A lot of people will recognize the name Parfait as one of the WarChiefs World Cyber Games winners. After winning the USA WCG, he became second in the world wide WCG. Parfait, aka P3n3ma as he was known in Age of Mythology and Age of Titans, is currently one of the expert players for the Asian Dynasties. His real name is Raghav and he's a 17 years old USA citizen who will finish high school this year. He started playing the Age of Empires series with Rise of Rome however his online gaming career started with Age of Mythology.
Besides his achievements as one of the best Age of Empires players, Parfait also helped the community by being one of the eight expert players in the ES8 who assisted the Ensemble Studios balance team to make the latest The Asian Dynasties patch. In addition to this Parfait is active in a lot of Age of Empires communities. He is currently active at AS as Expert Staff, involved with RTSProfessional.com and is currently mentoring two players within the
mentee/mentor project at GameReplays.org.
GameReplays: Could you tell us more about your week's schedule? How much time do you spend gaming per week, does this interfere with your social life and/or schooling? What are you going to study and do you want to make a career in the gaming industry?
Parfait: Typically I'll play a couple hours a day on weekdays, more on weekends. Besides Age3, I often play Xbox and Wii. Recently I've also been studying for several AP Exams, although those will be over by mid-May.
Gaming only affects your social life if you want it to. The fact is if you're not going out with friends because you'd rather play Xbox, you're prioritizing video games over your social life – it's an active decision, not just “something that happens” when you play video games. You don't have to give up any part of your normal life to game actively, although many people choose to do so.
I plan on studying Computer Science in college. I might also study to get an MBA, but I'm not sure about that; depends how the job market futures look and how valuable that degree is when I graduate. I'd love to work in the gaming industry, but I haven't set my heart on it. It's a tough industry to stay in for a long period of time and move up the ranks, and I don't want to get stuck as a low-level employee. There are a lot of fun opportunities for software engineers outside of the gaming world; I can always play the games, no matter where I work.
If anyone in the Age community has some career advice for me, I'd be glad to hear it.
GameReplays.org: Why from all (RTS) games you could have played, did you choose the Age of Empires series? What makes the Age of Empires series so special according to you?
Parfait: I started playing the Age series when I was a little kid. It definitely had the coolest concept back in RoR compared to the other major RTS franchises (WC2, SC). As I've played through the titles, I've also come to appreciate the finer details of the series.
The main reasons I find the Age series special right now are WCG and ES8. I actually quit Age3 after it came out because it didn't make it into WCG '06; I bought the expansion pack in April '07 to participate in WCG '07. Age3 is a very fun game and I'll buy all future ES titles in a heartbeat, but after playing the series for such a long time it no longer holds my attention without some concrete motivation.
Being a part of the ES8 playtesting team also keeps me interested in the game. Working with other top players and the guys over at ES is rewarding and very fun.
Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of reasons to play Age3 besides LAN tournaments and playtesting the game – Age3 is one of the top 3 RTS out right now. It's mainly that once you play a series competitively for a really long time, it starts to tire you out.
GameReplays: As you started to play online with Age of Mythology could you tell us how your experience with AoM and AOT contributed to your success with Age of Empires 3 and it's expansions? What were your strong and weak points in Age of Titans and what are they now in The Asian Dynasties?
Parfait: I learned the RTS basics in AoM – micro, macro, and strategy. I practised a lot in AoT and was a top player, which gave me plenty of experience and confidence with RTS games.
The main thing I learned from AoT is the “expert persona”. It's unbelievable how far good manners and a nice personality will take you. As you get better and start to post more games, gain credibility, and meet more people, you end up talking to a lot more people than you could ever have imagined. As you get publicity and become known, there's a crossroads – will you become the good-mannered, helpful, non-whining expert, or the obnoxious, overconfident, burn-bridges because you're so good expert?
The tendency is to be the latter, and it's unfortunate – bad mannered players get little respect from better players, lose respect and credibility on forums, and often can't even get games with the best players because they're so damn whiny. These players are often “left out of the loop” when news concerning top players arises but is not announced to the general public. In contrast, players who are nice often get a lot of help from top players, get lots of games, and have access to the perks of being a respected top player – community support, connections, strings you can pull, news before it's made public, etc. I try to be the former, although I am still working on it.
I can't remember my strong points in AoM, although I know my weak point was blaming losses on balance. I couldn't lose to Isis with a straight face; I'd reflexively complain eggys were op. Perhaps I was correct, but it's a bad way to look at the game and a horrible way to get better at it. I certainly think of those times when I see people on the forums complaining about the newest flavor of the month.
My strongest point in Age3 would probably be speed and unit control, because I play aggressively and those two skills are important when attacking. In terms of weaknesses, too many to count to highlight any one specifically.
