A New Beginning
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 11:07 am
DW rose from the ashes of a defunct clan back in late 2003. Originally, we were just a group of five “drinking buddies”, drawn together by UT2003 and a karate mod which we all loved dearly.
When UT2004 hit the scene, our imaginations were captured by ONS. This game, this interest is what has driven us, and has ultimately led us to this day; a day of reflection, a day of change, and a day of renewal.
Reflection:
When I look back on it, I can hardly believe how much we have grown both as a clan, and a community. What started out as a couple of guys hanging out, having a good time hoping some people would wander in and join us for a few ggs, has changed drastically to a clan with 26 active members, which competed on the ONS and TAM ladders, which has one of the most popular 2k4 servers out there, and which has a dedicated community of dozens of regular participants.
Change:
For the first couple of years, it was a one man show. I was taking care of everything (web site, servers, clan administration, competition, etc.). As we grew, I realized that was not possible, and I have increasingly asked people to step in and take over certain aspects of the clan. This has become even more prominent, as my personal life overshadowed everything. I’m proud to say that everyone has been willing to support me, and the clan, and stepped up to fill in the gaps I left. And they have done nothing short of a spectacular job. And ultimately, this change is for the better. The clan and community cannot continue to grow without multiple people having responsibility.
But there are plenty of other things that have changed. How about the hardware, and geographic locations of our hosting?
1.We started in Wraith’s place
2.Moved to NJ
3.Spent some time in Indiana (Pit of Penultimate Darkness)
4.Headed back to Dallas (where Spam Vikings really became popular)
5.Moved to Chicago where we had a less than stellar provider
6.Doubled back to Dallas which was good for a while, but routing issues plagued us there as well.
7.And finally, we are back in the windy city, with one of the most reputable hosting facilities In the US.
And don’t forget the many iterations of hardware!
Wraith’s Home machine
Two Game Server rentals
Two Dedicated Server rentals
Dedicated Server builds:
AMD 3800+
Dual Opteron 248
FX-55
FX-57
Dual Opteron 254
Dual Opteron 256
Intel QX6800
Intel Q6600
I’m tired just thinking about it!
One thing I can sat has NOT changed however, is the pride I feel for the folks we have here, and the wonderful job they are doing.
Renewal:
This past year has been a very challenging one for me personally. I’ve had to deal with some devastating personal issues: more issues than a person should have to deal with in a decade, never mind a single year. As a result, Spam Vikings has languished, the clan has drifted a bit, and I have not been able to participate as much as I would have liked.
I’m looking forward to 2008 with a lot of hope; a hope for better times for myself and my family, and better times for this clan. Things will not be easy however. 2008 throws us a curveball right as we step to the plate: the lack of widespread acceptance of UT3. It’s the thing we all feared the most. But with this news comes diversification, and ultimately a healthier clan.
Until now, we have been a UT2k4 clan first, last and only. With the lack of acceptance of UT3, we’ve been forced to look elsewhere to get our game on. We are fortunate that there are many quality games out there now. Several clan mates have already taken to COD4. DW will look to branch out and explore other gaming opportunities as well. We’ll be forming “branches” of the clan with their own leadership, servers, forums, etc. We’ll be running servers of several game types, and look to make our mark in each one, if not competitively, then community wise. We’re always looking to expand the community and spread the gg’s around.
I am very excited about our prospects. And I’ve done everything I can to secure a safe and stable gaming environment for you all to enjoy. To that end, I have done the following things:
1.Moved us back to Chicago to one of the most reputable hosting facilities in the US
2.Purchase of TCADMIN which puts the power of server control in the clan’s hands directly (taking me out of the loop as the bottleneck.)
3.Brought in some big guns. And if you’re wondering what I’m talking about, take a gander at Penryn Power!
I’ve always built servers myself to save money. I have had some successful builds, and some not so. I’ve had my share of hardware problems and down time. But I feel it’s time to make a sacrifice, and put something a little more permanent in place, to ensure good times, big servers, and multiple games, all uninterrupted by lag or packet loss, or downtime. It’s something that stands for my commitment to this clan, and our commitment to this community.
So in closing, I would like to thank everyone in this clan and this community who has supported me personally, and the clan and community as a whole either by financial means, coding, advice, friendship, or just having a damn good time on DW servers. In the end, that’s what it’s all about.
I cannot thank everyone as much as I would like because I think I would overflow the forum database. But I would like to make a couple of special thank yous. None of this is in any particular order and please do not feel slighted if I don’t mention you specifically. You all mean a lot to me and I’m damn happy all of you are here.
First of all, thanks to everyone who has ever made a financial donation. We wouldn’t be here in the capacity we are if not for you. I would especially like to thank those of you who make regular donations and are there month in and month out. Some of you do it anonymously, and others not. You all deserve high praise either way and even in the leanest of times, when not another penny was coming in for months at a stretch, you were there for us, and truly kept us going some months. Thank you!
Many thanks to Danimal for those earth shaking donations. I could not believe it when I saw the first one and I thought we had a paypal error on our hands. But no, it was real, and it has been repeated several times. Danimal, Thank you!
Thank you to all of the admins who watch over the servers, forums and website. There’s always a rotten apple out there trying to spoil the bunch, and thanks to your diligence, we can keep a relatively safe and happy gaming community. And there’s always “paperwork” that needs to get done. Thank you!
Thank you to all of the people working hard to make the games better. People like Snaggle, Nightwolf, Wraith, Alpha, Choco, Hornet, Slim, Bio, etc. who are mapping, coding etc. You folks help make this community unique, and improve the quality of play for all. Thank you!
Thank you to Damnidge for taking over leadership of the COD4 branch. This will be our first official “branch” so he’ll be sailing new waters. Do everything you can to support him. Damnidge, welcome to my hell good luck, and thank you!
Thank you to Zeus, who works diligently on our new website. Zeus has put in a tremendous amount of work, and has taken all of our criticisms constructively. It’s coming along nicely. Thank you!
Thank you to Bomzin, for keeping this clan going on a day to day basis. If not for you, it probably would have really all fallen apart. And thank you for being such a good battlefield leader. Your strats are fantastic, and your ability to get so many diverse personalities working together as a team is amazing. I hope I can invest enough time to get good in a new game, and fight under your leadership again. Thank you!
Thank you to BigRed, who’s a founding member and good friend. We’ve had plenty of long conversations, and he’s helped me through various hard times in my life. Thank you!
Thank you Karma for so many things. For being my confidant during my hard times, for all of your offers to help financially and emotionally and to just plain get your hands dirty on just about any job I can come up with for you. And a special thank you for the gift that you have given this community. You will get direct thanks, but the most satisfying thanks will show in the form of the indirect thanks of the growing community that results from it. Karma has generously purchased and donated a special application to the community. The application is the aforementioned TCADMIN, and it allows any clan member to run and update servers, for just about any game out there. This means we can give you more gaming opportunities. This means we can react to changes faster. This means the best damn servers you’ll find! Karma, Thank you!
Thank you Wraith. What can I say. I hope I don’t embarrass you. But if not for Wraith, we would not be here at all.
When you look back on things, you can identify certain turning points in life where things could have gone one way or another. There were so many turning points four years ago. We all had a favorite server we loved to play on. When that server went down, Wraith made the decision to give us a home to play our favorite game. He did it out of the love for the game, and the desire to keep the good times rolling for everyone else who enjoyed playing. There was no plan. Just come and play. We played for hours and hours into the early morning on many occasions. We met a lot of cool people. We formed the clan there.
When UT2K4 came out, Wraith spent countless hours and dollars trying to figure out a way to provide us a good home. At some point, we all came to the realization that no home connection was going to provide a suitable ONS home. Wraith’s dedication to us is what inspired me to create my little 5 player UT2k3 home server, and it is ultimately what drives me today, to provide the same kind of environment where everyone is having a good time.
At some point Wraith got bored with ONS and 2k4 , and cheated on us :P with Guild Wars for a while. But when he came back, he jumped in with both feet. Back when processing power was worth its weight in gold, he worked diligently on making maps more optimized for 32p. If not for him, we would have had half the maps we did at the time. He also made regular anonymous donations even though he shouldn’t have. And when Invasion started to work into everyone’s bloodstream, and it was obvious we needed to start up an invasion server, Wraith was a flat out obvious choice to take up the challenge. He accepted, and has succeeded beyond most people’s expectations except my own. For I know what he was capable of. I know the early days, the karate, the scram cannon, the shotgun, the mods, the maps, etc. His creativity and desire to provide an ever better game, knows no bounds. And when the Invasion server started to generate donations of its own, I had to beg him to stop making personal donations, knowing all of the hard work he was already putting into it.
But after all of this, if you’re still not convinced of his pure selflessness, he tops himself. You see I have sacrificed my ability to significantly upgrade my own three year old machine to pay for the new server. I am stretched very thin. Understanding this, Wraith without prompting and out of the kindness of his heart, gave me a wonderful gift. A gift any gamer can truly appreciate. He gave me the ability to appreciate these new games by giving me an 8800GTX. Words fail me.
I’m not sure I can ever repay Wraith for everything he has done for me and this clan. Although upon reflection, I think some of the things I do today are a subconscious effort to do just that.
Wraith, thank you.
And everyone, THANK YOU!
Now stop wasting any more time, and get out there and frag!
Rich (TW)
When UT2004 hit the scene, our imaginations were captured by ONS. This game, this interest is what has driven us, and has ultimately led us to this day; a day of reflection, a day of change, and a day of renewal.
Reflection:
When I look back on it, I can hardly believe how much we have grown both as a clan, and a community. What started out as a couple of guys hanging out, having a good time hoping some people would wander in and join us for a few ggs, has changed drastically to a clan with 26 active members, which competed on the ONS and TAM ladders, which has one of the most popular 2k4 servers out there, and which has a dedicated community of dozens of regular participants.
Change:
For the first couple of years, it was a one man show. I was taking care of everything (web site, servers, clan administration, competition, etc.). As we grew, I realized that was not possible, and I have increasingly asked people to step in and take over certain aspects of the clan. This has become even more prominent, as my personal life overshadowed everything. I’m proud to say that everyone has been willing to support me, and the clan, and stepped up to fill in the gaps I left. And they have done nothing short of a spectacular job. And ultimately, this change is for the better. The clan and community cannot continue to grow without multiple people having responsibility.
But there are plenty of other things that have changed. How about the hardware, and geographic locations of our hosting?
1.We started in Wraith’s place
2.Moved to NJ
3.Spent some time in Indiana (Pit of Penultimate Darkness)
4.Headed back to Dallas (where Spam Vikings really became popular)
5.Moved to Chicago where we had a less than stellar provider
6.Doubled back to Dallas which was good for a while, but routing issues plagued us there as well.
7.And finally, we are back in the windy city, with one of the most reputable hosting facilities In the US.
And don’t forget the many iterations of hardware!
Wraith’s Home machine
Two Game Server rentals
Two Dedicated Server rentals
Dedicated Server builds:
AMD 3800+
Dual Opteron 248
FX-55
FX-57
Dual Opteron 254
Dual Opteron 256
Intel QX6800
Intel Q6600
I’m tired just thinking about it!
One thing I can sat has NOT changed however, is the pride I feel for the folks we have here, and the wonderful job they are doing.
Renewal:
This past year has been a very challenging one for me personally. I’ve had to deal with some devastating personal issues: more issues than a person should have to deal with in a decade, never mind a single year. As a result, Spam Vikings has languished, the clan has drifted a bit, and I have not been able to participate as much as I would have liked.
I’m looking forward to 2008 with a lot of hope; a hope for better times for myself and my family, and better times for this clan. Things will not be easy however. 2008 throws us a curveball right as we step to the plate: the lack of widespread acceptance of UT3. It’s the thing we all feared the most. But with this news comes diversification, and ultimately a healthier clan.
Until now, we have been a UT2k4 clan first, last and only. With the lack of acceptance of UT3, we’ve been forced to look elsewhere to get our game on. We are fortunate that there are many quality games out there now. Several clan mates have already taken to COD4. DW will look to branch out and explore other gaming opportunities as well. We’ll be forming “branches” of the clan with their own leadership, servers, forums, etc. We’ll be running servers of several game types, and look to make our mark in each one, if not competitively, then community wise. We’re always looking to expand the community and spread the gg’s around.
I am very excited about our prospects. And I’ve done everything I can to secure a safe and stable gaming environment for you all to enjoy. To that end, I have done the following things:
1.Moved us back to Chicago to one of the most reputable hosting facilities in the US
2.Purchase of TCADMIN which puts the power of server control in the clan’s hands directly (taking me out of the loop as the bottleneck.)
3.Brought in some big guns. And if you’re wondering what I’m talking about, take a gander at Penryn Power!
I’ve always built servers myself to save money. I have had some successful builds, and some not so. I’ve had my share of hardware problems and down time. But I feel it’s time to make a sacrifice, and put something a little more permanent in place, to ensure good times, big servers, and multiple games, all uninterrupted by lag or packet loss, or downtime. It’s something that stands for my commitment to this clan, and our commitment to this community. So in closing, I would like to thank everyone in this clan and this community who has supported me personally, and the clan and community as a whole either by financial means, coding, advice, friendship, or just having a damn good time on DW servers. In the end, that’s what it’s all about.
I cannot thank everyone as much as I would like because I think I would overflow the forum database. But I would like to make a couple of special thank yous. None of this is in any particular order and please do not feel slighted if I don’t mention you specifically. You all mean a lot to me and I’m damn happy all of you are here.
First of all, thanks to everyone who has ever made a financial donation. We wouldn’t be here in the capacity we are if not for you. I would especially like to thank those of you who make regular donations and are there month in and month out. Some of you do it anonymously, and others not. You all deserve high praise either way and even in the leanest of times, when not another penny was coming in for months at a stretch, you were there for us, and truly kept us going some months. Thank you!
Many thanks to Danimal for those earth shaking donations. I could not believe it when I saw the first one and I thought we had a paypal error on our hands. But no, it was real, and it has been repeated several times. Danimal, Thank you!
Thank you to all of the admins who watch over the servers, forums and website. There’s always a rotten apple out there trying to spoil the bunch, and thanks to your diligence, we can keep a relatively safe and happy gaming community. And there’s always “paperwork” that needs to get done. Thank you!
Thank you to all of the people working hard to make the games better. People like Snaggle, Nightwolf, Wraith, Alpha, Choco, Hornet, Slim, Bio, etc. who are mapping, coding etc. You folks help make this community unique, and improve the quality of play for all. Thank you!
Thank you to Damnidge for taking over leadership of the COD4 branch. This will be our first official “branch” so he’ll be sailing new waters. Do everything you can to support him. Damnidge, welcome to my hell good luck, and thank you!
Thank you to Zeus, who works diligently on our new website. Zeus has put in a tremendous amount of work, and has taken all of our criticisms constructively. It’s coming along nicely. Thank you!
Thank you to Bomzin, for keeping this clan going on a day to day basis. If not for you, it probably would have really all fallen apart. And thank you for being such a good battlefield leader. Your strats are fantastic, and your ability to get so many diverse personalities working together as a team is amazing. I hope I can invest enough time to get good in a new game, and fight under your leadership again. Thank you!
Thank you to BigRed, who’s a founding member and good friend. We’ve had plenty of long conversations, and he’s helped me through various hard times in my life. Thank you!
Thank you Karma for so many things. For being my confidant during my hard times, for all of your offers to help financially and emotionally and to just plain get your hands dirty on just about any job I can come up with for you. And a special thank you for the gift that you have given this community. You will get direct thanks, but the most satisfying thanks will show in the form of the indirect thanks of the growing community that results from it. Karma has generously purchased and donated a special application to the community. The application is the aforementioned TCADMIN, and it allows any clan member to run and update servers, for just about any game out there. This means we can give you more gaming opportunities. This means we can react to changes faster. This means the best damn servers you’ll find! Karma, Thank you!
Thank you Wraith. What can I say. I hope I don’t embarrass you. But if not for Wraith, we would not be here at all.
When you look back on things, you can identify certain turning points in life where things could have gone one way or another. There were so many turning points four years ago. We all had a favorite server we loved to play on. When that server went down, Wraith made the decision to give us a home to play our favorite game. He did it out of the love for the game, and the desire to keep the good times rolling for everyone else who enjoyed playing. There was no plan. Just come and play. We played for hours and hours into the early morning on many occasions. We met a lot of cool people. We formed the clan there.
When UT2K4 came out, Wraith spent countless hours and dollars trying to figure out a way to provide us a good home. At some point, we all came to the realization that no home connection was going to provide a suitable ONS home. Wraith’s dedication to us is what inspired me to create my little 5 player UT2k3 home server, and it is ultimately what drives me today, to provide the same kind of environment where everyone is having a good time.
At some point Wraith got bored with ONS and 2k4 , and cheated on us :P with Guild Wars for a while. But when he came back, he jumped in with both feet. Back when processing power was worth its weight in gold, he worked diligently on making maps more optimized for 32p. If not for him, we would have had half the maps we did at the time. He also made regular anonymous donations even though he shouldn’t have. And when Invasion started to work into everyone’s bloodstream, and it was obvious we needed to start up an invasion server, Wraith was a flat out obvious choice to take up the challenge. He accepted, and has succeeded beyond most people’s expectations except my own. For I know what he was capable of. I know the early days, the karate, the scram cannon, the shotgun, the mods, the maps, etc. His creativity and desire to provide an ever better game, knows no bounds. And when the Invasion server started to generate donations of its own, I had to beg him to stop making personal donations, knowing all of the hard work he was already putting into it.
But after all of this, if you’re still not convinced of his pure selflessness, he tops himself. You see I have sacrificed my ability to significantly upgrade my own three year old machine to pay for the new server. I am stretched very thin. Understanding this, Wraith without prompting and out of the kindness of his heart, gave me a wonderful gift. A gift any gamer can truly appreciate. He gave me the ability to appreciate these new games by giving me an 8800GTX. Words fail me.
I’m not sure I can ever repay Wraith for everything he has done for me and this clan. Although upon reflection, I think some of the things I do today are a subconscious effort to do just that.
Wraith, thank you.
And everyone, THANK YOU!
Now stop wasting any more time, and get out there and frag!
Rich (TW)