Interview with Scene

Hi! It's cool to see you too.

I'm from the south of Dublin, over on the east coast. Really, the best way to describe Dublin is that it's very much like a smaller London, but with more Guinness and wide-eyed American tourists.

Well, I'm a student from the proud nation of Ireland and have been living there all my life. I'm also both white and straight, which sets me apart from most of the PS staff.

I originally started playing Pokémon through PO a couple of years back as a result of a sudden, unexplained urge to battle with pocket monsters. I chilled there for a while, amassing a barely respectable proficiency in battling and chilling with friends, before making the switch over to PS last summer. While using PO, PS had always been kind of like Scotland to me - I was always aware it existed, I just had no particular inclination to ever go there. Over time, it did become pretty apparent PS had quite a few things PO sorely lacked, so that did eventually encourage me to pop over to check the place out.

That's an awkward question, dude! I'm aware I did probably get shiny new symbols faster than most people, but there's so many factors at work that it's hard to answer. It feels good to be recognised, of course, but at the same time I've never felt the need to get too thrilled about promotions on a Pokémon sim.

Personally, the easiest way to catch my eye is to be mature and intelligent. If I'm going to give you authority, I want to be confident that I'm able to delegate stuff to you to be done and that I'm getting another voice of reason in staff discussions. I value being laid back and lenient with punishments and being personable in chat very highly too, as at the end of the day, the only reason we even promote people is to make PS more enjoyable for users. Nobody wants staff to be "dispassionate modbots." Strike a balance between being sensible and being cool, and you'll win my heart in no time.

I've done a lot of work regarding the Tournaments script, so perfecting that is definitely a major goal for the future (we've just gone official!). Other scripted channels like Mafia and Trivia would also be something I'd love to see. A fully implemented and fluid friends list is another addition that I hope we get further down the line. I think PS can keep growing and growing if we continue integrating with Smogon and its media arms, as well as making sure we have the technical capabilities to handle even more new users (essentially: less lag would be pretty handy). And of course, some day we might even see PS out of beta!

Sadly, it's really not a very exciting story - I wanted a short, memorable name that I'd never need to change in the future. The first word I thought of happened to be 'scene,' and it wasn't taken on PS or Smogon! A legend was born.

I can't say I actually know what the Illuminani really is. If it's some kind of Nani Man fanclub like I grasp it may be, then obviously it's just a dream.

Due to never really playing the games or watching the anime as a kid, I don't have a huge attachment to any one Pokémon in particular. I used to have an old book as a kid describing all the original 151 mons, which I absolutely loved to bits. I've always liked Ninetales's design anyway, and sun teams were a very fun archetype last gen, so if pressed to answer I'd probably go with the fox.

It's been a pleasure.