Planetside 2: In the Limelight...PhirePhrey .

PhirePhrey is one of 3 outfit leaders in the Planetside 2 division of the A Different Kind of Gaming [ADK] multi-gaming community. She’s a casual gamer who just looks to enjoy the game.

In continuation of the casual perspective, here is someone who leads one of the largest outfits around; ADK. This combined arms player plays for the fun of it, while overseeing an outfit of over 2,000 members. When she’s not writing reports, she’s gunning a liberator and picking off loners with her sniper rifle. Here is my interview with her…

 

Where did you get the name PhirePhrey?

I’ve always been obsessed with fire, it’s cool and really useful. Phrey comes from my belief that everyone has a story and that all people are a little frayed at the edges. The first time I tried to fire phoenix but it was taken, so I just used the “ph” in pheonix and applied it to fray.

 

Where are you from?

Dianbi, China.

 

How big of deal do other people make the “I’m a girl” thing out to be?

In the beginning it was much worse. I’d have people chase me around, yelling at me, team killing me.  I would get a ton of friends requests and tells from random people asking me the strangest things. Players would also sit in game just looking at my character. I think these are relatively minor though.

The worst part about being a girl gamer is that people can’t wait to tell me their opinion that the only reason people talk to me or want be around me is because I’m a girl. It doesn’t come from anyone in my outfit, but it comes from others players.

 

What type of gamer are you?

I’m a casual gamer, every once in awhile I’ll find a challenge that will really get me in the competitive mood. For the most part, I’m pretty laid back about the gaming scene.

When did you get interested in gaming?

I’ve always grown up with games, but they were mainly educational games. When I was younger, my brother brought home Left for Dead, and I watched him play and got really interested. So that’s the game that got me into gaming.

 

How did you get involved with ADK?

I originally joined ADK to be in the Minecraft community. I had no intention of playing PS2, but one of my Minecraft friends convinced me to join. I figured out that I liked the game and the people in it, so I got involved in the outfit, and it expanded from there.

 

What is your exact role in ADK?

I am one of the 3 outfit leaders of the PS2 division in ADK. I manage the social media, PR, and I am the person who yells at people when they do bad things. Any of the three leaders can work together on the same thing issue, but we generally have different departments that we focus on.

 

What motivated you to accept that position?

When I started in Planetside, I was just a player. I was asked to become an officer and I accepted because they really needed people in that position. So I was promoted with every intention of keeping my head down.  But as I started hanging out with the other outfit-mates, I enjoyed being around them.. I progressively realized that I like doing the platoon leading, task completion, and pushing the other players to go further and be better.

 

At your level, do you think there a difference between managing a large multi-gaming clan like ADK and another large Planetside-only outfit?

Yes, our community is first. Our outfit is second. It’s not just what is good for the PS2 division, it’s also what is good for the ADK community. Things are taken in that perspective. Another consideration is that when players are in our PS2 in-game outfit, that doesn’t make them an ADK member. They have to actually apply via the forums to join the community at large.

The outfit senior leaders have a say in who gets to be their outfit lead, but the community leaders of ADK as a whole ultimately decide.

What do you like about your position?

I like watching the players figure out things, pushing them to succeed, and instilling the mentality that you can always improve.

What do you dislike?

Because of my position, when I come into TS3 channels, things go silent for a time.  Also, The amount of work I have to do for ADK every day.  Every time I log into the forums I have a ton of messages.

We don’t really have any sort of drama problems, because most issues are taken in the perspective of the outfit as a whole.  Although, outfit to outfit politics isn’t the coolest thing in the world to have to deal with, but it isn’t something so bad that I dislike it.

 

Do you participate in any command ops, or do you delegate that responsibility?

In our main ops, no I don’t participate. I mainly delegate that position. Sometimes I’ll appoint someone, but other times a player will just step up and handle the task.

How do you approach the management of your position?

I try to be as engaged as I possibly can. Leadership all has to have the same mentality for them to be effective. I want to empower our community members as much as possible. If it is a big deal, then the outfit leads are more involved. However, by and large, if people have ideas in the outfit we let them roll with it and see how it works out. Even if it doesn’t work out, the person organizing the idea probably learned something.

Clan-wise, what do you find you spend your time doing the most?

There is a lot of paperwork. I am constantly typing things up, such as conversations with other outfits, alliances, ops, messages, logs, after action reports, and promotion notes. But I also have to be a leader, so I’ll mingle, keeping in touch with people, and make sure people are doing okay. I also do about 2 to 6 hours a week worth of meetings.

 

What type of leadership style do you feel works best for an outfit your size?

Compartmentalized, where everyone has a specialized task that they handle.

Relational-wise, members need to know that they can come to you, trust you, talk to you, and be comfortable, otherwise you aren’t really leading them.

 

Why do you think this style works better than the “Jack of All Trades” method?

I like this better than the “everyone does everything” way because then the outfit might end up picking the person they like the most and go to them for everything.

 

What is your favorite thing to do in Planetside?

Sniping, exploring, and lib-farming.  I’m a big fan of lib-farming with the Zephyr.

 

What is your favorite gun?

Carnage AR for medic, and the Longshot for Infiltrator.

 

 

The casual perspective is often overlooked in favor of the more elite style.  Yet the casual are the foundation of the game.  One of those cinder blocks is ADK, a Connery New Conglomerate outfit best known for their very large armor and infantry pushes.  Many people classify them as a team-killing zergfest and just stop short of seeing the larger picture.  ADK has made a huge improvement over the course of the last four months, going from a sumo wrestler that hits like a truck, to Arnold Schwarzenegger that still hits like a truck.  PhirePhrey is one of the main forces behind this movement.