madyb – Man in Red
Hello DUGies! Community member Jallen is conducting a new series of interviews with various members of the community. The goal of these interviews is to allow you to better understand who is behind the characters of DayzUnderground, and showcase the wealth of personalities and experiences we have here in the community.
Our second interviewee is madyb, a long-serving community member hailing from Turkey. Identifiable at a distance in-game by his infamous all-red attire, madyb has played with several notable groups in his time on DayzUnderground, The Black Paw and Black Sheep to name a couple. To this day, he continues to be a friendly face and source of knowledge in the community for newer players.
How did you hear about DayzUnderground, and what made you want to apply for membership?
Well, my story will be the least interesting among all the others. Me and my mates were first person PvP oriented, but public servers were either crawling with hackers/cheaters, most other private servers didn’t have proper admins or straight up badmins. DayzUnderground and Old School Dayz were the two servers which stood out then. They were both 1pp and almost always full with active admins you could trust.
It all changed for me when PTU captured my mate.
As for the second part of the question, I applied about a year or so after I started playing on DayzUnderground. Back then DUG had password parties (on top of WL only days), a public player who had access to the password could still play on the server, thus being WL’ed didn’t feel like a necessity. It all changed for me when PTU captured my mate. We were PvP’ing around Zelenogorsk and they came from behind, instead of killing on sight they captured him. My mate ratted me out (what a friend :P). I ended up meeting with them and trading our guns and ammo for my mate’s life. They fed us with stories that night and interaction alone was freaking awesome, something different than mindless pew pew pew. As we were going our separate ways they reminded us to apply for WL, reminding us on how much we were missing and of course I was warned about my red attire as it was never associated with friendly people… Needless to say, the first thing I did was applying for membership.
You are one of the longer-serving members of this community. How long have you been playing and interacting here for, and what keeps you coming back?
I’ve been around for 5 years give or take. I got white-listed in 2015. What brings me back to DUG is mainly the community and how heavily I’ve been invested in some of the stories. I avoid being a key character in any storyline though as they mostly lead to your character’s doom. DUG has an organic and a very unique lore, completely created by us, the community . No other place can offer you this. In my opinion DUG is the ultimate DayZ experience.
Was it hard to get used to and participate in the roleplay on DUG, or did you find that it came naturally? What makes you feel that way?
It’s a bit of both actually. I’ve been playing D&D and RPG games since I was a youngling, so it was easy to participate in the roleplay, but it took me a long time before I could accept “No RP rules, you decide when your story ends” mentality. You also have to level down for new RP’ers and/or not heavily RP’ing people. It may take time to adjust but you get there if you keep an open mind and accept other play styles.
Has the way you play changed significantly in your time on DUG? Why, or why not, do you think that is?
Yes, most definitely yes and multiple times too. I started playing on DUG just to PvP. Over time my character came to life and since then I’ve been playing the same person. I started as a good guy, then ended up being friends with two traders, Jimmy and Boris, who I thought had good intentions but in reality they were fueling both sides of the war with guns, ammo and information. I found myself neck deep in their shit, my hands just as dirty as theirs in others eyes. Then competition arrived so I had to do a lot of shooting to kill the said competition. My path lead me to Black Paw, a faction with shady goals and many enemies.
In a sense I’ve gone back to my roots.
I ended up shooting a lot of people I didn’t want to because of my poor choices, but I had a sense of guilt growing day by day. It lead me to leaving the pack and my guns behind. I played for the next two years as a pacifist and rarely shot any gun, like maybe 4 or 5 times in total. All these adventures and redemption search led me to Black Sheep, the friendliest people this place has ever seen. In a sense I’ve gone back to my roots, hunting the cannibals and other confirmed baddies all around Chernarus.
You are currently a member of the Black Sheep. What are some of the best and hardest parts of your current role?
Best part is playing with Finn and Brokk. They are the two most outstanding people I’ve met online. I wish I could share more but “Whatever happens in Guglovo stays in Guglovo”. Hardest part is keeping Kelso -another beloved Sheep- alive. He dies doing what he loves, getting shot. Jokes aside, the hardest part of being a Sheep is having your guns away and putting trust in people, a lot of times complete strangers and expecting your kindness won’t get you shot in the back.
What advice would you give to newer members looking to join and play with groups or factions?
Don’t rush in to joining a group or a faction. Learn about the people first, test the waters
Don’t rush in to joining a group or a faction. Learn about the people first, test the waters. Lone wolfing is a fun option too. Each group/faction on the server have different requirements so instead of trying to force your way in, ask nicely to play with them or find them in game and try to keep up with their play style. If it fits you and they like you they will invite you anyway. Of course some groups/factions are more open than others so you can easily find a place among them, but the real question is will you feel at home?
Your character has been alive for quite some time. Would you ever kill him off? What would your plans be if that happened?
Yeah I would kill him off, I always keep that door open. An in character execution would be the end of me and I managed to dodge that bullet a few times already. I talked my way out of certain death with both DUTY, Brotherhood and the Gilligans. I also made a deal with DAMN to save my skin, which was years ago. I believe if I were to kill off madyb, I would play a pure evil, dishonorable character as it would be the very opposite of what I’ve been playing for years.
What has been your most memorable interaction to date? Why was it so good?
Unfortunately my most memorable interaction is something I’m not proud of. When I was still in Black Paw I shot someone in the leg and broke his bone in Stary Sobor. He tried to take refuge in a car shed, we swarmed him and tied him up. I put a burlap sack over his head and started questioning him. We had seen three contacts in town but the guy claimed he didn’t see anyone. I warned him saying if I hear even a single shot that would be the end of him and not too long after two of the Paw got shot in town. I could not stay in a shed while the pack was fighting hostiles and I could not leave this person, a potential hostile, to break free and kill one of my mates. I draw my FNX, said “I’m sorry” and pulled the trigger…
I understand, to most this isn’t a big deal, hell you may say “So what, you executed someone?”, but I have a code of honor I stick to. I don’t shoot defenseless people let alone execute them. It was a conundrum I hoped I’d never be in and even to this day it still haunts me. I sincerely feel sorry for killing him and I know I made the wrong call.
Who are some of your favourite storytellers on the subreddit? What makes their stories stand out?
Jari is on the top. Shadow, RedStar, AceWhittles and Spootin are the others I love reading. I love their stories because they are very detailed and based on actual events which happened in the game. Their stories have “life”; feels as if I’m actually there, not just reading some text.
If you ever stepped away from DUG in the future, how would you want to be remembered?
If that day ever comes I hope people will remember me by my obsession with red beret/gas mask combo and my gosh darn honesty.