[DONE] Applying for TOG Membership

[Rybuck]

Hi,

My name is Ryan I'm 33, 34 tomorrow and I have been playing games in Australia
since the 80's, I think our first home pc was the VIC 20, I have many fond memories of gaming on the commodore 64 tape drive and all and also got into a bit of D&D role playing but mostly watched my older brothers and there school mates play it,( I used to like drawing the characters on the sheets for them while they got into the game) Dwarfs and Humans where my best :P.

In my late teens and early 20's I had what I thought was an original business idea, At the time there where no Internet cafes/LAN centres around (that I knew of anyway) 64k dial up (and the Internet in general) connections where still new and I had a passion for multi-player gaming as did my brothers.

In those days my two brothers and I all worked in the staging/entertainment industry we worked for a company called GAS ( Gorge Avit Staging ) And we had all had enough of the boss's BS And where looking at starting our own Business.

But I knew that our passion was gaming so I pitched the idea of a gaming centre to my older brother Steve, after all he had the business smarts at the time ( Manager of GAS helped Gorge build GAS from the start ) And he got quite interested at the idea so we started a business plan.

We looked at real estate in the CBD of Sydney and found a suitable space on Gorge St, Sydney we where able to start with 15 pc's in our plan and grow it from there this was before the counter strike days but starcraft was big Half-Life was new (my favourite at the time) And I was sure we could pull it off.

But as we looked at the details we came to a problem (copyright law) and at that point Steve decided it was going to be to hard/expensive to set up and as there where no other net cafes around at the time to copy off we couldn't see a way around it, So much to my disappointment we decided to go with what we knew and started a Staging business instead (Stagecraft) and yes we got the name idea from starcraft witch we played a lot of at the time .

That business still operates today (stagecraft) even tho we have all gotten into different career's now But I never lost the dream of it and have beat myself up over it many times since as a have seen that industry start in Australia and grow about 1-2 years after we looked at it.

Many years later 2001-2002 I landed a job as a train driver and after a brake up from my long term relationship in witch I had two children I decided to give it a go.

A net cafe I had been too a few times on the Central Coast, Wyoming was up for sale so I spent some time looking at how it all worked and the income it made and decided it could still manage to pay a full time wage and still operate but only just.

So after talking to a mate who was sick of his job and wanted out that I allso played alot of counterstrike with and went to LANS with decided that he was keen to get involved. I gave him the job as Manager but I kept my Full time job Driving trains for security and hence became Cyberxcape Internet cafe.

Fast forward to 2011 after many good times, money made and lost, ups and downs, I have decided to move on from the business owner/Father/FullTime shift worker life style.

To Spending more time with my kids and not stressing about a business any more and keeping my job as a train driver and enjoying being a consumer of games again and not a provider ( all-tho I do have a good Lan Setup at home with over 10 gaming pc's and still have allnighters when we can at home with mate's and old customers from the net cafe).

So now seems like a good time to get involved with like minded older gamers (TOG) who I have played with and against since the days of battlefield1942 in many different games and maybe host some LAN party's for on the Central Coast, WoyWoy and enjoy the company of more fellow gamers.

If u have taken the time to read this epic story and enjoyed getting to know me feel free to contact me I use the gamer Tag Rybuck ( an old school nic name ), (Rybuck_au on steam) And atm I mostly play League Of Legends,TF2,Starcraft2,(BFBC2,<---- haven't played for a long time since I can't get the sound to work after the last big patch and haven't set it up on one of my other pc's) and a few other's on steam.

Well I hope this is enough to get me into TOG as I feel it is the best clan/community of gamers I can relate to and I look forward to playing with u all some time soon........ Now to get a game in before i have to get ready for work.

[Buff]

Rybuck,

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 36,000 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