia and decided to give it a try. He knows it was sometime in January or February of 2003 but when he made an attempt to get an exact date through an inquiry, he received the following response: Hi, Unfortunately, we cannot give you an exact date. The problem is that our admin tool does not have access to information older than 2003-10-29. The only thing we can reveal is that your account was created before this date. Regards, Entropia Support Mrs-Z blames her entrance into our universe on Zap of course, and says, "I was a backseat driver for a long time prior to making my own ava." She actually wrote OMG! I'm married to an EU addict! which is a little story at Entropia Forum about how she got started. There is a small update on the story here. ENTROPIA ORIGINS Zapra "Zap" Greadon is a combination of a nickname (Zap) used since first starting to play online games, a first name that kinda rhymes with Zap, and "the surname is just something I came up with on the spot," says Zap. [/FLOAT_LEFT] Zap landed at Fort Zeus and spent his early days running around that corner of the planet. Half of the time he said he was in ghost mode since back then you needed to travel back to the revive if you died. And yes, he says, "I died a lot since I didn’t have any gear whatsoever." Also, there was no mentor system in those days either, but said that a few Zeus residents helped him out a bit. Aleksiane “Mrs-Zap” Greadon begins with a name that Aleksiane has used in other contexts, "and it feels like that's who I am, so it was a natural choice for me," she says. The Mrs-Zap and Greadon both came from Zap's name. "Didn't think it was appropriate for me to have a different name from my hubby," shares Mrs-Z. It was 3 years ago on August 28, 2006 that she arrived on Calypso at Port Atlantis. She says that Zap was her mentor, but that everyone in their society was very kind and helpful to her when she was a mere n00b. Especially Maris EyeContact Driver who was a good friend and taught her a lot about echo hunting. "I think embarassment of being seen with an OJ made her lend me one of her outfits, thus igniting my love for clothes," she chuckles. Another person who comes to mind is Yem Heap Pyite, current Leader of Hunters Unlimited, and she shares that she will never forget him taking her on a spider hunt with her MKII right after she had joined the society. "Obviously, I was not a lot of use to have around, but I got to tag along like a little pet project and learned early on that no mob is too big if you work together." The Zaps have only had membership in the Hunters Unlimited society which has been in existence since 2003. Mrs-Z shared that Zap is the oldest standing member of HU, and it never even occurred to her to join any other society. EU PROFESSIONAL ENDEAVORS Zap has dabbled in basically all of the official careers, from hunting, mining, crafting, and "a few not so official ones," he shares. Before the auction and tailoring tweak, he used to run a small skin shop since certain skins were needed in order to produce particular clothes designs. Also, he was a component crafter for the more skilled crafters before the crafting tweak. Now, he's mainly a miner and event promoter. He and Mrs-Zap host events for the whole community under the Hunters Unlimited Events brand, and so far, they have hosted over 600 events since November 2006 after giving birth to the HU Events. These events can be found in the Events section at Entropia Forum, where you will find that many of the events have been free, and those that were not, required only a small fee to enter to win some nice prizes. Mrs-Zap claims to be a huntress at heart, but she's also a level 32 colorer. She initially started coloring to be able to color her own clothes, but soon discovered that this profession was a neverending road. She has tried almost all of the other professions as well, excluding the beauty profession, but still says that hunting is her favorite way of relaxing. As far as other activities that the Zaps are involved in, they both enjoy producing the HU Events, but Mrs-Z shares that she loves beacon missions as well. "Some of them have been globaling ones, but despite the effort, I still have not managed to open a sparkly container." She also enjoys team hunts, and took part in the WoF for the first time this year, supporting Finland of course, but was sad that she wasn't able to put in as many hours as she would have liked to. However, she will team hunt and join events whenever she has the opportunity to do so. COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTIONS As mentioned above, the Zaps have been involved with event promotion under the Hunters Unlimited banner since 2006, and in doing so, each has been able to achieve over 5k skills in promoter ratings. Mrs-Z shares that they do the events to give back to the community. Her favorite was the free Exaromania Event that was designed to suit every player in the community. "To many, Exaromania was their first event," says Mrs-Z, "and we took the time to explain the event system as best we could to be helpful." She also found the event chat of great joy, as well as seeing new players win the event with a HoF in the last few seconds. She shares that it's also nice to see the familiar names from the events still playing and doing well. "I’m sure we broke some sort of EU record with the Exaromania Event, which was sold out 5 weeks in a row, with 101 hunters in one place for an hour." The Zaps would love to continue this sort of event, but since they don't have an LA of their own, they have to depend on other LA owners. And speaking of Exo's, the Zap's like having their fun as well during moments of random taming. This is exactly what happened during the photo shoot when Zap tamed an Exo in an effort to get it to pose with them. Mrs-Zap is one of the Leader Advisors for HU, along with Zap and Heap, and they all work hard to make the HU family better. Mrs-Z has also been a mentor to new players, and has even mentored a few through graduation, even though they were officially someone else's disciple, which was a result of either an inactive or bad mentor. It's how she met Mick Micker Gould and his friends when they were just 3 days old, and became mentor, or a Fairy God Mother of sorts to the entire society of -=Gods of Chaos=-. They continue to do a lot of things together, and Micker calls her his honorary Lieutenant Colonel. "It's been rewarding for me to see their little group grow to be an active society that enjoys their journeys on Calypso." Currently, the HU Events are on hold as a result of a Summer holiday, and the fact that the event system is temporarily disabled after the implementation of VU 10.0. The HU Opalo Hunts are also on hold for the time being since the teaming feature is not yet available as well. As soon as these features have been restored, the HU Events will be back in business. In addition to the events, Zap maintains Entropia Loot, his site that is dedicated to tracking the hunting loots within Entropia Universe. The site is filled with a wealth of information quite beneficial to our Entropian community, and where the community itself has an opportunity to submit data to assist with the loot tracking. Modifications have been made, and is now VU10 compatible "thanks to Cail's assistance," says Zap. Another fun thing that Zap says he enjoyed, was providing the Zap’s n00b Train for a while, and even admits that he quite enjoyed it a lot himself. There's benefit in assisting new citizens of Calypso, and helping others is very much a part of this couple's activities. OTHER INTERESTS / ACTIVITIES Aside from the events circuit, the Zaps each have their unique interests that have kept them busy over time. Zap spent many hours camping Tezlapods in hopes of looting a pair of Jaguar Arm Guards. The perseverance paid off, because he eventually achieved his goal, and along the way, collected over 3k skins in the process. Even though this was achieved back in December 2008, and despite the fact that the skins were actually up for sale, there are still 3325 Tezla skins on proud display. Zap says the Tezlas can be a challenge at times because of their fast movement, and can be quite playful in the course of combat. Oops ...Didn't know this was a photo shoot. Ya, right! These days, Zap hunts whatever he's in the mood for, and claims to not really have a favorite mob. While Mrs-Z enjoys hunting a lot of different mobs using a lot of different weapons, she doesn't have just one favorite mob at this time either. She does enjoy the occasional trip to CP, but when not hunting, she can be found adding to her mob skull museum. She has quite a collection from what she’s gathered during her hunting escapades. ENTROPIA REFLECTIONS Zap shares that he has seen a lot of good and bad VU's during his time, but in general, there has been a nice growth. He says however, that it "Would have been better if folks at MindArk would have fixed some of the bugs and errors before adding new stuff, but kinda understand their interest to add more content and new stuff rather than fix some old small but irritating bugs." Mrs-Zap’s perspective is a bit different, in that she says, "There is a lot of potential in the main storyline, and a lot of unanswered questions. Of course, that adds to the mystery of the game, but sometimes I wish we would get some answers as well. Like, what’s in the room beneath the temple? Where is the Professor? And what about the egg?" With regard to thoughts about the Entropia Platform, Zap shares that he thinks it's an interesting concept, and a rather smart move on MA's part to release it, but also hopes that MA has chosen their partners wisely. He would like there to be something new to play and explore, as well as have travel between worlds. He says that it will be interesting to see how the Planet Partners manage their part of the universe platform, and whether the planets are managed properly, or end up empty and quiet. However, depending on the content of the new planets, he doesn't think that it will impact his game play too much. Mrs-Z is in a wait and see mode for the moment. Many things keep the Zaps fully engaged in our Entropia Universe, but some specifics come to mind that stand out more than others. Like, the people and the community as a whole. They have both made a lot of good friends along the way from all over the world, and enjoy spending time with them. Whether it's just doing stuff together and having fun, or having more serious conversations, the friendships and support received is greatly appreciated. The fact that EU has a more mature community is of benefit as well, and Mrs-Z adds, "I love the beauty of the graphics and the game in general, and the complexity of it makes it always a vivid experience in any mood and time." In sharing advice to new players, Zap says to start slow, do some exploring and collect all teleports. Also, "Be friendly to people you meet on your journeys, and don’t hesitate to ask from older participants whatever questions you may have." He also recommends reading guides, forums, and other information that can be found on the web. Mrs-Z chimes in and says to "Read the forum a lot!" She indicates that there are a lot of great sticky threads with plenty of useful information. Also, ask for help if you need it, and to always be polite. "There is always someone willing to help a newbie," she shares. CE2 / VU 10.0 REFLECTIONS Zap offers that he has been looking forward to CryEngine2 since MindArk first published the information that they were going to implement it some day. He was fully aware from past experience with VU's that there was certain to be bugs and issues with such a major undertaking of this sort. However, he shares that, "It's just something we need to handle to get to an even greater virtual universe, but I have to admit that I admire MA for doing a really good job with CryEngine2." Mrs-Z loves the new graphics and the overall beauty of the environment in general. She shares that, "All we need now is some patience to wait for the next couple of VU's to bring us the still missing features, and rid us of the unfortunate few bugs. I’m sure hunting for the Second Golden Age edition items will keep us occupied though." Zap said he upgraded Mrs-Z's computer a bit to make it run more smoothly, and he’s been tuning up his laptop to find a good balance between eye candy and playability. However, during the photo shoot, this was the only eye candy he was focused on: Fashions By: Mrs-Zap With a Guest Appearance by Zap (click on HQ for better quality) even better to watch in HQ on the larger screen at YouTube > Special Thanks To ... The-Onciest for graphics assistance.
