[DONE] Me too.

[Windryder]

Greetings all,

While one of my friends has been on at me for *years* to join The
Older Gamers it is a different one that has got me to actually do it
with the lure of Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Back in the days when dinosaurs roamed Pangea and I was yet to hit
puberty, I got introduced to a nice little computer called the BBC Model
B Microcomputer. Before I was 13 I had taught myself programming and
was arguing about how much better my machine was than a Sinclair
Spectrum or an Amstrad Whatever.

Back then my three favourite games would have been Aviator, a Spitfire flight sim; Revs a Formula 3 racing car that used a flight sim engine instead of your usual "Pole Position" approach; and of course that legendary game Elite.

During the 90's I got into a shareware Play By Mail Multiplayer strategy game called VGA Planets which inspired "Masters of Orion" and won an out-of-court settlement for the author. During that time I got quite well addicted to Civilisation and have been a bit that way inclined ever since. Needless to say I also got quite Wolfensteined, Doomed and so System Shocked that I pretty much gave up FPS as boring until Rainbow Five came along. Which was when I realised it was that lack of realism that I found dull.

Skip a few years for doing a science degree, PhD and a 14-year marriage with a nasty ending.

I remember looking over the shoulder of a girlfriends' mother as she played the closed beta of World of Warcraft and while it was obviously good, it didn't interest me at the time because RPGs were what I did with my dice collection on the weekend with my friends. After a mental breakdown I got quite heavily into Battlefield 2 because, well, maybe I hadn't suffered nearly enough trauma by that point and needed some spawn campers, wall hackers, teamkillers and other scumbags to teach me what mental suffering was *really* about.

After a while I joined a clan called Strength in Numbers [SIN] and really started having a blast in league matches and with mature players who knew about teamwork and strategy. It was around this time I first became aware of ToG.

Sometime about mid July 2006 I moved from BF2 to Eve-Online. Battlefield 2 was on the decline because of Battlefield 2150 (or whatever it was) and it didn't interest me because it was... well... less real to me (as a military nut) and thus less immersive. I played Eve-online for about 4 years and it was in the first month that I met Wildturkey and a few months later I met a ToG veteran who tried for years to recruit me. He's still here somewhere but I'm not sure of his name - I knew him as Alvar Ursidae but I think he might go by WarBear. I know he recruited my girlfriend to ToG while she was still playing Eve-Online herself.

In 2010 the "shoot your friends in the face" nature of Eve-online was playing hell with my depression so I went where all the Eve players said things were fluffy and unicorns shat rainbows and nothing bad ever happened: WoW.

A year and a half later and I realised that what I enjoyed most about WoW was not the endless trolling of over-entitled middle-class white Americans nor was it the endless grind for slightly better purple gear that would become redundant the instant the next expansion was released. Raiding was out since I didn't have the reflexes of a 15yo with a Red Bull addiction and most raiding groups didn't seem to tolerate mistakes. My friends moved to Rift, I got the latest Lego Wii games and didn't renew my WoW subscriptions.

Then the other night I get a phonecall. "Come play Old Republic" the voice says, more than a little like the ghost of Obi Wan. So today I'm here.

I don't know what that says about me, as a person. I'm a science nerd, military geek, computer nut. I have a twisted sense of humour, two nationalities, a 140IQ and probably a slight form of Asbergers'. I have taught at university, won awards for my science and have been responsible for software products that went to market. My least favourite word in the entire lexicon of the English language is "overqualified".

Actually that's incorrect, my least favourite word is "celibate" but it hasn't really been a problem since I left the wife.

Best Regards,

Windy

[Tempeste]

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 50,000 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!

[Ninja Gizmosis]

Welcome to TOG, one of the admin team will be along shortly to check your application.
After that, enjoy the forums, and come see us in the EvE divison.