Programmer, Analyst, Learner, Leader, Gamer

On April 15th I asked the Browncoats and HILYMI for donations for our vent server. Pretty simple, I wanted to pay for a whole year of one of the best vent providers with best codec around for a 32-man server. Donations at first came in rather slowly, then I put up one of those donation Thermometers/Bats and an amazing thing happened.

As of today, April 25th, thanks to the donations from the Browncoats and Hit it like you mean it, we hit our goal. I’m so proud of everyone coming together to pay for a resource that’s outside my normal scope of things I pay for myself (the guild website I offer for free because it’s all lumped into my Dreamhost account).

Oh and we actually went a little above goal, but that’s ok. I’ll keep those funds in the account until we need them again.

My guild has made a solid commitment to WAR. Most of us (if not all of us I think) already have the Collectors Edition and are eagerly excited to play WAR long term. We want to help with the beta process. Most of us have played MMO’s for years including UO, EQ, AC, Horizons, EQ2, WoW, and many others (depending on the member that is). Many of us have beta’d (is that a word?) many games and really want to help make Warhammer the game to beat all other games, including the infamous WoW. Many of us feel that WoW is only “the best” because there are no well polished alternatives out there… until Warhammer. We’re so excited about the game most of us spend our days trolling the internet for little facts like watching Paul’s Blog, the Newsletter, TenTonHammer interviews, or random YouTube videos.

Many of us right now are wondering around the MMO universes trying out trials and such to get ideas about what elements are good and bad about MMOs. We don’t think there is a single good product on the market that can even hold a candle to Warhammer which is kind of painful because we’re a guild without a universe to call home. We’ve been in this state for almost 6 months now after I left WoW and many did as well. Recently I re-rallied the troops after the announcement of the pre-order for the collector’s edition. Currently we have 30 people committed to WAR and 6 people “on the fence”. From what I’ve heard through the grape vine you’ve recently moved into heavier RvR testing. I think if we were allowed in the beta, we really would be able to test the prowess of 15-20 people coordinating in Ventrilo participating in a siege.

I personally am a 13 year veteran WarHammer collector/painter/gamer, WAR Collector’s Edition owner, veteran news letter subscriber, and have been participating recently in every single contest to try to get into the closed beta myself. I’m trying my hardest to be admitted into the beta, but I can’t tell you how much it would mean to me if I was able to get all troops into the closed beta.

“The Changer of Ways”

Dear brothers and sisters! When people hope for change, who answers their dreams and visions of the future? Who answers their prayers? Who turns their hopes into reality?

Hope for money.
Hope for power.
Hope for fame.
Hope for a better future!
HOPE FOR A DIFFERENT WORLD!

Hope.

Hope is an interesting and silly emotion.

The weak don’t understand the true potential of hope. They cling to it like a security blanket. Their citizens, lying in their safe homes, hope that their Emperor will lead then to a great and prosperous future. Their politicians hope for power and manipulate their governments. Their warriors hope for power granted by false, clearly absent gods. But they continue on hoping, clinging onto every dream. Every dream goes unanswered… for a time.

The powerful know the potential of hope. They go to whatever end is necessary to slough off the current reality and replace it with the vision of their own. They seek to change everyone else’s perception of reality to fit their perception of reality. These powerful individuals I see here, in this place of worship, today. You all know of the power of hope and the power of change.

They say he was born from this single unifying concept humans hold dear to themselves: hope. From hope he hatched into something different, something… magical. He has no single corporeal form, but those who have seen him have depicted him as a winged vulture or raven like god. This is of course symbolic, for his vision changes the reality of the known world like wind blows through the feathers of the raven in the sky at night. His subtle manipulation of the time, space, and the dwindling forces of mankind can be seen all around us. His brothers, especially his eldest brother spite him. They scoff at his vision, his thoughts. They feel his methods are manipulative and cowardly. They do not understand the power of hope. It is not their fault; they are purely fueled through other less subtle nuances of humanity.

So I say to you today dear brothers and sisters of Chaos. When you go to sleep at night in these cold lands of we call Kislev, do you feel our great god all around you? Do you feel his presence as your dream, him listening to every word? Do you look at the ever changing moon and count the days till the world understands what we want to share with them? Have you been blessed and changed by his manipulative hand? Do you accept the gifts that he graciously bestows upon you with his unimaginable power?

I believe all of you have said “yes” to many, if not all of these questions.
I believe all of you understand his vision.
I believe you, members of the Raven Host, are passionate worshipers of the great god Tzeentch, the Changer of Ways.
I believe humanity’s vision of the world will soon be replaced by our great god’s vision.
I believe that no one can stop us.

BROTHERS AND SISTERS!
Let us show these non-believers the true power of chaos!!!

I am am officially hanging up my Injection Gun. I am a 1 character MMO player. 5 1/2 years 1 character in EQ, 2 yeas in WoW, and 6 months here in TR and I had competed everything there was to complete in 4 slow drawn out months. Unfortunately the Alpha program experience assisted in the ending of my Tabula Rasa career.

I will be hanging out in DAoC with Zald until I get into the Warhammer closed (or eventually open) beta from my Collectors Edition pre-order. Warhammer’s Realm vs Realm was based on DAoC. We’re not going to play it seriously, just for fun and something new and different to do till Warhammer comes out. For me Warhammer has been an obsession of mine for 13+ years now. The new information released about the game recently got me super excited and the re-forming of my old guild has gotten me motivated to move into that universe.

I still will have by account active for another month (my account renewed today). Who knows maybe patches will come out that will keep me active in Tabula Rasa, but I highly doubt it.  For the record: yes those assholes who complain that a game that’s a challenge is stupid and hate raiding… those people ruined the game.

So today I decided to resurrect HILYMI as a Warhammer: Age of Reckoning guild. I assure you, this is NOT an April Fools joke. Don’t ask me why this came to me on a day like this but continuing frustrations about TR and seeing posts on the HILYMI forums motivated me to do it today… /shrug.

I will continue to hate Warcraft, but I miss the guild. I don’t like what Blizzard has done to the game. It is not the game for me anymore. I’m not interested in going back to Warcraft, but I’m not happy in Tabula Rasa. It’s a great game, but it’s not the kind of game I want it to be and will never be. Warhammer, now with the big budget of EA, is shaping up to be an excellent game.

25 years of Games Workshop universe complexity.
Financial backing of Electronic Arts.
Realm vs Realm game play from Dark Age of Camelot.
Instanced PVP and PVE concepts from Warcraft.
Instanced raiding. World event raids.
Truly the next generation MMO.
I pre-ordered my limited collector’s edition copy on Sunday.
 

I was talking with Krommy in AIM chat and he mentioned “Isn’t Warhammer still in Beta?”. Yes, Warhammer is due in the fall. Yes it’s quite early to be discussing the guild’s future in Warhammer, but these things take time.

Discussions take time.
Revamping the website will take time.
Finding lost brothers will take time.
Gathering our forces will take time.
Re-forming the officership will take time.
Re-writing policy will take time.These things will take time.
 

I want all of it worked out BEFORE the game starts. That way we have time to enjoy the game and have a strong clean head start in the universe. We have a lot of lost time to make up. We can start that journey now.