Lukas Verdansky - AMA

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Lukas Verdansky - AMA

Postby LukasV » Mon Feb 05, 2018 2:26 pm

Hiya hiya hiya!

So this past week, I conducted an AMA (Ask Me Anything) thread on the Gaming Discord, which was, in my opinion, a resounding success for the most part. And seeing that it was met with overwhelmingly favourable feedback, I decided to open up the floor to the entire community as a whole. The Particracy Community is arguably one of the most interesting and diverse communities I've ever been a part of, and seeing as I'm fast approaching my 10th "anniversary" of gameplay here, I figure this would be a great way to interact with a lot more of you.

Just a bit of background: I am LukasV, I joined PT in 2008, where I played initially in Al'Badara, before moving around to Kalistan, Keymon, Kundrati, Kanjor, Luthori, and most notably Valruzia. Beyond that, I'll leave the questions up to you, and I look forward to answering them.

Just a few rules:
  • I'm not giving personal opinions/speculations on players or moderation or any personalities associated with the game. That's not fair.
  • Try not to ask something that would be considered against the game rules. I have a pristine forum record, and I'd like to keep it that way :lol:
  • I'll try to answer everything I can honestly, but try not to be disingenuous. I mean, I can respond in kind, but I'd rather not.
  • If you must rebuttal or comment, please at least put another question in there. I'm hoping for more of a Q&A session more than just an open conversation.
  • If you have any further questions, comments, or would like to talk with me live, you can always find me on Discord if you search up "@LukasVerdansky#9511". I'm open to whatever.

Here are some questions that were already asked in the previous AMA on the Discord:
soy wrote:What's your view on the EU shrimping policy?

LV: A move towards proper sustainable farming would be best to ensure I can still get my shrimp cocktail for years to come.
Lewis wrote:Mayonnaise or nah?

LV: Mayo is life. No question about it.
soy wrote:Have you ever met a nice South African?

LV: Only South African I've met would be my friend's mom I guess. She's pretty chill. Haven't met anyone else from RSA besides that.
Maxington wrote:Why Poland of all places?

LV: I know the language, it's cheap, and it's a door into being able to work elsewhere in Europe. My future is not in this country, but it's still a nice place to live and visit for sure.
skeet wrote:Chunky or creamy peanut putter?

LV: I've gone back and forth on this a lot. At the moment, creamy wins.
Maxington wrote:Ranging from one to ten how much of a cancer do you personally think you are?

LV: Depends who you ask. Personally, I'm about a 2 on that scale: mostly benign and harmless, but if you come at me, I will follow up likewise. If you ask people who aren't exactly my biggest fans, that number would probably hit about a 6: starting to get unbearable but not enough to need it removed. Ask someone who's decidedly more adversarial, and they'll probably give you a 9 or 10: malignant, infiltrating, and wholly detrimental to the health and safety of everyone around them. An unfair equivalency, I feel, but I suppose even the spineless are entitled to their own opinions.
Pragma wrote:Are there any male celebrities you'd go gay for?

LV: Honestly, not really. Like I can appreciate actors like Tom Hiddleston and think he's handsome, but not enough to go gay for any of them lol.
Reddy wrote:Did you do an undergrad degree and what was it? Is the Canadian med school system similar to the American one?

LV: I went straight into med school after writing SATs and subject tests in bio, chem, and physics (which are completely optional and not required in Canada). I did consider Canadian and American universities for undergrad, but the fact of the matter is that I wanted to go to, study in, and ultimately work in Europe, and the opportunity in Poland gave me all of that, with lower costs and in a shorter time frame. Where I'd be doing at least 3-4 years of undergrad and another 4-5 years of med school in Canada or the US (ultimately probably accruing debts of upwards of $250,000), I managed to do it in 6 in Poland with no final debt at the end of my studies. At the moment, I work for living costs and taxes; I don't have any debts to pay, nor any real financial obligations. Financial independence at 25 was a godsend.
cm99977 wrote:What are your general thoughts on the direction of the game/community etc.?

LV: I feel as though the trend, in the community and in Discord, is to sanitize the interactions as a whole. While I can sort of understand the crackdown on personal attacks, sometimes I feel that insults are warranted, even despite wanting to maintain decorum; people deserve to be called out on their actions, and sometimes there just isn't a nice way of going about calling someone a cunt. That being said, I don't really care for the left-leaning hit squad that comes to attack anyone with a remotely conservative opinion. Some people, while possibly naive or misinformed on many things, doesn't deserve the slew of crap that other people throw at them mercilessly without actually intellectually breaking down the argument. It's too much of a leftist circlejerk at times, and I know that it was pushed for that to happen, in what is called a countermeasure to discourage alt-right people from seeking out PT. I have no doubts that those kind of arguments would withstand scrutiny here anyways. To add, I'm of the opinion that this community could be capable of much more, would people just relax a bit and allow innovation. Not even talking about the game (which is an unfortunate and incomplete mess at the moment which I suspect will never see any notable improvements), but there are a bunch of things that could be done to reimage the community and make interactions a lot better. The forum could be fixed up, the wiki as well (that is a looooong work in progress so idk), and the Discord could be a lot more engaging (a voice chat would do a great deal of good. I honestly don't understand the arguments against; if Microsoft and Sony can deal with not monitoring voice chat for content, I think we can do that too. They seem fine with handling that risk, and it pays dividends for them).
soy wrote:Are you sexually aroused by the thought of nuclear war?

LV: Not really. I like pushing the buttons in game, but war in reality isn't a great prospect.
Reddy wrote:Any predictions for the PT community?

LV: Honestly, classic PT is still, despite its flaws, rather fun and decently built. I've done my best since I've started playing here to make it into a more social community. I started back in the times where all we had was the forums and the game. So I started an IRC channel to communicate more effectively in real-time with players. That torch was passed on several times over until someone decided to get a Discord going. And we've seen decent success with getting people talking and getting people involved. But it needs people to actually interact and to make the community worse preserving; if people are just being assholes and talking down to each other, what's the point in sticking around?
soy wrote:Favourite drink?

LV: Wine. Red: Ruffino Chianti Classico Riserva Ducale. Or Tommasi Amarone della Valpolicella. White: Ruffino Orvieto. Sparkling: Martini Prosecco. Blue Giovello Pinot Grigio is great too. I like my Italian wines.
Pragma wrote:Does pineapple belong on Pizza?

LV: It's not hurting anyone. I just prefer my pizza toppings to be savory personally.
Pragma wrote:What are your religious beliefs (aside from believing yourself to be divine)?

LV: I was raised a Catholic, went to catholic elementary, but other than cultural traditions, I'm not practising at all. I think that Catholicism, as with most religions, have a decent set of morals here and there, but I don't think that any one religion is correct at all. I believe in us, in human beings; I believe that we're capable of things independently from any higher power, and whether we live or die is up to our own actions, or by simple chance. It's a pragmatic approach to life, I find. Of course, I'd like to know if I'm wrong, but I doubt I'll ever really find out.

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Without further ado, have at it! :D
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Re: Lukas Verdansky - AMA

Postby TPPDJT » Mon Feb 05, 2018 3:12 pm

Can Poland into Space?
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Re: Lukas Verdansky - AMA

Postby Hrafn » Tue Feb 06, 2018 11:02 am

What do you think about Panpsychism?
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Re: Lukas Verdansky - AMA

Postby FPC » Tue Feb 06, 2018 6:59 pm

How much does Zanz smell?
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Re: Lukas Verdansky - AMA

Postby LukasV » Wed Feb 07, 2018 11:02 am

TPPDJT wrote:Can Poland into Space?

In a word, yes. Proof:
Image
Image

Hrafn wrote:What do you think about Panpsychism?

I'll read into it, and get back to you on that. But preemptively, based on my dealings with certain individuals on Discord, I don't currently believe that everything has a mind of its own. That can change.

FPC wrote:How much does Zanz smell?

I wasn't aware that Zanz inherited the Smelly role.
Get All That You Deserve In This World

Free Speech Fundamentalist
Classical Liberal/Libertarian
A Necessary Evil
Haterz Gon' Hate

"You believe you have dominion
So you force your lame opinions on me
And my eggshell mind"
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Re: Lukas Verdansky - AMA

Postby Elf » Wed Feb 07, 2018 1:39 pm

Blondes, brunettes or redheads? :mrgreen:
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Re: Lukas Verdansky - AMA

Postby LukasV » Wed Feb 07, 2018 2:44 pm

Elf wrote:Blondes, brunettes or redheads? :mrgreen:

In that order of priority, yes.
Get All That You Deserve In This World

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A Necessary Evil
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So you force your lame opinions on me
And my eggshell mind"
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