Bears, chickens, and cows, oh my!

Greetings faithful viewers [sic]! As the contributors give an introduction, I thought it was time I begin my career here at Cool Runners and a healthy preamble to who I am and my past experiences. So without further ado:

For those of you who don’t know me, well, I go by many names. On Altar of Storms, a few know me as Attica but mostly Bulvex, the guild bear-tank or more popularly crit-chiken. On other realms and in other games and forums, a lot of people know me as Dash. Any or all are preferred.

With syntax out of the way, let me tell you about what games I’ve played that make up the cumulative knowledge of useless cultural video-game quotes that define my mind. I started back in the heyday with 8-bit Mario and worked my way up to an SNES, N64, Gamecube, and dipping into other console and venues along the way. Eventually I learned of the all-encompassing PC and started with games such as Commander Keen and worked my way into in RTS favorites like Starcraft and Age of Empires. I played quite a bit of Diablo II with some of my fellow Altar of Storms friends, I’m still quite engaged in AOE III, LAN favorites like Warcraft III, Anno 1701, Battlefield 1942, and a few mismatches here and there. However, like most of you probably reading this, I stumbled upon the major leagues, and found the holy grail of all genres – MMORPGs.

I need to make a confession before I go any further: I have played a lot games. Not just the amount of time I put into games, because it varies with my other activities, but the pure number of games I’ll try for an hour or two, then quit and move on until I find a true nugget. I play a lot of demos, download or have borrowed full games and trials, and in the end probably play a good 90% of the games I preview, read reviews about, and determine are worth my time to take a shot at.

But in regards to playing MMORPG’s (I’ve quite a few), I’ve spent the most time with two giants: World of Warcraft and Star Wars Galaxies. First came SWG. Like WOW I played it since launch. I think it’s fair to say that a lot of people have a love hate relationship with SWG, or more accurately, Sony Online Entertainment. SWG is probably one of the geekiest, yet most thought about hyped- fantasy game out there. It’s an online world where the likes of Millennium Falcons and Lightsabers are at your fingertips is the wet-dream of many men and women; and probably the coolest thing about SWG or Star Wars if the level of fascination which has rarely wavered since the late ‘70s.

Although I’ve played both games since launch with only a month or two leeway, I eventually gave up SWG at the birth of the NGE (New Game Experience) patch, or what several thousand fan saw as the death of their beloved SWG. I won’t go in the details here, but someday I’ll lay out an extensive and complicated rant which I’m sure vindicates the arguments of several once loyal, now pissed-off SWG fans.

But for WOW, I’ve never stopped loving it. I dabbled in Warcraft II, have played Warcraft I briefly, and spent the majority of my time in Warcraft III and the Frozen Throne expansion. I watched WoW from its development stages (two-headed Orge race anyone?) and eventually joined an all-European guild on Kargath, where I became the first American and brought in a succession of fellow constituents. After years of successfully co-running a guild and raids, I made my semi-permanent home on Altar of Storms where I play with friends and neighbors close and afar.

My stint on Altar of Storms doesn’t compare to the time I spent on Kargath, but I generally like the raiding there better. It’s not as professional and we don’t clear as much content, but it’s fun being with people you know on a personal level. Sure, the trade channel and Barrens chat is about as abysmal and immature as you can possibly get, and the 5-man PUGs and raiding atmosphere is by far the most competitive, unfriendly, and downright belligerent as I’ve seen on any other game I’ve played (Diablo II PKers would be a rare exception), but it adds to the charm; it’s like going out to your favorite four-star restaurant and passing the brothel along the way.