Interview with Fready Krueger Interview conducted by Saint Tok Mid-November 1998 (c) The Scene News Please introduce yourself to our readers, who are, what you do on the scene? I'm Freddy Krueger, I'm the Founder and Editor in Chief for The Reviewer's Guild (TRG) and Game Over Online Magazine. We review the latest games released to the scene and we offer the latest fixes, trainers, etc. on our web site (www.Game-Over.net). I see, so you just pick up releases from for example Razor, Class, Paradigm, and so on, play them and after that write a review on them? That is correct How long have you been doing this for? I founded TRG in January of 1996. At that time we only released locally (416/905 area code) [Toronto, Canada -Ed.]. We then started releasing reviews more globally in January of 1997. Game Over Online Magazine opened up in May of 1998. Where you ever in any game, utility, or courier groups? Yep, I've done my time in the courier business. I was a courier for a couple of local groups including Less Than Zero (LTZ) just before I started TRG. I've never officially been in any Game/Utility groups. So you like reporting on games releases? Yep, we let people know what games are worth grabbing and those that aren't. Not everybody has fast connections, so I think people find it very useful. You should be well informed on which groups put out what type of releases. Quality, size good cracks and so on. Could you share with us your point of view on current game scene, as tester of almost all game releases? Well the scene is what it is. It's filled with egos and larger egos but I suppose that's what makes it fun, the competition. I have respect for all the release groups because they provide for the scene. I guess I wish the scene wasn't so political. Could you name your top three games groups? Not in any particular order, the top three groups would have to be Class, Razor, and Paradigm. I would like to ask you about that article which made a lot of people angry, could you explain to all scene people, and our readers what it was all about? An anonymous individual gave us an article entitled "The Truth about Piracy". In it, the person detailed several aspects of the scene. Some of the topics discussed included how release groups obtain their games, how they go about cracking them and how they go about releasing them. The individual also discussed how the average person would go about obtaining the latest releases and also talked about EFNet channels where groups idled and even mentioned a few nicknames of individuals in the scene. It was a very long and detailed article that obviously struck a nerve in a number of 'important' people in the scene. The article was never published on Game Over though. It was on the server so a couple of the editors could read it and judge it. However, word somehow got out that the article existed and the URL spread like wildfire. It was not smart move to put it even in private directory on the web. What is your future plans, and your plans for Game-over net. I heard you are changing your web design, how come? Yes, it definitely wasn't a smart move. We won't make that mistake again :) Yes, there probably will be a change in the look of Game Over shortly. Skateguy made the current Game Over design and it's a great design. We'd like to add a number of things to Game Over, including a search engine, so we figure we might give the page a bit of a face lift at the same time. Give it some more color and flair. Besides that, the future of Game Over is simply continue to provide everybody with reviews and information on the latest releases. What else does the future hold? Only time will tell.