[DONE] Application to Join TOG: Brennivin

[Brennivin]

Greetings fellow "Older Gamers".

I am a Canadian citizen, and live in a relatively small community in Manitoba (that thankfully has high-speed internet) where I was born and spent all but 4 years of my childhood. I married my hometown high school sweet-heart and have two children (a son and daughter). However, if you were to ask my wife, she has 3 children

My wife and I did escape the prairies for a couple years when we moved to BC, but found ourselves coming back a number of years ago.

I currently commute an hour (each direction) each day to Winnipeg to work. I have been in IT for many years, but with such diversity in the things I would do, I'd always thought of myself as a Jack-of-all-things-IT (but master of none). Currently I am one of two go-to-guy's for a company ( no plugs here ) that the Executives and Directors hand approved projects to that they would like to see become realities. One of my last projects to go live was quite fun... I implimented Joomla! 1.5.X as our corporate CMS and intranet structure. Kinda of a fun little frolic through the world of PHP, MySQL, and Apache. I hope to get more focus in my career in the next few months after I complete the Business Analyst program that work is currently sponsoring me to take.

I've been a gamer ever since my aunt bought a Vic 20 for my cousin's many moons ago. I would spend as much time as I could at her place bashing in game source code out of the PC magazines... ooooh, look at that sprite move between those 2 tree-esque blocks... let's call it down-hill skiing!! Woot!

Over the years I've developed a love of fantasy and RPG games, which later gravitated to MMO-RPG's. It was there that I eventually got exposure to clans and communities. After tasting good community in an MMO, I just don't get any lasting satisfaction from solo games anymore.

I've played a lot of free-to-play (F2P) and beta MMO's over the years. The first MMO to take my money was WoW... I bought the game and a six month sub with some x-mas cash... when the sub ran out, I gifted everything not bound to the guild I was in and uninstalled it. I then enjoyed a brief stint with Guildwars until the content dried up and revealed the only thing left was a Ladder to climb.

I guess I have a mental-barrier in paying an eternal sub. I'd rather own a game then rent it, just like I want to own my car and my house... enter LOTRO, the second MMO to eventually open my wallet. Ah, I can pay one fee, and play for a lifetime... SOLD! and it's based on Middle Earth lore... Double-SOLD!

I joined the LOTRO closed beta in my typical F2P/Beta fashion, drawn by the LOTRO lore. Over the past couple years, I have been in 3 LOTRO kinships. It is not my goal to keep switching, but I guess it is fair to say that I am intent on finding the "right community" ...

• A place where people got as much satisfaction from helping you as they felt when you helped them.
• People that understand that it is a game, and meant to be played for fun.
• People that respect your decision to pay for your sub, and don't treat you like you are in-game for their benefit.
• A place not solely restricted to in-game activity, that expands into its forums and other external outlets
• and the list goes on...

I do dabble with a few FPS games as well, but tend to spend most of my gaming hours in MMO's, and especially LOTRO. The shear number of games that are represented by this community, as well as the membership size have really impressed me. I am very hopeful that I have found my "last community".

So there you have it... a synopsis of the me behind the Brennivin "gamer label" and the journey traveled through life and LOTRO that has lead to this "Older Gamer" knocking on your door.

I have read all of the required documents/articles, and:

1. Easily crush the minimum age of 25. (It's actually the 12 anniversary of my 25th b-day. )
2. I AGREE to abide by the TOG Code of Conduct Guidelines
   
3. I AGREE to, and will abide by the TOG Acceptable Useage Policy (AUP)
4. I AGREE to abide by the Forum & Server Guidelines
5. I have read the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Guidelines
   
6. I AGREE to abide by the Signature and Avatar Guidelines

Hope to see you all in game soon.

Brennivin

[Ryo]

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 organisation.

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 nearly 30 game divisions and over 35,000 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 to. 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!

[Brennivin]

Thank you very much Ryo!