Welcome to the fifth Community Spotlight interview, featuring Mad Max! If you go in #Offtopic then you've most likely seen one of his political threads. However, through this interview hopefully you will learn a little bit more about him. Let's not waste any time! [b]Q: When did you join the Bungie.net community and what brought you here?[/b] A: I joined in January 2008, a decade ago. There was one specific reason I registered at bungie.net - I really wanted that "everyone in the matchmaking lobby has the Bungie Septagon logo" acheivement. I spent a while exclusively in the Halo 3 forums, then moved over to Offtopic when H3 was less exciting. [b]Q: Speaking of Halo 3, what were your favorite memories relating to the game? Did you spend more time in Matchmaking or Custom Games?[/b] A: I rarely did custom games, it was almost always matchmaking for me. Once I discovered the SWAT gametype I was hooked, and almost always played that. This was while I was in college, so I had a lot of late nights and all-nighters that involved XBL time - much to my roomates' dismay. There's no better feeling than finding a good team to party up with and just steamroll people at 3AM. [b]Q: I know a lot of veteran B.net users had trouble making the transition over to Destiny. Was the transition difficult for you?[/b] A: Yep, I didn't even touch Destiny. I had moved on to other games like Borderlands and Battlefront. I was tempted to pick up Destiny 2, but it's caught a lot of flack the last few months which has turned me off. I played the beta and it was OK, but nothing really new, it felt like a lot of other games already out there. [b]Q: Besides the transition over to a new game, B.net itself made quite a few changes as well. What are your thoughts on those changes?[/b] A: Mixed bag on this one. The design and UI is definitely an improvement. (Ignoring the terrible white design of "b.lind") Unfortunately the community has really suffered. I only really ever participate in #offtopic. They gave us up/down votes that don't do anything. They gave us a report tool that seems to be a placebo - plenty of rule-breakimg threads and comments run rampant. They gave us a mute feature that is broken. Community management seems to be abandoned. Overall, lots of room for improvement. 4/10, tops. [b]Q: They've definitely relaxed a lot of the rules since the old days. In the past, political discussion was something that could get you a ban. Since they've allowed the discussion of politics, you've been one of the more outspoken users when it comes to this topic. Do you think the freedom to express political ideologies was a welcome change on the website? How has that change personally affected your relationship with Bungie?[/b] A: Back in the b.old days, posting anything related to politics and religion earned you an insta-ban. I'm glad they revised that rule to allow the discussion because both politics and religion is so fundamental to people's lives. It makes sense to allow that discussion. Unfortunately, so many people hold such strong views that are very distasteful. I know I'm a pretty liberal person, and I'm not personally offended by conservative views, but we have people there that are literal [url=http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law]-godwinslaw!-[/url] advocating for segregation and deportation of people with differing views. These people aren't trolling. [b]Q: Obviously one of the issues of political/religious discussion is often people can get pretty heated. Some people have a difficult time being civil in how they express their views which can lead to cases of harassment. Is being a target for harassment a common issue you have to deal with? How do you go about handling those situations?[/b] A: Unfortunately, yeah - that's something I have to deal with with some frequency. I genuinely enjoy political discussion; some of the best discussions I have are with people I don't agree with. But yes, there are some people that take things too far. There is an [alleged] group of people who coordinate their downvoting and reporting abilities against anything I post simply because I am the author, not because of the content. Allegedly there are groups [both on b.net and on discord] that post links to threads for the group members to downvote and report. Thankfully that's mostly as far as it goes and it's just a mild annoyance. [b]Q: Let's change the pace a little bit. Whats one of your favorite memories related to the Bungie community?[/b] A: The CAKE VS PIE thread. For the uninitiated, this was from way back on b.old, maybe around 2009/2010? Back then, all-caps threads were against the rules. A ninja had posted this thread, and there were hundreds of pages of replies. Every so often someone would bump it back to the top. Sadly, it was eventually locked. [b]Q: Well which is it for you? Cake or pie? I hope you pi(e)ck the correct answer...[/b] A: HAH. Unfortunately, my vote goes to cake. Particularly an all-chocolate cake. [b]Q: Shameful... Moving on... Right now I'm just going to ask you some questions that just pop into my head. Cool with you?[/b] A: Oh, absolutely. [b]Q: While we're on the subject of food, what's your favorite?[/b] A: Mexican food, particularly some legit tacos, usually sold out of the side window of someone's house. That's where the good stuff is. [b]Q: I can agree with you on that one. While not my favorite, I can definitely appreciate some good carne asada. If you could travel to any country to visit, where would you go and why?[/b] A: I'm really interested in visiting places like Finland, Norway, and Switzerland. They have beautiful views and long, interesting histories. Plus it's a little different from the usual European trips people take to England, Spain, Italy etc. [b]Q: You had mentioned you played some Borderlands and Battlefront in the past. What are some of your current go-to games?[/b] A: I've been a PC-only gamer for a number of years now, but I did get a Switch shortly after it came out. I've been working on Zelda and Mario Odyssey on there. I still find myself going back to Battlefield 4 pretty regularly, I think it's my favorite multiplayer game. Oh, and the Jackbox party games, for when I have people over. Those are a hit. [b]Q: Would you ever go skydiving?[/b] A: Oof. That's a hard pass on that one. No interest in skydiving or bungee jumping. I'm generally opposed to jumping off perfectly good planes or bridges. [b]Q: Haha fair enough. Before we finish this interview, are there any shoutouts you'd like to make?[/b] A: Haha, big thanks to you, Camm, and I'm Here to Help - you're the ones I interact with most on here and keep things interesting. Keep up the good work. It's my pleasure! Thank you for participating in another Community Spotlight interview. I'm sure we'll see you out in #Offtopic. That will conclude this interview, thanks for tuning in! [b]Links:[/b] Link to Discord: https://discord.gg/VX2TXsG Mad Max's Profile: https://www.bungie.net/en/Profile/254/125109/Mad%20Max