This week we have our first Pro Circuit winner and, appropriately enough, it's a member of Team Realmworx. Ryan Jones was kind enough to talk with me about Avengers Constructed, the real pain of missing your Longshot and why having unknown metagames is stressful.


Listen Up!

Any chance of getting back to normal articles anytime soon? I liked those. These interviews are... less interesting.

As long as I have people who are willing to talk to me and I find the conversations interesting and enlightening, I will continue to do them.

I appreciate that the interviews are not everyone's favorite. But I enjoy doing them, the interviewees seem to enjoy listening to them and there are folks out there saying they enjoy them.

Until Typhon or fatalsync tell me to stop, expect Tech Upgrade to stay in it's current audio format. If that means you don't want to listen, I can understand while disagreeing with your choice. Hopefully you can respect and understand my position, if not necessarily agree with it.

Now, can we please have that be the last "I don't like the new format. Please change back to writing articles instead of doing interviews" post?

I love the new format!

It really changes things up. We've got serious articles, playful articles, and 'radio interviews'.

Keep up the good work docx. :)

I can't listen to the interviews cause my speaker's are fried thanks to my sis and playing udder crap at full blast.

I agree, these things really haul ass. Thanks D, I know how much work it takes. It always gives me a chill up my spine to hear one of the Vs. Superstars captured in this little box. Now if I can just figure out how to keep them in it.

Audio on, brother!

I like the audio too... and I know this might be too much work but is there some way it can also be transcripted into text?

There's always a way. It just involves time and effort :-)

Seriously, if someone wants to do transcription of the interviews for me, that'd be an incredible thing. I'd even be willing to provide the interviews to said person before they're posted here on the site so they can get a head start on it. However, I'm a person who has neither the time, nor the energy to do such a thing.

when ur at gencon indy, u shud do a video

so the rest of us that's not going cud see some action

good job btw, keep it up

These are awesome, but this one was only about 15 minutes long :(

Seriously, they should all be at least 30 minutes long :p

Not everyone is as talkative as Gary Wise :-)

I try to ask the questions I'd like to know the answers to and I also try to follow up on things I think are interesting. Sometimes this means it's a 15 minute interview, sometimes it's an hour and a half.

If you'd like longer interviews, feel free to send me questions you'd like to know.

Here's the guidelines:
1) The question needs to specify who it's supposed to be asked of (eg. 'Player', 'Reporter', 'UDE Guy'). Feel free to specify an individual person (eg. 'Ryan Jones', 'Gary Wise', 'Danny Mandel')
2) The questions should not ask for private information. Asking Ryan Jones "What teams do you think are strongest in Avengers draft" is not kosher because the PC is coming up and that will provide information on how he'll likely draft. Asking Ryan "What Avengers teams do you think are viable in Golden Age" is ok because Avengers aren't legal for the Pro Circuit and the only Avengers being played at PC Indy will be Limited, not Constructed. Asking Danny Mandel "What teams do you think will be getting help in upcoming sets" is not kosher since it'll be asking for information that is confidential to UDE. Asking Danny Mandel "What cards and teams that you had a hand in designing fell short of what you expected for them" is kosher since it talks about cards that are public.
3) The questions should be Vs. or comics related. Asking if someone liked the Fantastic Four movie is kosher (there are FF cards and the new starter was released in conjunction with the movie). Asking if someone liked the Sin City movie isn't (no tie-in between Sin City and Vs.). Asking if someone would like Astro City Vs. cards would be kosher (Vs. is all about superheroes). Asking if someone would like Kill Bill Vs. cards would not be kosher (B- is not a superhero).

So, to reiterate: Tell me who the question's for, don't ask for secrets and make it comic related.

If you can follow those guidelines, go ahead and post here and I'll add the questions to my regular list.

Sounds good. Can you give us some idea of the people you have lined up for the near future?

But didn't Bill give the Superman speech? That's gotta count for SOMETHING!? :surprised

i liked the interview and especially liked I33nji's idea about video at indy

Great interview. Ryan is such a great guy obviously player wise but also a darn great person to be around. Good luck in indy!

Ry