Nonmember Interviews
By Salem

Salem : Firstly I would like to ask you to tell us a little about yourself, where you are based, how long you have been gaming and anything you think our readers would be interested in hearing about you.

Cleopatra$ : I'm a 37 year old mamma of 2 kiddies and am married. I have been playing online games since march last year when I discovered Kingpin. I live in the Netherlands and work as a salary administrator at the City Hall in my home town

My favorite food is Pizza and I like computers and photography and online games...

Oh and I'm clanleader of the nicest Kingpinclan - {GA} - which I founded on September 7th 2000 - http://fly.to.guardian-angels

Salem : At present there is great concern in the Kingpin community about the looming demise of the game. There is no denying that the community has been whittled down to a shadow of its former self. What are your plans for life after Kingpin?

Cleopatra$ : Well I didn't start {GA} for nothing..on our website we have made the meaning of GA very clear...We are the Guardian Angels and try to guard the streets of Kingpin and see to it that the game will stay alive coz it's the best game so far and the community is small but great. Kingpin will never die coz there are still a lot of people who like the game and with my upcoming {B!TCH} vs [THUG] Tourney I hope we will attract the clans to kingpin again.

Salem : A lot of people are saying that Return To Castle Wolfenstein will be the next step in the evolution of Kingpin, what with there being a number of the former Xatrix team members involved in its design. Do you see this as something that is likely to be true?

Cleopatra$ : Might be..I have played the game a couple of times now and must admit I like it a lot. But I think that's mainly because it looks and sounds a bit like Kingpin, even the grenades sound the same. But if it will replace Kingpin? I dunno..from what I have seen so far our little community is quite unique, and the old players who tried new games keep returning to Kingpin..So maybe after RTCW the former Xatrix team will make "Return to da Kingpinstreets"..who knows :)

Salem : Is it fair to say that as a woman you are something of a rarity in the gaming community?

Cleopatra$ : I was surprised to see that so few women play shooting games, it's the best way to lose your aggression, lol. But after some tough research I found about 20 to 25 REAL ladies who play Kingpin and they are just as dedicated to Kingpin as me..

Salem : We so often hear tales of the mistreatment of the female players, do you feel you have been received well and treated well as a member of the gaming community?

Cleopatra$ : Mistreatment? nah....I only felt truly offended on the servers and forums a couple of times. In one occasion they didn't even know I'm a lady and in the other occasion things were solved eventually. One person almost made me quit Kingpin because he abused me on the forums and every time when I came on the server..but I started to ignore him and then after a while didn't see or hear from him anymore.

I feel more mistreated by those guys who think they are cool or funny and pretend to be a woman and mislead a lot of people that way. They forget they make the real women feel mistrusted.