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Welcome, Amber and Charlie. Why don’t you both tell us a bit about yourselves?
Amber: I grew up on the mean, mean streets of the West Country in the UK, and my eyesight is remarkably okay given the number of hours I spend staring at books and screens. Outside of media consumption, my hobbies include programming, playing Dungeons & Dragons, and teaching myself Arabic and Czech (Ahoj, Hráči!)
Charlie: Hi, I’m happy to be here. I’ve spent the last 4 years helping Halgari run the modlist installer Wabbajack on the community side, after diving in and out of modding for the last 14 or so years. I jump around games a fair bit: TES, Cyberpunk, The Witcher, Baldur’s Gate, Fallout, Dragon Age, and Borderlands. If it has modding involved, more than likely I’ve had a look at it. Outside of modding, I like driving, MMA, and am always up for a music gig.
What is your gaming life story and how did that lead to the wonderful world of modding?
Amber: Some of my earliest memories are of waking up early so that I could play The Sims uninterrupted on the family computer for a few hours before school. I was a very introverted kid who grew up in the countryside, so books and video games have always dominated my free time, though as I've gotten older video games have been getting more of my time and attention than books. Modding has always been a big thing for the Sims franchise (who here remembers the Running with Scissors Playset?), and I also quite like playing older video games that need mods in order to be able to run on modern machines. It's just kind of snowballed from there - once you break the seal, it becomes harder to play games *without* mods. I can't believe I was once a sucker that willingly sunk hundreds of hours into vanilla Oblivion - I mean, who does that?
Charlie: I grew up on the PS1 and Gameboy, going all the way around with both Sony and Nintendo up until I got a PC for better performance and more options. I got hooked on modding when I saw mods for Oblivion when I was 13. Grabbed a PC and have been in and out of the modding scene ever since. I still remember not reading the instructions for Better Cities for Oblivion and forgetting to install the (at the time) separate asset download and running around an Imperial City entirely made of yellow triangles. Nowadays, I mostly play RPGs like Skyrim, Baldur’s Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 with a smattering of Football Manager and Civilization.
What mod would you bring into every game that you play?
Amber: I really like how ambitious some of the mods for Oblivion are, like Kvatch Rebuilt, and I would love there to be more mods where creators clearly have such an appreciation of the game's world that they're comfortable with creating their own stories within it.
Charlie: I hate unnecessary UI elements that could be contextual, so I love getting mods like SkyHUD, Limited HUD, and In-World Navigation. There are so many more great mods that improve the UI of games, but you get the gist.
What game universe would you most like to live in and why?
Amber: I absolutely would not want to live in most of the game universes I've experienced. But I am quite drawn to the style of Vice City, and I know it well enough to know how to keep myself out of trouble, so I'll say that.
Charlie: The Forgotten Realms - Baldur’s Gate. The reason is pretty simple: out of all the fantastic fantasy settings, the D&D setting provides more opportunities to not die as a random peasant like you would in Tamriel (Elder Scrolls).
Is there any game you’re looking to get into currently or thinking about modding?
Amber: Once I finish my vanilla playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3 (Shadowheart, my beloved <3), you bet I'm gonna be trying some mods for that. I reckon I'll download some that make the gameplay closer to D&D 5e.
Charlie: At the moment my free time is consumed with Baldur’s Gate 3, so I’ll be diving into modding once I finish my first playthrough, Cyberpunk remains a consistent one I still play and mod. I’ve spent more time in xEdit than I care to mention, so Bethesda games are always a staple. Other than that, any new games that pop up that catch my attention, I’m sure to dive in and see if I can tweak them to my liking.
Why did you want to join the Nexus Mods team and what is it like now that you’re here?
Amber: I've always believed that the people you work with can make or break a job, and figured that spending a huge chunk of my time working with smart people who share one of my major interests would be a decent shout. Turns out, I was right! Everyone's so fun and yet also hard-working at the same time, clearly passionate about what they do, and it's incredibly refreshing.
Charlie: It’s been one of my main hobbies for years, especially over the last 4 years where I’ve put many hours into trying to steer a large community into a successful and useful tool for mod authors and users. The opportunity to get paid to do what I did as a hobby wasn’t something I could turn down. The entire team has been incredibly welcoming and I’m having a blast discovering Exeter and Devon after relocating here.
Can you tell us about the work you’ll be doing here? Is there anything exciting you’re looking to work on?
Amber: My main duty will be keeping on top of the support inbox, but I'll be popping up here and there, doing other community-related stuff. Keep your eyes peeled for the Kainé profile picture jumpscare.
Charlie: At the moment I’m helping to improve our response time and cover more of the large quantity of reports we get. In the future, I’ll be reviewing the current Wiki and seeing what options we have to make it more visible and convenient as a place to store the massive amounts of great knowledge needed to create fun mods for hundreds of games.
Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions. Is there anything you would like to say to the community?
Amber: Be nice to each other!
Charlie: I look forward to talking with you all more and enjoying our hobby of tweaking games more than we actually play them!
Feel free to reach out on the Forums or Discord if you need any help or have any questions.
Thank you Amber and Charlie for talking with us. Be sure to say hi if you see them around on Discord or the website.
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A moderator has closed this comment topic for the time beingAnyways.... that with the tweaking instead of playing is for some games totally true on my side too.
Ron JeremyI meant Elvis.Amber: hello to the West Country Massive from the East Midlands Collective. 😉
Welcome aboard!