Tazzu Blog

If you’ve known Steve Bougerolle (SteveB in the Tazzu Forums) for any length of time you’ll know this of him: that he has a wealth of knowledge on many topics. Discussions with him are most often rich, and full of insight.

Frequently, you’ll find Bougerolle helping members with questions, shedding light in debates, or giving assistance with Moderating and important Administrative decisions for the Forum. As a Moderator and Charter member of Tazzu, his contributions have been invaluable.

Steve is a farm boy from Alberta originally, and grew up in Pincher Creek and Lethbridge. When asked about his interests in life Bougerolle responds “My big interest in life, by far, is travel. I did some of that for work back when I was in Physics, lived in Geneva for a couple years. Then I landed in Hong Kong while travelling around Asia in 1992, and stayed based there till 2004, visiting quite a few other places in that time as well.” Steve is also a pretty big movie buff, and likes to get outdoors hiking and biking at times.

SEB Global Infotech

While being a software developer through his company SEB Global Infotech Inc. (primarily C, C++ and Perl on Linux and other Unix-like systems) Steve also has an appreciation for the creative, as seen by his graphic work and beautiful, and unique photos - many taken during his travels.

I asked Steve how he became a software developer, to which he simply answered “The short version is… it’s just what I do. I got started programming back in junior high around 1979, got my first paying programming job that summer, then kept on doing it right up through university. I’ve done different jobs since then - physics, teaching, but was still doing lots of computer work at most of them and eventually came back around to full-time programming.”

Imperial Realms

Steve is also President and Lead Developer of Imperial Realms Media, a startup - developing an online game. There are a few favourite computer games he’s enjoyed playing over the years - multiplayer online games like Everquest and strategy games like the Civilization series. “I’d win the strategy games and find myself frustrated that I couldn’t keep going with them, then from there started thinking how one could make a multiplayer online strategy game.”

That was back around 2002 or 2003, and the idea developed from there till Bougerolle started the first coding experiments for it in 2004. Imperial Realms will be a subscription-based game, which Steve plan to run himself. “The plus side of working with a small private group is that we can be very efficient… I don’t see any need to involve other companies.”

To date, Steve has had about 8 people working on the project, several of whom are also active Tazzu Members. Vivien Anayian (vguniverse) was the first, doing the layout for the web site a couple years back. Then Bruce Byfield (nanday) took over a lot of the writing and communications jobs, and Ken Henderson (verithin) has been doing web illustrations until now, and may do some other game artwork later, as it comes up.

So far, Steve has been funding the project out of his own contracting earnings. Steve adds “The only problem with that arrangement is that it makes the work go slower and because of that there’s no fixed schedule. Right now it’s on milestone 3 of 7.” As for a launch date… ” ’sometime next year’ is probably a fair guess for the launch date, given the amount of work remaining, who’s involved now, and that it gets steadily easier to recruit more help as work progresses.” Keep us in the loop Steve!

The Other Stuff

Most of us have had an obstacle or two in our life. I was curious to know if Steve has had any to overcome: “Well, I’m an only child from a single parent family, and when I was young we were pretty poor. So I learned early on to be self-reliant, and that most things that look like obstacles are just in our heads. We can all learn to do pretty much anything we want if we’re willing to spend the effort and don’t sabotage ourselves thinking up excuses why we can’t.”

When asked if there was a motto he lived by, Steve pretty much summed up what I see is true of him: “No motto, I just try to see what’s real and what isn’t.”

In closing, I asked this question of Steve: I know its way to soon to talk about retirement but in a perfect world, what will that ’stage’ of your life look like? Where do you hope to be living, doing, or not doing?

Steve: “Retirement is some sort of strange alien concept to me! I’ve never been interested in working a steady career like most people; instead I just move from one interest and project to the next, a few years at a time. I don’t see any need to change that way or stop working, so if you look at it one way I’ll never retire. If you look at it another way I’ve already retired, if only from the ‘rat race’.”

Much like Rastin and Leah, Steve has been a large part of my personal “online networking” life. I’ve known him since 2004 - where we first met at a Techvibes Networking Event - and can testify to the fact that Steve is consistently ‘Steve’. Knowledgeable, factual, honest, helpful and sincere.

Steve, for all the insight and support you bring to the Tazzu Admin/Mod Team, and Members - we extend a great big thanks! We look forward to celebrating the completion of Imperial Realms with you. All the best!!

Technorati Tags: steve bougerolle, SEB Global Infotech, C, C++, Perl, Linux, software developer, photography, imperial realm, online game, gaming, Everquest, Civilization, jen duguay, rastin mehr, leah oliver, tazzu networking, online forum