Jay Anthony
CMDR Name: Rezri
Ambassador Duties: PAX East/E3 2015
– What’s your earliest memory/experience with the Elite franchise?
It’s actually fairly recently. Unfortunately, while my family had the machine(s) capable of running the original Elite in 1984, I was not exposed to it back then here in the US. In Late/May (early June?) of 2014 I was simply fiending for a new space dogfighter, as it had been a drought within that genre for far too long for me to bear. I simply hopped on Google, and started searching for new space sim games. I came across another game in development first, was browsing through its forums, when Elite Dangerous was mentioned in a thread. I searched for Elite Dangerous, really liked what I was seeing, and decided to see if anyone was streaming it. I was extremely pleased to see that indeed, there was! The very first Twitch streamer I came upon, Mendeck, was playing. I must have watched him for hours, however, it was the first time I watched the animation kick in that was jumping from one star system to another that had my jaw hit the floor, and me searching for a way to back this game!
– What ship set-up do you go with when playing the game?
Currently, I’m in a Python with all fixed Pulse lasers, running with about 120 tons of cargo space, some shield cells, a Kill Warrant Scanner, Advanced Discovery Scanner, and Detailed Surface Scanner. I’m quite happy with it being a very viable multirole ship. I like to mix up weapon systems now and then to experiment with different fun builds, however.
– What’s your faction of choice? (If you have one)
“For the Empire!”
– What’s your preferred method of play?
I like to ham it up on stream. I am a legitimate businessman, and I do legitimate business things. All allegations of piracy, smuggling, and the like are simply slanderous, and I demand a retraction. I’m a legit businessman. I obtain lost items and return them for a fee. I’m an environmentalist – you’d be AMAZED at how littered space is with stray cans! I’m also a humanitarian! I rescue poor souls that have been stuffed into cargo canisters and take them back to a safe house disguised as a black market. It’s all for the children, of course, because we believe that every child should receive their very own gold-plated battlecruiser with diamond-encrusted cup holders. So we also aggressively solicit for donations from the good people of the galaxy. Because children.
– Do you have a favourite moment from Elite Dangerous so far?
There have been so many, but the freshest in my mind is the arrival of the 1.2 Wings update. Elite was already an incredibly fun game, but it’s exponentially more so now that you can so easily “wing up” with your friends and share the profits as you hunt for bounties, trade, etc.
– Why did you apply to become an ambassador.
I’ve never applied for such a thing before, because I’ve never before been exposed to a title that I so passionately believe in. Elite Dangerous is the game that I, and likely many others, tried to envision when I was a child. We knew we wanted massive scope. We knew we wanted to head off anywhere in space we wanted to go at a moment’s notice. Elite Dangerous delivers on this childhood ambition for incredible game play, turns it on its head twice, and delivers something that leaves your inner childhood self with jaw gaping wide in wonder and delight. I applied to be an ambassador because it felt as if I had to try. Being able to help out in any way I could, to be involved with this incredible title and company in any way shape or form, was something I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop smiling over.
– What were your ambassador experience/s like? Any highlights?
My gosh. So many great memories packed into such a short amount of time. Being able to fire up the crowd and call out the raffle at the end of day 3 was incredible. Meeting so many great people at PAX, being able to show them the game, and then seeing that same look of joy not creep, but overtake their faces after they got done playing. Most recently: being able to continue to converse and hang out with them, now that they own the game, and making plans to fly with them. Meeting Ed, Ali, Jessie, Brian, Ryan, Robin, and Matt and just getting along with everyone so effortlessly. We ambassadors may have been volunteers, and not part of the Frontier team proper, but we were all there for the same reason. We love this game, we believe in this game, and we want to see it thrive.