Interview with Slothy by iCE Staff for iCE PACK 11/2002
Converted to ASCII text by RaD Man of ACiD Productions (www.acid.org)
HTML version available at http://www.ice.org/interviews.php?interview=12

                                          
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iCE: Tell us a bit about yourself - first name, age, occupation, hobbies,
     etc.

slothy: I'm Jon, but everyone just calls me Slothy. I'm 24, and I'm a PC
        game programmer.  Aside from keeping tiles.ice.org and www.ice.org
        happy, I also help Root88 manage the day-to-day operations of
        running iCE.

        In the non-digital world, I have a cute little car
        (http://www.slothy.com/sterling_10.jpg) that I like to work on on
        most weekends.  I'm also obsessive about music, and I occasionally
        read those book things - but only books about copyright and patent
        law.
 
iCE: Where are you from? Have you lived anywhere else?

slothy: I'm from Sonoma Valley right now - just north of San Francisco.  I
        just moved out here from Virginia, where I have lived since I was
        7.  I was working from home in Virginia, but my company tightened
        the screws and got me to move out here to work at the office with
        the rest of the company.  It's quite a big change for me to be out
        here.  I haven't been around as much recently, since I've been
        trying to get out and meet some new people out here.  But once I
        get off this ghastly 56k at home I'm sure I'll be around more -
        especially since I get hours where I'm not "at work" now that I 
        don't work from home.
 
iCE: Is your cousin really an astronaut?

slothy: She rules.  (http://www.slothy.com/sts-112/)
 
iCE: If you could live on any other planet, which would it be, and why?

slothy: I think I'd like to live in a black hole, because I could keep a
        lot of things within reaching distance.
 
iCE: How long have you been a member of iCE?

slothy: I joined in late 1993 as a member of the horrific iCE Trial program.
        I was one of the only ones to make it out of iCE Trial - TooN GooN
        being another notable survivor.  I was promoted to a full iCE Member
        by Shaggy on Christmas Eve when I showed him my Hell's Gate ansi
        (back in the days when you'd call someone and have them type ATA
        while you typed ATD and then coordinate when you'd both pick up and
        hang up the modems to talk again :).  When he saw that ansi, he
        said, "Wait, YOU did this?" and it was history after that.
 
iCE: So what was the deal with iCE Trial?

slothy: Essentially, it started as a great idea. You find promising artists
        and kind of "take them under your wing" until they are good enough
        to release in the pack. Ideally they could get help from the many
        members of iCE to help them hone their skills.

        In reality, it failed in almost every aspect.  It was decided that
        iCE Trial would release their own packs - to reduce the penalty for
        joining iCE Trial as opposed to being in a separate second-tier art
        group.  
        Since those packs still were affiliated with iCE, many iCE members
        were embarrassed by them.  As a result, they treated the Trial guys
        as second-class citizens and wouldn't associate with them much.  So
        the Trial guys got insults from the rest of the scene for being
        essentially wannabe-member fanboys who "sucked", and in their own
        group they were treated like they had some contagious disease.  Very
        few artists ever "graduated" from Trial to becoming a full iCE
        Member.

        Later on, when I was trying to find ways of helping out iCE, Syntax
        Error put me in charge of iCE Trial. Within one month, I disbanded
        the iCE Trial program completely (back in 1994) and put myself out
        of a job in the process :)
 
iCE: So you're a programmer? Do you do any art anymore?

slothy: Not really, sadly.  I was never very good on paper except with some
        abstract sketches (I was never good with color, either :).  Once the
        move to hi-res happened, I wasn't really able to hold my own in iCE.
        I am still very proud of the hundred-or-so ansis I released with
        iCE.  I do think that I was pretty good, but I think my Senior Staff
        role has understandably overshadowed my artist role and not many
        people remember my ansi anymore.

        That being said, it was a conscious decision.  When I was getting
        ready to start at Virginia Tech, I was decided whether to be an art
        major, computer science major, or psychology major.  Given that I
        wanted to have a job after college, I chose computer science.  I
        figured I could always do art as a hobby, and it would probably
        continue to be enjoyable.  It's always kind of sad when you realize
        you dread doing something you love once you're getting paid to do it
        and have deadlines and other people influencing your work.  To me,
        it's a bit more tragic for that to happen with art than with code -
        I always loved doing art.

 
iCE: So tell us about your job then, Mr. Game Programmer.

slothy: I'm essentially a Linux coder who got a sweet job thanks to iCE.
        In fact, every job I've ever had was a result of this awesome art
        group (no lie).  Rogue Leader hooked me up with this tiny company
        called S2 Games back in March of 2001.  They were working on a 3d
        RTS back then, and I joined as the second programmer.  Now it's
        changed a bit, and we're working on the multiplayer-only PC game
        Savage (http://www.s2games.com/).  I'll keep the plug to a minimum
        here, so that's all I'll say about Savage.  But I'm just a C coder
        who has always been into graphics (guess why!) who got a sweet job
        from knowing someone.
 
iCE: Speaking of work, what is your alcohol or substance of choice?

slothy: Crown Royal.  mmmm....
 
iCE: What would you be doing if computers didn't exist?

slothy: Man, that's really a horrifying idea.  I'm really one of the
        biggest geeks around, from my keyboard 
        (http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/images/evol_chair2.jpg) to my 
        linux-powered car stereo.  Life without technology would be so much
        less interesting for me.  I guess I'd probably be doing art or
        psychology, or just hanging out at bars :)
 
iCE: What would happen if you let two linux geeks procreate?


slothy: Hrm, they'd probably be a super Luddite.  They would get into
        sports and hate computers.  And I wouldn't have much to talk about
        with them :)
 
iCE: Can we ask you a stupid question?

slothy: I believe you already have.

[Point taken]
 
iCE: What do you like and dislike about the digital art scene?

slothy: Boy, I could write a manifesto on that one (I know, this interview
        is long enough already).  I've written lots of articles about the
        scene way back in the ansi days...  nowadays I'm pretty unsatisfied
        with the scene.

        One nice thing we had awhile back was a general agreement on what
        art styles were acceptable.  As a result, there was a solid
        hierarchy of groups from the "best" to the "local (aka crappy)"
        groups.  Artists would work hard to join the best ones and work
        their way up the ladder.
        Nowadays there are a few really talented groups like iCE, Noir,
        Raster, Breed, and Equate, but there isn't a solid base of groups
        "below" them.
        So it's a jumbled mass of artists that doesn't get any prep before
        they join a "major" art group.  There aren't any community norms
        that are established as part of our online society.  This is both
        good and bad, since sometimes those norms can limit artists, but
        it's definitely more chaotic.  We have no universal rules on what
        is acceptable and what isn't, and what role the group plays for the
        artists.
 
iCE: There used to be a huge rivalry between ice and other groups, namely
     ACiD.  There was so much trash talk that it seemed comical at times.
     Could you explain this a bit for those of use that just don't get it?

slothy: Heh, it was an odd development of an us vs. them attitude.  In most
        other scenes there was a friendly competition, but in the ansi scene
        it was just this crazy rivalry.  There are a couple possible
        explanations as to why: first off, there was some ugly politics in
        1992 when the iCE staff tried to merge the group into ACiD.  That
        failed when a portion of iCE refused to rebuilt iCE with new
        leadership.  In addition, I think most other scenes had more of a
        battle over who was best, with new demo groups showing up and such.
        But in the art scene, there really was just iCE and ACiD and the
        occasional short-lived split-off group.  So there was a lot of time
        that helped carve out the absurd rivalry.  Honestly, everyone wanted
        their group to have a better pack every month.  Because of this, I
        released something in every pack for the first 30 packs after I
        joined, because I didn't want to let down the group.
 
iCE: I heard that you hosted an Icecon. What's that?

slothy: On a few occasions now, groups of ice members have gotten together
        to meet and party. I've been to a few now - one in Atlanta in 1998,
        one in California where we actually met up with ACiD folks, and
        then I hosted one at my house last summer.  The last one was really
        a lot of fun, since everyone was living together in my house.  I 
        even managed to injure myself during our pathetic basketball game.
        Good times...
 
iCE: Do you have any words of advice for artists or programmers that would
     like to join iCE?

slothy: Do it!  I couldn't possibly be more indebted to this group.  I've
        met some really great friends in the group, I've obviously had a
        lot of doors open for me, and I have some really fun memories of
        partying with my friends.

        Better yet, join the group not just for you, but bring us some
        enthusiasm to make the group better.  Not everyone has to be that
        way, but it's certainly a gem of a member that is willing to do the
        dirty work to make it a better place (thanks to all you guys and
        gals who help us out every month).
SAUCE00Interview with Slothy              iCE Staff           iCE Advertisements  20021201,   P                              