The inescapable vortex of Bayland's sexiness has compelled me to post here

[joedonh]

My name is Joe (if you didn't infer that from my username) and I am a 35 (36 in about 2 weeks) year old slave to muscle reactions to shifting pixels on a variety of monitors. It all started on a Magnavox Console TV avoiding crocodiles as Pitfall Harry on my trusty Atari 2600, and currently manifests itself on my PC's LCD monitor and outdated and soon to be replaced Sony Trinitron tube TV and Playstation 2.

I came to this site because up until about 3 months ago I was still paying a subscription to play SOE's Planetside, where I know Bayland on the MarkovForums.com forums (redundant, I know), where I go by the handle "MrGrieves". I've always been into video games in some form, but Planetside was my first MMO***. I absolutely loved it when I started playing it in closed beta in March of 2003, and put up with it until a few months ago. I think the only reason I got into the closed beta is because at the time I owned a Sony Vaio, and stated as such in my beta app. The only thing I'm actively playing right now is Guitar Hero II on my PS2 after breaking down and buying it when I had a drunkenly session with a friend over this past Labor Day weekend. I play guitar in real life and thought it'd be easy, and we all know how it goes when you make such assumptions.

In my un-assumed name "real" life, I work as a Director of Event Technologies (which is a fancy term for Audiovisual Director) at a resort in rural Wisconsin. I've been married for what will be 8 years in November to a keen English lass, who reluctantly, but admirably, deals with my geekiness. She absolutely abhorred it when I started playing Planetside, and at the end of that obsession reserved herself to tolerance, bless her cotton socks. When we first got together it was the heyday of the PS1, and she was a gamer of sorts herself at that time. She got hooked on playing games like Ridge Racer and Wipeout while smoking special English cigarettes while attending University. She bought me a PS1 for my 27th birthday, which ultimately got me back into gaming. Up until that point, my only game system was a vintage Atari 2600 with the sweet faux-paneling base unit you could store games in, with my collection of approximately 150 games I had been collecting at secondhand shops. I'd bust it out when my friends came over for nostalgia's sake, but that was about it. Unfortunately that system and all of it's lovely accoutrement's died in a horrible basement flood in 2005. She doesn't really play games anymore, but I did buy a now "classic" Ridge Racer V at some GameStop or something a year and some change back and we had a fun weekend with it.

So there you have it. For the record, I am currently looking to buy a new videocard for my PC so I can get back into online gaming in some form (and hopefully avoid getting sucked back into Planetside), and will probably be purchasing an XBOX 360 so I can check out Halo 3 and some other games I've been interested in on that system by year's end. The purchase of a new HDTV and surround system will probably supersede that, but what the hey - I might as well set up camp here in anticipation, right?

joedonh (my general tag on the intarwebs as indexed by Google, and what I will use in any games associated with an acceptance here)

[Sir Fitz]

First, I think I remember your name from Planetside. I to was from beta, and played PS up until about 6 months ago.

That was an outstanding introduction there, but, and it's a small but, we need to see some required information - agreements that you've read some stuff... here's the official copy/paste...

Hello there and welcome to TOG.

Please take some time to read this: Potential Members PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE POSTING and the other sticky posts at the top of this forum. They detail what is needed in order to become a full TOG member.

We need to know:

1. Are you over the age of 25?
2. Have you read and agreed to the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and FAQs
3. Have you read and agreed to the Forum and Server Guidelines.

Post back here with the required info and we can give you full access to the site (TOGerised).

Thanks
--

take care of those requirements and we'll get ya togerized in no time.

[joedonh]

Oops, sorry about that. Contrary to how it may appear, I actually did go through all of that info before registering; however, in my mad dash to bang out some sort of witty introduction, I neglected the important stuff. Here you be:

1. Are you over the age of 25? Indeed I am - 35 to be exact.
2. Have you read and agreed to the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and FAQs? I have and I do. To prove the point, I found these spelling errors in the AUP:

   13. Deliberate & repeatative thread hyjacking

   which should read "repetitive" & "hijacking"
3. Have you read and agreed to the Forum and Server Guidelines? Yes I have. I may be a bit cheeky from time to time (See #2 above), but I am a surprisingly well-mannered forum/server member and have no problem adhering to your guidelines whatsoever.

On top of these requirements, I am an excellent grammarian and avoid, if at all possible, posting links to overplayed internet memes if that counts for anything...

[Sir Fitz]

lol.

I'll get on those corrections...

In the meantime,

Welcome to TOG, your application has been reviewed and approved.

You now have full access to all parts of TOG including:

• All TOG member only Forums
• All TOG member only areas of the website
• All TOG member only game divisions
• All TOG game servers

Your membership also includes access to various get-together, events, contests, and other exclusives for this 25 and over only organization.

For a complete list of everything your membership includes along with everything you might want to know in order to take advantage of your new membership, be sure to stop by to read the "New TOG Members' Guide"

Currently TOG consists of over 27 game divisions and has over 17,000 registered members. There's also plenty of other cool stuff on TOG, so browse around & check it all out. We sincerely hope that you enjoy TOG for as long as you choose too. Feel free to spread the message to your friends and family who enjoy gaming and don't forget to have fun yourself!

All the best!

The Older Gamers!

[Bayland]

Originally Posted by joedonh

I came to this site because up until about 3 months ago I was still paying a subscription to play SOE's Planetside, where I know Bayland on the MarkovForums.com forums (redundant, I know), where I go by the handle "MrGrieves".

Up until that point, my only game system was a vintage Atari 2600 with the sweet faux-paneling base unit you could store games in, with my collection of approximately 150 games I had been collecting at secondhand shops.

VVE! Grieves! Bro! Welcome to TOGside! Many more ex-planetside people are members of TOG than you'd think. Though they're scattered all around. I'm currently in the Lord of Rings Online forums playing a macho lute bearing elf minstrel. Ok, not macho, but mature at least. I also occasionally play 2142.

A number of other ex-PS players are in EVE. TOG PS is about dead if you haven't already noticed. We've all moved on to other games. Poor PlanetSide so much fun for so long, but with tons of TOG groups to choose from there's no reason to stay in a dead world.

I'll be getting TF2 when I can. Looks like my kind of game.

I used to have a 2600 then an Atari 800. I loved both and I fondly remember the faux wood panel case. I remember having a tape drive that played regular cassettes. Most games took like 15min to load from it and any bend in the ribbon caused the game to fail. I remember that they'd have music to accompany the loading. To this day I still feel dread at a certain bar in Mendelssohn's Hebrides because there was a 75% chance my game was going to crash. My favorite 800 game was M.U.L.E. classic game.

I have a friend who used to work at Electronic Arts Sports. He took me on a tour of their facilities. On one wall there's every old Atari game in the giant record boxes. Took me right back.

Welcome and well met

- Bayland