The Tip.It Times


Issue 30399gp

Interview with Sy Accursed

Written by and edited by n/a

The Tip.It forums are home to a wide range of weird and wonderful people. These people are always on hand to provide advice to others, discuss current events (both in-game and in real life), contribute to the vast array of guides and databases on the site, or even just play a forum game. Here at the Times we thought it was about time they got a moment in the spotlight, and so looked to gain an insight into the lives of these posters.

One such poster, Sy_Accursed, kindly agreed to answer a few questions about Tip.It, RuneScape, and life in general:

Monkeychee: How did you first discover Tip.It?

Sy_Accursed: Wasn't anything really interesting to it, was just top Google result back in the day before any of the other major fansites really existed.

M: When did you create your account and start posting on the forums?

S: Around Christmas '04, I had finally stuck with a single account for a good amount of time (and not lost my password) and managed to persuade parents into buying members, but I'd barely ventured beyond the free world because I felt so lost and confused by it all. So I thought if the forums were half as good as the guides someone ought to be able to give me some new member tips and I signed up to ask for help.

M: What was the reasoning behind choosing the name Sy_Accursed?

S: Well my original name was Paw Claw, which was because I was really into tigers and cats and was going for a bit of a two-sided name - Paw for the cute and gentle thing and Claw for the fierce killer thing.

When name changing came about I moved to Sy Accursed because I wanted a name that was more related to me - Sy being short for Symon. Accursed was largely due to me being a bit of an emo/goth type around that time and I wanted something a bit dark. Plus I wanted to go for something a bit obscure, a real word but not one you see all that often and finally it was a bit of a tongue in cheek comment on my in-game luck. I never really get any decent drops and get lag spikes at bad times and such.

M: How many posts do you have on the forums?

S: At the time of answering this around 16,300.

M: If we made you narrow it down to one, what is your favourite post you have made on TIF?

S: The vast majority of my posts are in the moment and don't really have a long lasting impact so I don't really have favourites per say. But if I had to choose it'd have to be my Ghostly Robes guide, purely because I happened to be on RSOF right at the time it was discovered (or at least was publicly discovered) and even though I didn't have ring of visibility at the time I was there solving the riddles at the forefront and subsequently brought that knowledge to Tip.It in a guide that gained a lot of popularity as the main site didn't have a guide for a long while. (And it only took a year or two, a short lived stint as a crewbie and some "subtle" arm twisting to get it used on the main site!)

M: Have you met many interesting people/friends from TIF? Recognized people in-game as someone from the forums?

S: Oddly enough I don't really socialise with Tip.It folks in-game all that much in all honesty. I've been in the friends chat once or twice, though I forget the entry name thingy and therefore don't go in for months-years, and one or two active users are on my friends list. I do see users around on occasion, though it's more often people recognising me than me twigging who they are!

(Editor's note: The unofficially official Friends Chat for Tip.It is "Sc" if you want to check it out!)

M: What is your favourite board or boards to post in on the forums and why?

S: For me it's all about General Discussion and Help & Advice boards. I'd like to think I'm fairly well versed in game knowledge and like to help out where I can, which is why I spend my days lurking around H&A. Then I like to learn about all the new stuff going on and always have opinions on it, so General Discussion is the obvious place to be found. I do flit into Tech and Off-Topic from time to time, but I’m hardly a hugely active poster there.

M: If you could go back in time and tell yourself one thing before signing up for a TIF account, what would you say?

S: I think, if I had to, it'd be something along the lines of “Dear god take like 5 seconds to fix some typos!”

But somehow I doubt a moody teenage me would take heed of such advice.

M: What would you say to someone reading this interview thinking about signing up for an account?

S: I'd say just do it, it's not like you've got anything to lose from it. Worst case scenario you barely use it and forget it exists, best case you get lots of help and advice and join in interesting debates on all manner of things RuneScape and otherwise. 

M: What is something weird/interesting/unusual about you that someone would never guess from reading your posts on TIF?

S: The most interesting thing about me that probably doesn't come across at all on the forums is that I am a writer/novelist, I mean I'm not published or anything so far, but I have stuff I'm working on and even did a University degree in creative writing. But in terms of weird, or perhaps surprising would be a better word, things about me that people probably miss is I am very laid back in general. I always think because I passionately argue my case and have strong opinions about things people get this impression I'm very invested, to the point of anger or whatever, in these things and sort of battle-axe my way or the highway kinda view, but really I just like having a good discussion and on occasion playing devil’s advocate.

M: Given your post count/join date, you've clearly spent a lot of time reading and posting - what does one take away/learn from all that experience?

S: I think the main thing, in terms of RuneScape, is you learn more about the game and how to play it well because you see all the advice and guides and what have you often.

Beyond that I think you learn about people as a whole - you get to see different backgrounds and cultures at play in forming people’s views and opinions on stuff and you get to see how specific people, and the community as a whole, grows and changes over time. I mean so many of the big names around the boards were all kids and teenagers back when we joined and now we're all grown adults and there's a whole new generation of kids around.

M: What do you like to do in real life? Other games, hobbies, interests?

S: In real life I like my creative writing and reading - kinda part and parcel of the whole writer thing.

Aside from that I'm a bit of an amateur photographer and an avid baker (my work colleagues keep saying they are going to make me enter Great British Bake Off).

Really I don't have enough other hobbies and interests, kinda grown past the partying/clubbing all the time life period and need to find some more 9-5 friendly activities to be interested in!

M: When did you first start playing RuneScape, and how did you come across it?

S: I literally have no idea how I came across RuneScape. All I know is it was around February '01 not long after it first launched and I found it. I then spent around 3 years achieving nothing, making several long forgotten accounts and obsessing about how making bread was going to be my ticket to riches because no-one else was doing it.

M: Do you still play RuneScape? A lot?

S: I'm still fairly active, clock up at least 7 hours a week. Very much depends what other games I have to play and what's happening in RuneScape.

Since I'm not a huge PVMer or PVPer and cba with ironman and I already own comp cape I just don't have a huge amount to do on a day to day basis in-game so I play a bit less than I once did. I mean I do work away at trim reqs and have a vague, not really actively working on, goal for lvl 120s but unless I have a clan event or some new content to go at I'm not on half as much.

M: If RuneScape skills were extrapolated to real life, what would you say your highest is?

S: Would have to be cooking without a doubt. None of the other skills really apply to stuff I do in real life. I mean I'm a bit arty so I guess crafting would be okay and perhaps strength from working out, but yeah definitely cooking is my main irl skill level.

M: What is your favourite memory of playing RuneScape?

S: For me it’s generally just doing fun things with friends. One of the fondest though would be in my old clan we used to play a really basic hide and seek game - turn off friends etc. give a really cryptic hint and then slowly give more in your face hints and others would race to find you. We didn't even have prizes or anything, but you'd still get a good 20 or so people really engaged in winning and competing for a good 2 hours or so. Plus it was quite cool because it helped newer folks learn things about the game and their way around a bit better (this being back in the day when people walked more because laws were kinda pricey and there wasn't free teleports all over the place).

Thank you to Sy_Accursed for agreeing to take part, and for providing such detailed and interesting answers to our many questions.

Do you know of someone you would like to see similarly interrogated interviewed? Get in touch and let us know!


Do you have any thoughts or comments about this week's articles? Want to discuss these articles with your fellow RuneScapers? We invite you to discuss them in this forum topic.


Tags: Community Interview

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