About
so who am I? Why did I start this website? What credibility do I have on the subject of video games to lend advice? If you have these kinds of questions for me, read on.
My Gaming History
Pre-Call of Duty
Back in 2002 my brother and I got a ride to the local MediaPlay to buy a new computer game to play all too excessively. After walking the aisles for about 20 min we were debating between Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and some other FPS that I don’t recall at this time as, well, we didn’t get it. We made our way to the register with no idea that this purchase would be the onset of what is now seven years of FPS gaming for me. Prior to MoH:AA I played a number of other games but this is the first that I entered the realm of competitive gaming.
From the moment I heard my 28k modem chime and I clicked to play MoH:AA online I was hooked. The fast-paced, in-your-face action was so immersive I just couldn’t slow down to play the other RTS and RPGs I had on my shelf. So, as the progression of playing FPSs online goes I quickly became aware of what is known as a clan or group of players that play together on a regular basis and even compete on competitive ladders. Naturally I wanted to get into that and see how I ranked among the best of those out there. My memory here is a little faded of how exactly it went down but I ended up joining a clan called PWC or Peckerwood Clan which to me now is quite hilarious as at the time I didn’t know what that name meant. After what was probably only a couple of months I asked the clan leader at the time if he’d get us signed up on a 2v2 ladder (OGL). Railroad Killer was his name and although we had our voice comms at the time, we got smoked. Once again I don’t recall the scores or our overall record but I do vividly recall getting destroyed in one particular match.
What may be surprising is that not only was I not discouraged by the loss, but it fueled my desire to get better at the FPS genre. I stayed with them through the Spearhead expansion and at some point I got tired of it and bounced around different games like Unreal Tournament and Counter-Strike, perhaps even going back to some RTS and RPGs, Starcraft and Diablo anyone?
Call of Duty
Fast-forward about six months before Call of Duty was released and I was in a new house with DSL internet playing one game or another looking for the next FPS to devote my time to when I stumbled upon the demo for Chaser which proved to be a fun game to play, and before it was even released I joined a clan for it called Elite Fragging Force (EFF) ran by a player with the alias Momma. Now as the release for Chaser drew near I noticed that although the game was good fun to play it just didn’t have the player support to fuel a successful online challenge. However, I remained in EFF as we all were looking forward to the release of Call of Duty.
While in EFF I met a number of great people and we also entered the ladder play, namely Teamwarfare League (TWL) where we made it up to and held the #2 spot for Team Deathmatch (TDM) eventually taking the #1 rung when that team chose to move on to Cyberathelete Amateur League (CAL). During our rise in the ranks for TDM we tried our hand at some 5v5 S&D which we quickly realized was not where our talents lied. While in EFF I ran some clan practices and did some war arranging. However, after putting in all the time to not only play the game but to manage different aspects of the clan I began to get worn out on CoD and went back to playing Counter-Strike:Source on a casual level while holding ties to EFF as we started a division for CS:S.
As getting burned out on CoD dwindled my desire to play I continued on with CS:S through which my skill greatly improved. With the memory of the enormous amount of work required to manage a clan and play competitively leaving a bad taste in my mouth I refrained from joining the CS:S clan Delta Tac of which I spent an extensive amount of time playing with and in their public server. That coupled with the fact that I was interested in the prospect of joining the USAF which would require a long leave of absence from the gaming scene. I continued to play CS:S casually with D.Tac until I entered Basic Training. My absence continued for 3 more months through my Tech School as internet access was limited and computers that could run FPSs were inconvenient to come by.
Having made the decision to join the AF greatly reduced my ability to play First-Person-Shooters, I went back to casually playing a number of other games from other genres. However, when I got to my first duty station (Ramstein AB, Germany) I signed up for DSL internet on base and eagerly awaited my household goods ie. computer to arrive. With the desire to get back into competitive play growing inside me I went back to my roots of where I left off pre-AF which at the time was CS:S. I played CS:S for a couple of months putting up with an annoyance set by Deutch Telecomm (DT) which is the countries backbone for internet and telephony. The inconvenience I was left with was that DT was limiting my Steam traffic ie. my Counter-Strike: Source data between my client and the dedicated servers. After googling for hours to answers for why this was there was little out on the subject. What little I could gather is that there was some disagreement between Valve and DT over the use of the Steam client and DT in-placed this filter to “win” the argument, whatever it was.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
Thankfully my heroes over at Infinity Ward were so gracious to bring out their sequel to the CoD series, CoD4 or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. But wait aren’t you forgetting CoD2? Why didn’t you just play that? Well, I did, but was disappointed by two things, 1) It’s still WWII, the weapons are the same but the firing mechanics had changed, and 2) the firing mechanics had changed. Getting so use to the way the original CoD worked along with it’s expansion CoD:UO (United Offensive) I was fairly upset with the way it was changed ever so slightly without really ever knowing why. So, rather than finding out or taking the time to learn a variance I arrogantly dropped it without a second thought. Ok, back to CoD4, the saving grace for my gaming career at the time.
Due to real life issues along with just being in another Country the first time really living away from home I wasn’t ready to look around for a clan to play with let alone one that spoke English primarily until one day I stepped in the server of Bravo 2 Zero (B2Z) and found formidable opponents. As anyone in B2Z at the time I joined will tell you I came at an interesting time. Not long after I arrived the clan split. A week into their recruitment trial period I was given my tags and participated in my first intra-clan scrimmage with B2z. The sole purpose being to practice the match team’s tactics of Sabotage which was their primary focus at the time. Quite quickly the match team members recognized me as a player with a lot of potential that could benefit the team as it stood, let alone they were already looking to grow their numbers if for nothing else to have alternates. Given my track record and burning desire to keep playing at a competitive level I willingly accepted and we were off hitting the Clanbase ladder for sabotage play. We soon entered the Search & Destroy Clanbase ladder as well, but due to a disagreement between the clan management the entire match team chose to leave B2Z which also left me with a decision to make. Continue on with the group of players I had been working with for the past month or sit tight with B2Z and rebuild a formidable match team. Having invested so much time and energy working with the present match team I chose to stay with them and see where that future led.
Initially we looked around to see if any established clans were willing to pick up a team. With a little digging it became apparent that our best bet was to create our own clan. With that decision made we created a 7-man council and named ourselves X-perimental Gamers. I have been with them since about March of 2008 and we have scaled the Clanbase ladder for S&D. We have maintained the top 5 for a number of months, but as we kept life as our priority over the clan we became stretched to thin. Between balancing our personal lives and building a self-sustaining clan our match team’s results suffered. Unfortunately we haven’t taken the #1 rung yet and we’re forced to persevere through continued set backs one of which has been me moving back to the United States outside the possibilities of competitive play. Primarily due to time difference and high latency. So currently I am maintaining ties to =XG= while putting in time and energy into making this site a valued source of information for the global gaming community.
So why do I work on this site? What initiated the creation of it and furthermore the desire to continue investing in it? If the answers to these questions interest you, read on.
Reasons for Creating this Site
I originally started creating the content of this site as a collection of tips to help individual players within my clan at the time, =XG=, to improve their personal skill set as it related to First-Person-Shooters. As The Original Guide developed I began to realize that I had a lot to say on the subject. Furthermore I thought, why not share this with the global gaming community? Perhaps, by improving the community itself, I could cultivate a culture that would not only attract more players, but bring recognition to the gaming industry itself, and in the very long run make the entire gaming experience better.
Even that is more of a hope right now for me than the actual reasons for creating this site, which besides helping others in my clan improve their skill, I started writing to see if I could find any gaps in my own skill to improve upon. I’ve been told many times, the best way to learn is by teaching, so to further enforce my understanding of the mechanics of the game I consciously explored what I already knew and watched to see where that would take me.
Lastly I put the effort into this site to attract like-minded individuals to better each other and the community as a whole. Hopefully I’m well on my way in that respect ;).
Contact Info
E-Mail: ImprovingYourPlay@Gmail.com
X-Fire: Howie17
