Mad Vyking: Welcome to our first Hero Dawn Interview. We start off with one of the captains of Hero Dawn: Capt. Shawn. How you doing Capt.
Capt. Shwan: I’m doing pretty swell, plodding along with school and life!
MV: Let’s start off with the basics. Tell us about yourself and how you been with Hero Dawn.
CS: Well, I started playing City of Heroes in 2004, right when Issue 2 started so I was one of masses trying to make my way through the Hollows. I signed on with Hero Dawn very early on, but my life obligations at the time meant I couldn’t really participate so I parted ways. About a year later I met up with Justice Bowler and a few others and was able to rejoin the group. We had some good times and had our first golden age of Hero Dawn but it slowly started waning and people started to fall off. This is how I obtained my captain status. Summer 2006 was when there were about 2 members of Hero Dawn left, myself and Spring Love mostly because of my stubbornness. I left for the United States Army September ‘06 and between that and January ‘07 I didn’t have any real connection to CoH. When I finally was able to get back on, I had a few messages in my inbox from Lord Goat. He apparently teamed up with this Doom Diva lady and wanted to regrow Hero Dawn and he needed me to let him back in, which I absolutely supported.
The rest of it is history as it were. Thanks to Goat, Doomie, you and the rest of great members of Hero Dawn we were able to climb back up to glory. Even though I was a captain, I always felt bad that I couldn’t do more for the group so I thought of myself more as an ambassador for Hero Dawn and a driver of good will. We had a second golden age and it was great. Unfortunately it made the announcement and shuttering all the more painful, as it was only a year after my discharge and I was finally getting more time to play.
MV: Believe me, you were more than that to us. What have you been doing since the game turned off?
CS: Since that infamous day, I’ve been really focusing on my college education. I keep attempting to play games that Goat and Doomie are doing, but every time it seems my school work keeps taking over. In addition to that I’ve taken up miniature war gaming, namely Warmachine.
MV: Once one of the spiritual successors is chosen, will you come back if you hear Hero Dawn has reformed?
CS: Totally. Even though it’s a guild/super group Hero Dawn is a pretty important part of my life, and I’ll always be loyal to that. If we settle on a game that we know is right for us, then no doubt I’ll be on.
MV: Always good to talk to fellow members one way or another. Now your toon is in “Hero Dawn: Rise of the Powers” Hopefully I’m doing your toon credit. A lot of people love your character.
CS: I dig the Rise of the Powers Shwan. He’s just a guy trying to figure it all out just like me. I’m always honored when people like him, so I would say he’s safe in your capable hands!
MV: In the game, you were a battled veteran. In the books, you are the head of a black ops team. In real life, you did serve, correct?
CS: Correct. I served in the United States Army as a Human Intelligence Collector from ‘06 to ‘11. A lot of inspiration came from my experiences. You truly deal with some absurd situations in the military, so it’s a great help to have a good sense of humor with a generous helping of sarcasm. This translated well when you think about what drama would come out of Paragon City, and Virtue Server for that matter!
MV: Now you were unique in the group because you only had one toon, Capt. Shawn. Any reason you didn’t succumb to altitus?
CS: Not only that, but it was an AR/Dev too! I could tell you that I’m just a masochist but that wasn’t it. I’m an avid First Person Shooter player, and when CoH came out there really wasn’t progression, so it was just play-reset-play. I think that was the main draw for me was being able to play, and have everything I do be recorded and to keep trekking along. It was also nice to have that reputation and legend grow too over the years, having people from 3, 4 years come up to me and tell me how they remember me and whatnot. Ultimately I would have to say the underlying reason was the great design Paragon Studios had with the game. I can honestly say my Assault Rifle never got dull for me, and just watching everyone else’s *Freem* and other amazing powers go off around me was good enough, and I didn’t need to make alts to do it myself. I think the last time I checked I had about 3500+ hours on Cpt. Shwan, which isn’t that bad when you space it out over 6 years.
MV: Goat and Doomie has now been added to the story line. Who else would you like to see in the book?
CS: Hmm, good question! I would say Irish Fairy just to irritate Goat heh. Honestly there were so many great people over the years in Hero Dawn. Grit Iron, T minus 0, Justice Bowler, Laser (even though she’s playing Wildstar!). There’s just so many to choose from, you probably could write for years!
MV: Well one will be hopping in the third chapter. You may get one of your wishes answered. Finally, anything you want to say to your fans or Hero Dawn compatriots?
CS: Just for anyone who ever donned the Hero Dawn colors: Thank you for everything from your time, your companionship and your loyalty. You guys made my time in service go by so much better and for that I could never thank you all enough. It won’t be too hard to figure out who I am on Facebook if you look through the friends page and feel free to send me a request!
MV: Thank you Shwan for your time. Hope you as well as everyone enjoys the books and hopefully Hero Dawn reunites and we get to see you on again. And i will continue on this blogspot until the group reforms and we can talk Doomie into renewing the website (cough hint cough).
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