An Evening (or several hours on ICQ) With Ultrace

Good evening. I am Greg Downing, and welcome. Tonight I have the pleasure to interview a very special guy. Famous for his work in Operators Standing By, the creator of Pillhead Ninjas...owner and creator of the website 1-Up and the attached weblog Save Points, this talented individual began his writing career, unbeknownst to most, with Sailor Moon fanfic. But it is in the limelight of The Chosen that his talents have attained the accolades this bright young man deserves.

Greg: Mister Ultrace... I'm sorry, is 'Mister' appropriate?

Ultrace: Well, "Master" always has a better ring to it. But no titles are necessary. Mister just makes me sound old, and I got enough of that going on already.

Greg: Fair enough. Now, to begin, I know that your moniker actually predates your involvement with The Chosen, but there is some curiosity among the fans where your handle comes from.

Ultrace: That's a fair question. It actually dates back to when I first got on the Internet, or what passed for it. I started using an old phone-connections kind of program called Prodigy in 1992. I took part in unsanctioned message exchanges there. My original handle was Ace, which not only sounds cool, but also coincided with Ace Fargo, a cool character from the Wasteland computer RPG.

The underground group was primarily filled with comic book fans, as they mainly gathered from the public comic book boards. During the course of goofy storylines and exchanges, my persona was infected with the Ultron (a robot villain from the Avengers) syndrome, fusing into the character Ultrace. Ultron rebuilt itself with a new number after every defeat, becoming Ultron-2, Ultron-3, etc..... And my persona did the same, ultimately ending up as Ultrace-7 before the Prodigy days were done. When we moved over to AOL in the early-mid nineties, I was joyed to find that Ultrace as a name was not taken. Which was good because the next closest thing was like Mike176486578.

Note that my name has nothing to do with the drug Ultracet, which I've come to learn of much whenever I try to Google myself.

Greg: <mutters as he writes a note to himself> never...ask...about...handle..again. <aloud> Fascinating. Now... from your perspective, how did all this begin? Were you looking at the takeout menu and Jet Wolf suddenly proclaimed, "I want to write Buffy Season 8!" And you were like, "That's nice, what do you want on your pizza?" Or was this something you were on board with from the beginning?

Ultrace: I was on board with it from the beginning, but there can be no doubt that this was Nikki's baby throughout. <Chairman Kaga> If memory serves... </Chairman Kaga> Nikki tenuously suggested the concept, which I totally backed up and said we should do. While I doubted my ability to contribute, I figured it would have a good chance of going all the way through if I offered my unfettered support. I've been moral support, co-plotter, idea developer and occasional writer since.

Greg: Yes, at the beginning, you've mentioned, you were just providing support. When did that change?

Ultrace: Well, when it came time to work everything out, Nikki wanted my help and I wanted to help--developing storylines and arcs, being a sounding board, these were things I could do easily enough. I think we had already discussed the possibility of me actually writing episodes--or at least parts of them--but it wasn't something I'd really considered. But she gently pushed for it, and I gave it a shot, starting with, I think... Hide and Seek. I think my tenuous grasp on the nature of the characters and the medium of writing an episode shows pretty badly there.

Greg: Prior to Hide and Seek, had you ever written any full-fledged stories before, Buffy or otherwise?

Ultrace: Yes, I've done fanfiction before (for Sailor Moon) and a few unfinished novels. Some day....

Greg: So, trepidation with your first solo work was more from writing Buffy, not from writing in general. You'd had prior experience.

Ultrace: Yes, that and I was going to be working with Nikki, who already had experience in writing Buffy (with great results.) So, I was going to be working with an accomplished Buffy fanfic'er on a project that I personally wanted her to succeed at. Oh, no pressure though...

Greg: No, none at all. Perish the thought.

Ultrace: She's tried to make it as painless as possible, to her credit.

Greg: So you'd never worked with her in the writing venue prior to this, then?

Ultrace: We tried working on Sailor Moon fanfiction before, but Nikki wound up doing it in the end. She says she took it over; I say she was just more determined to write it than I was.

Greg: Interesting. We'll come back to that in a second. How long had you been writing prior to The Chosen?

Ultrace: Recreationally, I've been writing since 1988 or so, starting with weekly projects at school. I've done things off and on since then, but never anything that's been submitted for publishing.

Greg: Considering, at least, the fan success of The Chosen, do you think you might try to do that in the future?

Ultrace: Oh, certainly, it's a lifelong dream. There's only the matter of developing the discipline needed to sit down and finish something, and then overcoming the confidence issues that invariably will step in somewhere before the midpoint.

Greg: <chuckles ruefully> I know all about the issues with confidence and discipline.

Ultrace: Bear in mind that I place most of the fan success of the The Chosen on Nikki's shoulders. She's spearheaded this from start to finish and developed her own intense style.

Greg: Noted and logged. Considering your dissatisfaction with Hide and Seek, and mixed responses to the episode from fans, what did you take away from your first solo The Chosen project?

Ultrace: That writing something in an episodic format is really tough, and capturing the voices of the characters is a lot harder than some people make it seem. <grumbles toward wife> It can be mildly irritating to wrestle for an hour with a scene only to have your wife lay down a string of "Joss Lines" with time to spare. Also, that they have teams of writers for a reason. Everyone has their strengths; use theirs to complement your weaknesses.

Greg: Explain 'Joss Lines'.

Ultrace: Well, Joss lines are those things that are just so perfect. You read it, and it makes you laugh or cry (usually laugh) and you can just hear the character saying the line in your head because it rolls so smoothly. Often times during commentary you'll hear a writer say, "That xxxxx? That's a Joss Line" so that's what I'm referring to. Nikki has a talent for pulling those lines right out of the character's mouth. Me? Not so much.

Greg: Do you think that finding a character's voice is something you've gotten better at in the last year?

Ultrace: <laugh> Looking at Hide and Seek, I can only say yes. But certainly it's something I still have to work with and on. Nothing that I write in the The Chosen leaps to mind unbidden; it's work all the way through.

Greg: Are there particular characters you find it easier or harder to write for?

Ultrace: Oh, absolutely. Faith and Xander are quite easy for me to write for, because I can more easily relate with how they would respond to a situation, while characters like Dawn and Buffy are much more difficult. Giles is another easy one, because I can just kind of mix some stuffiness with being British... But while I say that now, it's never that simple when you sit down with a blank story in front of you.

Greg: <smiles> Do you mean easy in that you have a better sense of how they are, or that you like them better, or both?

Ultrace: I meant having a better sense of how they are, but certainly liking characters more makes it easier and more fun, and that always comes through as a better product in anything you do.

Greg: Are Xander, Faith, and Giles your favorites, then?

Ultrace: Definitely. But I'm not a Xander-Faith shipper like many fans of the two are.

Greg: Interesting qualifier. If you don't mind the side question, why not?

Ultrace: Xander and Faith aren't meant for each other. Xander's a very understanding person, and that's good for anyone, but my own personal viewpoint is that Faith needs someone who's more forceful and domineering. She still has some of the wild loner side we saw in Season 3, and the way to curb that, at least to my way of thinking, is for someone to help tame it out of her. Xander isn't that person.

Greg: That's a very measured and thoughtful answer. Without trying to pump you for future developments, do you think your personal preferences shape JW's outlining of future season plots?

Ultrace: Absolutely. If we're hammering something out and I say that something just absolutely doesn't work, chances are that it won't go in unless it's something that's such a no-brainer you'd wonder why I didn't agree with it. But I don't let my preferences for what I'd like to see interfere with what I think we should see.

Greg: Just speaking hypothetically, then, just because you're not a F/X shipper, doesn't mean we won't see a more intimate F/X relationship.

Ultrace: It could very well happen. My viewpoints are not necessarily Nikki's viewpoints and vice versa. And it's important to note that Nikki's the Joss of this project--what she says goes. If I'd said we absolutely weren't bringing Tara back, she probably would have responded, "We're not, but I am."

Greg: <smiles> Getting back to H+S briefly, did that episode have a specific story/goal in mind? Or were you and Nikki just trying to get a feel for The Chosen by doing non-plot intensive episodes?

Ultrace: As I recall, it was developmental. The first three episodes were really, to my mind, about establishing where everyone was, where they were going, and laying the foundation of where they would head during the season. Apart from the Tara developments, obviously.

Greg: <nods> There's also the suggestion that it was laying the foundation for Kennedy's breakup with Willow, which - from what you mentioned in the 'Crossroads' commentary - was in the works from the beginning.

Ultrace: It was. And it was important that any development between Kennedy and Willow not just come out of nowhere. And it was vitally important that it not look like Willow was dumping Kennedy in favor of Tara when she returned. That's not Willow's way. Even when Oz returned in New Moon Rising, she was torn between them. We showed what we thought was the natural evolution of their relationship.

Greg: So, even though you weren't entirely happy with it, would you at least say H+S was a developmental success?

Ultrace: Developmentally, yes, but I definitely could have done better. Of course, one always can.

Greg: And that brings us to 'Where the Heart Is', the first episode where you shared writing credit...

Ultrace: Oh, lord. The zombies.

Greg: <laughs> I do recall Jet Wolf made some comment about how frustrating that was, for some reason...

Ultrace: Well, we shared the episode. We picked scenes to do, like drafting. Being a big fan of video games, I thought to myself, "I know Resident Evil--heck I've even played a couple--how tough can zombies be?" Turns out that making your average run of the mill near-brain-dead zombie do anything interesting is a big challenge.

Greg: You mentioned earlier your abortive attempts to collaborate with Jet Wolf. How did the work with WtHi go in light of that?

Ultrace: Well, we each had our own specific sections to work. With the previous effort [the Sailor Moon fanfic], we were going to do something like alternating paragraphs if I recall, but it just didn't work out that way. Here was different. We're also different people than we were then.

Greg: Older and wiser?

Ultrace: One way of putting it, certainly. WtHi worked out well in comparison. And thanks to the editing done by Nikki and Nova before posting, it's not obvious where the seams join...

Greg: Nova was involved at that point?

Ultrace: By the time WtHi was posted, she and Nikki were doing intensive editing before the episodes went up.

Greg: <makes notes> Good fodder for future interview. Thanks for the tip. So, working on WtHi was frustrating, in part. Jet Wolf had said that WtHi was not one of her favorites; that there were aspects of it that didn't turn out the way she would have liked. What did you think of the finished product?

Ultrace: Good beginning, some good lines, mediocre middle (at least compared to some of the better episodes), great ending. I think with the end we achieved exactly what we needed to.

Greg: I'd like to touch on the ending in a second, but first, a leading question: had you been prosing all the fight scenes up to that point?

Ultrace: I believe so, yes. I actually prosed all the things I did in Hide and Seek as well. It was a suggestion of Nikki's that I start with scripting, then move to prose. It worked out rather well.

Greg: <chuckles> So technically, we have you to thank for the brutal beating of poor Willow at the end of WtHi...

Ultrace: No, you have me to thank for how it came out. It was going to happen anyway. Jos--err, Nikki willed it. In fact, she had me add material to make it even more brutal after I submitted my first draft.

Greg: Was it difficult, being that graphically cruel?

Ultrace: When doing fight scenes, I'm very careful to remain detached--otherwise the twisting crossbow bolt to Faith in WLoD would have been tough indeed. But no, it wasn't hard for me to be so descriptive of the pain and agony. That might say something about me. I'm not sure.

Greg: And you also managed the chilling murder/suicide scene in 'Refrain'...

Ultrace: That was an interesting experience. It was the first time I really wrote something with the intent of trying to convey exactly what we would see on the television. I couldn't do that for an entire episode, but it was interesting. As a sidenote, I think it was done entirely in prose, not scripted first.

Greg: Nikki just gave you an idea of what she wanted you to do, and you just went with it?

Ultrace: She gave the crucial directions. I suppose the equivalent would be giving the director a script and having them give you the finished film. The television playing, the beer foaming from the bottle, the girl shot in the head in bed, they were all important elements she gave, but it was up to me to weave it together. I was pleased.

Greg: The world of Buffy in general has a horror theme to it, and even though there's limits to what they show on screen, there's sucking chest wounds, eyes being gouged out, skin being flayed... how far do you think you personally could go with that sort of graphic violence and gore?

Ultrace: Honestly, I could personally go pretty far and get really graphic without problems, but I think Buffy itself has restrictions in place. Xander's eye was gouged, but we only saw a trail of blood, no raw empty socket; most of the vicious chest wounds, decapitations and the like were on non-humans, giving it a surreal feel. There was the flaying, which I'll grant was pretty intense, but they ended his pain quickly even though in theory he wouldn't have instantly died from the flaying, and then toasted him, so that was alleviated somewhat too. So, while I could go so far as write about brains being splattered on the wall and viscera being rent from bodies, I don't think it fits in the Buffyverse.

Greg: No 'My Lazarus Stance'-like detail, then.

Ultrace: Certainly not in my opinion. I think Buffy showed its equivalent of MLS when Buffy came back in season 6: a really vividly decayed body regenerating quickly over seconds.

Greg: After WtHi, your next big writing effort was 'Hard Day's Night'...what was the inspiration for that episode?

Ultrace: We thought it would be funny to show an episode from the Demon point of view. It started out with the scene where the Boss is reviewing the Scoobies in front of the other demons, and branched out from there.

Greg: Was finding Buffy character voices an issue, considering they weren't really center stage in HDN?

Ultrace: Actually, because the episode could be considered by many a throwaway and totally not part of canon, it was much easier to find the voices--no pressure to make it all strict and sticking to everything else. So that made things come more easily, certainly.

Greg: Well, it wasn't entirely a throwaway... you had set up the threads for it in previous episodes...

Ultrace: Certainly, but the lasting impacts of the episode are virtually negligible. As a matter of fact, for safety's sake, one almost has to consider the episode to have not happened...

Greg: Why so?

Ultrace: Well... The Scoobies never found the bomb that was planted in the basement, for one. It was planned that at the end of the episode they would find it and Buffy would quip, "That's a slightly less attractive clock radio" but I forgot to put it in.

Greg: Good catch. I'd forgotten that. So the episode was primarily for laughs, then...

Ultrace: It was designed primarily for laughs, and to paint a different view of the Buffyverse. I don't think any lasting impacts came out of it. Sadly, I think a lot people read it, thought it was just silly, and started immediately waiting for the next episode. It has some good humor.

Greg: Was that a major disapointment, that it wasn't well received?

Ultrace: It would have been if I'd been expecting cheers. But I knew from the start that, like 'The Wren', there was going to be a group of people, possibly considerable, to whom it would simply not be the proverbial cup of tea.

Greg: A good point. After HDN, however, you seem to drop off the face of the map for a while as far as writing credits are concerned.

Ultrace: I was scheduled to write Jigsaw all by my lonesome, and that didn't quite work out. After that came the Wren and then the final few episodes fell under Nikki's penning. I'm hoping that next season I'll be a bit more comfortable with it. In addition, the Tara-returns trilogy could only be done by Nikki. I had no illusions that I could do justice to her vision.

Greg: So the reasons were more personal, rather than Nik being heavy into collaboration with Nova by that time, then?

Ultrace: Certainly more personal. I was never edged out by Nova. Nova tends to do a lot of prosing for Nikki's scripts, but in terms of scripting/writing her own things, I was never displaced by her.

Greg: Were you completely out of the loop, or still prosing action sequences and/or other smaller related jobs?

Ultrace: I was still prosing action sequences, reading over Nikki's or Nova's written stuff and offering my edits on that, and working on plotting and such. I just wasn't writing episodes myself.

Greg: Up until... Exchanges, where you shared the prosing seat with Nova...

Ultrace: And I shared that seat primarily on the basis of the fight scene, which took up most of Act 4. It was a big enough action sequence that I nabbed credits as co-writer, I think.

Greg: So it wasn't the same deal as WtHi, where you each had scenes throughout... you had your own domain and that's what you did. No huge drawn out phone conversations or emails between yourself and Nova?

Ultrace: No, not at all. I got direction from Nikki on the extended action sequence. What Nova and I worked on were exclusively different.

Greg: Do you think you might have more of a balanced collaboration with Nova in the future, or does the distance make that too hard?

Ultrace: The distance doesn't make it difficult, but our prosing styles probably would. I'm a lot more simplified in my writing than she is; I tend to cut to the chase, sometimes too much so. And the process usually works that someone scripts something and then a single person (possibly the same as the scripter) proses it--not multiple people prosing the same scripted scene. Nova doesn't actually script her scenes: she just straight up proses them, so there's no chance of me prosing her work, although the reverse could happen.

Greg: In Exchanges, though, you were both prosing Nik's scripting...

Ultrace: Actually, I co-scripted the action sequence there. It was integral to get a certain feel for Judith's return and the events thereof, so Nikki provided a very rough guideline of what should happen, then I scripted that rough guideline and prosed my script of it. Kinda confusing, really.

Greg: Were you satisfied with the end result, though?

Ultrace: I was, definitely. It had a very good flow for a battle sequence, and conveyed a lot of emotions and actions we were hoping to get across. And while Faith was fighting Judith there, we were able to keep it from being just about those two.

Greg: Of course, when we talk about battle sequences, one can't help but be awed by the enormity of what you accomplished in Win, Lose, or Draw...

Ultrace: Certainly, it was an achievement. I was anxious about the pressure on us to deliver the payoff to the rest of the season, but it came across well and people appeared to be satisfied with it.

Greg: So the pressure was really on, then. You had to carry more than your fair share of two whole acts with this enormous Melee... plus the dramatic final battle between Faith and Judith...

Ultrace: Exactly. And much like with the Turok-han from Season 7, there was the matter of keeping our guys from getting torn limb from limb. Nikki's direction and sense of pacing worked brilliantly for that. The fight between Faith and Judith was good, but actually not a true test of combat writing--due to Faith's rage and Judith's power, there wasn't much room for fancy fighting, it was mostly just about anger. I tried to use Buffy and Kennedy for my martial arts trickery in the final episode, but the situation was dire, so they couldn't handle it flippantly either.

Greg: That's true, to an extent, but it wasn't a straight fight, either... you had to balance the outside forces brought in by the other writers... the opposing magics, Faith getting shot...

Ultrace: It was an amazing balancing act--in that respect I like it a lot more than the end of S7.

Greg: All that considered, then, you ended the season on a pretty high personal note... going from the issues you had with Hide and Seek to the puissance displayed from your work in WLoD...

Ultrace: Why, thank you. But yes, I think things were definitely moving upward, which is the way to go. Now, if I'd started with the results of WLoD and ended up with H&S, then... Well, I'd think I was doing something wrong.

Greg: Close to a year later, 22 episodes in the bag, what do you take away from Season 8 and into Season 9?

Ultrace: It's not as easy as I originally thought it was, but writing a season--originally something I looked upon as extremely daunting--can definitely be done, especially when you have a team.

Greg: Do you think, then, considering your experience, that you'd rather work with someone else on an episode rather than try and go solo, like you did with H+S and HDN?

Ultrace: <chuckle> Well, project boss permitting, I'll definitely be trying my hand solo at more episodes. While working with someone else is very rewarding, there's nothing like fully pulling your own weight and having the entire result on your head.

Greg: <smiles> Ult, you've been a real trooper through all of this, and I want to thank you for sitting there while I pick your brain... I have a few more questions to round out with, if you don't mind...

Ultrace: Sure thing.

Greg: Being the action guru, what influences do you draw on in your work to prose action sequences?

Ultrace: Modern martial arts movies. I'm a big fan of the master (Bruce Lee) but the classic martial arts movies and styles that we've come to know don't compare with what we see from a Slayer, who is more than human. Movies such as Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon, The Matrix, The One, Hero and the like are all good examples of some of the things we should expect to see from Slayers and their foes.

Greg: So, favored action heroes would be along the lines of Chow Yun-Fat, Jet Li...

Ultrace: Favored martial arts actors would definitely be those two. The older woman who played opposite Chow Yun Fat in Crouching Tiger also has an interesting style of her own. I would like to look into more of the modern Hong Kong cinema, but where's the time... And money...

Often times when writing a fight scene, I'll actually review the fights from martial arts movies... Much like reading a good book can inspire one to write, viewing a fight scene can inspire one to make a fight scene.

Greg: What's your process for prosing action sequences? You implied that you prefer to work from a script, whether yours or someone else's...

Ultrace: I get a feel for what kind of fight scene it's going to be first. If it's going to be a plain old beatdown like Judith against Willow in WtHi, that's a totally different feel than an actual fight. Then, I decide how the winner's going to win the fight, and work to fill in the gaps from there. It's important to maintain tension in the fight, at least as much as possible, so a lot of the nifty tricks or things I might come up with go to the underdog, like when Judith grabs the plaster out of the wall in WtHi. I then get in the mood by playing some good fight music and/or viewing some fight scenes from movies... I also try and play mood music throughout the writing.

Greg: <chuckles> 80's training montages, too? Kidding, don't need to answer that. Not sure where that came from...

Ultrace: I probably would, except for the fact that the modern capabilities of fighting that we would see from a Slayer is almost exclusively a product of the last 10 years or so. Movies like Bloodsport (a personal favorite) and the like can be helpful, but only for the basis of the martial arts themselves, not what can be accomplished with them under superhuman conditions. The Matrix and The One really threw the lid off as far as reasonable martial arts were concerned...

Greg: And that's the kind of material you need to work with when it comes to Buffy.

Ultrace: Exactly. If you want a good example of what a down-and-dirty Slayer fight should be like, take a gander at the final showdown between Neo and Smith in Matrix: Revolutions--apart from the bits where they fly around and such. As they run down the street, meet and exchange blows, it's exactly what we would expect from superhumans duking it out.

Greg: How much time have you spent in your myriad duties since The Chosen began?

Ultrace: Not as much as Nikki. <laughs> For the episodes that I wrote-wrote, it would be probably 30+ hours each--I just don't have the speed that she does. For episodes where I co-wrote or helped out, it would probably be about 6-12 hours each. Throw in the time for plotting character development and episodes, reading over and editing the final episodes, working on extra stuff like the cards and demon incentives flyer... A lot of time, but not as much as Nikki, for sure.

Greg: Yes, you've been dipping your fingers more into art, especially with 'Dark Tara'...was that a recent development, or were you helping from the beginning with the posters...

Ultrace: I gave input on the posters, but Nikki actually made all of the posters that went up. I made an alternate poster for Jigsaw that wasn't used. I made Dark Tara just for the cards, but the result was pleasing to me and I couldn't help but tease.

Greg: Have there been any major conflicts with Jet Wolf on how things should go? There was mention that you were trying to wheedle her into keeping Hazel alive...

Ultrace: I really became attached to Hazel. She was cute in her own right and she was really good for Faith, but that pretty much doomed her for the start according to the unwritten rules put down by Mutant Enemy. There haven't been any major conflicts, glad to say.

Greg: Is there anything you didn't get to do with Season 8 that you would have liked to?

Ultrace: Only to actually take a written episode and turn it into something on the television screen. Sitting back to see the refined results of many hours of work can be hard when you realize that if it was made into an actual episode, it would be that much better. Imagine "the talk" between Willow and Tara on a screen, or the Super Slayer invasion in LLL...

Greg: In no particular order, what are your #1 favorite scene and favorite episode... From The Chosen, obviously.

Ultrace: Those are both tough questions...

Greg: Go with your gut.

Ultrace:I would have to say that my favorite scene is the Super Slayer invasion in LLL. It went very well and the impact on the audience was impressive. Unlike what we had during Exchanges where there was a buildup, this seemed to come out of nowhere, and it allowed for some nice coordinated attacks between Faith, Kennedy and the juniors with a lot of tension thrown in. I was very pleased with it.

Greg: Do you think that would double as your proudest accomplishment, or would your work in WLoD take that title?

Ultrace: I think my judgment of proudest accomplishment would be marred by emotion. From the very outset of the season I knew the fight in LLL would be happening, at some point or another. There were lots of scenarios, moves, results I played out in my head (including Kennedy snapping a pool cue in half and using the pieces like mini-staves, but it was nixed because given the consistency of a pool cue, the SS would completely ignore it) and I was massively energized going into it. So, while WLoD's fight sequence is far more indepth and complicated, I was really happy to get to show my stuff with the LLL fight scene.

For my favorite episode... Very, very tough. It would be a toss-up between Ex Post Facto and Fringes. EPF has a simple yet stunning poster to me and the entire theme of the episode resonates well--we get to see glimpses into the past, the shaping of the future, and the real growth that Faith has had in her life. Fringes was a great concept that worked in the end, showing us a different view of the Scoobies and cementing in that Judith was a bad guy. The success of that episode was compounded by us doing away with her unexpectedly in the next ep.

Greg: Can't deny the power of both of those episodes. Finally, I'd like to end with the classic questionairre... stolen from someone else but modified by me... What is your favorite word?

Ultrace: Probably "probably." It can be used to lead someone toward a conclusion or outcome without making it certain. That way, if you're wrong, you've got an out.

Greg: What is your least favorite word?

Ultrace: Anything that holds one of those records for being the longest word or something, like sesquidipidalianismistical or some junk. Just make up a new tiny word to replace that. Please.

Greg: What turns you on... creatively, emotionally, spiritually...

Ultrace: Moments of drama and great direction. One of the things I like about video games is the direction that's evidenced as you're forced into situations that can be adrenaline rushes or lumbering puzzles, how intensive storylines can be weaved or you can just shoot everything in sight. It's a manipulation of the human condition. The skill with which it's done in some mediums can be dazzling.

Greg: What turns you off?

Ultrace: Pretentiousness, acting like you're something you're not, or deeper than you actually are. Re: "End of Evangelion" movie and the latter two Matrix movies.

Greg: What is your favorite curse word?

Ultrace: Hm. To say, probably "shit" because it rolls easily off the tongue, but for humor value it would have to be "cunt." An old coworker of mine used to call people "cuntloaf" and the phrase makes me laugh ever since.

Greg: What sound or noise do you love?

Ultrace: Music, without words. (Get plenty of that in VGM); but it has to have a beat, or some energy to it. Doesn't have to be techno or anything, but much of what you find in movie soundtracks these days or classical music is too slow to get started. I usually want something that's going to grip quickly.

Greg: What sound or noise do you hate?

Ultrace: Sirens, probably because we get way too many of them around here. Also, car alarms because they tend to go off for so long that you've defeated the purpose. If you gave a damn about your car, you'd hurry outside to see what was happening to it, not let it go for a few minutes at a time. I'm tempted to just pour soda all over any cars that have them (the carbonic acid of most sodas does wonders to a pain finish), but I'm too nice... So far.

Greg: What profession other than yours would you like to attempt?

Ultrace: Writing is the ultimate goal, but anything that helps me to enrich or mold people's lives and impart my own unique wisdom to them. But being a psychologist or something would require actual work. Maybe I should just become a new age guru.

Greg: What profession would you not want to try?

Ultrace: Prostitution. Sewer maintenance. Nuclear waste cleanup. <Snyder> And also smoking. </Snyder>

Greg: Finally... if you got meet Joss, what is the first thing you'd say?

Ultrace: "Hey, I know you. You did that show... Biffy, right?" Seriously, not sure what I'd say to Joss. I have no hero worship going on here. He accomplished a lot, but he also made a lot of mistakes IMO. I'd be more dumbfounded to run into any of the actors. Then it would be like, "Ub duh... Hey, my wife would love your autograph, but she has actual standards and wouldn't pester you for it. I have no such encumbrances, So how about it?"

Greg: <laughs> Ultrace, it's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for your time.

Ultrace: And thank you for yours. Have a good one.