Since this is an MMO site, I better head off the questions before they arrive, yes I know Alluvian was one of the three Asheron’s Call races, and no, I didn’t get the name from that. It predates that by a good 5 years at least. It originated in Sojourn, since then known as TorilMUD, and then again as Sojourn. I have lost track of their naming. It was a fun DikuMUD that held my attention through my college years in Milwaukee Wisconsin. I am a mechanical engineer by schooling, but always felt more at home with computers. I still don’t know why I didn’t go for a CS degree instead. Some bad advice about them being low paid I guess. This was right before the .com boom. Oh well.

After a failed attempt with Ultima Online (never ran well for me, always crippling movement lag), I joined the rapidly growing MMO community with EverQuest. It was discussed in Sojourn at the time that Brad McQuaid, founder of EQ, had played the game, and that a lot of the influences from it came about from DikuMUDs. So I gave it a try as a way to keep in touch with friends when my job moved me to my present home of Orlando, Florida. The game and concept hooked me. I find them just as interesting as elaborate social experiments as games. I like seeing how the socioeconomic meta-game plays out given the framework set by the developers.

It was during my playing of EQ that I met my wife, Linda (Brasse). She played such a convincing male Dwarf in those days that it was about 6 months of being friends in-game before I even figured out she was a she. It turned out great in a very odd way. We were able to establish a friendship without any of the falsities that go into the whole courtship deal. Once the friendship is established, the rest seems pretty easy.

While playing EverQuest I also spent a lot of time in Asheron’s Call and Dark Age of Camelot. I loved the open sandbox concept of Star Wars Galaxies, and the incredibly detailed crafting and economic framework the game developed for the players. Too bad the combat was never any good (and got worse every time they ‘fixed’ it). The grafted on player cities, vehicles, and space game made me really wish that the game had been held back a year or two so they could have been properly integrated into game play and the social structure of the game. I could really go on about that game for a long time. I find it very interesting how the game changed from Beta to live and with each major new change. Even good changes often brought negative results, since the established social community often hinged on bridging the gaps between the established tools.

I can’t think of an MMO I have not played, and almost all of them had some very interesting concepts (except maybe Earth and Beyond). I have hung my hat in EQ2 most recently, with jaunts into City of Heroes/Villains, Planetside, and Puzzle Pirates. It isn’t so much that I don’t like WoW, but I think the group dynamic is more interesting in EQ2. Between Brasse and Wren, we always have a good three person group ready to go. That small group game is more fun to me in EQ2 than WoW. I play WoW when I feel like soloing. It is a great solo and PVP game.

I am waiting and PRAYING that Mythic pulls off Warhammer Online. It is one of the best settings imaginable for an MMO (except Warhammer 40K). Everything good about Warcraft was lifted directly from Warhammer. I will definitely be herding my share of squigs there. Even if the game is lousy, I will play for my first month.

Outside of MMOs I play almost everything I get my hands on: Xbox, 360, Wii, DS, PC gaming. I love just about every genre except maybe Hentai games (darn storyline gets in the way, and I can’t read Japanese ANYWAY!!!) and RTS games. Except the few true gems of the genre. The first C&C, Total Annihilation, Dawn of War are too good to not love even if you don’t like the genre as a rule.

Brakk is my alter ego for when I want to drop some of the social niceties to make a point. Brakk is also very fun to roleplay, in a loud, stupid, butt-scratching manner.

I’ve never taken a programming course (not counting the one Fortran class they made me take in college). Long before I did any programming I would actually read programming manuals as entertainment. I have always been very analytical in my way of thinking. I started doing a lot of VBA at a co-op job in college because I am allergic to any kind of real work. I would spend 10 hours automating a task that probably would have taken 8 mind-numbing hours to do otherwise. The programming was FUN though. I will take a mental puzzle any day over hours of copy and paste. Only recently have been successful at making myself take the time to do much programming.

My frustrations at cramming to get this site built are what have created the Brakk that exists here at TheBrasse.com. More often than not my incoherent screams come from something stupid like having a single quote hiding next to a double quote that I just can’t see for an hour. CSS is great. CSS being intrepreted 3 ways by 3 browsers is a freaking nightmare.

Now I will put down some favorites since I know THEY will make me put some down here if I don’t.

Favorite MMO: Unfair question, as it always changes, but currently EQ2.
Favorite Food: Pizza, such a boring answer, I know. I’m a boring person, what can I say? I play a Ranger (or as close as I can get) in every single MMO. Rangers like pizza.
Favorite thing to draw on an Etch-a-Sketch: A rectangle. I have no artistic bone in me and I already said I am allergic to work.
Favorite Book Series: Tie between the obvious Lord of the Rings (which set the stage for many of our fantasy games) and the series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. I love how the villains in his books are not boilerplate ‘evil’ people. Just messed up people trying to get by.
Favorite TV Show: House, M.D. I love that bastard. Reminds me of who I want to grow up to be. Such a role model.
Favorite Movie: Why do I ask hard questions here? Ask me again after “Iron Man” comes out! (My future favorite movie changes once a year or when Brasse pokes me enough to change this page)
Favorite Mattress: There we go, that’s what I am talking about, an easy one. Select Comfort. Select Comfort, please send your check to the usual place, thank you.
Favorite Weird British Spelling: Foetal. I mean just look at that thing! Wow. I could get colour, or even their rabid hatred of the letter Z, but Foetal??? Wow. (Yes I know Americans are really the ones spelling it wrong. Yes I know that someone somewhere can come up with the entymology and tell me why it makes perfect sense in 500 words or more, but will you lay off my punch-line already? Sheesh, no wonder you never get invited to any parties. Go watch a movie and try not to compare it to the obviously superior book.)