Iain Compton

MMO community connection:

Antipwn

Chapter 1: Introduction

What is your name (your online persona/alter-ego, what have you)?

Iain Compton a.k.a. IainC, Requiel

What is your connection to the gaming/blogging/podcasting community (your chance to plug yourself here)?

I have an MMO industry blog at antipwn.com/blog that has been going for a few years now. I am a games designer for an MMOFPS being released later this year and I worked as a community manager for DAoC and WAR in Europe before that.

Please take a minute and describe what your blog is about.

I discuss the inside of the industry, trends and game design topics

Where were you born? Where did you grow up?

I was born in Scotland and I grew up in a lot of different places.

Where do you live now?

The Black Forest in Germany

Your level (age) is somewhere in the range of (pick one): 10-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60, 61-70, 71-80, 81-90

31-40

What do you do for a living?

I’m a games designer

If you could reroll your career, what would you be?

A musician

List five random things most people don’t know about you.

• I’m autistic.
• I am a huge fan of comics.
• I am a wargamer.
• I have lived in a warzone.
• I hate getting out of bed in the morning.

Chapter 2: Origins

What kind of games (if any) did you play as a child before you got into video gaming? Did you play with family, friends or was it more of a solo activity?

I played a lot of tabletop roleplay games which are, of course, a social activity. I also played a lot of miniatures wargames, CCGs and board games. I never really needed to play games as a solo endeavour.

What other hobbies and/or activities did you have as a child (sports, music, etc)?

Mostly I played games. Chess and D&D were the main ones.

Were you ever exposed to pen and paper role playing games? What was that experience like?

I played a whole lot of pen and paper games, mostly 2nd EdAD&D but also Shadowrun, Cyberpunk, MERP, WHFRP, Torg, DC Heroes, Rifts, Rolemaster, Palladium, GURPS, Twilight 2000, Traveller… You get the picture. Those were great times.

Did you read much as a child? If so, what did you like to read (books, comic books, etc?) Please list some favorite authors, titles, etc.

My mum was a huge fantasy and SF fan so I grew up reading Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Tolkien, Ray Bradbury, Anne McAffrey, Brian W. Aldiss and so forth. I read a lot as a kid and books were my retreat of choice when there was no-one to play a game with.

Would you say that any of these games or books had an effect on your later appreciation of computer gaming and ultimately MMOs? Please explain.

Of course they did. Games without narrative are lifeless to me. A game needs to have a commentary to be interesting enough to play. Even if that commentary is applied externally.

How were you fist introduced to video games? How old were you? What was the platform?

I played a lot of games on my Commodore 64 when I was a kid – probably 8 years old or so. My dad was a computer hobbyist well before most people even knew what they were, back in the days when games had to be typed out and saved on tape.

Did you ever play coin-op games at the arcade? What was that experience like?

Not really, they didn’t exist in most of the places where I lived.

What was the first video game you can remember playing that really made an impression on you? Please explain.

Eye of the Beholder, the original Gold Box SSi game. Stories in a computer game!

What gaming consoles have you owned in the past?

PS1/2/3, Xbox 360, Atari 2600, Sega Megadrive, 3DO, Nintendo DS. To be truthful I was never really into consoles, I preferred computers.

Chapter 3: Online

Were you ever exposed to MUDs? If so, when was this and what was the experience like?

A friend got me playing a hybrid fantasy/crime/SFgame which I played the hel out of for a couple of years. I found it fascinating and was turned on by the fact that the lack of graphics didn’t detract from the gameplay at all.

What was your first MMO experience? Again, when was this (a year please) and what was this like?

The first MMO I played was Dark Age of Camelot in 2003 when it was released in Europe. I had tried to play UO before that but I couldn’t get past the arcane interface.

If possible, list all the MMOs you’ve played extensively. Please start from the beginning and work your way up to the present.

DAoC, WAR, Eve Online, LotRO, Everquest II,

What is your current MMO of choice, or perhaps, what are your current MMOs of choice?

Eve Online

Which MMO have you spent the most time playing? How long would you say that has been?

DAoC without a doubt. I played it for five years pretty solidly and must have ranked up 250+ /played days.

Have you reached level cap in any MMO? If so, which ones?

DAoC

Loki taps you on the shoulder one day to inform you that you have fallen victim to one of his elaborate pranks. The world you’ve been inhabiting of countless MMOs to choose from and play has merely been a dream. In reality only one MMO exists. After laughing at you for a bit he decides to take pity on you and allows you to choose which MMO will remain. Which one would you choose and why?

Eve Online, it has the most depth of any MMO around.

Are there any MMOs currently in development that you are particularly interested in? Please explain.

I’ll play Aion when it releases. I like the premise and I’d like to see how the PvP is handled.

Feel free to share an interesting or amusing anecdote related to your MMO gaming experience.

I ran an event for DAoC in Europe where I ended up accidentally scamming the players who’d turned up. Eventually I gave all the money I’d stolen to the first newbie I encountered and ran a follow-up event where the players could capture me and put me on trial for my crimes.

Chapter 4: Preferences

At your peak, how much time per week would you say you spent gaming? How about now?

I used to play about 30 hours a week, nowadays it’s probably around 15.

When during the week are your regular play times?

Evenings, weekends.

Generally speaking, are you more of a social creature in MMOs (grouping to quest, joining guilds, etc.) or something of a lone wolf?

Definitely social. I hate soloing as it becomes a challenge to stave off tedium rather than a challenge to defeat the game.

Have you made any lasting friendships through your MMO experience? Please explain.

I’ve found plenty of strong friends through MMO gaming, I’ve even brought some of them over to this side of the industry table.

Before logging into a game, do you already have a course of action planned out in your head, or do you just sort of do whatever you feel like once in game?

Sometimes, most often I’ll just log in and see what my options are.

When playing MMOs do you tend to just play one at a time or do you take more of the smorgasbord approach?

I tend to play one as my main game which absorbs most of my time and I may have another one or two that I play as a change of pace.

Do you tend to supplement your MMO gaming with other PC, console or tabletop games?

Yes. Currently I’m playing Bloodbowl and a few other strategy games in between Eve sessions.

Are you something of an altoholic?

Depends on the game. I was in DAoC but not so much in WAR or Eve.

Do you find yourself multitasking while gaming (perhaps watching TV, talking on the phone, out of game instant messaging, playing another game, or even listening to a podcast)?

Eve lends itself to that quite well. In other games I tend to concentrate more on the game and try not to get distracted.

Do you find yourself having much MMO discussion off-line, perhaps with friends or family?

My wife plays MMOs too and all my colleagues work on an MMO so yes.

Have you ever felt that you game too much? If so, how did you cope with that?

I went and took a holiday without internet access.

Since you started playing MMOs, have you ever taken a break from the genre? If so, please explain.

Not really.

Chapter 5: Blogging

When did you first start blogging?

I have two blogs, one is an MMO industry blog which has been running for about 2 and a half years, the other is a wargames and miniature painting blog that I started earlier this year. I recently migrated them both to my own domain www.antipwn.com/blog/  from wordpress.com.

Why do you blog?

I like to think out loud and a few people seem to like discussing my thoughts with me.

Do you have a schedule or some sort of routine you try and follow when blogging?

No. I try and set myself a one update per month minimum but I don’t always meet that. Sometimes I update several times in a day though.

Is there some grind involved in blogging? If so, what is it and how do you cope with it?

Not really, because I don’t make myself write unless there’s something I want to write about. There’s no pressure for me.

By contrast, what do you find pleasurable about blogging?

I like to read the comments and discuss with the readers of my blog.

How many people offline know you blog?

Most of my friends and family.

What advice would you give someone who wanted to try their hand at blogging?

Figure out what you want to write about and why people should want to ready your opinions. Then go for it.

What is something you know now that you wish you had known when you first started?

If you get no comments on a post, that doesn’t mean no-one read it.

Can you picture a future where you will hang up your keyboard and no longer blog?

Possibly, not for the foreseeable future anyway.

At your funeral, what song(s) would you have played as your corpse is set alight and cast out to sea on a funeral barge?

Sumerland (What Dreams May Come) by the Fields of the Nephilim.

One shot: Hudson

MMO community connection:

Hudson’s Hideout

Please take a minute and describe what your blog is about.

My blog is really just about my adventures in any MMO or game that I try. One week it may be about a particular MMO, the next it may be a wargame or single player RPG. I also cover comic books when the mood hits me and talk about movies and home entertainment. Most often I find myself discussing the TRENDS of players in online games and the personalities. I like to break down player types and blog about the moods and personalities I see. I usually avoid main blog-osphere drama and skip the big topics because sometimes I really just do not care and let the bigger boys and girls fight about that stuff.

What was your first MMO and what was that experience like?

My first MMO was Ultima Online, back in 1997 or 1998? I cannot remember. At any rate it was interesting to say the least. I really did not get what I was doing and between lag and the fact that I did not devote enough time to understanding how the game worked I eventually gravitated toward the more upscale 3D Everquest 1 when it launched. In fact I still have the original box that states a 3D video card is needed to play it. So even though UO was my first dip into the water, I consider Everquest 1 the true game that hooked me. I don’t count Diablo 1 or Diablo 2. I am 39 and have been gaming a while but get really addicted to MMO’s because they change and run 24 hours a day plus provide a social environment.

Can you recall that first MMO “Wow!” moment?

Landing on the shores of the newly released Ruins of Kunark expansion back in 2000.  Zoning into whatever zone that was connected to Qeynos Hills (West or East Karana) amazed me because that zone was so large and wide open and just stretched out forever in front of me.  It took me months to be bold enough to even stray off the road in that zone.

At your peak, how much time per week would you say you spent gaming? How about now?

At my peak, most likely during the EQ1 years and then when WoW launched, I was married and she gamed as well. Back then I was easily playing 25+ hours a week. Now, I would say that I am down to 8-12 a week if that. I spend a lot of time now finding things wrong with MMO’s or just finding them flat out boring.

Do you tend to supplement your MMO gaming with other PC, console, or tabletop games?

I sure do. I am into the XBOX 360 and used to be heavily into Warhammer 40k miniatures, Warhammer Fantasy, and Warmachine. I was a regular GenCon Indy attendee from 1995 to 2007. I also used to play Fantasy Flight boardgames like Decent and Tannhauser. Now however, many of my friends have moved or do not have time for face to face gaming so most of my time is spent on the PC or console.

When did you first start blogging?

I started blogging in June 2007 when my blog was Wife Agro. I later changed to my own domain and renamed it Hudson’s Hideout. I needed more flexibility and blogging options plus my blog had a name that was the same as a gaming podcast and I did not want to step on any toes. Before blogging I ran a gaming review site called Game Addict and also had several miniature gaming club sites I maintained.

Do you have a schedule or some sort of routine you try and follow when blogging?

Not at all. I write off the cuff and like it that way. Many times I just throw up whatever I am thinking about and let it ride, sometimes I even write the article on the fly. I always try to get at least one post a week in however, and always do something on Monday.

Would you say there is some grind involved in the process? If so, what is it and how do you cope with it?

Not really a grind, but if you are not careful you will end up blogging the SAME thing as another blog and will not find out until Google Reader parses those RSS feeds (I am lazy and go that route that check all the blogs). Several times last week for instance everything I wrote about popped up somewhere else or was covered on a podcast. I find there is grind more in defending your article from annoying commenters than actually posting one. Sometimes people just do not understand the point you are making.

By contrast, what do you find pleasurable about blogging?

Posting my adventures and my stories. Once you look back, and I have 2 years of history, you can really look at it as a diary of your life and gaming times.

Would you care to share a particularly memorable moment from your days of blogging?

My Guild Leadership 101 post blew up around the internet back in October of 2007. It was called “Waiter, there is drama in my guild…” and it lashed out at terrible guild leaders everywhere and was talked about on many sites. I enjoyed the feedback I got and even had some requests to put it into a PDF and give it out to people.

Have you ever considered branching into podcasting?

I would rather podcast than blog. I need a partner and someone that has time. I used to be on the radio as a DJ back in my college days and I would run a podcast that would probably really go after the MMO industry and definitely not be fanboyish.

Are you pleased with where your blog is in the MMO blogosphere?

Pretty much yes. I feel that for the most part I get my points out there before others but because I am a relatively unknown blogger I get glossed over. That is ok though since I really do not consider myself a sellout and I try to stay under the radar for the most part.

If you had a chance to do it all over again, would you do anything different?

I would not have changed my original domain.

What advice would you give someone who wanted to try their hand at blogging?

Blog everyday to start, or at least 3 times a week. I will not link a dead blog in my blogroll I like to see people active and putting up information. Twittering does not count. If you have time to Twitter, you can expand on that and blog. Do not try to force MMO topics, blog in your comfort zone.

Can you picture a future where you will hang up your keyboard and no longer blog?

Yes, if I had a monthly dedicated podcast co-host. Or if the industry continues to be as stagnant as it is.

You wake up to a world where you are the head of a company developing an MMO. You have unlimited funds and resources available to you. Please describe the kind of game you would make.

For sure I would do a sci fi game on the vein of Warhammer 40k since it has a rich universe from its games to its literature. It would be very combat oriented much like Dungeons and Dragons Online and not feature too much hotbar spamming. Quests would be in the game but not the focal point. Exploration, scouting enemy movements, and taking part in AI raids that focused on mass battles would be the order of the day. Class nerfing driven by PVP whiners would not be in the game, and the factions would be at war constantly much like Warhammer Online. I woud love to see Planetside meets DDO but I know that lag and twitch factor have to be balanced. The entire thing would take years to develop and there would be a lengthy open beta period to make the changes the press and players complain about.

I would also like to implement a communications link quest system that provided RANDOM daily quests as the character was out and about and they would come in like a urgent communiqué. This keeps players out and about but allows them to divert what they are doing on the fly. Make it techy and make it slick.

SmakenDahed

MMO community connection:

Random Ogre Thoughts

Chapter 1: Introduction

What is your name (your online persona/alter-ego, what have you)?

SmakenDahed

What is your connection to the gaming/blogging/podcasting community (your chance to plug yourself here)?

I’m just a gamer who blogs about random things that I feel like writing/venting/ranting about.

Please take a minute and describe what your blog/podcast is about.

It cannot be categorized. I talk about games, politics, hockey, odd events, games, and what ever else pops in my head. I’m not in it thinking I’m a journalist or part of the media and I’m not out to save the world, I’m just trying to stay sane and blogging is a good release.

Where were you born? Where did you grow up?

I was born in Montreal, Quebec (Canada) and spent the first 18 years of my life all over (and off) that island.

Where do you live now?

I am currently living in Ottawa, Ontario (Canada).

Your level (age) is somewhere in the range of (pick one): 10-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60, 61-70, 71-80, 81-90

31-40

What do you do for a living?

I do software testing. My official title is Senior Software Verification Specialist, Lead. My job entails manual testing, automate testing, performance testing, load testing, security testing and probably some other types of testing I can’t think of at the moment.

If you could reroll your career, what would you be?

I wouldn’t change my job, but I would gladly change the content I test to something more… fun.

List five random things most people don’t know about you.

• I’m proficient in three different styles of martial arts
• I have taken courses on writing
• I have a wicked temper
• I am surprisingly patient (which is good, given my temper)
• And … I think my memory is already starting to fail me.

Feel free to discuss any family you have here.

I have a wife, two boys here. I’ve got a mother-in-law (who is driving me crazy), sister-in-law (…) and brother-in-law from my wife’s side. On my side I’ve got two uncles, one aunt, three cousins, my sister and her husband in the area. Rants about the mother-in-law and her antics almost have legendary status on my team at work.

Chapter 2: Origins

What kind of games (if any) did you play as a child before you got into video gaming? Did you play with family, friends or was it more of a solo activity?

I played a lot of games with my older brother and his friends, but also spent an equal time alone playing with various toys. I got into RPGs at a really young age (eight) and haven’t really looked back. When I didn’t have my nose in a book I was usually out getting into trouble with friends.

What other hobbies and/or activities did you have as a child (sports, music, etc)?

I got into martial arts around the same time I got into RPGs, the main reason was that my mother was going back to school to become a microbiologist and some of the evening courses where in seedy downtown neighborhoods. My dad tends to be an all or nothing type of guy so he signed the whole family up. I was a first degree black belt in Shaolin Kempo Karate at about 12 or so. Other styles I picked up were Shirynjiru Kenkokan Karatedo and Jiujitsu.

I spent a lot of time outside playing, exploring and getting into places I probably shouldn’t have been.

Were you ever exposed to pen and paper role playing games? What was that experience like?

I was eight years old and it was a lot of fun. It was pretty simple, monty haul/hack and slash, but good fun. I’ve played a fair number of RPGs over the years, though my favorite has to be Shadowrun. I’m currently playing a P&P session with a group of guys every Wednesday night (I think it’s almost been 10 years if not close to 11 now).

Did you read much as a child? If so, what did you like to read (books, comic books, etc?) Please list some favorite authors, titles, etc.

I read comic books and novels. I was reading Tolkien at eight but was also reading a lot of Piers Anthony’s Xanth series. I usually read what ever my parents had around at the time. For comic books my favorites were X-Men, Spider-man, Ghost Rider and Rom the Spaceknight.

Would you say that any of these games or books had an effect on your later appreciation of computer gaming and ultimately MMOs? Please explain.

Definitely. I always loved using my imagination and thought it would be great to be able to play these types of games on computers so I could play them when ever I wanted (as in, not needing to gather friends together and organize actual sessions). Eventually, I got into thinking of how great it would be to play these games online and quite some time ago I got talking with my brother-in-law about how cool it would be to have a massive, online virtual world to play in with all sorts of people from all over the world. It was funny, we started planning how it could be designed and he found Ultima Online was just released. It was a lot of what we thought would be cool (from reading the instructions) but we never bother playing it.

How were you first introduced to video games? How old were you? What was the platform?

Atari, I think. My uncle had Pong, but I don’t really remember it. I can remember playing Space Invaders, Night Driver and Combat at my uncle’s place. I think I was 5 or 6 years old – I don’t really remember.

Did you ever play coin-op games at the arcade? What was that experience like?

Definitely. There were tons of arcades where I was growing up, we had one place that was about five minutes walking around the corner from where we lived. I played all sorts of games there, half of them I can’t remember the name of. I also spent a lot of time just watching others play as well.

What was the first video game you can remember playing that really made an impression on you? Please explain.

Wizardry I on the Apple 2 (actually, a clone called Golden 2). It used 5.25″ floppies and you had to swap disks for saving and stuff (my dad was a hero when he bought as second floppy drive!), but it was in 3d! Heh. I was about seven or eight and the damn ’small humanoids’ picture scared me. Pretty silly thinking back to it.

I learned about farming there (thanks Dad!). We would farm the Murphy’s Ghost statue room for +1 magic weapons and stuff. He also showed me some minor exploits like creating a back up disk for characters, loading characters, giving all their gear to one other party member, renaming them, then transferring over the back up so you ended up with an infinite amount of gear to sell off. He also taught me about mapping and things like that.

I still remember a good number of spells. ‘di’ was the rez, ‘dios’ type words were for healing, ’tiltowait’ was the big nuke. It amazes me what I remember about older games. Oh, I still have coordinates memorized for the garrison room in the Castle in Bard’s Tale – the room with four groups of 99 Berserkers? I used to teleport up there with some hefty tanks in the first ranks, two sorcerers and fill the last slot with a character I wanted to level. I’d then just Mind Blade the four groups with the two sorcerers and by the end of the fight the 6th slot character would get a ton of levels. (From the entrance coords were 2 up, 5 north and 12 east – that’d put you at the door).

What gaming consoles have you owned in the past?

Atari, Sega Genesis, Nintendo, Playstation, PS2, Wii, and PS3.

Feel free to share a story related to your gaming experience as a child.

I remember playing D&D with my parents, it was only one session but I remember it like it was yesterday. The module was Palace of the Silver Princess and I was playing a Halfling (basic D&D the demihuman races were classes heh). We came across a long hall where there was a storeroom and a kitchen. My father listened at the door of the kitchen and heard what sounded like goblins making a bunch of noises. He made us all go back to the storeroom and roll some kegs of ale to the kitchen door, then knocked and hid back in the storeroom. After a couple of hours we checked on the room and could hear the goblins singing drunkenly in the kitchen. We open the door and attacked, taking advantage of their drunken state. It was a lot of fun.

Chapter 3: Online

Were you ever exposed to MUDs?

I heard of them from the brother of a girl I was dating. He was pretty into them though his sister was telling me he was getting too into them at the expense of his school work. I thought it was sort of weird that people could get so into something like that when it was just text. Marriages? Politics? Weirdos…

What was your first MMO experience?

EverQuest. It was the year it came out, though several months later. I couldn’t tell you the year. I was previously playing online Quake 2 in a clan organized by someone who became a really good online gaming friend (over 11 years now). We were a little frustrated by a mishap during a tourney and felt the clan we competed against took advantage of their position as organizers to turn what should have been a win into a loss. Some other folks had been talking to my friend about EQ and we decided to give it a shot.

Man, the subscription fee was a big hurdle for me to over come. I wasn’t used to buying a game then having to continue to pay monthly to play.

We started Erudites, he insisted on playing an Erudite because it was the best caster race and he wanted to play a Wizard. I was easy going so I made an Erudite Paladin (ouch). We played for several hours and go hooked pretty quickly after figuring out how to do stuff. Toxx Forest was a load of fun especially given the darkness and lack of nightvision. We had all sorts of fun doing some quests, exploring, dying, trying to find our corpses.

I’ve been hooked ever since.

If possible, list all the MMOs you’ve played extensively.

• EverQuest
• Asheron’s Call
• Anarchy Online
• Dark Age of Camelot
• Planetside
• City of Heroes (Villains)
• Star Wars: Galaxies
• Asheron’s Call 2
• Guild Wars
• EverQuest 2
• World of Warcraft
• Dungeons and Dragons Online
• Vanguard
• Tabula Rasa
• Age of Conan
• Warhammer
• Lord of the Rings Online

I think I’m forgetting one or two.

What is your current MMO of choice, or perhaps, what are your current MMOs of choice?

I am currently playing World of Warcraft where I have a level 80 Ret/Prot Paladin in mostly T7 (or T7.5) gear. I’ve started an alt to play along side my five year old son (refer-a-friend).

Which MMO have you spent the most time playing? How long would you say that has been?

Everquest. It’s hard to say how long, but probably a couple of years in total.

Have you reached level cap in any MMO? If so, which ones?

I don’t look at hitting level caps as all that big a deal because I know it’s a matter of time, however, I have hit the level cap in EverQuest, EverQuest 2, World of Warcraft and I was really close in VG before I threw in the towel.

Loki taps you on the shoulder one day to inform you that you have fallen victim to one of his elaborate pranks. The world you’ve been inhabiting of countless MMOs to choose from and play has merely been a dream. In reality only one MMO exists. After laughing at you for a bit he decides to take pity on you and allows you to choose which MMO will remain. Which one would you choose and why?

At the moment, I’d have to say World of Warcraft simply because I’m playing it with my son and I’m having a lot of fun watching what he does and has fun doing. I’ve recently bounced around trying out some of the older MMOs I left behind and they were fun for a bit, but not something my son is interested in; while WoW has him hooked (at least as hooked as we allow him to be).

Are there any MMOs currently in development that you are particularly interested in? Please explain.

I’m curious about Champions Online and DC Universe, but those will probably just be a distraction. One in development would be Copernicus (38 Studios). I enjoy a lot of what the people involved in its development enjoyed or created so I’m hopeful about that one. Star Wars: The Old Republic is another one I’m interested in but I don’t think I’ll be swept up by it.

Feel free to share an interesting or amusing anecdote related to your MMO gaming experience.

I mentioned a long time gaming buddy, we started in Quake2 but moved into EQ. We bounced around from game to game for a bit until we heard SOE was releasing a brand new server that did not allow transfers – enter Stromm. He convinced me to give it another go – a real go at it this time because it was going to be the last time we ever played that game.

With that in mind, I created an Erudite Cleric named Fabinusar (the same name that was randomly generated for my very first character; an Erudite Paladin). I figured it’d be the first name I used in EQ and the last. He created an Ogre Shadowknight named Conflict. We duoed a lot of the content, adding the odd person into the group here and there. It was the first time I played a Cleric, usually I played the tank role, so it was a lot of fun. I was excited for every spell and every time I got a new one I had to try it out to see what I could do with it which meant rearranging my spell bar every time.

That added a little chaos to our sessions.

Before he was able to Feign Death, I used to use Lull/Pacify type spells to single out a target which he’d pull. It worked so well we’d hit dungeons with just the two of us.

We were in Upper Guk working our way into the Jail area. We were setting up to Lull and pull each one of the five or six mobs in the center of the Jail room. Now I just had access to Stun so I put it on my spell bar wondering what sort of use I could get out it.

Guess which spell I cast instead of Lull?

A lovely train ensued. The corpse recovery run was pretty fun too (I never carried a second set of gear).

Chapter 4: Preferences

At your peak, how much time per week would you say you spent gaming? How about now?

30-40 hours then, about 15-20 now – if I’m lucky and willing to sacrifice sleep (which I am).

When during the week are your regular play times?

I tend to be a weekend warrior; I play Friday night and usually weekend mornings. I do hop on after 9pm for a couple of hours when I feel up for it. That’s usually when I do my farming or tradeskilling. The guild I am in raids from about 8pm to 11pm Tuesday, Thursday and Friday so I try to make those when I can.

Generally speaking, are you more of a social creature in MMOs (grouping to quest, joining guilds, etc.) or something of a lone wolf?

All of the above. If I’m tired, I tend to just fall into what ever I’m doing and run about solo. When I’m more awake I’ll group up or build groups to hit what ever or I’ll pop into some PVP, BGs or otherwise. When I’m in a guild, I do try to be social, though I tend to miss a lot of chat if I’m into a dungeon or raid.

(My gaming friend would say I miss tells too, and it’s true. I’ve had to use ChatAlert type mods to put certain chat channels right in my face – the little pings in games like EQ2 doesn’t always work)

Have you made any lasting friendships through your MMO experience? Please explain.

Hell ya. One I’ve already babbled about (Frank: Airstrike, Damogoth, Kaldonar); met in Quake2 LMCTF when I was organizing my clan’s side and he was on the other team. We were in email contact setting up a time and date. I was a little nervous contacting people outside the clan because I was expecting to get some corpse-humping asshat but the guy was completely polite, understanding and pretty easy going.

The match came about and my side was horribly overmatched (being more in to RA2 and not really being organized for CTF). The end result of a 30 minute match was a 3-0 loss to my clan. It would have been worse but I held their flag through most of the match. They capped twice when they finally got me and a third time when another clanmate was carrying the flag. I got hold of it again and kept it for the remaining time (I think I had it for about 28 minutes).

They were good sports and good winners.

In the following weeks I’d occasionally end up on a LMCTF server (I didn’t play RA2) where he was playing sometimes on the same team and sometimes not. When we were on the same team we’d dominate with me on D and him nabbing their flag. When we were on opposing teams we sort of canceled each other out.

End result was we had a lot of fun and played really well together be it defense or offense. He ended up asking me if I wanted to join his clan and after some thought I did. Eventually we formed our own then went into EQ together.

In EQ I met up with another guy I’m still playing games with today (Chris: various names starting with Cel). Frank had actually met him and we all got along eventually tried other games together.

Before logging into a game, do you already have a course of action planned out in your head, or do you just sort of do whatever you feel like once in game?

I usually have some sort of plan. Farm, tradeskill, explore, PVP or do some instances. I’ve often planned what we’ll do for a session ahead of time and invited people by sign up.

When you have less time to play, you want to spend more time playing and less time waiting or trying to build a group so I like to get that sort of thing out of the way before hand.

When playing MMOs do you tend to just play one at a time or do you take more of the smorgasbord approach?

Yes and no. I usually don’t subscribe to more than one MMO unless I’m starting to get bored of the one I’m playing in which case I’ll sub to another and play it at off times. I’d rather get somewhere in one game than halfway in a bunch of other games – that’s just me though, I don’t force my expectations on others.

Do you tend to supplement your MMO gaming with other PC, console or tabletop games?

Again, when I’m getting bored I’ll binge on some other PC game or console game. I play D&D with a group of friends (almost) every week for about 10 years now so my MMO gaming is on top of that.

Are you something of an altoholic?

Only when I’m first starting a game and when I first started playing a MMO. I’ll experiment with all sorts of classes to see what I enjoy. At the moment, I tend to focus on a character until it hits the cap then I might create an alt to play with. I currently have about five alts in WoW but I also have a max level Paladin (Ret/Prot) who raids.

Do you find yourself multitasking while gaming (perhaps watching TV, talking on the phone, out of game instant messaging, playing another game, or even listening to a podcast)?

I sometimes listen to a podcast or music but no, I usually focus on the game when I’m playing (spouse and children permitting). I might have online radio streaming a hockey game to me or I might have the TV on with hockey going in the background, but I’m not watching it (it’d hurt my neck to see the screen from where the computer is).

Do you find yourself having much MMO discussion off-line, perhaps with friends or family?

Not so much anymore. I talk about it with my son, in my blog but not so much with my friends.

Have you ever felt that you game too much? If so, how did you cope with that?

Yup, I have felt that way but I don’t feel it ever goes on long enough to impact work or my social life (generally, I play a lot when I’m on vacation). I don’t? It’s a hobby I enjoy. It gets pushed aside if I need to do work or if I need to go to family events or if I need something more important than entertainment.

Since you started playing MMOs, have you ever taken a break from the genre? If so, please explain.

Yes, I’ve taken a few breaks here and there. The most notable was before the EQ Stromm server was released. I didn’t touch a MMO for several months until my bud got me thinking about it. I’ve taken a few other breaks but never really for any particular reason.

Chapter 5: Blogging

When did you first start blogging?

The blog started in October of 2006 with my first post being about boredom with currently available games. Surprisingly enough, I’ve lasted another three years and survived my boredom.

Why do you blog?

It’s an outlet. I vent about various things, talk about some interests or topics of interest or share things that just seem a little screwed up. I don’t guarantee quality, I don’t guarantee researched posts, but I do promise you’ll get my thoughts on things (often my thought process). My blog is my own, I don’t do it for anyone else but I do like arguing with commenters even if I agree with them.

Do you have a schedule or some sort of routine you try and follow when blogging?

Nope. I just blog when I get a moment and have something to unload or a thought on something.

Is there some grind involved in blogging? If so, what is it and how do you cope with it?

If it took effort then I wouldn’t be doing it.

By contrast, what do you find pleasurable about blogging?

Just getting things out of my head and out there, whether people read it or not. I do get a kick out of how people react to it.

How many people offline know you blog or podcast?

Very few actually. There are three guys that also blog from my D&D group that read my blog from time to time and another one that doesn’t. There is an online friend (Chris) that reads it from time to time (I even posted a review of his for NWN2: Storm of Zehir which actually gets a bucketload of hits). Aside from that? No, I like to keep somewhat anonymous so I can rant and vent and be a jackass.

What advice would you give someone who wanted to try their hand at blogging?

Focus on the goal of the blog or podcast but don’t be shocked if you never see any comments – any idiot with a computer and internet connection can blog (I’m living proof!). Do it for you, not for others.

What is something you know now that you wish you had known when you first started?

I can’t really think of anything. I guess that means I know it all?

Can you picture a future where you will hang up your keyboard and no longer blog?

Blogging is so easy (and free therapy), I can’t imagine stopping. I could picture changing the content of my blog but I couldn’t imagine stopping.

At your funeral, what song(s) would you have played as your corpse is set alight and cast out to sea on a funeral barge?

Say Hello 2 Heaven, Temple of the Dog. I love that song.

Ardwulf

MMO community connection:

Ardwulf’s Lair

Chapter 1: Introduction

What is your name (your online persona/alter-ego, what have you)?

Ardwulf, after my first Vanguard character, and my first MMO character that I felkt any attachment to. I started writing about MMOs (on the old, old GAX site) under that name and it stuck.

What is your connection to the gaming/blogging/podcasting community (your chance to plug yourself here)?

I’m a blogger and avid gamer. I’ve been playing Roleplaying games of the tabletop variety since 1981, and of the online variety since early 2007. I enjoy hearing myself talk, so I started writing about games almost immeditaely.

Please take a minute and describe what your blog/podcast is about.

Mostly it’s a journal of my own online adventures, interspersed with commentary about various games and the hobby in general.

Where were you born? Where did you grow up?

Born, raised and have always lived in Ohio, which is another name for an especially pernicious kind of purgatory.

Where do you live now?

In a little town about ten miles north of Akron at the moment. I’ll likely be relocating to Columbus some time in the next year.

Your level (age) is somewhere in the range of (pick one): 10-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60, 61-70, 71-80, 81-90

31-40. I am a doddering old man by the standards of the hobby.

What do you do for a living?

I’m an SAP analyst in the automotive field, at least until I get laid off.

If you could reroll your career, what would you be?

Astronomer. Carl Sagan makes guest appearances in my dreams. Although I actually AM rerolling my career, kind of – I’ve just started going back to school with the aim of getting a programming degree.

List five random things most people don’t know about you.

I do talk a little bit about myself on the blog, but not a ton, under the assumption that orcs and dragons are more interesting than me. But let’s see:

• I’m published in the tabeltop RPG field, with a couple of minor credits.
• I’m a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, a medieval recreation outfit. Every summer we dress up in funny clothes and hit each other with blunt objects. Yes, I own a kilt, and occasionally wear it, although not in general circulation.
• I am vigorously political, which is something I DON’T get into on the blog, since a good rule for keeping conversations polite is not to bring up politics or religion. I do not, however, fit into either the right-wing or left-wing pigionholes we Americans like to squeeze everybody into.
• I have too many hobbies. Another one is leatherwork. I can turn out a very sharp-looking belt, or a passable piece that’s more complicated. The best thing I ever did was a heavily tooled sword hanger based on a 15th-centry pattern.
• I got soemthing in my eye right at the very end of Titanic.

Feel free to discuss any family you have here.

I have a wonderful wife who I am pleased to sometimes play World of Warcraft with, and two cats, who I call Buddy and Hairball. Mrs. Ardwulf calls them by other names.

Crookshankz

MMO community connection:

The Gaming Goob

Chapter 1: Introduction

What is your name (your online persona/alter-ego, what have you)?

Crookshankz

What is your connection to the gaming/blogging/podcasting community (your chance to plug yourself here)?

I started blogging about MMO’s by accident really. One of the SOE dev’s (Grimwell) posted on his blog a “hard core challenge” asking people to only allow your toon to die 7 times and then delete him. And, you had to blog about your adventures. I took up the challenge and lost interest in it, in roughly a month or so but, I kept the blogging. I found it a good way to kill time at work. I started at crookshankz.blogspot.com and ended up changing over to http://thegaminggoob.wordpress.com where you can find me now.

Please take a minute and describe what your blog/podcast is about.

My only real theme is MMO’s. Mostly it is a diary of what I did the night before or what I plan to do in the future in an MMO world. Sometimes I will gripe about aspects of games that annoy me but, I’m not opinionated enough to do that regularly.

Where were you born? Where did you grow up?

Up until the 4th grade, I lived in Glenn, Michigan (close to Saugatuk). Then my family moved to Davenport, Florida and I lived there until my 20’s.

Where do you live now?

Deltona, Florida.

Your level (age) is somewhere in the range of (pick one): 10-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60, 61-70, 71-80, 81-90

31-40

What do you do for a living?

My fancy title is a Network Operations Center Technician. Mostly I just answer the phone here and there, and kill time in a small, dark room with no windows.

If you could reroll your career, what would you be?

I’m currently trying to reroll, to become a teacher.

List five random things most people don’t know about you.

• I once tipped over my high chair as a baby and cracked my skull.
• When I was 8 I wrote a full length Batman Comic Book
• Spending most of my day on a phone makes me not enjoy built in voice chat in games.
• I am horrible about cycling through hobbies.
• I enjoy drawing, painting, play the guitar and ukulele and write. All very poorly.

Feel free to discuss any family you have here.

Once upon a time I was married to the Wicked Witch of the West. I got tired of waiting for a house to fall on her, so we divorced. Afterwards, I met my current, wonderful wife and have an awesome stepson (age 11). I feel I am truly blessed with the best family I could ask for.

Chapter 2: Origins

What kind of games (if any) did you play as a child before you got into video gaming? Did you play with family, friends or was it more of a solo activity?

Pre 4th grade I was all about some baseball. I either played with my cousin who was quite a bit older or my dad. We had to use “ghost men” to stay on the bases for us. 4th-7th was 4 square at school and High School I could be found every day at the local basketball courts.

What other hobbies and/or activities did you have as a child (sports, music, etc)?

As a child? hmmm. I played video games back then quite a bit. I was an avid comic book reader, collected baseball, basketball cards. I’d also wrote and drew quite a bit.

Were you ever exposed to pen and paper role playing games? What was that experience like?

I tried quite a few times to play D&D. Back in my High School though I had a hard time finding people to play with. So trying to play usually consisted of me and 1 other person and we spent the time just rolling random characters.

Did you read much as a child? If so, what did you like to read (books, comic books, etc?)

As a child I read quite a bit. Hardy Boys, Encyclopedia Brown and A Wrinkle In Time. I was also an avid comic book reader. (I was taught to read by Spiderman).

Would you say that any of these games or books had an effect on your later appreciation of computer gaming and ultimately MMOs? Please explain.

I guess in an off way. Reading when I was younger taught me an appreciation of the Fantasy Genre. I read a lot now and they are pretty much all either Fantasy or Sci Fi. On the same note, all the games I play are either Fantasy or Sci Fi.

How were you first introduced to video games? How old were you? What was the platform?

When I was very young, my uncle had the original Pong. He would let me play it when I would go over and visit. I must have been maybe 4 or 5ish and still vaguely remember it. I also remember being a bit upset when I was 6 because my Dad was willing to pay $275 for an Atari 2600 but wouldn’t buy me a $7 toy (my priorities were confused back then).

Did you ever play coin-op games at the arcade? What was that experience like?

I use to play coin-op games like crazy. My dad use to work late night at a resort at Disney World. When I hit 15 or 16 he would get me into Disney and I would run around there until it closed. Then I would go over to his hotel and he would give me a roll of quarters. I’d play until he got off work. I did that once a week for a few months. Even when I was 20, and working at the local mall. I knew a guy who worked in the mall’s arcade and he would give me free games. So I’d go in there and play Street Fighter II during my lunch breaks.

What was the first video game you can remember playing that really made an impression on you? Please explain.

If I can still remember playing Pong at pre-5, I would think that counts.

What gaming consoles have you owned in the past?

Atari 2600, Commodore 64 (if that counts), NES64, Game Cube and the Wii.

Feel free to share a story related to your gaming experience as a child.

I when we first got our Commodore 64. We would go and buy Compute! Magazine (I think that was the name of it). And in these magazines you’d get pages of code for games to type in. You’d type it by hand, then go through and recheck it, save it too cassette tape and then execute the program. That was how we first started gaming on it. The process took days.

Chapter 3: Online

Were you ever exposed to MUDs?

My MUD experience is really limited to null. Early days I did play almost all the InfoCom text adventures. Zork, Planet Fall, ect, if those come close to counting.

What was your first MMO experience?

My wife worked on me quite a bit to give EQ a try. At the time, I played FPS’s and was afraid I’d get sucked into MMO’s. Wouldn’t you know it, I finally gave in to my wife (was there any doubt) and got sucked into MMO’s. If my /played is accurate that was early 05.

If possible, list all the MMOs you’ve played extensively.

• Everquest ~ 53 Monk, 53 Druid
• Guild Wars ~ many 20 builds
• Everquest 2 ~ 80 Shadow Knight, 80 Conj, 80 Troub
• Wizard 101
• Runes of Magic

What is your current MMO of choice, or perhaps, what are your current MMOs of choice?

Right now, I am MMO of choiceless. I’m just randomly playing various MMO’s waiting for something I’m actually intrested in.

Which MMO have you spent the most time playing? How long would you say that has been?

I’ve spent a good chunk of my MMO time playing EQ2.

Have you reached level cap in any MMO? If so, which ones?

Guild Wars, and Everquest 2

Loki taps you on the shoulder one day to inform you that you have fallen victim to one of his elaborate pranks. The world you’ve been inhabiting of countless MMOs to choose from and play has merely been a dream. In reality only one MMO exists. After laughing at you for a bit he decides to take pity on you and allows you to choose which MMO will remain. Which one would you choose and why?

Uhhh….Star Wars: The Old Republic? Right now, I’m not that into any one particular MMO so that mean ole Loki can take all his MMO’s and just leave me a pile of money

Are there any MMOs currently in development that you are particularly interested in? Please explain.

The Old Republic has my geek DNA pulsing like crazy! Also, I really think it’s about time that 38 Studios starts giving up some info on the game they are making. 38 Studios has such an all star cast, and if they can’t make a kick butt MMO I will have to consider not gaming ever again (no pressure guys).

Feel free to share an interesting or amusing anecdote related to your MMO gaming experience.

I think this posting was the closest thing to an anecdote I ever wrote. It’s fairly lengthy for this format but, if you get a chance, it will explain the goober in me.

Chapter 4: Preferences

At your peak, how much time per week would you say you spent gaming? How about now?

I shudder to think at my peak time. Maybe 5-6 hours per day on my weekdays and 10-15 per day on my weekends at my peak. I try to justify that much time as both my wife and son game as well so, we were all playing together. No one was being neglected. Now, maybe 10-15 per week.

When during the week are your regular play times?

Friday – Monday’s usually 9:30ish pm – 11:00ish pm and Tues – Thursday on my days off when I can find the time or the interest.

Generally speaking, are you more of a social creature in MMOs (grouping to quest, joining guilds, etc.) or something of a lone wolf?

Me being a shy person, I play alot with just my wife and I. Every now and then, I will join a guild that I click with most of the people in it.

Have you made any lasting friendships through your MMO experience? Please explain.

Yes. That’s why you find me going back into EQ2 for instance. I love the people in my guild there and we resub for a month just so I can say hi to them. I have quite a few of them on my facebook and I’ll keep in touch that way or via emails here and there.

Before logging into a game, do you already have a course of action planned out in your head, or do you just sort of do whatever you feel like once in game?

Just depends on how into the game I am. When I was hardcore EQ2, I usually had my time spent out. Now I’ll log in with a generic goal but not really a game plan.

When playing MMOs do you tend to just play one at a time or do you take more of the smorgasbord approach?

Right now I’m doing a Smorgasbord approach. I’m in between mmo’s just killing time until a game shows up that I’m actually interested in.

Do you tend to supplement your MMO gaming with other PC, console or tabletop games?

Here and there I will. The family gets into some Guitar Hero and Sims 3.

Are you something of an altoholic?

Huge, Huge, Huge. I never understand how people always play just one class without ever trying anything else. When I start playing an MMO, I’ll fill up my character slots with everything I may be interested in playing. And then just through playing them all I will start gravitating to what I actually like playing the most. I’m also big into matching Race, Class and name. If one of these things are off, I’ll have to remake the toon. (I’m just weird like that).

Do you find yourself multitasking while gaming (perhaps watching TV, talking on the phone, out of game instant messaging, playing another game, or even listening to a podcast)?

Not really. Sometimes I may listen to a podcast if I’m crafting. Usually though, I just game.

Do you find yourself having much MMO discussion off-line, perhaps with friends or family?

All the time. I’m surprised none of them have just told me to “Shut up, you’re rambling about non-sense”

Have you ever felt that you game too much? If so, how did you cope with that?

I’m fairly no-nonsense. When I feel I’m gaming too much, I just game less.

Since you started playing MMOs, have you ever taken a break from the genre? If so, please explain.

I have tried but, usually I just go back to MMO’s in a matter of days.

Chapter 5: Blogging

When did you first start blogging?

As I stated I started crookshankz.blogspot.com when Grimwell posted his hard core challenge. Later I switched from blogger to wordpress and changed the name to thegaminggoob.wordpress.com. On hind site, the name kind of makes me feel like a goob but I’m think I’m pretty much gonna stick with it.

Why do you blog?

Because I simply don’t have enought time sinks.

Do you have a schedule or some sort of routine you try and follow when blogging?

Not really. When I game, I just write about it. When I don’t game, I don’t.

Is there some grind involved in blogging? If so, what is it and how do you cope with it?

Nah. My blog is fairly laid back. When it feels like a grind I simply don’t blog.

By contrast, what do you find pleasurable about blogging?

I blog so I’ll talk about gaming less.

How many people offline know you blog or podcast?

The handful I actually talk to.

What advice would you give someone who wanted to try their hand at blogging?

Figure out why you want to blog and what type of blog you want to write. Use that as your guide lines.

What is something you know now that you wish you had known when you first started?

Your wife will pick on your misspelled words and poor grammer.

Can you picture a future where you will hang up your keyboard and no longer blog?

That time is definately coming soon.

At your funeral, what song(s) would you have played as your corpse is set alight and cast out to sea on a funeral barge?

Rainbow Connection?

Jenna

MMO community connection:

OMG-RL!1!

Chapter 1: Introduction

What is your name (your online persona/alter-ego, what have you)?

Jenna. Funnily enough, this is also my real-life name.

What is your connection to the gaming/blogging/podcasting community (your chance to plug yourself here)?

I am the co-host of OMG-RL!1!

Please take a minute and describe what your blog/podcast is about.

Shawn and I give our advice about real life to gamers who don’t mind putting their problems out there for all the world, or our three listeners, to hear. We strongly recommend that people take this advice because we have gathered it by making every single mistake possible in our lives.

Where were you born? Where did you grow up?

I was born in Underwood Hospital in Woodbury, New Jersey. I grew up in West Deptford, NJ right next to Woodbury, NJ.

Where do you live now?

Now I live in Harrisburg, PA. This is the state capital of PA. You should know that.

Your level (age) is somewhere in the range of (pick one): 10-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60, 61-70, 71-80, 81-90

I am exactly 35.

What do you do for a living?

I am a computer programmer. YAY! I love it!

If you could reroll your career, what would you be?

I would be a computer programmer. YAY! I love it!

List five random things most people don’t know about you.

Isn’t this like that Facebook thing? And since most people reading this have no idea who I am, aren’t there many random and non-random things that are not known about me? Oh well. Let’s see.

• I have a statue of Mickey Mouse dressed as a Jedi.
• I’ve lived in 7 states.
• I once hung myself from a tree (do not do this).
• I have two Doctor Who scarves knitted by two different men.
• I’m not that good of thinking of truly random things about myself.

Feel free to discuss any family you have here.

I am an only child, which I highly recommend to everyone. My Mother and Father are actually the best parents on the planet. No, really, that’s actually official.

Copra

MMO community connection:

Bullcopra

Chapter 1: Introduction

What is your name (your online persona/alter-ego, what have you)?

Copra Jor-El, which is a combination my pen and paper players put together years ago. Copra from Skyrealms of Jorune (wise, teacher) and Jor-El (father of Kal-El) after our firstborn was born.

What is your connection to the gaming/blogging/podcasting community (your chance to plug yourself here)?

I play, comment and blog about WoW. That’s about it. http://bullcopra.blogspot.com/

Please take a minute and describe what your blog/podcast is about.

“ABOUT WORLD OF WARCRAFT AS SEEN BY A SOCIAL, CASUAL GAMER DAD”, that’s what it says at the blog.

Where were you born? Where did you grow up?

I was born in Tampere, Finland, but moved to Helsinki very soon after that. I’ve lived most of my life in Helsinki, only the last few years about 130km north from there in a small rural town.

Where do you live now?

See the earlier answer…

Your level (age) is somewhere in the range of (pick one): 10-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, 80-89

31-40

What do you do for a living?

Purchasing in a chemical distribution company

If you could reroll your career, what would you be?

Most probably veterinarian, teacher or scientist

List five random things most people don’t know about you.

• I can sing, contrary to my looks
• I’m very serious, contrary to the goofing I’m showing outside
• While I enjoy company, I prefer solitude: sometimes even the family is too much.
• I can cook, too, and have a diploma to prove it.
• If I’m not a master of something right away, I lose my interest in doing it. However, at this age I’ve taken it to challenge myself with this trait. Thus I’m still blogging, even though I didn’t break Tobold’s visitor count in the first month.

Feel free to discuss any family you have here.

I’m married with four kids and four Irish Wolfhounds. The life is as quiet and peacefull as you can imagine, no great big surprises there. I’m also from a big family myself, and I’m playing WoW nowadays with my two brothers, who have their own families.

Chapter 2: Origins

What kind of games (if any) did you play as a child before you got into video gaming? Did you play with family, friends or was it more of a solo activity?

When I was a child we had a month long summer holiday at a summer cottage of my grandfather’s which was out there in the middle of nowhere, by the sea. The cottage didn’t have any electricity, so the pass time in the evening was playing games. Cards, board games, word games, you name it. As amazing as it seems, this trait lived well beyond the summer vacation time and we played quite often at home, too. At later age I was introduced to computers and only after that I found pen and paper roleplaying, which is still my main reference point in my gaming.

What other hobbies and/or activities did you have as a child (sports, music, etc)?

I have been an avid reader the whole of my life, so reading and sports don’t mix too well: I have always been lousy at sports. However, I sang in a couple of choirs up till 16 years of age, at which time some other aspects of life started to play bigger part in my free time…

Were you ever exposed to pen and paper role playing games? What was that experience like?

Like I mentioned earlier, I have been quite active in pen and paper RPG’s. In fact, I worked in a local game shop (the first one in Finland) for about 6 months, at which time I devoured a huge amount of lore and background from several games. The first game I ever played was Metagaming’s old and devoid “Into the Tunnels” (I think), but soon after that experience I bought D&D (the red box) and started to GM games to my younger brother and his friends. The group changed and evoved over the years, as well as the games chaged. But the love to this form of story telling hasn’t changed.

Did you read much as a child? If so, what did you like to read (books, comic books, etc?) Please list some favorite authors, titles, etc.

I read quite a lot: in fact, my parents remember me reading always as a kid. I didn’t have any favourite authors at that time, I just consumed literature. I read everything from historical stories to scifi, from agent stories to crime and mystery. Later, when I switched to English language literature (at the same time I dug deeper into the RPG material and learned to trust my language skills at around 15), I found the author who has since remained my favourite: Gene Wolfe. And of course H.P.Lovecraft, whose works cast a sizeable shadow over the RPG campaigns I devised…

Would you say that any of these games or books had an effect on your later appreciation of computer gaming and ultimately MMOs? Please explain.

Definitely so: my computer gaming has always been a search of the story and puzzles. Not to say that I would hate FPS’, but I just don’t see the point in them. Heretic II was one of the few FPS kind of games I’ve liked, but that comes from the strong story line.

The same goes now with WoW: the lore is deep and the quest lines –when applied to the game- picture the stories and the world very neatly. I think the stories and their presentation is a huge part of my enjoyment in the games.

How were you fist introduced to video games? How old were you? What was the platform?

I think I saw this one coming… I was introduced to videogames by a friend of mine when he got some of the first Atari consoles home back in late 70’s: I must have been less than 10 years then. My first computer was Commodore VIC-20 and it was quite something, at least for the time being and for as long as it WAS the homecomputer. Then came C-64 and Atari ST. I got VIC-20 when I was 14, and it’s been constant downhill ever since…

Did you ever play coin-op games at the arcade? What was that experience like?

Of course: the first coin-op’s I played were the good old Space Invaders and sorts. And they completely blew my mind away: I must be somehow addictive and self-competitive personality, as I had to always improve my score. I didn’t care about the high score list, my own score was the only one I was comparing to.

What was the first video game you can remember playing that really made an impression on you? Please explain.

For the fore mentioned reason it was a game called Radar Rat Race for VIC-20: totally addictive maze run in which I always had to beat my own score. The tune still haunts me…

What gaming consoles have you owned in the past?

Not so much gaming consoles nor computers, since RPG’s took my time pretty completely during their time. We’ve had PS1, PS2 and that’s about it.

Feel free to share a story related to your gaming experience as a child.

My addiction to the VIC-20 was such that I took the darn machine with us to all our travels and trips, even to holidays abroad for the next year or so. My biggest challenge with it was to find how to hook it up with the hotel tv and whether I needed an adapter for the electricity. And that done: I was at ease.

Chapter 3: Online

Were you ever exposed to MUDs?

I tried MUD or two when I was studying, but didn’t find them attractive enough. Sure I had lived through the text based computer games like Zork, Planetfall and such, but for some reason or another the MUD’s themselves didn’t catch me.

What was your first MMO experience?

My first MMO experience was WoW. The year was 2006, and I joined a gaming community I had joined a year and a half earlier for a browser based game. I first joined for the trial, which was just then introduced to the game, and because the guild I joined with was based on US servers I had to purchase the game online.

What it was like?

It was like all my pen and paper RPG dreams had just materialized and been given life to. I connected with the world immediately.

Due to being a miser and the fact that it was next to impossible to play with the guild due to time difference, I quit the game after a few months. Only to play on a private server over at EU side. From where I transferred to official server on which a friend from the same community I mentioned earlier was also playing.

And –like they say- the rest is history.

If possible, list all the MMOs you’ve played extensively.

• WoW: several toons both in US and EU servers.
• EQ2: Some toons on Antonia Bayle
• TCoS: two test toons.

That’s about it.

What is your current MMO of choice, or perhaps, what are your current MMOs of choice?

WoW. I loved the time I played EQ2, but the lack of population and social contacts makes me shun from it.

Which MMO have you spent the most time playing? How long would you say that has been?

This is getting boring: WoW definitely. On EU server I have about 57 days /played, on the US I think something like 20.

Have you reached level cap in any MMO? If so, which ones?

None so far: I have started so late and I’m so interested in the stories that my playing has been less about levelling. So I have taken my time to do quests, finding the continuing quest lines and digging the content.

Loki taps you on the shoulder one day to inform you that you have fallen victim to one of his elaborate pranks. The world you’ve been inhabiting of countless MMOs to choose from and play has merely been a dream. In reality only one MMO exists. After laughing at you for a bit he decides to take pity on you and allows you to choose which MMO will remain. Which one would you choose and why?

I would most probably wish that he would take them all away, because I don’t know the field so well to make such a decision. I can only ponder over WoW and EQ2, and for because I like the originality of EQ2 I would choose it. Most probably I’m not playing it because my brothers play WoW and it’s one of the few social tools we have in common.

Are there any MMOs currently in development that you are particularly interested in? Please explain.

Earthrise for it’s background and approach. SWOTR definitely. And naturally the Blizzard’s secret project, especially if it’s connected with the recent Cataclysm-registration… that would sound promising.

Feel free to share an interesting or amusing anecdote related to your MMO gaming experience.

It’s kind of sad, but sometime ago we had a discussion with the kids that everyone is good at something. To this my son, 7 years then, said loud and clear –like kids to with truths-: “Daddy, you are the best in playing WoW. Better than any of my friends fathers.”

Knowing the fathers of his friends, I doubt anyone has ever even heard about WoW (before the Ozzie commercial, that is)…

Chapter 4: Preferences

At your peak, how much time per week would you say you spent gaming? How about now?

20 at peak, when I tried to level up to the 60 raid content. 10 currently on average.

When during the week are your regular play times?

One weeknight and weekend nights. Sometimes more, especially if the weather is horrible.

Generally speaking, are you more of a social creature in MMOs (grouping to quest, joining guilds, etc.) or something of a lone wolf?

My Bartle reads as ESAK, with high emphasis on the exploration. But social aspect is extremely important: I hate solo questing and I generally keep the LFG tool on always when I know I have few hours to play and commit to the group. However, the more WoW is designed to be soloed with fast forward, the less the people are taking time to group: it slows the progress down. And the End Game is out there at level cap. Sorry, the content.

Have you made any lasting friendships through your MMO experience? Please explain.

Not through MMO, but through gaming, yes. In WoW I haven’t been in a coherent guild before joining the current one, and I’ve been in this one so short time that I haven’t really made any connections yet.

Before logging into a game, do you already have a course of action planned out in your head, or do you just sort of do whatever you feel like once in game?

Both and. I usually have a plan whether I try to actively group for instances or if I quest on. If I have some interesting –or not so interesting- quest line open, I will try to finish it before continuing to grouping. But then again, when I’m out of quest lines and not willing to group, I can easily goof around and just explore the areas, find new places or work for achievements.

When playing MMOs do you tend to just play one at a time or do you take more of the smorgasbord approach?

I commit to one. I have pretty little time to play, so I cannot spread that time across a large amount of activities. Besides it brings a sort of feeling of continuity, like a serial rather than miniseries’.

Do you tend to supplement your MMO gaming with other PC, console or tabletop games?

No.

Are you something of an altoholic?

Yes. Currently I have two main played characters, but I have other characters over three or four servers to suit my tastes.

Do you find yourself multitasking while gaming (perhaps watching TV, talking on the phone, out of game instant messaging, playing another game, or even listening to a podcast)?

Not as such. I may be talking on the phone or discussing with people at home, but I don’t see that differing from chatting with people online.

Do you find yourself having much MMO discussion off-line, perhaps with friends or family?

Not much, but some: as I’m playing pretty keenly with my brothers, our discussions at family reunions and such tend to turn into WoW from time to time. And all the others are either bored or crossed for some reason…

Have you ever felt that you game too much? If so, how did you cope with that?

Yes I do. But then again, I have other hobbies to which I commit to with similar intensity: the direction changes from time to time and I rather play MMO’s than watch TV. This way I at least get the illusion that I’m doing something instead just consume something in braindead state.

Since you started playing MMOs, have you ever taken a break from the genre? If so, please explain.

A couple of times actually. Both times it has been a bit hard to use all the spare time I have already acquired, but then again the return has been as difficult.

Chapter 5: Blogging

When did you first start blogging?

September 11, 2008. Good grief. That is the first post date on Bullcopra, and it marks the beginning of my blogging. After that I have launched another blog, Fast Enough to Catch the Lure about my other love, Irish Wolfhound Lure Coursing, which I wanted to separate from the gaming blog.

Why do you blog?

I blog because that is the way I can vent my thoughts about my gaming and WoW. I have also been writing earlier, so this blogging helps me with the urge to put words one after another in a meaningful way. It seems that from time to time I strike a chord in the WoW blogosphere, too, so my thoughts are not necessarily just rants or rephrasing of earlier posts.

Do you have a schedule or some sort of routine you try and follow when blogging?

I should have a schedule, but I don’t. Then again, I write when I feel like, and because I don’t do any theorycrafting –at least yet- there is no need to be on the vein of things going on in PTR or the raiding scene.

Is there some grind involved in blogging? If so, what is it and how do you cope with it?

The grind is when you have a blank page and blank mind. What to write about, or just should I just leave it for today. Because I have no schedule, I can easily pass.

By contrast, what do you find pleasurable about blogging?

Commenting and commenting comments. The discussion which my posts can create from time to time, whether it is a note on another blog or comment in my own: the interaction with the readers, that is what is the reward for me (in addition to the eased feeling in my mind after I push the publish-button).

How many people offline know you blog?

To be honest, none. But then again, I haven’t been asking from my friends, neighbours nor relatives. But as far as I know, it’s not that popular here in cold North.

What advice would you give someone who wanted to try their hand at blogging?

Write. If you have a topic, write on the topic. Split posts into several smaller ones if you notice that there are several issues in one post. And re-read your post at least twice before posting: Mr. Typo is always there. And he’s not your friend.

What is something you know now that you wish you had known when you first started?

I should have made a tighter overall topic to my blog: the description I have now has come to be through evolution, and it has saved me a lot of time and headache since. I should have defined my blog’s purpose better. And tighter.

Can you picture a future where you will hang up your keyboard and no longer blog?

Yes I can: it will mean that I will become irritated and bad tempered for a while, until I start writing again into my desk drawer.

At your funeral, what song(s) would you have played as your corpse is set alight and cast out to sea on a funeral barge?

Funeral March of a Marionette by Charles Gounod. Just to remind the people left behind that life as we know it shouldn’t be so hard and death shouldn’t be considered so sad.

Shawn Schuster

MMO community connection:

Massively | Massively Speaking | OMG-RL!1!| Through the Aftermath

Chapter 1: Introduction

What is your name (your online persona/alter-ego, what have you)?

I just go by Shawn. I’ve never been much for alter egos and all that good stuff.

What is your connection to the gaming/blogging/podcasting community (your chance to plug yourself here)?

I currently do 3 podcasts. Although in total, I’ve been the host of 6 podcasts and an audio book. I’m also the Managing Editor for Massively.

Please take a minute and describe what your blog/podcast is about.

Let’s go chronologically, shall we?

- Weisenheimer Radio: This was my very first shot at a podcast where I basically played indie comedy music I found around the net. It lasted about 3 months before I was overwhelmed with the popularity of my second podcast. Even though this podcast totally sucked, it was my first adventure with a podcast interview and I received my first free swag from a wonderful band called Orange Monkey, who I still love.

- GuildCast: This was a podcast all about Guild Wars. Still my most popular podcast to date, even after almost 4 years doing this.

- TabulaCast: I played Tabula Rasa in the beta and loved it, so I decided to make a podcast about it. Had lots of fun with the show and the game, but just couldn’t stay with either.

- Oh My God Real Life: This was started as my show where I could just let loose and say whatever I wanted. It soon evolved (thanks to the addition of my co-host Jenna) into a humorous advice podcast for gamers. It’s really a lot of fun to record and I enjoy the interaction with the gaming community and acting like I have some good advice for them.

- Eve of Adam: This is my first attempt at an audiobook where I presented it more as an ‘in-character’ play than an actual audiobook.

- Massively Speaking: This is the official podcast of Massively.com, started by Michael Zenke and myself a little over a year ago. We cover the top MMO news stories each week, with special guests consisting of developers, community leaders and the rest of the Massively staff.

- Through the Aftermath: My newest podcast that I started up with Jonathan from The Online Gamer’s Anthology. We cover everything post-apocalyptic in media — from games, movies, books, comics and more.

Where were you born? Where did you grow up?

I was born in Northwest Indiana, right smack dab in the middle between Gary, IN and south Chicago. Needless to say, I didn’t go outside much, lest I get shot. This is probably the main reason I got so deeply involved in activities that kept me inside.

I moved around quite a bit after college, do the most growing-up in Phoenix, AZ and New Orleans, LA.

Where do you live now?

Tennessee

Your level (age) is somewhere in the range of (pick one): 10-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60, 61-70, 71-80, 81-90

33

What do you do for a living?

Managing Editor for Massively.com

If you could reroll your career, what would you be?

I absolutely love my job, and it took me a long time to get here, so I wouldn’t think of rerolling right now.

List five random things most people don’t know about you.

• I do all the housework at home, except cooking. I can’t cook, but I can wash a mean dish and vacuum the hell out of a carpet.
• I am saving up to buy a farm.
• I own 2 cats: Max and Hemi
• I get anxious when my phone rings because I hate talking on it. I hate texting even more and will usually not answer you if you text me.
• I consider myself an environmentalist, but my one vice is old cars. I love rebuilding them, watching drag races and going to car shows. Other environmentalists would probably kill me if they knew that.

Feel free to discuss any family you have here.

I have a daughter and a step-daughter. I’m divorced, but living with my girlfriend for about a year now.

Chapter 2: Origins

What kind of games (if any) did you play as a child before you got into video gaming? Did you play with family, friends or was it more of a solo activity?

Risk, Sorry, Monopoly, Life, Dark Tower. Those are the ones I remember playing with my parents the most. Risk was kind of a right of passage for my family during birthday parties. Once I was allowed to play with the adults, I felt I had become a man.

What other hobbies and/or activities did you have as a child (sports, music, etc)?

I always hated sports. My dad tried getting me into baseball and wrestling, since he was good at both when he was younger. But I just wasn’t competitive enough to care about winning. I was that kid standing in left field picking grass and looking at bugs.

I started playing drums on my mom’s tupperware when I was about 11, which evolved into drum lessons and an old kit I got at a garage sale when I was 14. Eventually I got into a metal band in high school and we had a nice little following for a while there: studio-produced album, t-shirts, paid concerts… the whole nine yards. Some of the greatest times of my life!

Were you ever exposed to pen and paper role playing games? What was that experience like?

I played AD&D with my best friend and a few others when I was in 9th and 10th grade, but I was always afraid my friends in the metal band would find out and make fun of me, so I stopped. I was totally in nerd denial.

Did you read much as a child? If so, what did you like to read (books, comic books, etc?) Please list some favorite authors, titles, etc.

I could read my first book at 3, and my parents loved to bring this up to as many people as they could, as many times as they could. I was fanatic about my GI Joe comics in the mid 80s. I still have them all, too. I never had the attention span to sit down read too many novels though, but my best friend was an avid reader and turned me on to some great stuff like R.A. Salvatore and all the Forgotten Realms books.

Would you say that any of these games or books had an effect on your later appreciation of computer gaming and ultimately MMOs? Please explain.

Definitely. My best friend’s appreciation of the whole fantasy genre is what got me into it and we immersed ourselves into it with the music we listened to, the drawings we created, the movies we watched and most everything we did.

How were you first introduced to video games? How old were you? What was the platform?

When I turned 10, my (rich) aunt and uncle bought me an Atari 2600. Back then, that was a huge deal because they were expensive, and there’s no way my parents or I could have ever bought that. I would sit and play games like River Raid, Space Jockey, Outlaw, Grand Prix, Vanguard and others religiously.

Not long after, my best friend’s dad got a Commodore 64 and he would let us watch him play Telengard. I was fascinated by it and I’d want to watch him play more than my friend actually would. I saved my allowance for a few months and got a used C64 from the newspaper. This was the fuel that fired my future obsession with RPGs, thanks to SSI’s Gold Box series when I was about 13.

Did you ever play coin-op games at the arcade? What was that experience like?

There was one arcade near my house, and whenever my parents would drive me and my friend there, we’d spend hours and more quarters than I’d care to remember. Ironically, he met his current wife there, although back then she was just an icky girl and we were more concerned with getting the top score in Golden Axe.

What was the first video game you can remember playing that really made an impression on you? Please explain.

Pool of Radiance. It was so amazing to me that I could make a party of adventurers to control against real AI monsters. I went full-force into the RPG genre from here, playing games like Wasteland, Knights of Legend, Bard’s Tale and a few others at every spare second I had.

What gaming consoles have you owned in the past?

I was never much into consoles. I guess the Atari 2600 could be considered my first, then I had a Sega CD, an Xbox and now a Wii. That’s it.

Feel free to share a story related to your gaming experience as a child.

In junior high, I would set my alarm for an hour early every morning so I could play games on my Commodore 64. For anyone who never owned a C64, most of that time was spent booting the darn thing up, but it was totally worth it.

Chapter 3: Online

Were you ever exposed to MUDs?

MUDs played a big part of my life from 1996 until about 2002 or so. I met my ex wife on a MUD, and my current gf on a MUD. This is an unfortunate coincidence, not a creepy dating MUD or anything.

What was your first MMO experience?

I wasn’t really ‘allowed’ much gaming while I was married, so I missed out on things like EverQuest, UO, etc. I remember looking at the boxes on the Best Buy shelves for EQ and even an oldie that got shut down called Motor City Online. I remember reading the back of the boxes thinking “How on earth can they expect people to pay for a game AND a monthly fee?! That’s absolutely insane!”

When Guild Wars came along in 2005, that was my ticket in.

If possible, list all the MMOs you’ve played extensively.

• Guild Wars – Level 20 Necromancer
• Tabula Rasa - Level 37 Spy
• Lord of the Rings Online - Level 60 Hunter
• Runes of Magic – Level 25 Mage/Warrior

What is your current MMO of choice, or perhaps, what are your current MMOs of choice?

It’s been LotRO for about a year and a half now, and I have yet to find a game that will bring me away from that for longer than a month or 2.

Which MMO have you spent the most time playing? How long would you say that has been?

I used to know Guild Wars like the back of my hand, and played it religiously for almost 3 years. I still play it occasionally now, but not nearly as much.

Have you reached level cap in any MMO? If so, which ones?

Guild Wars and LotRO. If combining the levels of alts counted, I would have reached the cap in Tabula Rasa about 4 times, not counting clones.

Loki taps you on the shoulder one day to inform you that you have fallen victim to one of his elaborate pranks. The world you’ve been inhabiting of countless MMOs to choose from and play has merely been a dream. In reality only one MMO exists. After laughing at you for a bit he decides to take pity on you and allows you to choose which MMO will remain. Which one would you choose and why?

LotRO. I want to live in The Shire and grow vegetables all day.

Are there any MMOs currently in development that you are particularly interested in? Please explain.

Actually, several…

Fallen Earth. The game mechanics of that game are everything I’ve ever wanted in a game since I started (only because I missed the pre-NGE Star Wars Galaxies). I worry about the game though, because it’s being developed by an indie studio which might not be able to handle the inevitably negative comments from the majority of forum trolls who will hate it because it’s not simple and/or World of Warcraft. I hope I’m wrong though, because I like what I see so far.

Global Agenda. I’ve played this game a few times and have had so much fun every time. PvP is not usually my thing, but they make it so fun. That might all change once the teabagging Xbox Live demographic enters the picture, but we’ll see.

Aion. This is NCsoft’s last chance at regaining a positive public opinion. I hope they can pull it off, so that development will follow through on their next big title…

Guild Wars 2. I will buy this game even if every game reviewer out there said it was the worst game they’ve ever played. I love ArenaNet and I love what they’re capable of making. I have high hopes that GW2 will be huge.

Feel free to share an interesting or amusing anecdote related to your MMO gaming experience.

I have loads of these stories, mostly because I never pay attention when I’m playing. I fall off cliffs, aggro unwanted monsters and get left behind many times. One day I’ll learn to turn off my IM client and concentrate on playing. One day.

Chapter 4: Preferences

At your peak, how much time per week would you say you spent gaming? How about now?

At my peak, I would play Guild Wars 6-7 hours after work every night. Now, it’s down to about 2 hours a day across many games

When during the week are your regular play times?

I dabble throughout the day when I get the itch, but the only times I play for more than 30 mins at a time are usually after 10pm EST. I don’t really play on weekends at all, because that’s family time.

Generally speaking, are you more of a social creature in MMOs (grouping to quest, joining guilds, etc.) or something of a lone wolf?

I’m usually a lone wolf, but I’ve been blessed with a wonderful kinship in LotRO, so I play with them whenever I can. I like to at least be a part of a guild in every game I play, even if I don’t always play with them. In fact, I really enjoy the prcess of starting new with brand new people in a guild who don’t know me at all. That’s so interesting and exciting to me.

Have you made any lasting friendships through your MMO experience? Please explain.

Definitely. I’ve even met several guildmates. I see my LotRO kinship members about once a year and we go out for dinner, etc.

Before logging into a game, do you already have a course of action planned out in your head, or do you just sort of do whatever you feel like once in game?

I usually log in with a plan, but that changes if someone needs help with something. I’m open to doing whatever, and don’t get upset or frustrated if my original plans get forgotten. But this usually means I level slower than everyone else, because I’m not determined to advance as quickly as possible.

When playing MMOs do you tend to just play one at a time or do you take more of the smorgasbord approach?

I used to be all about one game, and wouldn’t think of trying another game. Now (mostly because of my job), I try to have a working knowledge of as many MMOs as I can. That’s becoming increasingly more difficult.

Do you tend to supplement your MMO gaming with other PC, console or tabletop games?

I would go insane if I didn’t. My favorites include Fallout 3, Rockband 2, Guitar Hero World Tour, Mount & Blade, Half Life 2 and Wii Sports. I also love to play board games with my kids. I created a simple tabletop RPG for them using only animals as characters and Uno cards for a basic combat system. We have lots of fun with that.

Are you something of an altoholic?

Yep, and I’m not afraid to admit it. I need to try out every class, and every race, and every combo, and… and. Well, let’s just say it takes me awhile to find my perfect character. Even then, I like to go back to other alts and try new stuff.

Do you find yourself multitasking while gaming (perhaps watching TV, talking on the phone, out of game instant messaging, playing another game, or even listening to a podcast)?

I HAVE to multitask when gaming. I’m either reading email, searching my RSS feed for potential news stories and always listening to podcasts or music. When I edit podcasts, I’m usually gathering nodes in LotRO.

Do you find yourself having much MMO discussion off-line, perhaps with friends or family?

Only with my gf, who also plays Guild Wars and LotRO. None of my family and most of my friends don’t even know what an MMO is.

Have you ever felt that you game too much? If so, how did you cope with that?

If it didn’t pay my bills, then yes. I still get guilt trips if I play for too long, and usually make up for that by doing more housework or something else productive.

Since you started playing MMOs, have you ever taken a break from the genre? If so, please explain.

Not since I started playing MMOs, but I think that’s because I started so late (in 2005). I took a break from gaming for a few years while I was in college and married, though.

Chapter 5: Blogging/Podcasting

When did you first start blogging/podcasting?

I started podcasting in July of 2005. I started blogging in about 2000 on Livejournal, but that doesn’t count.

I started Weisenheimer Radio first, in July of 2005, then GuildCast on November 19th, 2005. From there, I started OMGRL on July 31st, 2007 and TabulaCast on October 15th, 2007. Eve of Adam started in January of 2008, Massively Speaking in April of 2008 and finally, Through the Aftermath started on January 30th, 2009. Apparently I like to start podcasts in July and January.

Why do you podcast?

Originally, I started podcasting because I loved the whole (new) concept of podcasts at the time. I loved sitting at work with my headphones on, listening to other people talk about gaming. My first gaming podcasts were World of Warcast (even though I never played WoW at the time) and Gaming Steve. I enjoyed them so much, and I enjoyed playing Guild Wars, that I thought marrying the two would be a good choice. It was.

Do you have a schedule or some sort of routine you try and follow when podcasting?

Definitely. I think you need to. Out of the three podcasts I do now, TTA and MS are on regular schedules. OMGRL is the only one that comes out whenever I have a chance. Possibly not coincidentally, OMGRL also has the fewest listeners.

Is there some grind involved in podcasting? If so, what is it and how do you cope with it?

Editing is almost a grind, but I enjoy it. It’s very soothing, and I could probably do it in my sleep now. I actually cope with it by farming in LotRO or doing something menial in another MMO. I have to make sure it’s something I can stop immediately when I hear a mistake that needs to be cut out of the podcast. So grouping is out of the question during this time.

By contrast, what do you find pleasurable about podcasting?

The finished product. Knowing that I created something that could potentially educate or entertain someone.

How many people offline know you podcast?

Very few, actually. I once told a co-worker and he asked me if I LARP and cosplay, too. Then he proceeded to tell me all about his weird sister-in-law who goes to Ren Faires and plays a lute and how crazy she is (to him). Lesson learned, on my part.

My parents know, but don’t even begin to understand. I tell them I make internet radio shows, and they kinda understand that. They just don’t understand how it could be about video games. I usually don’t tell too many people though, to avoid explanations.

What advice would you give someone who wanted to try their hand at blogging or podcasting?

• Be consistent
• Be yourself
• Don’t worry about spending hundreds of dollars on recording equipment. I use a $30 headset and free mixing software.
• Don’t conform to negative feedback. Constructive criticism is one thing, but for every person telling you they hate your show, there are dozens more who like it and don’t say anything.
• Don’t respond to idiots. Afterall, they’re idiots.

What is something you know now that you wish you had known when you first started?

Nothing. I think the fact that I was so naive helped me learn the way I did. I seem to learn best from my mistakes because they really stick with me.

Can you picture a future where you will hang up your microphone and no longer podcast?

I’ve never really thought about it too much, but I coped just fine before podcasting and blogging. Of course, right now it’s how I earn my money, but I hope to stay in this as long as I possibly can.

At your funeral, what song(s) would you have played as your corpse is set alight and cast out to sea on a funeral barge?

“Time to Say Goodbye” by Andrea Bocelli. That’s the song I played on the final GuildCast and OMG IT’S SO SAD.

Psychochild

MMO community connection:

`

Psychochild’s Blog

Chapter 1: Introduction

What is your name (your online persona/alter-ego, what have you)?

I go by “Psychochild” online, although my given name is Brian Green. I use a pseudonym because my given name is rather common.

What is your connection to the gaming/blogging/podcasting community (your chance to plug yourself here)?

I’m an MMO developer as well as a blogger. I’ve spent most of my career on the “indie” side of things, including buying and relaunching the classic online game Meridian 59. I also co-edited the book Business & Legal Primer for Game Development.

Please take a minute and describe what your blog/podcast is about.

My blog at Psychochild.org covers MMO development topics, primarily, since I’m a developer. I cover game design, programming, and business. I also cover writing, although I consider writing more of a hobby than a professional focus for now.

Where were you born? Where did you grow up?

I was born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa. I moved six times, but always lived near Des Moines or the surrounding communities until I went to college at Iowa State University.

Where do you live now?

I live in California. I lived in Silicon Valley for a while, but now I live a bit south where the rents are cheaper. I moved out here to get my first job in the game industry.

Your level (age) is somewhere in the range of (pick one): 10-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60, 61-70, 71-80, 81-90

Pretty solidly in the 31-40 category.

What do you do for a living?

I tell people I’m an MMO developer. I’ve worked on a few projects that never really saw the light of day, so I don’t have a long and impressive resume. I have done programming, design, and business on various projects.

Currently, I do a fair amount of consulting and contract work on MMO projects to make ends meet. I’d like to do a true indie MMO project, but have yet to find people willing to dedicate the time required.

If you could reroll your career, what would you be?

Assuming I didn’t want to be an MMO developer (the class always seems to get nerfs), I’d probably want to be a writer. In high school I said I wanted to write but didn’t want to deal with the unpredictable income. Now I’m a game developer who prefers to run his own business.
Ha!

List five random things most people don’t know about you.

• I can speak Pig Latin incredibly fast. I will almost certainly be the fastest Pig Latin speaker most people will know.
• I need 7-8 hours of sleep per night, and usually get cranky if I don’t get it. This boggles most other game developers who can survive on less sleep during crunch periods.
• I grew up very poor. My father was a union assembly line worker and always seemed to be on strike during my birthday and Christmas. After my parents divorced, my mother went to community college to get a degree in Accounting and delivered pizzas to keep us fed and clothed. My only exposure to computers as a kid was at school or at friends’ houses because we couldn’t afford one.
• My absolute favorite type of game is “Metroidvania”. I love exploration in games, and these types of games are the pinnacle. After that is PC type RPGs, of which Might & Magic 7 is the best.
• I’m on a crusade to have people italicize game names, just like is proper for books and movies. I think games should get at least as much respect as other works. (Now, let’s see if the site admin adds the italics tags to the games mentioned in this post!)

Feel free to discuss any family you have here.

I don’t get along too well with my family. I am only really in contact with my mother, who despite her age loves IM chat.

I’m one of the lucky ones who has met my soulmate; her name is Kat. She loves me and accepts me as a game developer, and has given endless support in our 15+ years together. Without her I don’t think I could have withstood the tribulations of being a game developer and a small business person. We’re not married, though, by her choice. We have no plans to have kids, but we have three adorable cats.

Chapter 2: Origins

What kind of games (if any) did you play as a child before you got into video gaming? Did you play with family, friends or was it more of a solo activity?

My family had a few of the “classic” board games: Monopoly, Sorry, and the like. We would occasionally play as a family. I don’t remember playing many games with other kids, other than your typical “cops and robbers” type games outside.

I did create a few board games of my own, though. My mother had some poster board for one of her classes when she was getting her degree at the local community college, and I used some of it to make a Transformers themed board game. I scavenged pieces from other games, such as houses from the Monopoly set to create “energon cubes” for the game.

One year for Christmas I got a “100-in-1″ gaming set. It had a bunch of generic pieces and some printed game boards with different rules for games. That really spurred my interest in games and my desire to create new ones. I drew some additional game layouts on the back of the boards and created new rules for existing ones.

When I got into the more advanced games, few people were interested in playing with me. I remember getting a war game based on Napoleonic wars and begging my father to play with me. He got frustrated with the game very quickly.

What other hobbies and/or activities did you have as a child (sports, music, etc)?

I did a bit of music when I was in school. In elementary school we learned how to play the recorder (a woodwind instrument). When I was a bit older I tried to play the clarinet, but band practice happened during other classes and I was always too engrossed in class to remember to go to band. Added to the fact that my practices irritated my parents, it was a brief hobby.

I also got into programming as a kid. In 5th grade, we had a class on typing. I took to the class well, so the teacher gave me a game written in BASIC to type into the Apple II computers in the back of the classroom. I was enthusiastic, because I had been an avid console gamer to that point. After I had typed it all in, I got my first taste of debugging. Learning to debug the problems and then tinkering with the program got me into learning BASIC. Of course, I could only work on stuff at school since I didn’t have a computer at home. I used to write out programs on notebook paper at home in anticipation of being able to type them up at school. One time we were able to check out a Commodore 64 from the local library, and I missed the school bus quite a few times when I was typing in programs instead of watching the clock.

Were you ever exposed to pen and paper role playing games? What was that experience like?

I was, in a very round-about way. I grew up going to a very conservative church that truly believed that Dungeons & Dragons was a gateway to Satanism; all paper RPGs were similarly evil by association. So, it was something of a forbidden fruit for me, and therefore very alluring.

One of my earliest “real” paper RPG experiences was buying a module for TSR’s Star Frontiers on clearance at the local Target store. I saved up the money to buy it. Unfortunately, it was just a module and I didn’t have the base set, so most of the stuff was practically indecipherable to me. It was neat to look through, though.

When I got into BASIC programming, a friend of mine, who was also very religious, got involved at the same time. We started making games and found some RPGs, but he didn’t want to play them because they had “Satanic magic” in them. So, we started creating our own little games with each other. We had basically re-created paper RPGs without knowing much about them. Because we couldn’t use magic, and I knew that some herbs can heal (like Aloe Vera), I did some research on the magical properties of plants. I found some books on Wicca from that research. That’s right, *not* playing D&D lead me to read up on witchcraft!

My first real introduction to D&D came from a friend I met at church. (Funny how church and D&D intertwine so much in my life, now that I think about it.) He loved paper RPGs, and we played a bit of D&D.  Eventually we started designing our own paper game system when I was in high school; it was a horror-themed game based on the Friday the 13th TV series where the players had to gather cursed artifacts.

I got into D&D heavily in college. That’s where I met a bunch of my friends who I am still in touch with and where I met my long-term girlfriend. People always get jealous when we tell them we met playing D&D.

Did you read much as a child? If so, what did you like to read (books, comic books, etc?) Please list some favorite authors, titles, etc.

I read obsessively as a child. I was the quiet kid in the back with his nose in the book most of the time. The first books I really remember reading where the Hardy Boys books. The small school library had them and I read them in order. Don’t remember how many I ended up reading, but probably a few dozen. I also read the Encyclopedia Brown stories; I was often the smartest kid in the class, so someone recommended I read those.

I also read a lot of science fiction after I got bored with those titles. I read through most of the kid’s science fiction at the public library, then started going after different books in the adult’s section. To be honest, most of the books were garbage, though. I didn’t have anyone else that liked S.F. giving me any direction, so I just picked whatever caught my attention, and it was usually bad. For example, one of the Star Trek novels I read had Kirk captured by the Romulans. He seduces one of them (of course) and makes an escape with her helping. Along the way, he kicks Romulans in the groin (ow!) and comments how the women were equally susceptible to a groin shot as the men were.

In the past decade, I’ve spent time reading some of the classics I missed the first time around.

Would you say that any of these games or books had an effect on your later appreciation of computer gaming and ultimately MMOs? Please explain.

Paper gaming had an obvious impact. Learning computer programming and playing computer games got me into paper games. I think that since I didn’t get immersed into D&D immediately, it didn’t limit my design imagination as much. I was used to coming up with interesting new rules for mini-games for my friend. When I got into MUDs, I preferred the LP-MUDs because it was easier to program them without owning the game. I was able to earn a wizard (coder) position on one game and do game development.

As for books? I’d say gaming impacted my reading more than the other way around. As I said, most of the books I read were cheezy science fiction, intellectual cotton candy. I didn’t read many of the classics until later. For example, I didn’t read The Lord of the Rings until after I started playing D&D. I read one of my all-time favorite fantasy series, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, because I played a MUD where someone had created an area and a player class based on the series.

How were you fist introduced to video games? How old were you? What was the platform?

I was about 5 when I saw a display for the Atari 2600 in a department store. I was fascinated by the idea of playing games on the TV. Every time my parents went to the store, they knew exactly where to find me when they were ready to go.

Later I got an Atari 2600 from my parents. I scrimped and saved to buy the cartridges. The big “video game crash” in the early 80s was awesome for me, because the local stores were trying to unload cartridges cheap. Yeah, some really sucked, but when you paid $1 for it the quality threshold was lower. I eventually had the largest collection of games of the kids in my neighborhood.

Did you ever play coin-op games at the arcade? What was that experience like?

When I was at a department store, my parents would find me at the video game display area. When we were at the mall? The arcade (or, sometimes, the Radio Shack playing the computer games there).

I loved arcade games as a kid. When you’re poor, a $2000 computer is out of reach, but you can play a few 25 cent games easily enough. I would also beg for quarters/tokens from people, or find free credits people didn’t play. I’d also take over games from people who had to leave. Of course, when I was young I really sucked at the games because I didn’t have a whole lot of quarters to practice. I never got past the first levels of most games.

My favorite arcade games were Capcom’s Forgotten Worlds, Atari’s Gauntlet, Data East’s RoboCop and Midway’s Total Carnage.

A little known fact: the Windows GUI front-end for MAME was developed with help from Chris Kirmse, one of the original programmers for Meridian 59.

What was the first video game you can remember playing that really made an impression on you? Please explain.

Probably Space Invaders, because I played the game on both the Atari 2600 and the arcade game. It kind of blew my mind that you could have the same game on different platforms. It was also one of the first games I really remember playing a lot (even though I sucked at it in the arcades). The Atari 2600 version also introduced me to my first cheat/easter egg: if you held down the reset switch while turning the game on, you could get 2 missiles at a time instead of one. That made the game a lot easier!

What gaming consoles have you owned in the past?

In roughly chronological order:

• Atari 2600
• Nintendo Entertainment System
• TurboGrafix-16 (with the CD drive)
• Atari Lynx
• Super Nintendo
• Sega Genesis
• PlayStation
• Gameboy Advance
• Nintendo 64
• Sega Dreamcast
• PlayStation 2
• GameCube
• Nintendo DS
• Wii

I’m scared to think about how many games I’ve owned. Easily a few thousand total. I tell people owning that many games is an occupational hazard for game developers.

I still haven’t bought one of the “current generation” consoles, though. I spend most of my time playing and developing MMOs on the PC.

Feel free to share a story related to your gaming experience as a child.

One of the first arcade games I saw was the cocktail version of Donkey Kong at the local pizza place. I talked my father into playing it with me. Since the controls were at the opposite ends of the table, I thought one person controlled Jumpman (aka Mario) while the other controlled Donkey Kong. Turns out, each person played one at a time and the screen just flipped around to face the player. Looking back, it’s interesting that I thought the game should be simultaneous multiplayer instead of playing one at a time. Probably one of the reasons I like MMO development.

Chapter 3: Online

Were you ever exposed to MUDs?

Yes! Those were my wild days in college. Starting in freshman year, spending late nights in the computer lab, compiling my CS homework and playing MUDs during the downtime (and sometimes when I should have been doing the homework!) I’m pretty sure the only reason I passed my introductory C++ class was because I learned LPC (the language the MUD gameplay was coded in) at the same time, and both languages have similar syntax. I certainly wasn’t going to the 8 AM classes four days per week!

The best part was making maximum level and getting access to the programming infrastructure on the games I played. The last push to “make Wiz” was over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend with my friend at the time. We played for 24 hours straight, caught a bit of sleep in the study area, then went back at it and got the maximum level together.

The MUDs I played extensively: Genocide (where I first used the name “Psychochild”), Highlands, Farside, Kerovnia, and Astaria.

What was your first MMO experience?

I played MUDs until I graduated from college. I didn’t own my own computer in college, so I didn’t get into graphical MMOs until later. I had heard about Ultima Online, but I didn’t have the opportunity to play it.

So, my first real experience with MMOs was with Meridian 59. I was applying for my first game industry job at 3DO in 1998, and the producer for M59 saw my resume and my MUD development experience. I had heard of the game before, but I thought it was for the 3DO console. Meridian 59 always had terrible advertising, so it never got the wide recognition it needed. But, they set me up with a free account to give the game a try, and I really enjoyed it. I didn’t always get to play the game as much as I wanted after I started working for 3DO, but I still enjoyed it.

If possible, list all the MMOs you’ve played extensively.

• Meridian 59 – Pure mage with: Kraanan, Shalille, Faren, Jala
• Dark Age of Camelot – 35 Dwarf Thane
• EverQuest 2 – 67 Kerra Necromancer
• World of Warcraft – 80 Night Elf Druid
• Lord of the Rings Online 40 Elf Champion

I’ve also dabbled in most other major North American games, but I don’t have the time to play many of them extensively.

What is your current MMO of choice, or perhaps, what are your current MMOs of choice?

Lord of the Rings Online has my primary attention these days. My better half started playing it, and gaming with someone you love is the best.

I’ve also been playing a bit of Atlantica, but my characters on there have languished a bit while I’ve been busy with conferences. Any gaming time I get right now, I prefer play LotRO.

Which MMO have you spent the most time playing? How long would you say that has been?

Easily Meridian 59. In the 11 years since I started working on it, I I’ve put in hundreds of 24-hour days, and many more times that if you count the time I’ve spent developing and testing the game.

Have you reached level cap in any MMO? If so, which ones?

Unfortunately, Meridian 59 doesn’t have levels, exactly. I’ve built powerful characters, but my preferred type has a lot of skills and I never maxed out a character for various reasons (one explained later). One of my design goals was to allow players to participate in the game, including PvP, without having to have a maxed out character.

Currently, I’ve only ever reached max level in WoW; three times: original, “The Burning Crusade”, and “Wrath of the Lich King” with my main. I guess I did reach max level with my Warlock alt in TBC as well, but I didn’t do much with that character.

I will probably reach max level in LotRO. I’ve gotten bit by alt-itis in that game (I have all 7 slots filled with characters on one server), but I signed up for a year’s subscription. Unless something goes horribly wrong, I’ll probably get one character up to max level in that time.

Loki taps you on the shoulder one day to inform you that you have fallen victim to one of his elaborate pranks. The world you’ve been inhabiting of countless MMOs to choose from and play has merely been a dream. In reality only one MMO exists. After laughing at you for a bit he decides to take pity on you and allows you to choose which MMO will remain. Which one would you choose and why?

I’d tell Loki to knock it off, and threaten to nerf him more than he already is if he doesn’t settle down. I’m the administrator here! Loki is also the name of one of my cats that passed away a few years ago, so it would be strange to have his ghost visit me.

However, if gaming Ragnarök did happen, I would choose MUD1 as the game to stay around. It’s the progenitor of almost all the games we currently have, so if we start there then we could re-create all the current MMOs (and perhaps make them even better!)

Are there any MMOs currently in development that you are particularly interested in? Please explain.

Yes, but I don’t know what they are yet. Independent MMO developers suck at marketing, so I rarely find out about them until they’ve launched (and usually limped along with few players). I think indie MMOs are the more interesting ones to watch these days.

I’m also (slowly) working on a small project as well, so I’m interested in seeing that completed.

Feel free to share an interesting or amusing anecdote related to your MMO gaming experience.

There are too many! Here are just a few:

When I was playing MUDs with a friend, he got his friend to start playing. I was helping him with my female character (but we didn’t tell him it was me), then he hit on and kissed my character. He turned to my friend, in the same computer lab, and said, “I just kissed her!” My friend and I almost died laughing. Not surprisingly, the guy got embarassed and never played MUDs ever again.

That wasn’t the last time that character got hit on. I quickly grew tired of being the target of unwanted advances. I really sympathize with what women have to put up with in games.

Because I bought Meridian 59, some people think I’m able to buy and save any game. I’ve gotten emails asking me to buy and relaunch other games, like Earth & Beyond, Multiplayer Battletech, etc.

It’s hard to play your own game as a developer. I want to be social, but if people find out you’re a developer they start treating you very different. I had a mortal character in one guild and people were starting to suspect the character was me. The issue came to a head when a few people were coming to the local area and knew “both of us” lived in the area, so they invited both the character and me (the admin) to a get-together. I had to stop playing the character once he was exposed. Most of my characters have short lives or lonely ones because of this.

Rivs

MMO community connection:

Way of the Chosen

Chapter1: Introduction

What is your name (your online persona/alter-ego, what have you)?

My Birthname is Christopher Cavelle.  My real life longest standing nickname is River, and most of my toons in the various games follow some sort of naming scheme that has River, or Rivs in it. My current toons are Rivs in WAR, and Rivzok in WoW. Most people just call me Rivs though and that’s just fine.

What is your connection to the gaming/blogging/podcasting community (your chance to plug yourself here)?

I run a website Way of the Chosen.  I also have a personal blog, Chaotic Ramblings.  I use to have a WoW blog but I shut that down.  I just felt like everyone else was doing a better job at saying what I had to say.

Please take a minute and describe what your blog/podcast is about.

On my gaming blog it concentrates on the Warhammer Online game, with special focus on Chosen, and that class.

Where were you born? Where did you grow up?

Born and bred in Illinois. I grew up in Tinley Park, Illinois a south burb of Chicago.

Where do you live now? In the Town right next door to Tinley Park, called Orland Park, IL

Your level (age) is somewhere in the range of (pick one): 10-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60, 61-70, 71-80, 81-90

I’m 36

What do you do for a living?

I’m a Network Administrator

If you could reroll your career, what would you be?

Poet-Warrior

List five random things most people don’t know about you.

• I really would like to make my own brand of whiskey.
• Some people just know me as River, they don’t know my real name.
• I use to bounce at bars for a living, I’m like Patrick Swayze just uglier.
• I’m the Ice Cream Eating Champion of Tinley Park. I won an eating contest.  I go to defend my title in July.
• There was a time in my life when I didn’t want anything to do with computers.

Feel free to discuss any family you have here.

I have a small family: mom, dad, one brother, several nieces, and nephews though.  My brother is a busy guy.

Chapter 2: Origins

What kind of games (if any) did you play as a child before you got into video gaming? Did you play with family, friends or was it more of a solo activity?

I remember playing Atari 2600, games like Combat with my brother and Pitfall. Then I moved to the Commodore 64 some of the biggest games I played were the Bards Tale and Gold Box Series.

What other hobbies and/or activities did you have as a child (sports, music, etc)?

Football, Wrestling, Track. I loved GIJOE and Transformers.

Were you ever exposed to pen and paper role playing games? What was that experience like?

Yes I played several D&D, Star Frontiers and Marvel Role Playing to name a few.

Did you read much as a child? If so, what did you like to read (books, comic books, etc?) Please list some favorite authors, titles, etc.

Yes I read religiously, too many titles to list.  JRR Tolkien was the king. RA Salvatore is one of my favs as well.

Would you say that any of these games or books had an effect on your later appreciation of computer gaming and ultimately MMOs? Please explain.

I think a lot of the RA Salvatore books and a lot of games. Also the Bards Tale and Gold Box series, or D&D computer games really influenced me to go into MMOs.

How were you fist introduced to video games? How old were you? What was the platform?

I remember I think I was 7 or 8 when I first saw Pong on the Atari 2600, and I was like Whoa.  The rest is history.

Did you ever play coin-op games at the arcade? What was that experience like?

Dear god yes, I remember just living in the arcade. But some of my fondest memories comes from Street Fighter 2, me and my friends would just go at it all day, and I loved it.

What was the first video game you can remember playing that really made an impression on you? Please explain.

So many for so many reasons. Bards Tale because it was like entering another world where I controlled these people and solved puzzles. Then Street Fighter, because I got to go toe to toe with people, and I am a bit of a competitor.

What gaming consoles have you owned in the past?

Atari 2600, Intellivision, Playstation, Xbox, Dreamcast. Sega Genesis.

Feel free to share a story related to your gaming experience as a child.

I remember ditching school, and playing Combat on my 2600 with my brother for hours.

Chapter 3: Online

Were you ever exposed to MUDs?

Nope

What was your first MMO experience?

2002 was the year. I was playing Aliens vs Predator 2 like crazy. I was part of a Clan called Hell’s Elite Legions. They were starting a new chapter for a game called Dark Ages of Camelot. Since I just recently got laid off, I had A LOT of time on my hands, so they needed healers and I decided to start a cleric.

If possible, list all the MMOs you’ve played extensively.

• Dark Ages of Camelot – Cleric 50
• World of Warcraft – Mage 80
• Warhammer Online – Chosen 40.

What is your current MMO of choice, or perhaps, what are your current MMOs of choice?

World of Warcraft and Warhammer Online

Which MMO have you spent the most time playing? How long would you say that has been?

World of Warcraft since beta in 2004.

Have you reached level cap in any MMO? If so, which ones?

Yes DAOC, WoW, and WAR

Loki taps you on the shoulder one day to inform you that you have fallen victim to one of his elaborate pranks. The world you’ve been inhabiting of countless MMOs to choose from and play has merely been a dream. In reality only one MMO exists. After laughing at you for a bit he decides to take pity on you and allows you to choose which MMO will remain. Which one would you choose and why?

Hmmm. Tough question. I would like WAR to stay because I love the Lore, and the RvR aspect of it.

Are there any MMOs currently in development that you are particularly interested in? Please explain.

Star Trek Online – I want to be a Klingon, and Captain a Bird of Prey – KAPLAH!

And Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. – Evil Sith Lord…hello!

Feel free to share an interesting or amusing anecdote related to your MMO gaming experience.

So many, One of my personal favorites was after a raid in World of Warcraft where I was playing my Alliance Mage. Usually Mages open a portal to main city, usually Ironforge. Well players just assume Mages would teleport them where they want to go. So I worked things out with my Mage brethren. We opened our portals all to Darnassus. They all clicked on them. All the mages heard on vent was, “Damn Mages!” It was great…So the lesson here is always look before you click. Heck some of my guildies still look before they click one of my portals.

Chapter 4: Preferences

At your peak, how much time per week would you say you spent gaming? How about now?

During Peak I would say 40-50 hours a week, usually these days around 20 hours.

When during the week are your regular play times?

Sunday through Wednesday, weekends are hit and miss depending on my social calendar.

Generally speaking, are you more of a social creature in MMOs (grouping to quest, joining guilds, etc.) or something of a lone wolf?

More of a lone wolf, but I have made friends in the MMO community.

Have you made any lasting friendships through your MMO experience? Please explain.

Yes some of my old guildies who have been gaming with me since 2002 are good friends of mine now.

Before logging into a game, do you already have a course of action planned out in your head, or do you just sort of do whatever you feel like once in game?

I would say it’s more of a guideline. Ok I need to run this dungeon, or I need to get some of these type of points, or farm these crafting mats. If something pops up where I’m needed, or sounds like fun. I go.

When playing MMOs do you tend to just play one at a time or do you take more of the smorgasbord approach?

Usually one at a time, but now a days it seems like I’m playing two. So I don’t know how long I can keep that up.

Do you tend to supplement your MMO gaming with other PC, console or tabletop games?

Not really, I’m a dabbler in that regards, I may play something else for a little bit to check it out…but it’s always back to MMO’s

Are you something of an altoholic? No not really.

Use to be, unabashedly. Then I had all these mediocre toons running around, when others would have awesome toons. So I decided just to work one toon at a time.

Do you find yourself multitasking while gaming (perhaps watching TV, talking on the phone, out of game instant messaging, playing another game, or even listening to a podcast)?

No I wish I had that kind of brain power. LOL! But I do listen to my mp3 player when grinding.

Do you find yourself having much MMO discussion off-line, perhaps with friends or family?

All the time, I do write a blog ya know. But it’s great when people come up to me and go…”Oh you play that, or this.” Finding out people who are active in MMO’s that you never knew before. It’s exciting.

Have you ever felt that you game too much? If so, how did you cope with that?

Yes I feel I do game too much sometimes, then again I’m a single guy, no kids, a lot of free time. It’s better then being addicted to something else say crack…but crack is probably cheaper. I may have to reconsider….just kidding.

Since you started playing MMOs, have you ever taken a break from the genre? If so, please explain.

No, I love the genre.