Player of the Month #8: Addled

Our Player of the Month for March is Addled. Currently playing on Noctera, Addled is known for his streams where he shows the art of playing paladin.

Can you introduce yourself? What’s your name, how old are you etc? -Hey there! First off, thank you so much for having me as a Tibia Player to interview! Also congratulations TibiaGoals on becoming an official Fansite to Tibia! Now let’s begin with a little journey haha. My real name is Carmine (Although, I kept it hidden for over a decade, and a handful of players were convinced my real name was Addled), I am currently 29 years old and I do reside in New Jersey, USA. In my younger years, I did study CAD and wanted to become an architect, which then I later went to a Trade School for Real Estate and worked at a Franchise. Currently, I am not officially working but I do have property invested that I rent out and plan to expand (A lot of my plans have been a little delayed financially due to Covid-19, it’s been a tough year for all of us). I am a HUGE foodie, one of my favorite things to do in my free time is a travel and try different cuisines of a different culture. Luckily where I live, I have had the pleasure to enjoy culturally so many different dishes and even share this experience with friends (I cannot express how times I’ve gone broke over food hehe).

Who showed Tibia to you? When was that? -It was late 2003, I remember when I moved to a new city, on my first day in Class I met a person who resembled the appearance of Harry Potter and instantly waved at me because we both dressed like a disaster out of the store Hot Topic. From then on myself and Izzy became best friends throughout Grammar and Middle School. We hung out so much, his father was a Lutheran Priest and had his own Church, so most of the time we would sneak around the building and hide under the backrow pews playing Pokemon I believe it was. That was when he introduced to me MMORPGS or the idea of playing with more than just us 2 on our handheld consoles. The idea of expanding beyond just 2 to 4 players… how do you say Multiplayer games was mind-blowing for me. During this time the Original Diablo website actually advertised Tibia on there funny enough. The idea of Pokémon and the nostalgia of what I would call tibia as Pixel Art (Credits to a CM that cherished tibia as this form of graphics), I was truly hooked instantly to Tibia.

What is your favorite thing to do in Tibia?

-I loved to kite 1vs1 as a Paladin against bosses. I LOVED farming bosses for hours and hours and hours and did I mention hours? Sorry, days, months… hell even years! I did this to a point that I developed an OCD or tinfoil hat method to, “boost,” my loot luck by holding CTRL and with arrows keys clockwise twirl twice before killing a boss. Call me a masochist but I’ve always enjoyed working hard grinding for that rare drop, excluding team based bosses I do believe I’ve nearly looted every boss rare Tibia has to offer via solo style except a bag you desire stacking taints (Which is in the works). 

What is the origin of your Tibian name?

-SO….although I have on live stream leaked it a few times, I’d never actually tell people the origin of this name. Even my real-life friends called me Addled and wondered the same, as to whenever I’d played games I would simply name my new character “Addled.” I’d always name myself Addled which is actually short for Addled Impasse. I am a die hard Disney fan and I was truly obsessed with the Video game Kingdom Hearts. To keep this as short and simple as possible, there was a point in one of the games where they had a group of bosses or villain's you could engage, I took a liking to one of these bosses for the lore and background… then suddenly the room you’re about to engage this climactic fight scene when you click X to enter (Playstation exclusive title haha so X), the name of the portal you entered was called Addled Impasse. Literally, the only time ever you see that name, nowhere else, never again, gone in seconds. Vocabulary always stuck out for me, if I didn’t understand a word I’d immediately indulge myself and look it up to learn more about it. The name ended up contradicting itself for how their meanings were used, I liked it a lot. I always deeply admired things like films and looking up the directors to learn more about what they may have been feeling with certain story plots, or why they chose to create this. The same goes with Animations, video games. Whoever and why they thought to name this White endless room you enter with no beginning or end,“ Addled Impasse,” it definitely caught my attention and I’d like to say I am someone who pays attention to every minute detail. So there you have it, Tada!

Was there a player that you admired? -Yes! In fact, there was a specific player I did admire and he went by the name of Kutagawa. His name was Daniel, also a Royal Paladin player that loved to PvP being the underdog versus the majority against his little group. Another amazing player by the name of Josh or as some original Tibians may know him from his famous Tibia Films, Saint Valion that recorded some moments of Daniel. A notable inspiration was when he was I believe the second Paladin to block Orshabaal being only a Royal Paladin Class, which was something unheard of in that time period. I have a trending SOLO Orshabaal video on my Youtube channel. The story behind that was I basically snuck passed an entire enemy guild that was trying to close off the Orshabaal Boss from players so the guild leader (Nenem) could basically dominate the boss and its rares. I was in Edron during the announcement so I had to flip a coin if I wanted to be hunted or not if I did this haha (Which after the scenario I was hunted for because an entire team tried so hard to close off the mountain pass and I snuck by to kill the boss) I honestly thought of Daniel Blocking the Orshabaal and how I could maybe signify this historical moment of him by doing this. Now let me make this clear, at my level during this time, it was nothing more than killing a Demon because of how much improvement and items we received since the Old Tibia times. The point was, you never see a World Boss nowadays getting soloed which was purely my incentive. The Guild Leader Nenem ended up finding it funny and we did have a close friendship during my stays on that World called Xantera.

X or Y

Never be allowed to play RP again or never be allowed to play all the other vocations?
-Well I played a Master Sorcerer lowkey, so yes I could survive without a Royal Paladin.

Assassin or retro hunter outfit?

-Is this a question, I have worn my Assassin Outfit since its release date or nearly. My poor character, I cannot imagine what his clothes smell like.

Decorating or doing bestiary?

-Decorating was my other form of therapeutic solace in Tibia besides farming bosses. 

No diremaws or no falcons?

-This one broke my back and is tough. I’d say no Falcons because for me to chill grind falcons it would require a druid healing me tanking them. You cannot always rely on a player to always be there for you and Diremaws… my beloved Diremaws are solo spawn. I shall keep my beloved Diremaws.

Servers with low or high population?

-Low population, I truly don’t like the newer PvP changes to Tibia and the less players, the less someone will bother me grinding.

Old Tibia or new Tibia?

-Old Tibia, it is but a vague memory of my PvP history in Old Tibia due to the New Tibia PvP situational adjustments for Open PvP. I am not a fan of Magic wall stacking or the aggression system of standing on a friendly Magic wall to hold a spot. Literally, the Magic wall situations is where more players realistically lead an unfair advantage in PvP.

Be rich on a low level or be poor on a high level?

-I can be smartass with this one and say High level and poor because I main a Royal Paladin. Even still, I’d pick a high level for the sake that you can grind back more profit to accumulate what you’ve lost versus a rich low level can buy boosts and level back up to a high level. However, revisiting this footstep in my new Journey on the server Noctera, other players contest the spawns at time I’d like to freely powergame in so I’d rather be a poor high level. 

Green Worlds or Orange Worlds

-Green Worlds by far made my Journey back to Tibia more enjoyable. Yes, characters are cheaper on Orange Worlds but initially protected Battleye servers are New servers that have not been abused during the years and decade of mass botting, countless characters and gold

laundered. 

Double exp/skill or rapid respawn?

-Rapid Respawn in my opinion is relishing on how much players can just… mingle and get along. I was always against double EXP, perhaps just double skill for the sheer fact that Double EXP imo speeds things up way too fast and the margin between a low level and high level is terrifying with each new update. I blame events like Double Experience rather than Just rapid for a relaxing experience and Bestiary farming. 

A mana potion that would never end or a possibility to escape a dangerous situation with one click?

-Funny to mention a question like this because I am currently farming for an infinite potion in a different game that's cost me a total of 510+ hours and still going. The experience to escape a dangerous situation would make life boring and not exhilarating don't you think? Especially as a Content Creator I wouldn’t want to escape 100% success rate, the audience can be biased at times and want to see their favorite Streamer die to clip the Video Game death and post, mock, or just have a laugh about it. I’ll take the infinite potion please!

Which of the upgrades introduced by CipSoft do you appreciate the most, and which still have room for improvement in your opinion?

-I could answer this so easily and the answer is Falcon Bastion. Many credits to CM Lionel on this update and who also worked on Roshamuul. I appreciate this the most because of his driven inspiration it was towards the Dark Souls series when he did have time to answer a few of my questions. During that test server for Falcon Bastion, I really tried my best to stay involved, I played that Test Server the most and got to know a lot more about Cipsoft. I can make this a massive story for the involvement of this update because I loved everything about it, The Falcon

minibosses and how rare of a drop their items are, this is precisely going back to the previous question, “What is your favorite thing to do in Tibia?” I love the grind, hell I grinded Falcon mini bosses for a few months straight to loot several of the Falcon items on and off live stream for my audience. I always wanted to thank CM Lionel so much and to the staff on some of my suggestions relating to keeping the items extremely rare for the sake of nostalgic grinding and even tweaks on some of the falcon items to this day. I couldn’t have been more proud to be apart of something like that.

As for the second part, an update that needs improvement? Although the matter is a bit esoteric I wouldn’t specify a particular update but rather change that around and say I believe it's time Cipsoft fine tuned as you call it, some of the original bosses, even some of the older outdated creatures from pre-2010 times. Going back on old creatures and improving them even a slight bit without affecting other newer to meta spawns they reside in, should suffice to showing effort as a Dev team and also less resources to go and always just making a new creature…it’s almost like they want us to forget our first Dragon :( To be honest, it was this recent Rapid Respawn of early February of 2021 that made me realize just how many creatures live inside Tibia. Think about it and go back, count every individual creature, it’s almost mind-blowing how many different creatures this game has. So yes I’d love to see old creatures being slightly improved, even a new haircut and some clothes! hehe

What motivated you to start streaming? 

-This may be my most difficult question I have to face, even overlooking the upcoming questions I am about to answer after this one. So my mind goes blank on the thought of why did you initially start streaming on Twitch as if I was part of some abduction and wiped of my memory. What I can tell you is originally when I was working in Real Estate, I also had my own office in the very back of our company where I also worked part time accounting and property management. I underwent an immense amount of stress during these times and for some sort of freedom, I’d have Twitch open but muted during my works. To be honest, I was one of those random viewers childishly spamming memes and copypastas in other twitch channels to get a reaction.  I still during this time I know I searched Tibia (I was retired in tibia during my early years working multiple jobs), this was when I discovered BubbaGame and also NiNi. It was a very odd environment to see my beloved childhood game broadcasted on the twitch platform, I took a liking but I definitely needed time to put aside if I ever wanted to stream, I remember this part for sure. I won’t lie, originally I test streamed console for my friends playing the game Destiny until finally freeing up some hours and bought an actual gaming PC for streaming.l casually streamed in my first year but during this time I also left America and stayed in Sweden some

months. I did live with a significant other at the time and to keep this with little drama as possible we did have a falling out. A comment that echoed in my ear was, “you’ll never get partnered or grow much on tibia through twitch,” it irritated me, quite a lot actually. Coming back to America I did go back to work part time and started to create a schedule, improve what I did for content and that's where things picked up! There is a deeper story to the hiatus of Sweden to America that I’d like to keep locked away forever because I wouldn’t want to resurface any drama but what can I say is, I stayed positive always. Realizing I was always a decently high-level Royal Paladin in my era, there were and still are so many new to even old school Royal paladins that told me themselves they’re inspired by me. Streaming on twitch now going into 7 years….it took me 4 years to really believe people were truly inspired when they told me they looked up to me as a Royal Paladin player. It was always one of my regrets that I didn’t take it so serious back then as I would love to now. Tibia is indeed heavily saturated with streaming, the English community is very small…..and if you really know how Tibia is with its community, “nobody ever forgets.” You make one mistake, the same person who shunned you for something will be there 5 years later, 10 years later, so forth sadly. Thankfully, because of my background and how I am a caretaker for a sickly father, I understand you can’t have life your way, if there is someone miserable to you, dislikes you, wishes the worst of you…then maybe they are hurting too in some way so I’ve learned to just always stay positive and still wish the best for them. I never express this side of me on Twitch, for the sake of a reaction I childishly bashed the hell out of a hater(s) and took pride in it, I wouldn’t say I regret it but I also understand not everyone thinks the same way and some people maybe shouldn’t be on the internet. Therefore, I do not believe in any regrets.

Do you think Tibia has influenced your personality in any way?

-Funny enough, Tibia definitely has influenced my personality but to an extent. I always say that Tibia makes me dislike players more because of the bigger picture that there are wealthy players that ruin the game by monopolizing it and it’s trended to a point that players want to come to together and pyramid scheme each other off profiting through RMT(Real Money Trading). You’d basically support a dominating guild and it's because of country exchanges with money benefitting more than a Real Life job by selling gold. Some even stashing tibia coins and calling themselves Resellers through external sources like Instagram or Facebook haha(Tip, please don’t post anymore IG story memes, just No). My personality has definitely taught me to keep my guard up always, not just what I stated a moment ago but for the sheer fact that I’ve been around and participated in this game for so long, whether I’ve been wronged in some way but also I’ve witnessed others being mistreated in some way. This includes things like, trusting someone that stole items, characters, threats, or abuse to making it their sole purpose by hunting them off the server for childish clashes. So yes, I’d like to say a thing I’ve learned is to keep my distance from others, I am not saying it’s bad to make new friends or something like that but undeniably there are players in Tibia who have literally invested their lives into the game. 

5 tips on how to be a good paladin?

-Probably my shortest response here:

Oldschool days: Fast hands looting, Kiting monsters, Fast hands, Exura vita for any amount of health lost or UH, and did I mention Fast hands?

Current Royal Paladin tips: Perfecting intervals between your mas san, exori san/aoe rune on repeat. Another tip is don’t bother arguing with another Royal Paladin. If I can choose a class

that endorses the egotistical side of a player, it is definitely the Royal paladin. No Royal paladin likes each other, they will act very friendly and sit there gloating at every move you make to perfect it themselves or they’re just very bad and think they’re better. I said this to make a few Royal Paladins laugh that understand me here haha, please don’t actually take this to heart, it’s only somewhat true xD

Do you think one can ever quit Tibia for good?

-As I lied to myself in 2019, I realized one does not simply quit Tibia. I attempted to leave everything behind me in 2019 and quit the game fully. I did however broadcast a one last Twitch stream for tibia and gave away all my gear and tibia coins/gold to random viewers for nothing in exchange, I didn’t even do this for subscribers, everyone was welcome to participate. I told myself if I quit fully and had nothing to turn back to then surely it’d make me believe I’d not desire my childhood game and could move on if I don’t have anything to return to. Wrong! I realized no matter what other games I’ve played and since that 2 years hiatus from Tibia, I have played and even built an entirely different community outside of Tibia and it could never fill the void I left from abandoning Tibia. At the time I truly felt justified for my reason(s) quitting based on the direction the company was going, the community, and several other reasons that would be longer than all these questions combined xD Tibia makes a marriage look like a walk in the park. 

Have you ever met someone from Tibia in real life?

-Yes! I have met several Tibians, including streamers in real life that played Tibia just like myself! During the Twitch Con of 2018 in San Jose, California a previous player that was interviewed here by the name of SheepiiHD, or as I know him as Matt, rounded up a bunch of Tibia friends and purchased an AirBNB for that weekend. A shoutout to Known Tibia streamers that showed up and stayed with us was The Ericpsykik himself, Vangoro, SheepiiHD of course, PhenomenalDOM, Buozzi, Amadeus1518, Sleepymegg, and DrunkenVeteran. 

A funny story in my first years of streaming back in 2015 was when I traveled to Sweden for the first time. I remember getting on a random bus to go back to my place in Sweden and I strange guy walks up to me, shakes my hand, and says, “välkommen till Sverige,” Which basically means welcome to Sweden. He then stated he was a viewer of mine named Popicii and I was honestly flattered like you cannot imagine. I don’t think I’d ever forget this moment!

Do you have any encouraging words for the community?

-When it comes to anything online you honestly need to play at your own pace, not at others. That is something I learned myself trying to coordinate or balance time for myself and what to stream and also at the leisure of my friends how to incorporate in some way throughout my week. I can tell you and it was very childish but I have lost friends I’ve met online due to this because I just didn’t have enough time to balance everything. Usually, you’d want to hear, “Stay positive,” things like this but honestly playing at your own pace really keeps your sanity, especially with more so that we are bound a bit due to COVID-19 and being isolated. For me, my entire life was mostly isolated, so I learned to appreciate what little time I have and how to utilize this in Tibia and in Real Life. There is always time to correct this and don’t let something trivial stop you from making this new decision!