… The Character

The original Belghast was a Celt Champion in the MMO Dark Age of Camelot.  After several other titles the name Belghast was resurrected in Warcraft during my attempt to create the best tank I could.  Every decision I made while creating and leveling him had this goal in mind.

Belghast was far from my first character in WoW.  Prior to Bel I had run up a Dwarven Hunter (Lodin) and a Dwarven Paladin (Exeter).  I raided actively as a hunter for the Late Night Raiders, who were the first non-guild group on Argent Dawn to clear Blackwing Lair.  It was a good group and offered many opportunities for bringing alts into the mix on farmed content.  Slowly bit by bit I began to favor playing a tank immensely to the mind numbing boring that was playing a pre-bc hunter.  For once I actually began to feel that my performance actually mattered to the success of the raid.

For several months I raided as Belghast with another group No Such Raid on Mon-Wed and then with Late Night Raiders on Thurs-Sun.  This was a painful schedule but it gave me the best of both worlds, I could see progression content with my main raid on Lodin, but still play the character I truly loved Belghast.  When the Guildpocalypse happened… aka the release of Burning Crusade LNR died in a glorious fiery blaze.

For awhile I tried to level Belghast and Lodin in tandem but it wasn’t long at all before the hunter had been relegated to the job of “leather farmer”, and I was focused 100% on becoming one of those bulletproof tanks that I admired so much raiding in the old world.  I took note of all the tips I had picked up from a long line of tanks and after a short hiatus/gearing period joined NSR fulltime quickly becoming one of the tanking leads.

 

… The Guild

House Stalwart is a guild like no other, and I can pretty much say this with complete certainty.  Argent Dawn has a long memory as far as servers go, and Stalwart was one of the very first guilds formed a matter of hours after the release of the game.  None of the monikers like Casual/Hardcore/Friends and Family have really applied completely to us.  House Stalwart is a friends and family guild, made up of casuals and raiders that raid outside of the guild.

Much like the separation of church and state we have strived to separate guild relations and the closeness we all share, from raid politics and all the negative traits that get brought out when loot is on the line.  Guild drama is horrible, Raid drama is intense and painful, but Raid Guild Drama is without a doubt the most cataclysmic.  All raid guilds die with time.  It has been my goal to create something that could last the test of time, and so far House Stalwart has done just that.

 

… The Raid

Duranub Raiding Company rose like a phoenix out of the ashes of left by the collapse of NSR.  It was myself and several of the other members of House Stalwarts dream of creating a “happy medium” raid.  We spent weeks laying the ground work, hashing out details on private forums, trying to learn from all of the past raid mistakes we had witnessed.  The end result is a group of mature raiders who approach content at a steady pace.

We never have perfect raid balance or perfect attendance, but in the 2.5 hours 2 nights a week that we do have we have managed to accomplish a lot.  We have great moments of stupidity, but we also have great moments of success.  I just hope as we move into the next tier of content we can keep our wits about us.

 

… The Player

I’m a thirty something code monkey by trade, but without a doubt the word that can sum me up the best is gamer.  I have been playing games in one form or another since the Atari, and throughout the years have played console, computer, pen and paper, card and board games of all shapes and sizes. 

My MMO history starts like many with the juggernaut that was Everquest where I played for 2 years as  raid cleric.  I have to say…  there is nothing in wow as annoying as the 12 second Complete Heal rotation.  From EQ I moved into DAoC, then onto Horizons, Everquest II, City of Heroes, and dozens of other lesser titles before finally by some chance of fate I got into the Beta for World of Warcraft.  After playing WoW pretty much everything else felt hollow.

My outside of the game life centers around a suburb of the city of Tulsa Oklahoma where I live with my wife, 4 cats, 2 sugar gliders, and the coolest pet in the universe my guinea pig Meg.  We lead a relatively simple life with occasional outings to an area lake, and various sundry community activities.  On the House Stalwart forums, we have this thing that I call “The Great Get to Know You Thread”.  I’m going to cheat at this point and just do a straight cut and paste.

 

… The Great Get to Know You Thread

WoW Characters:     Belghast/Exeter/Renjihara/Lodin/Loamis
Age:                         31
Location:                  Tulsa area, Oklahoma
Name (real or hallucinated):      Mark Temple

How did you get into WoW/MMOs?
I got my indoctrination into MMOs with Everquest.  Was asked to come over to a friends house and play his druid alt during a Lady Vox run.  The guild managed to take her down for the very first time that night and it was the character I was playing that managed to land the killing blow.  From that point I was pretty much hooked.  I’ve played practically every MMO to come out since in either beta or release and when I got into the WoW Beta I was pretty much hooked on the game instantly.  I have yet to find another game that offers as much as this one does in sheer volume things to do.

What brought you to House Stalwart?
During the wow beta we ended up gathering up a bunch of my friends that I had played various other MMOs with.  We knew that we were all going to buy the game on release so I created an early forums to help us organize.  Through it we picked a guild name, decided upon guild ranks etc.  Opening day myself and my friend (now plays Wernie) ground our asses off to get enough silver to buy the charter and then one by one had all our friends log in and create level one dwarf characters to sign it.  As soon as we could get into the deadmines we started farming the place to get up enough cash to buy the tabard   Stalwart was designed to be a gathering of friends and I am happy to say thats pretty much what it has remained since release.  On a side note, there has been a House Stalwart in all the betas, including the Burning Crusade beta

What are some things you like?
I’m really into music, have been my entire life.  I pretty much can’t go anywhere without my mp3 player anymore.  Mostly into indie music, and always looking for new stuff to listen to.  I go in phases, I have way too many hobbies.  Other things that cycle in and out of my life are writing, photography and art.  I used to code for fun, but doing it for a living has pretty much pounded all of those desires out of me.

What are some things you dislike?
I hate PUGs with a deep burning hatred that I dare not speaketh the name.  I’ve been playing my warrior hordeside some and having to PUG every dungeon has made me want to cut myself   I am so spoiled here in stalwart with the amazing caliber of players we have, and my never really having to pug anything.  I also hate clowns….    not sure why, I just find them freakish and in no way funny.  Maybe I have seen too many John Wayne Gaycee movies or something.  Clowns just seem supremely odd….  but then again so do parades   The concept of lining up along the side of the road to watch other people walk down the center of the road is a little off to me.

What are some goals you have for WoW/The Guild?
To continue to ninja all the good people I happen to meet along my travels into the guild.  I have this obessive need to gather up everyone I meet that knows how to play well under the same tent.  Now I have no clue what to do with them once I have them, but I collect talent

Anything else you want to share with the class?
I guess this is the area where you share something interesting or quirky about yourself.  If you listen to me for more than five minutes you are going to find out pretty fast that I am interesting, quirky and often times completely mentally ill.  Shocking revelation time however….  I was an Eagle Scout   It’s pretty obvious how deep my well goes as far as geekiness, but when you take my scouting past and compound it with the fact that I was the high school academic team captain and then sprinkle me spending my summers at invite only art camps on top…. you have a massive geek sundae.