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Hi there! Welcome to Đominance.

You probably worked most of this first paragraph out already but why not: I’m a 19yo guy living in Newcastle, England attending my 1st year of an Honours Degree in Games Science at University, I’m an avid hardcore PVP MMO gamer and love the community aspect of the games just as much as playing them, I’ll talk your face off about games and technology, hopefully using this blog as an outlet will save some of the people I know from going into a coma from being bombarded with my endless wisdom.

I’ve played games for as long as I can remember, but when I was around 12, a friend who I’d been working on a Forum Software project (oh look, more community!) mentioned how he’d been beta testing the Japanese version of a game called Ragnarok Online, and how the beta of the English version was about to hit, I took one look at the art and decided to sign up, I got into the Closed Beta and from that point on was addicted to the game, this is what opened the door to MMO’s for me. I must’ve played RO for 4yrs, and achieved the very pinnacle of the games content through a Guild I loved, including an invite to the US and World Ragnarok Online Championships before my age owned me. Shoutout to any current/ex-XGMR members! For those who know/knew the game, I was a Level 89 DEX/LUK Purecraft Blacksmith and a Level 99 STR/CON Blacksmith on iRO Loki, best time of my gaming life community wise.

I thought I’d spend forever in that game, but an invite to the first phase of the Closed Beta for Lineage II soon changed that when the graphics and more specifically artstyle -blew.me.away-, pretty much the same story as RO ensued and I played that for a further 3yrs, again, shoutout to any ex-RedKnights members from Bartz L2NA, I was a 79 Mystic Muse/78 Sagittarius, best time of my gaming life competition wise.

Currently I reside in World of Warcraft, (yeah, I know.) I had played for a few months last year during the Summer on the EU Version when I took a hiatus from L2 and managed to achieve Grand Marshal status on my Ret Pala by participating in premades with some friends who had come over with me, I sold that account and moved back to L2 shortly thereafter, then in February of this year, moved back to WoW, but this time the US Version, because I hate Europeans, where I currently play a 70 Undead Demonology Warlock and a 70 Blood Elf Protection Paladin on Skullcrusher, best time easywise ;x.

I also spent a stint in Dark Age of Camelot since the PVP system was incredible, my activity in that game was sparse and my actions not very noteworthy, but points to anyone who gets what the blogs address means!

You may be wondering why a Hardcore PVP Gamer such as myself didn’t mention any PVP in the aforementioned games, and that’s because the section you’re reading right now is dedicated to it! Yes, it’s true, I am a PVP whore, and I do hate carebears and can’t for the life of me understand people who play PVE-only MMO’s or who play games with PVP content who just want to PVE, but it’s worth mentioning a couple things:

When I first played RO through beta and for the first ~6 months there was no PVP content in the game whatsoever, I feel I should be let off for this as I didn’t know such a thing existed in the world at that point, until a “PVP Arena” was added in a patch where you could go for instanced PVP fun with no objectives/rewards, it took one trip of curiosity for me to know I was hooked, and from that point on, any PVE I did or character progression I participated in was purely to become more able in PVP, and that is the story of the birthing of the PVP God you see before you today.

Eventually War of Emperium got added to RO, where Guilds could lay Siege to castles to obtain them for rewards, and have to defend from other Guilds in a PVP blood bath every weekend and then twice weekly. This lead me into Castle Sieges in L2, which were –truly- spectacular, until you’ve experienced staring literally 1500+ attackers in the eye you don’t know what it feels like, then of course the standard BG’s/Arenas in WoW are what occupies most my time now, but I am guilty of PVEing quite a bit, since I still find it fun with friends.

PVP matters to me, and in MMO’s where it actually matters via game mechanics, it can be the biggest adrenaline rush and the biggest depression-induction all in one, victory tastes like honey, defeat tastes so so bitter.

Throughout all my MMO experiences I have either been a staff member or an extremely active user on at least one community-based fansite for each game I played.

I intend to elaborate on both PVP dynamics and my hatred of Europeans in future articles, as well as my views on communities within games very soon, so keep an eye out.