What do you do for Massively.com?
I'm a webcartoonist, I draw the weekly Massively feature, Grinders. That's pretty much the full and half of it.
What is your favourite MMO?
City of Heroes, hands down. I've played most of the MMOs that have come to market since EverQuest, looking for the Next Big Thing, and I didn't even realize I had found it until I was on my third year of playing City. I'm still going strong. The game has enough variety to entertain my short attention span, the gameplay, while unarguably repetitive, has a rhythm that really entertains and relaxes me, no matter what role on a team I'm playing. I never was a fan for loot ("Judge a toon not by the color of their armor, but the content of their attributes."), I blame this mostly on not growing up on Dungeons & Dragons. I'd rather spend points on stats behind the scenes than wear a hand-me-down piece of clothing from a corpse... seriously, am I the only person bothered by that?
What games are you playing now and what are your characters?
Well, starting with City of Heroes, I have more characters than any one person should ever be juggling (I struggle with alt-oholism). But my main character is Gunflint, an Assault Rifle blaster with Energy Manipulation. Mostly built for dealing lots of damage to small crowds, or absurd amounts of damage to a single target. Otherwise I still have a fond place in my heart for Phrankie, my undead mage in WoW, and Quint, my EverQuest 2 monk. As you can tell, I have a thing for DPS.
Why do you like MMOs so much?
When it comes to gamer types, I like exploration and immersion, and MMOs are one of the best atmospheres for both. Playing with friends also helps, since I've been a fan of co-op gameplay since the days of Nintendo and the original Doom/Descent era of PC gaming. I'm always excited when I see innovation in MMOs, I look forward to the day when the term 'MMO' doesn't even apply anymore because games will ambiguously connect players in ways the current gameplay mechanics don't resemble at all.
What accomplishment in-game are you most proud of?
Running Special Operations in Planetside. Planetside was a true MMO in the nature that a good social cadre increased the quality of the game ten-fold, and our outfits were no exception. In a continental war where there's armored tanks and jets on both sides of the skirmish, the best way to get an advantage is to take away the other guy's toys. So you get a special ops team (us) to sneak past the line of scrimmage, into the enemy Technology Plant, wreck everything in the place, then take down the generator so the whole complex loses power over 15 agonizing minutes, stopping anyone who comes to fix it in an Alamo-style showdown. Power drains out, base goes neutral, continent can't spawn heavy technology for your opponents. Roll them over with your armored cavalry and revel in your teamwork.
When you're not playing MMOs, what do you do?
Mostly I draw comics and art assets for video games, but recently, parenthood has been added to my list of activities. I've been involved with Isshin-ryu karate since I was young, but have only recently had a renaissance in training. Aside from that, I have a passion for board games and game design, and love to support indie games and comics. Anybody who tries to make it on their own is okay in my book.
