Getting to Know ECC - Thoranbrook
March 26th, 2010 -- Posted in Blog Updates | 1 Comment »A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of chatting up Thoranbrook for the blog. I was drawn to him because like myself he’s managed to blend a large number of real life relationships with his online community in ECC, and I thought it might be fun to go from one of ECC’s newer members in Beansey, to one of the leaders of the guild that predates myself as an active member. I was thrilled to find out that once you get him going, he’s a veritable fountain of interesting stories and values, and I think he’s a great window into what ECC’s all about. I hope you enjoy reading the interview as much as I enjoyed conducting it.
[Ecco]: Are you ready to start your interro… err interview?
[Thoranbrook]: Sure thing.
[E]: Okay then, lets talk WoW, how did you get started playing?
[T]: I suppose the love for UO (Ultima Online) wore out for me. I mean I still think about it but the game never advanced with the ever growing advanced hardware that was coming out to really spice up the game. I heard about WoW, and followed it all the way up to beta where I signed up and got in just a week before they opened it up to the Open Beta testers. I’ve been hooked ever since!
[E]: Wow! So you went from the original to the mammoth of MMOs?
[T]: Yes and no… My first MMO I suppose would have been “Legend of the Red Dragon” from my old BBS days, but yeah you could say that.
[E]: You’ve out-geeked me. I’ve never heard of that one.
[T]: Legend of the Red Dragon or the BBS? Ok how about Trade Wars? That was another really fun one to play, but again this was all pretty much ANSI text based. Very fun for the time.
[E]: I’ve never heard of any of it, but let’s dig way back here: do you remember when in your life you fell in love with gaming? Clearly it’s been a big part of your life.
[T]: I’ve been gaming since I was roughly 15 years old… the old Pen and Paper DnD style. Ithamar hooked me up with a new kid in the neighborhood who showed him this new game called Dungeons and Dragons. I opened up the first edition of the Players Handbook and read about a few classes and was hooked. I probably spent the next 4+ hours making up my first character!
[E]: I love that feeling of flipping through books and working up a new character.
[T]: Our new friend was an awesome DM! He took all the time needed to answer questions and help out. He made the whole experience fun from start to finish!
[E]: Do you recall the class of your first?
[T]: Mage! Niltsiar was his name. A name I borrowed from Dragonlance and took a characters name and flipped it backwards.
[E]: Nice! Do you still play pen and paper games?
[T]: I would love to but it’s hard to find time to dedicate to it anymore in the capacity that I would really want to in order to make it feel like it used to. I wouldn’t mind gaming here and there but if I RP’ed we did campaigns and those are the best. I’m hoping that when my sons get a little older I can suck them into it though.
[E]: You must be looking forward to DM’ing for the next generation of geeks.
[T]: Oh yeah in the years of playing I did my fair share of DM’ing and as I said I’m hoping my sons can find the enjoyment out of it that I had.
[E]: Any favorite pen and paper RPGs outside of D&D?
[T]: Settings? I’m in love with the Forgotten Realms setting and Dragonlance Settings the most…
[E]: No world of darkness or shadowrun or anything like that? You’ve been loyal to D&D.
[T]: For the most part. I did Spell Jammer for awhile does that count?
[E]: Not as a different game, no, but it was a very cool setting. Anyhow, getting back to WoW, has Thoranbrook been your main since launch, or did you switch it up at any point?
[T]: Well at launch I started off on Argent Dawn with “Stillfinder” the Dwarf Hunter. Played him for some time then Blizz made me do a name change. So I did, but at about that time Argent Dawn was getting a little to stuffed so I hit Kirin Tor Server with Ith and Shad who had already moved over there. I made me up my Horde Priest who has just recently became number two in time played behind Thoranbrook.
[E]: You mean Thor passed him, or have you been moonlighting a bit?
[T]: Thor the toon passed him with time played. I’ve been toying with the idea of the faction change and leveling the 10 levels with my priest but haven’t brought myself to it yet.
[E]: So when did you come to Farstriders, and how did you hook up with ECC?
[T]: Well much in the same way as my switch came with Argent Dawn only this time around Kirin Tor was stuffed with folks, and again started getting waiting lines. Blizz did the free server moves so I moved all my horde toons.
From there Shad, Ith and myself got into a fairly large guild, the Plagued Disciples, and had a blast. We were with them for roughly a year or better as we all made the move from Kirin Tor to Farstriders together but at that time it was more in game friends moving to enjoy the game together. Once we moved we decided to just make a nice guild and see what we could do with it. We hit Kara and did dungeons but eventually a large faction of the group decided they wanted to do another server change. I didn’t want to move anymore and decided to stay here, but without many of the folks I gamed with, playtime really dipped down. I ended up taking a break for roughly 4 to 5 months until Ith one day said he started playing again.
[E]: I am “listening” raptly, go on.
[T]: He’d made up an alliance toon and hooked up with a great bunch of people in a large guild and told me I should try it out. I had my doubts to be honest because the “large” guilds as I knew them had all been very strict and very one sided meaning we do this or we do this and if you didn’t you didn’t fit in. Ith told me more about the guild and I finally gave in and got back into the game. I jumped alliance and made up Thoranbrook
[E]: Was this mid Burning Crusade?
[T]: Easily in that time frame for sure. I leveled Thor up to around the 60’s without even looking at ECC as I tend to be a loner when I level but when I could do some of the BC instances that is when Ith finally convinced me to do some runs with his new guild.
[E]: And you’ve been happy enough with ECC to eventually become an Executive Officer in the guild… I guess that means you like us.
[T]: No I don’t like us. I love us! ECC has been great! From the time I met Mac and Kit to the time I started moving into Raid Leading in Kara as a Team 2 Lead! It’s been a blast and I wouldn’t trade it in for anything else i’ve done in game.
[E]: Sweet! I wonder if we could back up a second. You’ve mention Ith and Shad a couple of times, and I know you know them both in “real life”. How many other folks in ECC do you know outside of the game?
[T]: Well lets see… Ith and Shad… I grew up with them since I was about 10, Honey, Jaileth, Luenyar, Kalessina…. I believe thats about it.
[E]: Honey and shad are together I know. Kal you met through work right?
[T]: Yeah I met Kal through work because he is a vendor we use to help us with our network when we have issues. We had some issues one night and while he was there on the tech call Shad pretty much talked him into playing. I think Kal already had it set in his mind he was going to but Shad wouldn’t let up. I pushed a bit as well but not nearly as much as Shad.
[E]: I feel like The Boston Crew and the Cincy crew might need to have a dance battle if ECC ever pulls off a meet-up.
[T]: If you don’t mind poorly done YMCA dance choreography then I think you would have a fight on your hands!
[E]: Which village person are you? The construction worker?
[T]: I would think I would be more the cowboy….
[E]: Niiiice. So, before we finish up, is there anything else about you that you think people should know?
[T]: Well… I started the study of the martial arts, Kenpo, back in 1989 and earned my Black Belt then some since. I hold 2 other honorary BBs in Taekwondo, and Aikido. I nationally ranked fourth in the competition circuit when I was 18 going on 19 but my real love came from training others giving back what I was taught.
[E]: See now thats interesting.
[T]: I gave up Highschool sports for that…
[E]: How often do you teach?
[T]: I try my best to do what I can to pass on what I know to folks but now I don’t “teach” in the same capacity as I used to when I was younger. My instructor passed away after his fight with cancer and I had to step out for a while due to a job I had taken that conflicted with training times. I have spent time with some people one on one but nothing hardcore anylonger. Mostly a “self defense” type setting for a few lessons to get their feet wet.
[E]: Any cool tournament stories?
[T]: That’s a tough one… I think my first tournament was the coolest because I was sooo nerved up.
[E]: Thats an awesome story. If you’re open to more, I’d love to here what you like about gaming in general, what you value about pen and paper, what you value about electronic social gaming. Where do you see overlap between what you like about the two?
[T]: I love the social aspect a lot. Just enjoying something that I find to be really fun with others that share that same feeling as an over all for both Pen and Paper and electronic gaming…
For the Pen and Paper aspect, I really like the fact that if you have an excellent DM, you can honestly change the outcome of an event based off your actions. As much as game developers try to do that for MMO’s, they can’t honestly do that because the game can only have so many endings. So you’re still going to have a group of people that end up with the same experience because the game drove them that way based off their actions. A great DM can adapt and go with your choices and make the game work with what you give him and not make you work with what the game gives you.
As for electronic gaming, the satisfaction comes from taking the images out of your mind that you play out and actually put them in front of you. You cast fireball in PnP and you imagine what it looks like. In an MMO you get to see that awesome effects of the fireball from the time it is being cast to the time it lays waste to your enemies!
The other thing that really draws me to electronic gaming is bringing a group (or a mass in our case) together to enjoy the type of environment as a group and have a good time. I love the large scale social aspect that MMO’s can get.
[E] In a broad sense I am interested in your personal values and how they relate to gaming.
[T] Well I like the old “All for one and One for all” idea, which is honestly something we have here in ECC that sets us apart from the majority of the larger guilds that exist in WoW today. You always hear about guild breaking up because this person got all this and nobody cares about that person, but here in ECC I think the above statement works out really well for us. We have many that love to help everybody out and that’s simply amazing. I think that attitude fits right in line with how I feel everybody should handle everything. I know there are times when folks need that “me” time but for the most part we live by that rule and that’s just fine by me.
Oh and the other one I live by that I try to live by is, “Lead or get the fuck out the way”. I don’t think anybody should follow blindly because that’s just what one person says. Again, with ECC that makes this place great. ECC is open for anybody to do damn near whatever they want for the guild to make the guild experience awesome! Please note your Fantastic Blog that you have brought back to life! Please note Manski’s contest! These aren’t things that followers do these are things that people do because they lead or do what they can to make everybody’s experience that much more enjoyable. For folks that do that, I thank you as you have made my day and my online experience that much better!
[E]: Is it true that you’re hung like a horse? Arch wants to know
[T]: No, but I’m not birds in an eggs nest either!
