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.

Larísa

MMO community connection:

The Pink Pigtail Inn

Chapter 1: Introduction

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

Larísa

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

I run a WoW blog since february 2008: The Pink Pigtail Inn.

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

It’s about World of Warcraft the way I see it. Quite a lot of personal rantings, sharing thoughts and opinions. Not so much of guides, news and useful information, actually non of it.

Where were you born? Where did you grow up?

I’m from Sweden, where I also live.

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

Turning 42 this year.

What do you do for a living?

I’m a trained journalist, but been working in PR/Information quite a few years now.

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

Nah… I’m not the kind of person who walks around in life regretting things.

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

• That I run a blog of my own.
• How I WoW, what the gaming is like.
• That I was a punk rocker when I was young.

Feel free to discuss any family you have here.

I’m married since 23 years and got two teenage daughters. Noone else in my family is a gamer, which is a problem, especially since this passion of mine turned up so late in life.

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?

Not much of gaming at all. What is a bit related though is that I’ve been reading science fiction and fantasy since I was a child and that I’ve been active in the so called science fiction fandom, giving out stencilized fanzines, which could be seen as a sort of equivalence to blogging.

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

Rock music and reading. I’ve never been much of a social or sporty person. More or less a typical geek I guess.

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

Not very much to be honest. But know quite a few role players. I could very well have ended up as one, I think I would have enjoyed it.

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.

Yeah… I’ve lost count how many times I’ve read Tolkien for instance. I still re-read it every three years or so. Asimov, Simak, Bradbury and Clarke were heroes of my childhood.

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 come from the literature fantasy and sf movement and I feel very much at home in gaming now because of this. I find the same mentality among many players.

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

I had very little experience of video gaming before I started to play WoW in 2007.

I was introduced to it by my younger sister, who told me I should try it since she thought I’d love it. “I don’t have time for such a thing”, I told her. “There’s ALWAYS time for WoW”, she replied. So I bought the game in the Christmas 2006 and installed it a month later. That was a pain – it was basically my first computer game ever if you don’t count a few sessions of Lemmings and a little bit of Civilization. I was very proud when I finally entered the world.

I the beginning the idea was to have it as a project together with my teenage daughter. But she soon lost interest in it, while I got more and more caught. My sister who made me start in the first place stopped playing long ago.

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

nope

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

Civilization. Pretty early I had a gaming session when I completely lost track of time and that scared me a bit tbh. I didn’t touch it after that.

What gaming consoles have you owned in the past?

none

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

In the beginning of the 1970s my father worked at a laboratory where they had a huge computer, big as a room, with a brain smaller than a counting machine today. I was just 5 or 6 years old, but he made a small program to keep me occupied when he was at work during a weekend. It contained some kind of lottery and a few other things. Everything was printed out on a paper. And I remember how thrilled I was. It was a magic gaming experience, in all its simplicity.

Chapter 3 : Online

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

nope

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

World of warcraft in the beginning of 2007. But to tell me about the experience… that’s a bit overwhelming. I’ve been doing that on my blog for about 350 post by now… I was the noobiest of the noobish when I started, didn’t know how to move my character at all, felt slightly sea sick, didn’t know about things as repairs, questing, what the game was about. The learning curve ever since has been huge and is still going on.

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

Easy question for me! I play World of Warcraft, where my main is a lvl 80 mage. I’ve also got a lvl 80 rogue and an upcoming little druid.

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

WoW

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

WoW

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

WoW

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?

Oh, I guess I’d been happy if WoW could remain for some while longer… J That’s where I have my character and my guild and everything I’ve invested in the game. I actually doubt that I’d bother to start another one.

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

Being an old Star Trek fan, I can’t help being a bit curious about what it will be like..

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

Read my blog!

Chapter 4: Preferences

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

Don’t want to think too much about that question… Too much time I would say. Maybe something like 20 hours a week or a little bit more?

When during the week are your regular play times?

Two out of three nights of tue-thur-sund 7.30 pm-00. Two or three extra nights from 10 pm and a few hours onwards. Sometimes a couple of hours daytime during the weekends, very irregular, depending on what’s up in rl.

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 social. If it wasn’t for guild life, raiding etc, I would probably not be playing WoW anymore. The game in itself isn’t that interesting.

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

Don’t know yet! I have some friends in game, but if that will last when we’ve all moved on? I don’t know.

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 think I mostly have a pretty clear idea about what to do. Much of my playing, the raiding, is planned. And apart from that I’ve always got some projects I’m working on, such as achievements, levelling an alt etc.

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

Never played anything but WoW.

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

Nope.

Are you something of an altoholic?

Nope.

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)?

If I’m questing or grinding on my own I sometimes listen to a WoW related podcast. But apart from that I need to keep my focus on the game, I’m not skilled enough to do a lot of other things at the same time.

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

No, since they don’t like my WoW playing I avoid to bring it up much.

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

Well, if you ask my family I play too much. I try to negociate, compromize and make real life work as well as possible side by side with my gaming. But it is a challenge.

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

No.

Chapter 5: Blogging

When did you first start blogging? Please take us up to present with all of your projects.

February 2008.

Why do you blog?

I answered that when I once did an interview with myself.  I’ll cut in a reply from there:

Blogging has given me back the fun of writing. I’ve been writing professionally so long that it had lost some of its lustre. But this is done out of pleasure, without any pressure. It’s free and it’s fun and I can combine writing with my favourite hobby – WoW. But I also appreciate the social side of blogging, as well as I like the social side of the game. I didn’t have any knowledge about the Blogosphere when I started. Now I’ve grown into it and it feels like an extra guild to me. I love how we comment on each others blogs. It’s a wonderful network.

And of course I love my guests. The comments you give me, the support, the link love… It gives me daily inspiration to keep going. Lately I’ve got a few letters from people who say that I’ve inspired them to start blogs of their own. I can’t understand in what way, perhaps it’s that I’m an example of that you can blog even if you’re quite an ordinary player and not an expert in any sense. Anyway, it’s amazing to hear and makes me very happy.

Another great bonus of blogging is that it improves my English. I’m aware of that my readers have to put up with a lot of errors, but I feel that I’m developing. When I began I sort of translated my thoughts from Swedish. Now I switch over to thinking in English while writing right from the beginning. That’s a huge step forward.

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

Not really. But I try to have at least 3-4 posts a week.

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

No grinding. I’ve always said to myself and the readers that this is a day-to-day project. I’m not trying to make a living from it. I write for my pleasure and if I find one day that I’ve got nothing more to say I’ll stop.

By contrast, what do you find pleasurable about blogging?

I enjoy the freedom and I enjoy expressing myself. Doing it in English is a challenge, but it’s still fun. And I love the networking dimension of it.

How many people offline know you blog?

Hardly any at all. My sister knows about it, but that’s about it I think. My family doesn’t know.

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

Be patient. Don’t’ expect that you’ll get any feedback or many readers for long. It will probably take months before someone will find you. Write from your own pleasure and don’t worry about subscribers and such. Comment a lot on other blogs and be sure to take good care about the ones that come to your blog, writing replies to their comments. In this way you’ll slowly build an audience.

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

I wish I had started blogging in English, using one of the platforms right from the beginning. As it was now I started in Swedish using a bad, non-standard tool, and it took me a ton of work, actually grind, to translate the posts from the first months to English and move it to Blogger. I could have been without that.

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

Oh yes. When I stop playing I definitely will. Maybe before, it depends on for how long it remains fun.

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?

Hm… not entirely sure about that, pass.

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.

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?

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.

Bonedead

MMO community connection:

Bonedead’s Adventures

Chapter 1: Introduction

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

Bonedead, which I made up when I first started gaming online in 7th grade. Before Bonedead I was ImA FaTBoI and |2ump |2ider but didn’t use either name very long.

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

I write a blog named Bonedead’s Adventures (clever huh?). I’ve almost been doing it for 2 years now which makes me feel pretty good, especially since I’ve finally got at least 1 regular reader! Hah

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

ME! Haha. It’s pretty much just a diary of what I do in games, what I think about games, what I think about the blogosphere, and all that good stuff. I tried to make it have a reason a few times, but that just doesn’t work for me.

Where were you born? Where did you grow up?

I was born in Bradenton, Florida. I lived there until I was about 7 and then moved to Franklin, North Carolina. I lived there until I was 12 or so and moved back to Bradenton. Around 16 or so I moved one city over to Sarasota, Florida and I’ve been here ever since.

Where do you live now?

Sarasota, 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

21-30, I am 22 years young/old.

What do you do for a living?

I am a bookkeeper at a CPA office. I also do monthly/quarterly payroll and unemployment for companies. I’ve recently learned a little bit about depreciation and soon will be learning to do simple 1040 returns. Exciting!

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

I’m pretty satisfied right now. I’m a fan of math to an extent, after a certain point in progression it began to seem pointless to me. Bookkeeping to me is like putting together a big puzzle, there’s always a new bent piece every month.

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

• I work for my dad.
• It’s embarassing to say that.
• I haven’t done much college wise. (See no. 2)
• I pretty much like every MMO.
• I am always being sarcastic, because I think I’m hilarious.

Feel free to discuss any family you have here.

I am engaged to a wonderful lady. We’ve been together for a little over 3 years and we’ve lived together for most of that time.

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?

Well back then my games were called sports. I played Baseball, Soccer, Basketball, and neighborhood street hockey. The first video game I played that I remember was on the Atari. We had some tank game, some cowboy game, and Pitfall. After that was a regular Nintendo with the good ol golden case Zelda. Then my parents bought some learning console called Socrates. It was the first game I had with wireless controllers. Then we got a Super Nintendo and my whole world changed. I played with my older brother and my dad. There was a time when I had a Sega Genesis in my room and my brother had the Super Nintendo in his room. That’s when I became a fan of Beastmaster, Golden Axe, Fifa Soccer, Megaman Soccer, etc. Mario Kart was the first game I picked out on my own and fell in love with (still do love me some Mario Kart).

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

I always answer a question in the question before. I started with Baseball. I remember this one time while playing 3rd base some kid came up to bat and the adults started acting weird like he was going to ruin our day and all the parents of the other team were like, yelling the kids name. Well he slammed it straight to me and I jumped and stretched more than I know and caught his ball. Pretty much everyone started roaring and it made me feel pretty good. When I played soccer I was pretty durn good. I scored on a kick off once by toeing it down to the goal and one of the defenders tried to knee it and bounced it over his goalies head heh. I was on some local team in North Carolina in the 12-14 age range. We were beating everyone with scores ranging from 5-0 to 12-0. We got moved up into the 14-16 league and still won the majority of our games.

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

Only a few times with one of my old middle school/high school friends. He introduced me to Magic The Gathering and also to Ultima Online. Once he was showing me how to make my character in D&D I was pretty much hooked. It was just me and him most of the time, but it was a fun game. Sometimes it felt more like me just trying to be right by explaining why what I’m saying is right and him getting mad that I’m beating his game but that made it more fun to be honest.

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 a lot when I was in school (that wasn’t high school). I started thanks to Pizza Hut (or the Velveteen Rabbit) and their Book-It program which awarded you a free personal pan pizza every 5 books or something like that. Then there was Accelerated Reader where they assigned points for books read. Being the competitive type that I am I began sorting the list of books by the points they were worth. That’s when I discovered The Hobbit. I also read pretty much every Goosebump book, pretty much every Boxcar Children book, and a few random books like one on Michael Jordan. Even some on the Judicial System and Law in general (I’m pretty sure they were made with kids in mind).

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 will always have a soft spot for fun racing games (that aren’t going for realism) like Trackmania and even Free Realms’ racing jobs. I don’t think the books really had an affect on my appreciation towards computer gaming and/or MMOs, maybe The Hobbit, but I still do not own LotRO. The sports, however, definitely affected me. I’m very competitive when it comes to computer games/MMOs.

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

We had an Atari when I was 3-5 I believe. I remember playing it a lot with my brother. Of course there was Pong. My favorites were the tank game, the cowboy game (used to play that on IRL on the couch with my brother), and of course Pitfall.

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

Around the same time we had the Atari we also had a Pink Panther pinball machine. On some weekends my parents would drop me and my brother of at this arcade place. We’d be there for 3-4 hours before they picked us back up and it was always a fight to make us leave. The only game I really remember from there (besides like the Simpsons games and fighting games) was the Aerosmith game where you shoot CDs out of guns.

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

The first computer game/multiplayer experience I had was with my brother over my dad’s work lan. We were playing Doom on Co-Op. I’d played this game a few times before solo and I was young and I really would get scared. I remember in the beginning there is a pitch black room you have to navigate through while hearing crazy pigs breathing all around you. As soon as I could bring my big brother along, it didn’t seem so bad.

What gaming consoles have you owned in the past?

Atari, Socrates, Nintendo, SNES, Genesis, Gameboy, 64, Playstation. That was it for being a family and having consoles. Since then I’ve bought myself a Wii and hardly use it ever. Still need a nunchuck and Mario Kart to even consider playing it. It is a good party game though (sports/wii play).

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

I pretty much traded in sports for computer games. So when I found the Quake 2 Paintball community that had clans, IRC, and competition it opened my eyes. I played a lot, tried to get good, and honestly became half decent. I don’t think I was a member of any of the bigger longer standing clans, but I do remember having a few matches and not always losing. It was Counter-Strike that really opened the competitive gaming world to me though. I pretty much raised myself on the internet in the game Counter-Strike. I was in CAL-M before there was a CAL-P and CAL-IM. I was also in I think IGL with team XZ (lizard, inferno, names no one knows). Basically I’ve played since beta 7 and thus have a 6 digit steam id (which is low, even lower than some are aware it could possibly be, because not everyone understands what the steam id numbers mean). Anyways, at the Pinnacle of my CS times I was playing fun maps with CAL-I players, mainly Hide n Seek with TSG, DiE, and I think some U5 players. All of those clans have placed very high at CPL (which is pretty much world wide). Some people I knew locally and was in a clan with at one time became lucky enough to get a spot in the CPL (due to the real winning team being too young) and they finished I think in 19th place, which is pretty amazing imo. It feels like I’ve been striving for similar peaks since then, though competition in MMOs has much less to do with skill than it does time invested (which makes me not win in my head).

Chapter 3: Online

Were you ever exposed to MUDs?

Not in the “good ol days” but recently (last two or so years) I played some game called Grendel which I assumed was pretty much like what they used to be. I killed a few things, got chased by something I couldn’t beat, and the next day I forgot about it.

What was your first MMO experience?

My first MMO experience was on a free server for UO. My friend introduced me to it. It was an RP server and you had to apply with an RP story about your character. I had my friend write mine because I thought it was dumb. To be honest I don’t remember anything from that server, but my next one, Athlore, I will always remember. This was when I was in around 8th grade, so I’d say about, 1999/2000.

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

UO. I was never a Xx GM mfker but I did use bugs to my advantage a lot. Mainly to get phat lewt. I GMed tinkering because there was a bug where you could create copper keys without any materials, so I left that running all night. Whoopee.

DAoC was probably next. I’ve played it on and off since release. I have I think 3 level 50s. A Kobold Warrior, a Dwarf Skald, a Minotaur Mauler, and I think a 49 Lurikeen Ranger, might be elf though. It took me forever to finally reach max level, and this is pretty much the only game I’ve done it in.

AO was around this time (in my head at least). I played around release. it was buggy as crap, laggy as balls, but they had live events for a lile while and that was just plain cool. I don’t think I made it passed level 15. Since I have gone back and now have a 50-60 Martial Artist and probably 4 guys in their 30s-40s.

Then there was SWG. I loved SWG the way it was, but I like it now too. I remember using some more bugs to my advantage kekeke. If you had Bleed shot (or something like that) as a Pistoleer, you could shoot the big slow bunnies and let them get down to 1% HP, and whatever weapon you used to finish them off with would get the full amount of Combat XP. This didn’t help very much, especially since I liked Pistoleer more than anything else, but it made me feel special heh. I have two level 90 Structures Traders now. I think I have 3-4 level 50 combat professions as well.

WoW blew my mind. I’ve never pregamed so hard in my life. I leveled 3-4 Gnome/Dwarf Rogues to level 15/20 in the Open Beta just to get a good groove down for launch day so I could get ahead of the pack. At this point in my life I was really bad at sticking with it and making it to max level. I still have not reached max level in WoW (highest level is 56). I am currently playing a free server though, with UO rules, and 10x exp. I have an 80 Rogue, 71 Warlock, 60+ Shaman, and a 60+ Priest. Apparently all I needed was 10x exp.

From there I went to EQ2. I didn’t get one character over level 25, I think I’ve only left the Commonlands once. But I did enjoy playing it when the playing was good, it just seemed there was always a point when you had to start grouping. MEH I SAY! I think during my last stint I bought the fairy expansion.

After that I believe I went on a free to play spree. I played Knight Online pretty heavily at one time. At the time they were hosted/published/owned (whatever) by a Malaysian company. This company also had 3 or 4 other MMOs that I played a little.

Then came Vanguard. I loved the open beta and the first week or so. That is until I kept crashing and “chunking”. I remember losing a whole level once while “chunking”. But I loved the PvP server, especially as a Bard.

Warhammer. Got to my late 20s on a Witch Elf. Was specced to proc a lot and I felt pretty powerful. But I don’t stick with games apparently, so I stopped.

Darkfall Online. I was really into this game. I joined a guild, I spent 5+ hours a day playing, and I neglected my fiance a whole lot while getting drunk with my guildies on vent and taking orders from a woman who was my guild leader. Fiance wasn’t a big fan of the whole, guild leader, 5+ hours a day thing, and I fully understand that. So I gave it up, cold turkey (unless Counter-Strike makes it, err, warm turkey?)!

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

Right now I am having a blast with this UOWoW.com free server. I can make a character and get him to level 50 by the end of the day. I don’t see how that could ever be a bad thing.

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

It is probably a tie between WoW and DAoC. My Xfire has me at 747 WoW hours, but I’ve had Xfire turned off the past week or so and I’ve probably added at least 50 hours to it since I had a nice 4 day weekend. DAoC has 598 Catacombs and 326 Labyrinth of the Minotaur. So I guess DAoC.

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

DAoC (but only after Catacombs, which increased leveling speed dramatically), SWG (but only as a Trader, twice, which can be grinded easily with use of macros), and technically WoW (but only with 10x exp on a free server).

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?

Need more parameters! If I choose UO will the graphics be considered butt ugly? Because if not, I would say UO. Give the genre a Tabula Rasa, if you will. If it is perceived to look like bawls then I guess I’d have to say WoW, just because the market would still be huge.

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

Nope. Maybe Star Trek because the new movie kicked sooo much arse. But I learned not to get my hopes up on MMOs a little while ago. So screw em, if it releases and it looks okay and sounds okay (via reading the features) and there’s an open beta then I’ll give it a shot. If there’s no open beta and no free trial and nobody I know is going crazy over it, then I’m not touching it, and I don’t know many MMO players who could even possibly go crazy over it.

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

I used to log into free UO shards with the default admin account/password. Which at the time was %Administrator/%Administrator. My friend who introduced me to UO told me this (as he ran a local private 5-10 person server which I created a couple items for). So we would both do it and use our downloaded GM tools to buff ourselves up and then walk around town ruining peoples’ days. Ahh, the good ol days.

Chapter 4: Preferences

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

My peak was probably only a week long, but I remember getting above 80 hours a week on my Xfire once.

When during the week are your regular play times?

It depends on if my fiance wants to do anything (like leave the cave). If she does and I can see myself sacrificing a year of my life due to the sun’s damaging rays, I don’t get to play that day. If she is fine with not doing things (Huzzah!) then I play from when I get home until I go to bed. Sometimes I’ll get burned out an hour before 10 (when we try to go to be) and see what she is doing. Ideally weekends are uninterrupted game playin time, but every now and then it’s go outside and lose more years of my life.

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

Lone wolf all day long. My problem is that I do what I want to do, I get 10 quests, figure out what order I want to do them in, and go. If I absolutely have to group for a quest I’ll either abandon it or if another player is near the quest location when I arrive I may group with him until we complete the quest, say thanks, and gtfo of the group. I hate when I end up grouping with people who play like me, but are stupid kids who think now I’m their personal slave. I hate when I group with someone and they act like my slave, I don’t want to drag some stranger around while I do my thing. I take small breaks somewhat frequently, people don’t like that. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I hate people who are bad at doing their job, and after many failed attempts at grouping I now label everyone as bad at their class. This way if I lose, I know it is my fault, and I can live with that.

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

I guess you could say that. I’ve hung out at PKer.org since 2003 and we went from having a lot of usual members to maybe 6-10 people who sometimes come by and post something. But the ones who are still there I would consider friends. I met one in real life when I went on vacation and had a blast.

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 I have a plan of action but it is usually extremely vague. When I was leveling Structures Traders in SWG (have 2 level 90s) I would log in knowing exactly what I was going to be doing. It is a good feeling knowing what you’re going to do. I’m playing LotRO right now and I pretty much never know what I’m going to do. However, today I instructed my fiance (who has the day off) to download abc files and get them to play ingame properly. So when I log in (tomorrow as tonight is wine night) I’ll be rushing to the Prancing Pony to play a bunch of crap for people. I plan on “griefing” many people with the Benny Hill song as they quest about.

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

Multiple MMOs never works out with me. I’ll forget about one completely and forget to cancel the recurring subscription and then damn. I try and keep it to 1 MMO and as always, CounterStrike.

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

CounterStrike. I could play Hello Kitty online all damn day as long as I could still get my CS fix.

Are you something of an altoholic?

I currently have a level 20 Champion, a 19 Rune-keeper, two pre-10 alts, and a monster character. But yes, oh hell yes, am I ever an altoholic. My WAR server select screen is ridiculous. Probably 5-6 servers each with anywhere from 2-8 or so characters. I’d guess I have at least 20 WAR characters. DAoC, I’ve created at least 40.

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 used to listen to one of the early WAR podcasts while playing, but then they stopped making the podcast. I did it with Yivvits and Mr Bubbles (right?) in SWG. I’ll talk on the phone if I’m playing the MMO with that person. That is about it though, no TV, no other games, no IMing.

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

I find it is the only thing I ever want to talk about when I’m sober and around friends. I don’t have any other hobbies really so it is either MMOs or discussing the radio shows I listen to on my drive to/from work.

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

Yes. Well I’ve had my breaks. When I moved a while ago I went like a whole two months without internet. That’s right, who wants to touch me?

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

I’ve tried. It was probably recently (within the last few years). All of my options were just the same thing. I’d played them all until I reached my dead end (leveling taking too long) and all that was left for me was to go back and replay them. I’ve just begun to understand (read: accept) that the levels take a long time for a reason. I read a good quote on a blog today about how you hit your head against the wall slowly breaking it down and what keeps you going is knowing that there is something good beyond that wall. End game being the something good. I’d be glad if I started playing more end games in the future.

Chapter 5: Blogging

When did you first start blogging?

August 28, 2007 I wrote my first gaming related blog post about crafting in SWG. Since then I have revisited the subject probably 20 times and would not be surprised if I’ve said the same things multiple times. I’ve been a member of PKer.org since 2003, we tried to turn it into something a few times but nothing ever came of it, nowadays the last few members are almost all admins because we have to donate to keep it alive. I’ve tried to branch out a few times but never really try hard enough. I’d like to just be a rambling asshat in a video but I’ve yet to just throw that out there.

Why do you blog?

I’d love to answer this by saying I want to help people or store my thoughts or some shit, but honestly, I wanted people to know me. I wanted to dive into the MMO community and give my 2 cents and I was pretty sure 2 cents had never been given the same as as I gave mine. If you can’t tell I’m about halfway over that, I realize that my ideas aren’t as unique as I once believed, but I still hope for some sort of recognition for, I don’t know, talking about butthole looseness as it pertains to total levels achieved across all MMOs. Someday…

One of the things I’ve come to enjoy most from my blog is seeing visitors arriving from search engines. Recently I’ve had quite a few people looking for information on Dyna Camp bosses in Anarchy Online. When I was looking for this information, it wasn’t right there when I looked for it, so I wrote a big ass post about it and I guess for the people following in my AO footsteps the info is now right there, right when they look for it. I like that, I could be that guy. Only problem is I’d have to start caring about it enough to not just play games but to write down guides and check facts and shit like that, which is sounding kind of iffy. I’d be more motivated if I searched for something and couldn’t find it.

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

I’m pretty friggin random to be honest. I’m on and off while also being hit and miss. I’m on topic but I’ll be out of order. One day I’ll be talking about how we should be nicer to people and the next week I’m yelling at kids for being fuckin stupid. I guess my main guidelines for myself that I sometimes stray from but always try to return to are to say fuck and shit a lot and also make myself laugh. Ya shit fucker.

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

For me there is only when I’m trying too hard. I read Syncaine and Ixo’s questions today and one of them mentioned grind as a good thing, like in MMOs. I never thought grinds could be considered good. I thought the whole reason it was called a grind was because it sucked and you didn’t want to do it. So using my definition, yeah, when I care too much about the numbers instead of the content then it becomes a grind. It also happens when I care too much about the content, because I’ll shoot every idea I have down because it’s just not good enough!

By contrast, what do you find pleasurable about blogging/podcasting?

Comments, visits, more than 1 page view per visit, being linked, and being searched for and knowing that the person found what they were looking for.

How many people offline know you blog or podcast?

Most of the people I know.

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

Do better than me.

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

You’re not going to be one of the few ranters who gets invited to work for a game company.

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

Of course I can. It will probably happen right after I quit smoking weed and seriously start taking 10 minute walks towards getting my shit together. lol

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?

COME FROM THE LAND OF THE ICE AND SNOW

/kittyvikings

Lars

Chapter 1: Introduction

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

Lars Lundquist (IRL) and in World of Warcraft its Dodriko and Arnóld

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

I am very active in different gaming communitys to keep me up to date. I like to listen to podcasts of different kinds i would like to start to blogg about gaming but my memory is so bad so i always forget to write anything in them.

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

I don’t have any blogs or podcasts but maybe in the future

Where were you born? Where did you grow up?

I was born in Katrineholm in Sweden and did grow up in a little town called Malmköping about 40km north of Katrineholm

Where do you live now?

I live in Eskilstuna

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

21-30

What do you do for a living?

I am in school right now but i have a little music career on the side

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

A full time musician

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

• Likes classic music
• That i am TO kind
• Likes Cartoons
• Likes old 80’s tvprograms (Like Knightrider, A-team, Macguyver and Magnum P.I)
• That i have a serious Nintendo Fetish

Feel free to discuss any family you have here.

I got a mother and father and two sisters, my younger sisters lives in Newcastle with her boyfriend and my older sister lives in Stockholm with her boyfriend and my mother and father still lives in the town where i was born and raised.

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 was born 1981 and got my first console at the age of 5 so honest i dont have so mutch memories without a console but i was not a kid that just played videogames all days, hade to point that out.

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

I did some wrestling as a kid.

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

I was 20year old. The game was Vampire the masqurade and for all that have played that game you know that golden rule “Dont break the masqurade” and guess who did that several times? Yeah me but my friend and also GameMaster that night did cover that up. So my first Pen n Paper rpg experience was scary but also fun and after that it have been alot of pen and paper and that was like over 7 years ago and i think that it opened up my eyes for RPG games.

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.

Not really it have come under later years.

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 my Pen n Paper rpgs did open my eyes for RPG’s and the will to build that ultimate character and the will to learn more about lore and characters and my love for freeroam rpgs

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

Got a Nes on chrismas, i was around 4-5years old.

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

Oh yeah, my first contact with Arcades was when i was a kid and the mall my mom always dragged me to to buy new cloths hade this Double Dragon II Arcade and when we hade bought the clothes i always begged my mother for money to buy candy (I did know then that she would never give money to me to play a game) and then i ran off and played. I never got past the first boss but the experience was really intense

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

A legend of Zelda, i didnt care that i couldnt understand english it was just so fun to run around killing stuff.

What gaming consoles have you owned in the past?

Nes, Snes, Gameboy, Gameboy color, N64, Gamecube and i still have them and often take them out and play them and remember all the good times.

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

Oh there are so many, but i have one funny story. It was when Mega Man 2 came out and both me and my mate bought that game and i sat at my place playing and he at his place playing and we did call up eachother every time we did defeat a boss. And if you have played you know that the game didnt have a save function but instead used this password system with a A-1 B-3 kind of system. I hade Electric man and Wood Man left and i was stuck and one morning i did put in the code (or atleast i thought i put the right code in) and Oh my god when i got to the choose level screen all the bosses was gone and i could go to the Dr Willy stage. And my mate still hates me for that “accident”. And when i am talking about Megan Man 2 i also remember the first boss in Dr Willy stage that dragon that pops-up when you jump the cliffs, i did always got so scared that i jumped wrong and died.

Chapter 3: Online

Were you ever exposed to MUDs?

No i wasn’t

What was your first MMO experience?

2004 and it was World of Warcraft, and it was soo funny i didnt understand anything but i didnt care it was fun to run around Valley of trials killing boars

If possible, list all the MMOs you’ve played extensively. Please start from the beginning and work your way up to the present. For extra bonus fun list your main (class & level) in each game as well.

World of warcraft
Dodriko – Undead Warlock level 74

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

World of warcraft

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

World of warcraft, about 3½years did take a 6month break from it 2006

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

Yeah once Pre-tbc once Tbc and soon to hit level cap again

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?

World of warcraft becouse for me World of warcraft is more then just a game, i have meet so many pepole there that i have gotten friends with and its a real good game

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

Oh yeah, Blizzards Next-gen MMO of course and the new Starwars MMO that takes place during the Knights of the old republic era.

Chapter 4: Preferences

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

Ohh too much time is spend gaming, but it depends on the season. Now during spring/summer it’s about 10 hours per week but during the winter it may double at least

When during the week are your regular play times?

Friday to Sunday

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

Both, i often quest alone but i am real active in the guildchat when i quest

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

Yes, i see world of warcraft as more then just a game, its a place to meet old and new friends and i have a friend that i have been playing since launch day, we are now on different servers but we still chat on MSN and over mail and we have alts on each others server

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 hate to have everything planned out, i am a random guy so to speak, one day i want to do a lot of pvp the other day its doing daily’s the next i do allot of instances

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

I stuck with WoW because i have a computer from the early stoneage, you can play wow on it with no problem but to try to play MMO’s like Conan or any of the newer ones is out of the question until the day i am done with my studies and gotten a job and a big paycheck

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

Yes, i am owner of all Nintendo consoles from the Nes to the Wii and a 360, so the MMO part is actually a small part of my gaming

Are you something of an altoholic?

Yeah, got around 25-30 alts spread over many servers, some of them are just so i can speak with my irl friends ingame but most of them are 40+ and being played on at least several times a week

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)?

Yes, instant messaging alot and listening to music and of course look on diffrent wow related pages (Like wowhead, curse.com, mmo-champion.com)

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

Hehe, yeah since lots of my irl friends also plays wow

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

Yeah, i was without a job and no girl friend so i did play like 8-10 hours a day 7 days a week for a very long time and at the end i was thinking what am i doing and took a 6 month long break from the game

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

Yeah a 6 month break (Reason look at the answer above)

Psychochild

MMO community connection:

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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.