To say that I am an avid gamer is a bit of an understatement. Since I was a little toddler I've always wondered how the little
Intellivision man ran on the screen. Video and Computer games have always held my interest. Not only with the fun factor from a consumer standpoint, but also the development of them.
Since the days of the original Doom game, I have had my hands in some form of modding. From level design to skinning, from audio engineering to scripting, I have held a passion for games, specifically PC games (more accessible to edit).
Not only, in this capacity, but also as a fun, I enjoy promoting great games to get more people to play them with me. As such, I have a few sites that I've developed that show this very thing.
Eve Online - Roleplaying / Storytelling Site:
http://tech4news.org (Run by
http://freebooted.blogspot.com/ and a crew of writers)
Eve Online - Roleplayed Blog and Fan Art
http://eve.tilt180.com
Planetside 2 - Fan Art and Battle Tactics
http://anam.tilt180.com
The Secret World - Roleplayed Blog and Fan Art
http://wolfner.tilt180.com
So, we have Eve Online, Planetside 2, and The Secret World represented here.
I have been involved in the Beta of all three. I have graphic design work in
Eve Online (a logo submitted for a player run alliance) here:
http://evemaps.dotlan.net/alliance/Broken_Toys as well as creating signature and character portraits for various denizens of New Eden. Eve had an excellent blogging / roleplaying community that you can plug yourself into. It's not all about destroying spaceships and meta-game-double-agent-spying, but it's all interconnected. Eve is beautiful. Eve also has many artists and musicians who are avid players. Check out this
Eve Online Soundcloud group. Also, nothing is like
Rettic's music and the multi-talented
Roc Weiler!
For
The Secret World, it is all about story. I am not active in the game at the moment of this writing, but the whole World Mysteries coming to the modern world thing is nice, and the game is chock full of story with ample room for fun roleplaying. Yes. Roleplaying. People still do that, and they do it in computer games. I'm not talking grinding through levels to get the biggest best weapon, no, that's NOT roleplaying, that's Power Gaming. I'm talking about having conversations through the mouth of the character you portray and then what happens in the game effects a running story of your character. Creative fun. Part acting, part writing, all gaming. Incidentally, you should head on over to
http://tsw-rp.com/ if you want to join a community of true roleplayers.
Immersion. That's what it's all about. I played the original Planetside's beta and loved every moment of it. I play beta's to enjoy new games, but, also to help the developers make nice games. Planetside 2, I am in closed beta, tweeting the devs like crazy, contributing bug reports... but let me tell you, this game, is hands down, the culmination of all the greatness of massively multiplayer gaming and first person shooter team-based combat. It has taken the concepts of design of Planetside, and pushed it into the future. The scalability of what they plan is amazing. It's fun in its current stage, and they will expand even more. Is there roleplaying? Yes. Even those who aren't roleplayers do get into the sovereignty ribbing. By the way, We Are The Future - Vanu For Life!
The best thing about Planetside 2? It's FREE to play. They do have microtransactions, but they are not pay to win power items, but what they are calling "sidegrades". You can get a gun that shoots faster, but hits for less of a punch or etc. It's shaping up to be the title that you can pick up, jump in, get out, come back later, follow, and enjoy. There's even support for E-sports features that let you stream live and record VOD as you go with Youtube.com and Twitch.tv integration. Real Fun. Really free. The future IS Free to Play as Free to Play is not what it used to be.
This blog post really is a way of pulling a lot of my passion for gaming into one spot for those who know me by name. Some of you who find this will say, "OH! So that's who that guy is." To you I say, Hello! Welcome to the real me ;) Some of you Secret Worlders at one point, wondered how much of Mr. Wolfner I really am. An elaborate interwoven story combined with real world events does that to a player character. :)
To all of you in the gaming or game-supporting industry, I bid you a "hello". You may have had the pleasure of seeing my community contributions, 3D models, illustration. You may have known me as a Sales Engineer or Tech Support guy, supporting web designers, game developers, and live streamers, but I tell you, I am way more than just those things. If you didn't know my passion, maybe you can see it now.
I am one of those impassioned people who raise the bar when it comes to the whole of the gaming community. If you hire me for my artistic talents, technical talents, community talents, you will see the same passion. It's not what I do so much as why I do it. I agree with
http://www.the9.com/en/about01.html . Gaming IS the 9th Art!
Passion means more than talent. Talent is an innate ability towards success at certain things. I have talent for art, and skills in coding and web-based things. Yet, without passion, I am just a few items on a resume for you to read. Passion is what encourages others towards greatness and I have plenty of that to lead an army.
