Meet your moderators!

MEET YOUR MODERATORS

Many people have wanted a single place to see who the Moderators are... so I am creating this thread for the Mods and Support Staff to write a little blurb about themselves if they wish (Devs are welcome as well if they wish.) I hope all will post something, and that most will share something about themselves.

One of the things I like most about GGG is that they (and us Mods) are not robots, nor expected to act like robots, as is standard in almost any other company. Providing a personal touch without compromising service has not been lost here.


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My name is zeto (and I actually do prefer this name IRL as well, although few call me it.) I came up with this name when I was a mere ~6 years old, playing Final Fantasy 1 for the first time. It asks you for your first hero's name, which can only be 4 characters long. I happened to have a keyboard near me at the time, and the way I derived this name was to start at the left side and pick a consonant... a COOL consonant.. couldn't be any old letter. So I chose Z. I then proceeded to move left to right across the keyboard, picking a vowel, and then another consonant to match with the Z sound, and then a final vowel. ZETO was born.

This name was severely under-utilized until ~1994 when a friend of mine came back from Gen-Con with a business card that led me to Legends Of Kesmai. This was the sequel to what is essentially the very first 'online' RPG. They more or less just slapped a GUI on it though and called it new and improved. I played that game in various incarnations from ~1994 until ~2008. I would still love to recreate a sequel to that, however I've yet to find the right programming team to do so ;)

I played Diablo 1 a significant amount, however nothing compared to my time with Diablo 2. At the time, my basement was pretty awesome... it was THE place to hang out and party, and we balanced the 'cool kids' partying with a pool table and darts against the 'nerdy kids' partying, which consisted of LAN/Online games such as Diablo 2. I've probably spent thousands of hours playing that game with my friends over the years.

I've since moved on to become a molecular biologist and biochemist focusing on protein dynamics within the realms of anti-viral and anti-cancer research. I've taught myself some C/C# programming and really enjoy programming as a hobby when I get the chance.

On Feb. 24, 2011 I was sent this link by my friend Koja. I was then accepted onto the Alpha team in May and shortly thereafter was appointed to Moderator. Meteoric rise ya? This will be my 4th or 5th moderation job over the years, as I've tended to be a very prolific (yet rational) forum-goer on any online game I've graced... including all the way back in 1994 on old style newsgroups.

I was really taken by GGG's stances on many aspects, including both the game itself and their general PR. Their interaction with their playerbase and the consideration and explanations they give, are so respectful of their community, that I felt compelled to assist them in maintaining the game and the community as a paragon among its peers.

GGG is a company that really stands out, and nearly stands alone in this industry as a whole. Being here and dealing with this community truly is extremely refreshing, and I look forward to continuing to do my best and to live up to the standards that they have set through example.

If you have any problems at all, feel free to message me, and I will do my best to fast track your issue to a resolution or point you in the right direction.

Enjoy the slaughter POE!

I've been using the name tpapp for quite a while now. It's certainly not a very common online name so if you really wanted to you could probably track me back a decade or more through various older game communities. DOOM and Civ2 were the games that really got me into PC gaming. More importantly, Civ2 got me into modding and I've worked on dozens of game mods since then (some famous, some failures). It's probably accurate to say that I've spent more time modding games than playing them. Unfortunately, I don't really have time for modding anymore and I haven't in several years.

I came to ARPGs a bit late. I didn't play D1 and only picked up D2 when the LoD expansion came out. Like most people, I had a ton of fun with that and the genre has become a staple on my harddrive ever since.

I stumbled on PoE back when it was first announced in September 2010. Over the next few months I kept my eye on the game and would check up on it occasionally. It wasn't long before the potential of the game became apparent and I joined the community. At that point there were only a dozen or so active community members on the forum. I was one the first community members admitted into the PoE alpha around 0.8.0 and became a moderator not too long after that.

The guys at GGG are great and very intelligent. I enjoy working and chatting with them and it's a pleasure for me to help them and the community however I can. These days, I spend more time browsing through the forums than actually playing PoE but that's ok.

Like zeto, I created my name at an early age, though both the motivation and exact construction sequence were somewhat different; the accent is on the second syllable, not the first, by the way.

In terms of video gaming history, I've a history with Diablo 2 that goes back I-don't-remember-how-long-but-at-least-before-1.10; it certainly ate up most of my free time in college (and perhaps some time that shouldn't have been free). I developed a taste for Hardcore and an affinity for the Necromancer; when I lost my furthest in the same game he made Guardian (to a PKer I'm still convinced was hacking), I basically ragequit for a few months before coming back to the game - and, this time, to the Amazon Basin (I still game with them fairly regularly).

After that, I made a lot more characters, mostly in Hardcore, and eventually made my "Everymancer" into a Guardian I was proud of (still am - he soloed the Ancients and Baal to do so, and with a build that would make most powergamers cringe)... and eventually joined enough "Uber-Tristram" runs with him via the Basin to net him a Hellfire Torch.

Later, I also got into the Median mod(s) (starting with 2008, though I also went back to try the mod for 2006), Atlantica Online, and - I feel like I'm making an excuse here when I say it was in pursuit of a girl I was interested in - World of Warcraft (it especially feels like an excuse when I mention that despite finding the "press 1, press 2, press 3, go back to 1" combat uninspiring at best, and despite the lack of meaningful customization by the time I arrived, I made several characters and even got one to 85).

I honestly can't remember what link I clicked that led me here, though I'm convinced it was a banner ad or similar. After a few months of constructive posts, I got an email that made me very happy, and downloaded the alpha client.

Several patches later, it was looking like more forum moderators would be a good idea, and - impending day-job notwithstanding - I volunteered.

When they announced the pre-purchase options, the lure of designing a unique proved such that I found it impossible to settle for anything less - especially given their stated philosophy on uniques being interesting, rather than simply "powerful". I'm a combo player at heart, more fond of outwitting than overpowering my opponents (and so I play very few Marauders); I'm also fond of theorycrafting (though in-game I also like being diverted from the disciplined, theorycrafted route by a lucky find).

Also, looking forward to PvP in a way I haven't for any other game (especially the Cutthroat leagues)... though I did try out a bit of low-level team-versus-team in the Basin (though given the nature of the group it was difficult to drum up interest for it).

Like tpapp, I spend more time browsing through the forums than playing the game lately - but then, I don't have the client installed at work :P.

I also go by the nickname WhiteBoy to some people in real life, which comes from my last name being White. Since whiteboy is often taken when I register on sites, I went the lazy route and added a number. 8 is a reference to an old TV show called The Pretender, one episode in which the main character was fascinated by the number 8. I have recently dropped the 8's and am now simply WhiteBoy.

I've spent the large majority of my adult life in the US Army as an Information Technology Specialist, which basically does everything IT from system/peripheral setup and maintenance to network engineering and administration. I also had an opportunity to work as a Satellite Systems Operator/Maintainer and an Electronic Warfare Officer (which deals with radio waves, intercepting and jamming). I've had a lot of great experiences in the military. My first duty station assignment put me in Hawaii for 3 years. Real bummer. I was then moved to Ft. Knox, KY, from which I deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan. After 8 years of active duty, I'm now in the National Guard and was recently retrained as a Special Electronic Devices Repairer. So, I get to use a soldering iron a lot. I wouldn't trade the military for any other job.

My real gaming experience started off with Diablo on my friend's computer. My family couldn't afford a computer, nor did we have any use for one. I'd go to his house after school and we'd take turns killing stuff. I've since collected a ton of games of different types and revisit them occasionally. My two main areas of focus are fantasy RPG's and realistic shooters. I've tried out some MMO's, but they don't hold my attention well. My favorite was Warhammer: Age of Reckoning. I also own 9 different gaming consoles: NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Wii, Genesis, Xbox, Xbox 360, and PS3.

I came to PoE from Mythos Europe (I was heavily into Hellgate London, which eventually led me to Mythos). I was somewhat prominent on the Mythos forum before Frogster shut down the game servers, even being offered a chance to be a Community Manager. I declined since we could all tell that the game was going under quickly. I signed up for the PoE beta about 5 months before the beta started and followed the dev posts, but only became active in the community once the beta started.

When Chris invited me to be an alpha tester and eventually a moderator, I jumped at both chances. It's rare to find developers as interactive as GGG. My most recent beta experience was Mythos Europe, and we never heard from the developers once. All communication was done through the publisher, who ran the forum as well. GGG is a breath of fresh air in the gaming world.

I chose Wittgenstein because he is my favorite philosopher, if anyone played WoW/EQ/AO I went by Draxt - which is still my favorite name, and if I could I would change it to that. I found Draxt in my first MMO game, Anarchy Online (still the greatest btw) Random generator.

I obtained my undergraduate and masters degree in philosophy, which prepared me for cocktail party banter and little else. Now, I work at one of the largest food producers in the world as a logistics analyst for our HR and QA groups, basically I generate reports which analyzes work flow to find bottle necks/redundancies that typically are resolved through firing somebody.

I have been playing video games my entire life, started on the C64, typing in hundreds of lines of code in order to play Dig-Dug. I have owned nearly every gaming console since then, and my prize possessions today are my 3DO (with Road Rash) my Jaguar (With AvP) and my Saturn (with Panzer Dragon).

I dropped off the PC for awhile due to money constraints - being abhorrently poor - and so I missed a lot of the games that most people remember fondly. I came back, and purchased my first PC in years, in order to play Diablo, a game that at first, I thought looked like a pile of trash as my friend twiddled away countless hours playing it. But then, one night, my life changed forever. As my best friend and roommate at the time was in the hospital for... something, I had free access to his PC. The first time I killed a zombie, and the zombie dropped boots, and upon equipping the boots my avatar changed in appearance... I was hooked. Since that time I have played every ARPG (I think) all the Diablo's, Nox, TQ, TL, DD.. probably others I forgot about.

I stumbled upon PoE while Googling "games like D2" and haven't looked back. The game is fantastic, the developers are great, and the player base is... largely... phenomenal.

I enjoy asking questions, like Socrates with the elenchus, in an effort to ensure that my interlocutor actually understands what he/she is talking about. So if I come across pretentious, or stupid, that's probably why... and because I'm pretentious and stupid.

Feel free to send me a message if you ever need help.


Oh...

I got invited into the alpha after accusing the developers of unethical actions involving the swapping of beta keys. I was totally off base and cringe thinking of it now, but that is just a testament to how awesome Chris and the other guys are, and also, how stupid I am.

I'm Septile, I'm not very imaginative with names, it's reptile with an S. Fuck it. I've had a whole bunch of names throughout my time on the internet mainly for trolling purposes.

My first experience with PC gaming was playing D1, and I played the shit out of that game. Way more than I should have at that age. Since my parents hated video games I would always get kicked off after a few hours, then I'd just wake up in the middle of the night and play more. Still a huge fan of ARPGs after all this time, played all of the notable ones but not some of the less popular games.

I found out about PoE from a Diablo fansite, saw a screenshot, decided to actually give it a good look, saw a video and determined it was definitely worth playing, and decided to not troll like I did everywhere else since I wanted alpha access. I still trolled a little, but ultimately got alpha access and fell in love with PoE near instantly when I finally played it. I didn't even have to pay for access to the game, and I very rarely ever buy video games, but I still got a supporter pack that I could buy within my means because PoE is an amazing game with amazing developers.

I don't play near as much as I want to, mostly because I'm waiting for open beta so I don't get all my precious items wiped. Once open beta comes around I'm probably going to cut off my social life and play until I get carpal tunnel.

I don't post a lot, but I lurk a ton. I respond to any non-spam PMs so don't be shy to send one if you have an issue.

I'm also a computer science student and a huge music junkie. I'm always looking for some new music to listen to, so you can send me something you think I should listen to and I can tell you why your music taste is bad.

My first video gaming was at a very young age on an Apple II computer. I think my favourite game at that time was Lode Runner, because as well as being a fun game, it came with a level editor. I spent many hours creating fiendishly difficult levels, and then insisting that people complete them. Much fun was also had with PvP games like Serpentine and Joust (whose 2-player mode is similar to cut-throat in PoE), which I played with my brother.

I've been gaming ever since, and enjoy almost all types of games. I really enjoy the theory crafting and creation aspect of games, and it's not uncommon for me to spend more time analysing and modding games than actually playing them. So it has been a real treat that I was lucky enough to find PoE fairly early on, take part in alpha and beta testing, and enjoy the unprecedented level of dev interaction here.

I'm not the type of person that would normally take on a moderator role, but I'm impressed by GGG's philosophy and want to help them in any way I can.

Hi Everybody,

I go by the name duolc but just a few days ago I went by the name siffin. To help you get to know me, I'll tell you the story of siffin:

I never intended my poe handle to be siffin. Siffin is the name of my business and "crew", we came up with it god knows how long ago - back when we used to play CS 1.5 and use the word sif (short for as if) alot. Usage of sif usually went something like, 'sif he shot me first, damn lag'. Thing was that we were pretty good, so we'd say other players were siff'n because we were beating em so bad. We liked the name so much we just rolled with it from then on out. The story of siffin also ties in great with another story.

The story of getting beta access:

A friend of mine was an avid diablo player for as long as. We knew about Path of Exile because I knew their offices were close by to where I lived. One Friday night (August 19th 2011) at about 11:30 I was chatting with said friend online and poe came up, he couldn't get a key through the beta timer so I told him I'd head to the office. I told him, these guys are hardcore, they will definitely be there and if they aren't, ohwell only 5 minutes wasted. At this stage I probably wasn't going to play the game, I was getting a key for him and whoever else. I wrote down three emails on paper so I could hold it up to the window, understanding if they didn't want to let someone into their office in the middle of the night.

You may have seen this photo: http://i.imgur.com/isOr2.jpg

Or this thread: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3756/highlight/

So I was awarded quite appropriately the nickname beta key stalker. You know what happens next, GGG are super friendly have no problems at all letting me inside. I had a bit of an awkward discussion with Chris about the game (because I didn't actually know much at all about the game - I was just getting a key for a friend). I think the only reason they were working late that night was because they were deploying the 0.9.1 patch, I think I got lucky. I was given two keys :D

I took them home and gave one to said friend and one to another. By the next morning that other friend hadn't used the key so I just made an account under the name siffin (to reserve the name and as a universal name for our "crew") thinking we would share it. I just wanted to see how good this game was that had been made down the road. Needless to say that is how I became hooked on this awesome game and how I got stuck with the name siffin. I decided to change it to my preferred handle 'duolc' before it was too late.

The Temple of Exiles chapter:

I honestly can't remember much about the order this all goes in but basically i'm a web developer by trade so I decided to make a bit of a fansite about path of exile. At first I posted existing content like patch notes and some other info from around the forums. I also 'followed' some people and posted their youtube videos on my site. It wasn't original content but it was in a more easy to find format than the official forums. After getting into ladder racing I had an idea to promote the site through a Q & A with the best ladder racer IMDisappoint. I asked Chris and he gave me some beta keys to give away. No doubt this was extremely popular, people would do anything for a beta key back then. It was exciting for me as well because it was genuine content I had created, I enjoyed the Q & A and I think others did as well. Fast forward and recipes were announced, I quickly built some functionality for handling recipes knowing it would be a good drawcard. This worked very well and the site grew in popularity, regular visitors would come and use the recipes page. I was extremely lucky to get radiatoren (the creater of the recipes thread here on the official forum) onboard to help keep the recipes updated, he still does an awesome job so you can expect to see the same recipes on the templeofexiles.com page as you do in his thread.

The Temple of Exiles chapter extended:

Since ladder race data has been available I have been very focused on displaying that information about the race in a nice easy to use way. At first I was utilizing my CMS to scrape and process data. It was far less than ideal, I couldn't get data fast enough and it took a long time. I wasn't finished with graphing yet, it was too good to give up on. I wrote my own code to process the data that I had into a database then output it into the graphs - now what used to take over an hour took less than 20 minutes. I improved the code further so I can import race data in less than 10 minutes - so I can provide it as quickly as possible after the race is finished. People really enjoy having it available asap. For the new two week race league I have rush coded a more automated system which processes the information itself and displays a 'live' graph of the top players. Suffice to say it has been very popular so far and I hope it helps to increase competitiveness between players.

Lastly I have coded a system which can automate registration with pathofexile.com - when register at templeofexiles.com you only enter your pathofexile.com account name. Instead of receiving a verification email you will receive a verification private message. I needed to do this to stop spambots registering and it has the added bonus of being linked with the pathofexile.com community directly. Soon I hope to let members form groups and create private forums.

The Temple of Exiles chapter update:

I don't have time to make the site into anything I wanted it to be, I barely have time to play anymore so I'm passing visitors to new information sources, then the site will be turned off :( it was good fun working on the site and meeting all those who helped, thanks to all.

End:

This could go on for a long time, I could tell you about previous game forum admin experience, running game servers, how I became moderator here and all my favourite games but I....I've got other things to do.

I barely get time to play these days. Don't be afraid to say hi or if you have any problem just flick me a private message. Ciao for now.

I've moderated a small forum, before, so I know some of the basics which this role requires. For everything else about me (in this context), I'm just gonna quote what I wrote in Moroni's shiny Time Capsule Thread: Closed Beta:

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/39346/highlight/

"

Raycheetah wrote:

Joined: September 20, 2011

I gave away the first Beta key I was offered, and declined an offer of another key the next day (October 25 and 26, 2011).

But the Timer isn't so easily refused.

Selected by Beta timer: October 31, 2011

Received first friend key: November 3, 2011


Bought a Silver Supporter pack April 4, 2012 (bought another one for teh missus' account a little later on, and another Bronze pack for my account, and gave away all the keys that came with them).

Received an invitation to participate in the Alpha realm July 1, 2012.

ETA: Received and accepted an invitation to become a forum Moderator August 1, 2012.

Funny thing is, I originally had no intention of participating in the Closed Beta. I was planning to wait until Open Beta (of course, this was also back when we all expected OB to be sometime around January or February of this year).

I found out about Path of Exile while watching ForceSC2Strategy's YouTube coverage of the pre-release development of Diablo 3, about which I was very excited. As time wore on, Force's coverage revealed that Blizzivision's original plans for the game were, in fact, not very stable. What had a year or more previously appeared to be the game for which I (among others) had waited for a decade or so was being pared down and changed into something which, without the Diablo name, wouldn't interest me. Even with that name, I eventually made the informed decision not to play the game, at all.

Meanwhile, however, Force (and Lumin, of TalesofLumin) also did some early Beta coverage of PoE, and I was hooked as soon as I saw it. I watched all the gameplay footage I could find, and still would be, if I weren't so busy playing PoE, now.

I look forward to the day that the Closed Beta is far behind us, all the keybegging threads vanished into the nether reaches of a closed board, and my PM inbox no longer filled with messages from people who assume that I've been hanging on to a Beta key, just for them.

The devs are doing a bang-up job with this game. It's a true privilege to work with them in the Alpha realm, hammering out the big bumps so all the folks in Beta have to worry about are the little bumps. Of course, I am pretty sure there are the bumps so big even the Alpha testers don't get to see them... But give the devs a chance. When we all come back to this thread in a year or five, we will all have seen so much more of PoE that the modest scope of the game as it stands today will seem charmingly quaint.

Seeya all on the shores of Wraeclast! =^[.]^=

ETA: Some folks may wonder what the blazes the collection of symbols I put at the ends of my posts mean. They're Cheetahmoticons:

=^[.]^= is the basic (happy) cheetahmoticon: Whiskers/eye/tear-streak/nosey/tear-streak/eye/whiskers

I have others for different moods:

=@[.]@= boggled

=>[.]<= annoyed or angry

='[.]'= concerned

=0[.]o= confuzzled

=^[.]~= wink

=~[.]^= naughty wink

Others may emerge, from time to time. =^[.]^=

...With a small addendum to express my gratitude to GGG for their faith in my ability to contribute even a little more to this community. =^[.]^=

Hi all! Covert is not my first gaming name but it is one that has stuck. Way back when, I used to go by Ricardo but the name was always taken, so I raged a bit before settling on the new name. Covert reflects the way I play a lot of games, particularly RTS and roleplaying games.

I have many years of experience with both PC and console gaming. The first game I really played was ‘Sid Meyers Pirates’ on one of the really old floppy discs (these were actually floppy), then I moved onto the SEGA and played a lot of games including Bubble Bobble and Golden Axe. After mum buying a new PC I got my first experience in an ARPG receiving it as a Christmas present in 1997, after the first 10 minutes of playing it I was hooked. I have played a lot of ARPGs since then D2, LOD, Darkstone, TQ, IT, The Chosen and D3. Some of these games were great, others not so much.

I first found out about POE from the official Diablo 3 forums in November 2010, I really liked the look of the screenshots and sole video available at the time so I signed up to the forums. I was surprised by the level of developer interaction compared to other forums and decided to stay around. I contributed what I could to the community over the next few months and gained alpha access in July 2011. I took two days off work to ‘test’ the game and just loved it, even though it had so many flaws back then. As soon as the supporter packs were announced I knew that I wanted to get at least one diamond pack, to show support for a local company (I’m a New Zealander) trying to foot it against the biggest gaming companies out there.

I have a few thousand hours experience with POE and have enjoyed all of it. I wish there were more hours in the day.

For a job I work in the construction industry as a Quantity Surveyor/Construction Manager which involves a lot of contract administration and financial control. I also referee rugby at Premiership level and hopefully sometime soon (3-4 years away) I will be able to take on refereeing full time.

This is the first forum I have really been involved in, and hence my first time as a moderator. I am however well versed in reading and applying laws and for 80 minutes each week I give up my time to get insulted by random people who don’t know what they are on about. Needless to say I have tough skin.

Feel free to PM me if you need any help understanding certain aspects of the game or just want to chat.