Lamptron Hall of Fame: intervista a Luciel Campbell

To learn more about the Hall of Fame we have conducted a "virtual", or telematics, interview with Luciel Campbell, responsible for European public relations in Lamptron and modder of international fame.

Before proceeding with the Q&A, we are proud to introduce to you the  APASF, the last mod of Luciel Campbell, a genuine piece of art characterized by a very difficult realization. Maybe that the vision of this mod could inspire you for a new modding project to be shared in the Lamptron Hall of Fame.

The APASF (A Post-Apocaliptic steampunk Future) is mod based on the steampunk theme, very popular in the world of modding. Steampunk mods are focused on a fantasy world where the technology and mechanics used in the mods seems to be belong to an era in which these sciences were not so developed. The concept of steampunk, which is very difficult to describe in words, is represented in an excellent manner by the Luciel’s mod: the use of the brown colorings, the copper liquid cooling tubes and the tank with the acid-like liquid fits perfectly with a design out of the schemes in which the shape of the case is not the classic box. In fact, as it can be seen from the pictures, the video cards protrude from the main body.

Luckily for us, the work of Luciel will not participate to the Hall of Fame competition because it would obtain a lot of votes!

But, let’s see what Luciel answered to our questions!

How was this initiative born and what are the goals you have set?

To be completely honest, as a company project its original idea was to attract more viewers to our site but that quickly changed as we started talking about the parts of the idea and what it meant which meant it turned in to a community project rather than a marketing project. Our goals are simple, we want everybody to be proud of their PCs regardless of them using our products or not. At Lamptron we love custom pcs, I think that´s clear just by looking at our range of products and we want for users to upload theirs and show them to the world.

According to what we read in the rules, the staff will award a modder about once a month: did you place an expiration date?

Yes, at this time we haven´t decided on how often we will give out prices and/or sponsorships. I guess you could say we´re in an "open-beta" stage. Initially we want to offer sponsorships to our favorite systems and while votes count, it doesn´t mean we will choose the highest voted rigs. The idea will also be to randomly give prices out just for uploading rigs or commenting or voting.

The staff will take into consideration the users' votes? What other criteria will influence the selection of the monthly winner?

Yes, we most definitely will but we want to evade what unfortunately happens a lot in this cases which is whoever has more friends wins. In order to do this, while we will take in to account the amount of votes, ultimately we will choose the ones we like most and the ones we feel would represent the company well. I think it´s also very important to make clear what a lot of users fear, the fact that users with more money will win (cnc products, high end liquid cooling, etc), that will not be the case here, we will most definitely go for the rigs that have received most love and attention from their owners regardless of them having high end hardware or not.

The hands-on approach is an essential element in modding but many modders make use of CNC machines. This practice will affect the votes of the members of the staff?

No, while we agree users can make incredible things with CNC machines, we will not judge a system by its hardware, and that includes cnc parts, we will judge it by the amount of care and dedicated that has been thrown in to it.

Being yourself a modder of international renown, what are the key points for you to achieve a good mod?

Personally I think a good mod is in the eye of the beholder. We can judge the quality of the workmanship in a mod, quality of materials, paint, etc but I believe that while having such things makes it "easier" and more impressive it does not necessarily make a good mod. So I think a good mod is achieved when we don´t aim to high above our capabilities and have a very clear idea of what we want to do.

Your mod "APASF" is in the steampunk style, a genre very difficult to achieve but very much in vogue, even the last Lamptron controller with nixie tubes is very reminiscent of this style. Lamptron therefore always tries to satisfy the trends of modders. Which style in your opinion can further push Lamptron to create a new controller different from the usual?

Well, at Lamptron we have 2 kinds of products. One is our "safe" product which may mean a high quality but simple design product or simply a new version of a well stablished product. An example of this would be the FC2 and the FC5. The second kind of product is our "fun" product, it´s the kind of product we go crazy and risky on. It may or may not sell well but we do it aniway. In this kind of product is where we go crazy with styles like the FC10 with its nixie tubes. Personally I think the next style that may be the big thing which is already starting to be is high end watercooling and its variations to make it look different from the rest. Take Mayhem´s Aurora coolant for example. So while I cannot discuss what we´re cooking at Lamptron for the rest of the year or next year, I can assure the users that you haven´t seen the last of Lamptron´s crazy but awesome ideas!

The initiative will incite many people to enter the world of modding, do you think this hobby will affect the marketing of pre-assembled computer?

Definitely, in order to start with modding you need to know how to assemble a computer and if you learn that and find out how much cheaper it is to buy individual components and match & mix to your liking, why would you buy a pre-assembled computer? I hope out initiative will entice users to not only do modding but also get in to the self-assembled computer world if they aren´t already in it.

Only in recent years we have seen the advent of modded computers assembled for trade, what do you think of this practice? Do you think the modding can become a real job in the future?

Personally I don´t think so no. In a job we tend to value not only materials used but our time. Big impressive mods have countless hours thrown in to it. It would be scary to see a bill for that kind of mod if each hour was charged at x rate. That said, I do believe there´s room in the market for lightly modded computers. After all, the first mod everyone seems to do is a change of color of their case, so sure, why not? This does not mean however that big mods wouldn´t sell, I simply believe that one would have a hard time making a living exclusively out of it.

Lamptron has also realized some limited versions of their products, will there be some limited edition controllers inherent to this initiative?

To be completely honest we haven´t thought of that, but it´s definately not a bad idea. As you know we made a limited edition XtremeHardware CW611 and while it was a "simple" limited edition, it´s still something we have a lot of fun organizing. So I would think that interesting limited editions and other projects can come out of this initiative, definately.

Lamptron is moving very actively in the world of modding, has Lamptron future plans regarding this field?

One big YES, but I can´t say anything yet :)

As a modder, you have other ongoing projects after the APASF?

Yes, actually for the first time in my life, I´m doing 3 projects at once and there´s still another 2 that will be started before the end of the year, all 5 for different reasons and different scales. Currently two are public and both are relatively simple. I can say however that I have already started with my next "Main" project (APASF was the last "Main" project) but I will not be posting online until I move further in to it.