Community Spotlight: Grant 'Psykokow' Woolcott
Where do we begin with Grant ‘Psykokow’ Woolcott?
Grant is the host of a weekly competition show called Abraka Drabble, where forum users are invited to submit a pithy short story set in the Elite universe. Grant also set up the Thargoid and Fer-De-Lance website - a non-canon Elite-fiction website that has all sorts of weird and wonderful fan-creations.
Dockers is the mockumentary he edits, and stars in, set inside a fictional busy space station, and he is a co-host on the fan-favourite Lave Radio, a discussion podcast centred on Elite Dangerous.
The list goes on: he is the curator of the Elite Parody song thread (enter at your own risk), there’s a pretend roleplaying forum bar set up for his fictional pub the Thargoid and Fer De Lance, and to top it all off (this list isn’t exhaustive either) he is a part-time moderator on the forums.
Not just hardworking, funny and intelligent, Grant is charitable too. He was part of the amazing team who helped to raise money for Special Effect and GamesAid at our Premiere Event in November of 2014.
An impressive list by just about anyone’s standards, how do you manage to do so much?
“I have a very understanding wife, hungry children and little sleep, also a huge community of friends willing to chip in and help out when required. They make it not only possible but utterly enjoyable and we bounce ideas off each other.”
Thank you for everything you do for the community, what inspires you to keep going?
“The creative side of the community excites me, and drives me to do better. It’s not a case of ‘if they can do that, I can do it better’ it is more a ‘that’s awesome, how did they do that?’ and then finding my own way to do something similar to fit an idea.”
“The warmth from the community to each other is amazing, it is a welcoming community and although the forum can seem judgemental and harsh sometimes, meeting these people really reminds you that their passion is the factor behind their posts. We all love the Elite Universe and want the game to tick all boxes for everyone, and boy will we tell you that!”
The community will grow and develop with the game, it will never be the small group of friends it once was, but we have a duty to keep the fun and nice bits alive and strong and open to all.”
What's your favourite thing that you contribute to?
“Crikey, there are three projects the fill my weeks, Lave Radio and its weekly live show, Abraka Drabble and Dockers. They have taken up all my free time, though I still find time to make some parody songs and other mischief around them. Lave radio is a wonderful way to highlight the good things happening, and to challenge everything and possibly air views that put a different slant on a situation for the better. If I wasn’t on it, I’d be listening to it.
"Dockers and the Drabbles make me laugh, Simon Winnard writes the scripts for Dockers and after a read through we collect recordings from the cast and I jigsaw it into the finished podcast. The Abraka Drabble show is live chaos and I love it... It’s like a night down the pub with friends.
"As long as someone enjoys what I do, and I still find it fun then I will keep doing it, I do believe if I can do something to make the world a little bit better, then damn it, I WILL, the fact it’s fun to do is a bonus.”