Subeta Up Close and Personal with Keith
Keith is the person behind Subeta. Without Keith, there is no Subeta. So I decided to stalk him for a bit and I came up with this interview after much prodding and poking :) Here it is!

1) What is the single biggest challenge you face in keeping and growing an online game such as Subeta?
The biggest challenge is handling the users. Sometimes they get out of control, and as more and more members join, the possibility for more trouble rises.

2) What do you find the most enjoyable aspect of Subeta. Why?
Having a family tell me that they just signed their entire family up, and they all plan to play together.

3) What keeps you coming back each day to run Subeta and grow it into the site you want it to be?
Its mine, and I'm proud of it. If I didn't come back, someone else would have to take ownership, and then it wouldn't be mine anymore.

4) Where do you see Subeta in 5 years time? What do you hope to achieve out of Subeta and what would always be your goal when running the game?
I see Subeta somewhat like it is now. We were discussing having a registration limit, simply so that we can keep the small-community feel of the site, and that's one of the aspects I always hope to keep with the game.

5) Tell us something no one knows about you.
I have an obscene fear of ladybugs :\

6) Obviously there are comparisons between Subeta and Neopets. How do you handle these comparisons? Do you think Subeta is sufficiently different enough from Neopets to distinguish itself and if so, what makes your game so much different?
When someone compares the two of them, I simply go through all of the comparisons I made (if any, I get a lot of idiots going YOU COPIED NEOPETS, all over, just asking to be iced) and most of the time is YOU COPIED THEIR PETS. Well, all of the Neopets pets are based off real (or mythical) creatures, as are the Subeta-pets. I think in some areas, Subeta is different, but they are both virtual pet sites, so they are going to have the same basic principles.

7) How did Subeta begin? Did you wake up one day and decide to create a game or was it a random experiment that somehow worked?
It was me testing PHP. There was an earlier version of Subeta that really wasn't great.

8) Do you think you'll grow Subeta out of the online interface?
Maybe someday, but there isn't a need to do it anytime soon. There are plenty of people online that can be fans with Subeta being plastered everywhere off it.

9) What has been the single, biggest challenge in running a game of this magnitude?
I think it has been security. When programming, I have to think of every possible exploit that could be used, and if I leave something off I have to figure out what users abused it, and hand out freezings/warnings for it. In some of the older things, there was no protection, and I had to redo most of them so they couldn't be exploited.

10) Approximately how many staff members do you guys employ? How are the allocations and what kind of work do you expect of them?
At the moment (29/3/05), 33 staff members. There are 'ranks' of staff, and each one is expected to do the jobs for their rank. For example, the moderators cruise the forums, and delete/edit topics and posts. The artists create artwork for the site to use, useradmins assist users in problems, as well as freeze cheating users. Assistant Admins do all of the jobs, plus help stimulate the economy, add items, and the Admins are the ones who edit all the pages, and program. They also handle all large-scale site problems, user problems, etc.

11) Have you met any users in real life out of Subeta?
Not many, but I have. I went to the mall about a month ago, and a girl came up to me and went "Are you Keith!?", and turns out that she was a Subeta player.

12) What is the single most heard line you've heard that's related to Subeta?
"Keith and the Subeta Staff is great! You can actually talk to them, unlike that other site!" (suck ups :P)

13) Tell us how you guys devise new ideas for the site starting from the brainstorming process. Do you guys look at the site and consider what it needs, or do you guys create features as it goes along? Are their board meetings where ideas are thrown around or are you the guy that makes all the calls?
It's actually a combination of all three. Sometimes we look, and think of what would help boost the economy, and sometimes we just throw things up spur-of-the-moment. The staff forum is constantly cluttered with ideas, and suggestions for what we should do next. In the end though, I am the one that makes the calls.

14) Where do you see Subeta in 2 years time?
I hope that it will be somewhat similar to how it is now. However, there will be differences. I hope to have more items produced daily, and things of that nature.

15) Obviously you would have run into issues as you made the game. Looking back, what is the one thing you wished you knew back then when you started the game that you know now?
Classes. I wish I had known how to do classes. For example, right now there is a database class that operates half of Subeta, and the other half still uses the old functions. I have to redo them sooner or later.

16) Do you take maintaining this game seriously, or is this just a hobby?
It's a mix of both. Sometimes its serious, like when it goes down for a week. But sometimes it just becomes a hobby, when everything is easy, and fun.

17) Most of us know that you've run into legal complications in the past in regards to Neopets etc. What is one lesson that you've taken out of this that has benefited you whilst you run Subeta?
It helps to know a lawyer, when you go into competition with a sue-happy dominant site :)

18) What do you think is Subeta?s strength? Why?
I think the main strength of Subeta is its amazing staff. It would just be me, sitting there working on it by myself without them. I doubt it'd even be alive. They do more for the site than anyone knows, and I wouldn't want a different team, even if they were more professional and did more work :P

19) If you could click your fingers and change one aspect of Subeta today, what would it be? Why?
I'm not really sure. I'd like to change all of the older code to nice neat organized code, with comments :D

20) Is there a person that deserves extra recognition for all their help they've given you for the Subeta project? Why? What has he/she done and how did you meet this person?
Debilee. She's possibly one of the sweetest people ever, and whenever the site is in danger, she has no problem donating. (She also sent me a nice Christmas present). She volunteered her time as a moderator, and does an excellent job. All of the staff really deserve extra recognition, they all do so much.

21) How did you come up with the name for the game? Was there a process or did you randomly pick out words?
I was looking in a Japanese dictionary. The word means Sword, and something else that I wont put here.

22) How is the monster concepts dealt with? Do you ask your artists to draw a concept you have or do they submit things they would like? How are they named?
They draw what they like. I prefer they draw off their own creativity, because things tend to turn out better. If they cant think of a name, we run to the thesaurus and look for something similar to the monster.

23) How long has Subeta been running now? Are you currently where you expected to be when you created the game, or is there still a lot more that needs to be done?
It's been up for about a year now, but 6 months since the reset (because of a huge user-database error). I think its ahead of were I originally expected, seeing as how I never expected it to succeed in the first place.

24) In 50 words or less, tell us what makes you believe in Subeta.
The staff are pure, and will do anything to help the site, as well as the users and each other. If someone needs time off for personal problems, we all comfort them. The regular users all love each other, and the community feel is amazing.

25) Thanks for the interview. As a final question, tell us something that you've taken out of Subeta that you believe will serve as a life long lesson and why you believe this lesson will aid you in life.
There are a lot of lessons I've learned from Subeta. The people-skills I've developed are amazing, and will no doubt help me throughout the rest of my life. However, something I've learned is that you always need to nice. At the start, if someone asked a question that someone asked right before them, I'd get angry. And now I know, that you can't do that (that was so amazingly cheesy, but I'm brain dead x.x).