Meet your moderators!

If you want to reach me for any reason, be it related to moderation, a general/gameplay question, casual conversation, or anything else, my inbox is always open. I try to respond to any legitimate message sent to me usually within 24 hours.

I suppose I should start with a bit about myself, eh? I have been an avid gamer for the majority of my life. I've never played another ARPG title, but PoE (and mainly the company behind it, GGG) has attracted me like a fly to honey. My gaming past includes a wide array of casual console games (mostly Nintendo titles; I was never a big X-Box/PS fan) as well as few more "hardcore"/time consuming ones (MMOs mostly - no WoW, sorry) - tons of PC stuff.

Forums have always been one of my favorite parts of online gaming, and PoE is no exception at all. I've moderated in the past, though that was for a private "guild" forum of about 100 people rather than the public "main" forum. I'm honored to be part of the moderation team here and will do my best to keep things civil when/where I can. :)

When I was 14 I started going to classes at a local community college through a "dual enrollment" program offered at my high school. Just this past summer, I turned 18 and graduated with both my diploma and A.A. Not sure if/when I'll go back for my B.A. At the time of the last edit, I'm just starting a full time job/internship learning how to install computerized pump systems (for which I'll be writing the software as well) for oil companies around the world. Busy busy!

My username has been in constant change. When I was younger, I used to go by a generic name I made up on the spot (Sodapop5000 - there is no backstory behind it whatsoever), but eventually decided to move on. I mainly kept it Monopoly focused (as Monopoly was always my favorite board game from a young age, and I love the renowned "Mr. Monopoly" character associated with it).
Former player moderator, valued poster, and early-adopter responsible for The Blood Dance.

GGG has forgotten where they came from. As a result, I no longer support the deceitful, corporate Tencent slave sellouts running this game.
Last edited by MonopolyLegend on Mar 13, 2013, 5:13:40 PM
Hello all, I just recently became a forum/game moderator for yours truly, Path of Exile. My name is JohnNamikaze, and this is not my first time assuming this role in a forum. I still do moderate in another forum, Aniverse, but since there is barely any traffic as of late, most of my duty is already being taken care while I am asleep I been moderating in that forum since December 2010, and I have maintained a safe environment in that forum for years now. I will do my best to repeat the same performance as well here by keeping both the game and the forum a safe and fun play to hang out.


I been gaming since the Nintendo when I still barely talking and walking, yes as a baby, I been gaming. I really got into ARPG gaming when I checked out on Diablo 2 about 8 years ago after spending so much time on Starcraft and Warcraft 3. Ever since I been mostly playing games that fit either the action or rpg genre, or even both like DMC, Vindictus, already mentioned D2, ToG (Yes I know, I kinda played a bit too much and regretted a bit), PoE (My favorite), and along with TL2 when I have the chance.


I am still a college student for trying to get my AA degree since I am taking my time, maybe a bit too much, but I have been progressing ever since I stepped up the plate.



Don't really have much else to say, but I will do my best to have PoE be a great place to hangout for all the avid ARPgamers, and the ones that are escaping ToG's claws.
Sometimes you can take the game out of the garage but you can't take the garage out of the game.
- raics, 06.08.2016

golem09 is not a name I came up with on purpose.
When I first visited the internet in about 2000, I was somewhere, somewhen asked for a nickname. I just typed in golem09 because it seemed incredibly familiar. Even the number.
It's like a Deja Vu manifested out of nowhere and created itself. I don't think I even knew back then what a golem was.

Sadly, I did not have a PC of my own until 2005, and starting that year, I put a lot of time into Ragnarok Online. I did not come into contact with ARPGs for a long time. I've always been more of a console guy, worshipping 90s JRPGs, but the PC grew in importance as a platform with me steadily over the years.

This year was the definite turning point for me. After spending 200 hours with The Binding of Isaac, I had no intention of going back to the console world, where I pay 10 times the amount for a quarter of the playtime.
I then finally thought I would owe it to myself to play Diablo 2, and I had a lot of fun with it, more than with any other ARPG I ever tried (Nox, Titan Quest, Torchligh 1).
When I almost grew tired of it, I stumbled on Path of Exile by accident, and was fortunate enough to join the beta one day before 0.9.9 was released.
This immediately hooked me even more than D2 and I quickly decided that I needed to become a silver supporter, although my monthly income is 0$.

Some months later I was invited to join the alpha, and as if that wasn't enough it seemed I was even worthy of a post as a moderator in what is now one of my favourite games of all time.
Time to live up to the trust put in me.

I'm 25, German, and currently study Psychology. Glad to be here.
I've had this name since I first found the internet a short sixteen years ago. I don't exactly know why I chose it, but it's such an institutionalized part of my persona that I treat it like a second name now. I was raised on computer and internet (sub)culture and it's been good to me so far.

Video games have been an integral part of my life. The strongest gaming impression that I have came to me from the JRPG explosion of the SNES and the PS1. In addition, I'm an avid D&D player (currently in a campaign that has been held weekly for over 3 years). Between the two, I yearn for character complexity and interesting game mechanics and seek it out wherever I go.

Back in middle school I remember playing Diablo 2 (starting ~1.06) with friends online and being absorbed by the game well into high school. I took a break from ARPGs until sophomore year of college when I was introduced to MXL and played that for a few years. I have no idea how much time I've spent in Diablo 2 between vanilla/LoD and MXL, but it's probably near to a year of my waking life.

Last year I got into PoE from a good friend and have been playing it continuously since. You'll likely find me helping out in normal chat until I come up with a new build to binge on. Feel free to whisper me in-game or PM me if you need help.
Hi there folks! My name is Max. As you can probably tell my username on the forums is an extension of my name. Most places require more than 3 characters for a username, so naturally I added to it with something that was relevant at the time that escapes me now. It's been my username for over 15 years now.

I'm a 30 year old Computer Hardware Engineer living in a desolate unpopulated area in Ontario Canada. I specialized in micro circuitry design through my education, but I have a job as a Hardware Analyst. That is a big important way of saying the company I work for sends me components that are prone to failure, and I have to find out why and suggest a fix. It's far more tedious than it sounds as there is only 10-15 types of components I see, and since it is outdoor equipment...well I'll just say I write the word ' weather damage ' a lot on paper work.

As for my gaming experience, I have a fairly well rounded cache of games I enjoy. I have favorite games from most every genre. I play strategy games, first person shooters, puzzle games, racing games, sports games, RPG games. Of course I also enjoy the ARPG genre, which is what brought me to Path Of Exile.

Like most people I started by playing the first Diablo game. This caused the death of a couple old serial roller ball mice. When Diablo 2 came out, I was all over it. I've been known to pull all nighters in that game, and I've even been known to pop back into the game now and then. I was very excited when Diablo 3 was announced, but it became clear that it wasn't really aimed at me. I have no ill will towards it. I've played it, and I see the logic and the work that has gone into the game. Sadly, things like art style, gameplay mechanics, and combat 'feel' pushed me away. Many people saw it differently, and enjoyed it. I didn't. So I decided to keep my ears to the ground for other ARPG games out there. Torchlight 2 was a bit too cartoony for me, Grim Dawn looked a little...odd. Plus it is still a long way off. There have been a few that have caught my eye, but they either didn't have that old feel I longed for so much, or were more of a glimmer in the distant future. Eventually I came across Path Of Exile from another gaming forum a couple years ago. A year and a half ago I became a member. I was lucky enough to get a key and begin playing. Thinking back, things were so rough and early back then...it's amazing to see how far things have come. I was so impressed with the core style and mechanics of the game that I bought a supporter pack as soon as possible. I think I started with the 50 dollar Bronze pack, then I decided I was gonna go gold. I incrementally went through silver, then onto the gold pack. I don't know if the budget will allow for a Diamond pack ( with so little time left before OB ), but I am pretty certain GGG will get more of my money over the years to come.

Since joining the forum I've tried to be helpful to other members, as much as possible. I try to respond to posts if I can say anything that might be at all helpful or informative. I do post my opinions and suggestions when I have something I feel is to the benefit of the game. I care about the quality of the game, and I hope to do my part to make the it as good as it can be.

I promise I will always answer any questions sent to me via PM. I usually pop into the forums once a day. I do miss the odd day, but if anyone needs anything of me, I will get back to you ASAP.

Cheers to you all!

Sometimes, even the most sturdy Exile can use aid of another Exile to survive in Wraeclast.


-Max
"I would have listened... I would have understood!" - Scion

Have you removed Asus ROG/GameFirst yet?
What's up, people. I'm Spud of Doom (or Spud).

Spud of Doom isn't the first name I used on the internet, but I switched to it in about 2005 when I realised all my other names were either too common, too boring or too similar to my real name. I don't know how exactly I came up with the name, but it has grown on me and seems to have stuck.

Videogames have been a significant part of my life ever since my uncle gave his old Atari to me and my brother when we were little kids. So we played that up until Christmas 1998 when our parents bought a PS1 for us. So I missed a couple of consoles in the middle there which I didn't realise at the time. Ever since then I've been in active involvement with a huge variety of games, across many platforms. If I were to write out a list of my favourite games there would be some on pretty much every console since I was born, as well as PC games.

I didn't get into the isometric ARPGs until 2005 actually, when some friends of mine got into playing MU Online. It's a boring game in terms of content, but the mechanics eventually led to me finding Diablo 2 a few years later. I had never played the Diablo games when I was younger, so it was good to go back and see some of the origins of the design. By that point my interest in gaming had grown into active exploration, where it remains today. I play games mostly to find new experiences. New environments, new mechanics, interesting settings, characters or stories. I play games across every platform (handhelds, home consoles, PC, even flash games) and always find something interesting or something of value.

While I didn't spend the hundreds/thousands of hours in Diablo that many of you will have, I knew enough about it to see how special Path of Exile was shaping up to be as soon as I looked at the game systems. I was led here by Gameplanet in July 2011 before the closed beta began and immediately jumped into the (then quite small) community. The active developer discussion was one of the biggest draws for me. And of course I wanted to support a local New Zealand company. That forum was where I found out Covert (who posted above me on this page) lived only a few minutes walk from me at the time. He got permission from Chris to show me the alpha version in person and seeing it in action made everything clearer in my mind. I was lucky enough to be given access to the closed beta right at the very beginning (first hour). We ended up starting a PoE clan together that month (The Exiled) along with a few other players.

In real life I am a 20-year old guy studying in medical school in New Zealand. I look forward to seeing this game grow into open beta.

Honestly, we're all just like you. Feel free to have a chat with any of us if you run into us in-game.

- Spud of Doom
Available to mediate cross-league trades and mirror services. Send me a PM here or in-game.
IGN: SpudOfDoom | The Exiled - Path Of Exile's oldest clan
Wow, look at all that text up there...and I was only gonna write a sentence or two about myself. Now I'm paranoid, lol.

So, Hello!
My chosen forum name is GoatEatingToilet (usually shortened to Goat). Most people wonder if the name is supposed to be a goat that eats toilets or a toilet that eats goats. I can assure you, it is the latter (which may be confusing considering the shortened version :p). No real epic story behind the name, I just took a list of words and kept selecting three at random, mixing up the order until I came up with something funny and interesting. Of course, once this combination came up, I had to go with it immediately, because it made me think of my favorite "The Real Ghostbusters" toy as a child: Fearsome Flush. I've been using the name online for about 12+ years now.
I have had other names, but none quite as unique.

Now that you think I am a complete and utter weirdo, I shall move on. My first brush with video games was The Oregon Trail in the early 1990s (and, yes, I just stopped writing this to play Oregon trail for the last hour. That dysentery is a real killer).
I then moved up to my first console, which was also my first handheld. The Lynx may not have had a very glorious spot in gaming history, but I loved that thing to no end. It was portable gaming in the early 90s an it had Rampage. RAMPAGE!! That was the other fun thing about the Lynx, the ComLynx Cable that allowed you to connect to other Lynxes for multiplayer fun. My cousin and I would play Rampage for hours.
I moved on to the Sega Genesis (which is still one of my favorite consoles with some of my favorite games) followed by a Sega Saturn (learned my lesson about Sega quite quickly after that. Their consoles just did not thrive as technology advanced), PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PSP and finally the Xbox 360 (what can I say? Dead Rising really suckered me in). I did not have a gaming computer until about 5 years ago. I mean, sure, I had computers that could play the Sims or (surprisingly) Guild Wars, but nothing that really brought me into the PC gaming scene until recently.
Currently I am playing PoE (Alpha and Beta) and I am still messing around with Dead Island (one of my favorite games from recent memory), Red Dead Redemption (just too fun to quit and it is the only 360 game I play anymore) and The Sims 3 (I still like destroying simulated lives).

I got into the moderator business nearly 3 years ago. I was playing a facebook game and went to the game forum to see if I could get a better understanding of a new feature. Instead of finding the answer to my question, I started answering those of others and correcting misinformation where I could. ABout a week later, I received a PM from the lead moderator. They asked me if I wanted to be a moderator for the game and hence it all began. I was a volunteer mod for a year and then things changed and I was hired on as a lead mod for another year. My contract expired and I went back to the less hectic life of one full-time job. I was contemplating returning to the company a few weeks ago, but then they went and took a crap on their employees and I decided to move on from them permanently. As luck would have it, I had been playing PoE for a few months and just so happened to ask the right people the right questions and got accepted into Alpha and finally as a mod for this awesome community.

In my spare time, (aside from playing games) I like to extend various music tracks from both video game and movie scores. It's not a skill I can ever really apply to a job, but it is just a bit of a rush to find a loop or make your own and be able to rework the length of a song to your preference, write short stories (I've tried books, but I just get stuck) and spending time with my family (so cliche :p).

-Goat
Last edited by GoatEatingToilet on Dec 13, 2012, 7:45:41 PM
Greetings Exiles,

So where did the name Abattoir come from? My parents had this elaborate collection of dictionaries, each large book containing about 3 or 4 letters worth of definitions. They were massive and they looked exquisite to the eye. I was already a huge fantasy nerd in my early years (Dungeons & Dragons) and the books always called to me as some sort of magical tomes filled with untold knowledge. One day I got it in my young imaginative mind that I would read every dictionary book in the set. Yeah, I didn't make it but a few pages into the "A" section before I was bored out of my mind. I did, however, come across this particular word that tickled a sweet spot with my twisted little mind. Abattoir, meaning slaughterhouse. I've been hooked on the word ever since.

I've been gaming since a boy as well. There was Nintendo in the mid 80's, SNES in the early 90's along with Wolfenstein 3D being the first PC game I really got into at the age of 14. That's when my love of video games (PC and console) and PC's in general began. Gaming and ripping apart the family computer, putting it back together, tinkering with DOS and Windows 3.1, game genie codes for the NES that you pulled out of some gaming magazine, the days when everyone thought AOL was THE internet. Talk about nostalgia.

Then Diablo came along and I was hooked on ARPG's. Diablo II was no different. It sucked me in like a black hole. I would play the other classics like Warcraft, Quake, Doom, Command and Conquer, Baldur's Gate... the list could go on and on. My heart was in RPG's though, mainly ARPG's.

Years and years passed, I grew up, and Diablo II remained my long term game of choice. I think most of us can relate to the excitement as the Diablo III release date came closer and closer and when it finally hit, I was resorted back to that same kid just getting his hands on D I & II. I put my time into Diablo III, hundreds upon hundreds of hours into HC Witch Doctors. I certainly won't flame the game as I did put a lot of time into it and had a blast, but something was missing.

While browsing the D3 forums one day, I came across this fine gem of a game (and boy am I glad I did!) I was instantly hooked and after just a few weeks time playing, I decided to take the plunge and really support the game, both financially and personally. It became my new addiction, putting countless hours of play time in and loving every moment of it.

One day, out of the blue, I was asked to join Alpha, which I accepted without hesitation. After some time in Alpha, I was then asked if I'd like to become a moderator. Again, I accepted without hesitation.

It's not just the game itself that draws me here. It's been a very long time since I've seen a development team like GGG do what they do. The interaction they provide with their community alone is what really drove me to invest such a large amount of time and money into them. This depth of engagement with their player base is seldom seen, and it is the shining star that makes them stand out above the rest. For that, I applaud them and give my full support.

That about wraps it up! I'm an extremely easy going, laid back individual so please do not hesitate to PM with questions, concerns, or just to shoot the breeze. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you in Wraeclast!

-Abattoir
Hey everyone, I am Metronomy.

I have been gaming with this name for a few years now, and before this name I always just used generalised names or names I didnt feel were personal to me. Its obviously a name of the band "Metronomy", when asked how THEY came up with the name basically it comes down to that they thought it sounded cool, which I totally agree with

I found PoE while I was looking for a game that was similar to Diablo 2 in July 2011, this was after the realisation (after talking about it with people) that D3 was not going to have the same style (I wont go into details). I wasnt the biggest Diablo 2 fan though, I have only really played single player

Before Path of Exile I played a variety of games, and I prefered short-style games that had short-medium play sessions (20 mins-1 hour 30 mins), a recent comparison would be LoL. I also went through a 2-3 year phase where I mostly only played custom mod games on Warcraft 3, specifically one called Undead Assault 2. I really enjoyed zombie games, but it was time to move on (with the introduction of SC2, which wasnt as good for custom games, and so the player base died) - you can send me a PM if you ever used to play UA2, that game was old-school, I still leave WC3 installed on my computer out of nostalgia

So here I am, I prefer to spend most of my gaming time on a single game, so as far as other games go I have virtually stopped playing. PoE has a lot of my favourite elements combined from all the other games I had been playing, and I really found it difficult to find negatives or things I dislike about the game. On top of that the GGG team seemed to be really intuitive to what players actually want (being former players themselves), and so I became more involved with the community of PoE than I ever have for any other game
Hello everyone,

I started playing video games 20 years ago. Although I enjoyed console games (NES, snes, sega genesis, and playstation 1), my heart was always with PC games. The first RPG that I played was King's Quest VI, but it was Diablo 1 that really got me into the genre. I would go over my friend's house every day after school and play it (he would always just watch me play - too scary for him, we were only 9). I soon transitioned to Starcraft when it came out, as I had already played Warcraft and Red Alert and really liked RTS games.

Before I knew it, Diablo 2 had come out, and I was back into ARPGs. I would play this HEAVILY over the next 2 years, and enjoyed it greatly before the mass hacks and dupes ruined it for me. I quit before the big 1.10 patch came out, and moved to Lineage 1, a korean mmo. Being a Blizzard fanboy, I immediately switched to Warcraft 3 when it came out, and played it a ton, along with the expansion.

Lineage 2 later came out, and I played it for about 5 months before taking a 3 year break from video games altogether. I was starting college, and didn't want to fail out and miss out on college social life. Having taken breakdance lessons while in high school, and teaching myself later, I decided to start a Breakdance club at my university. For 3 years, most of my free time went into this, and it's also how I met my wife - she was friends with one of the club members. For all you bboys out there, I focused mostly on freezes and powermoves: airchairs, hand hops, windmills, flares. My toprock was horrible though :)

It turns out a lot of the people at my school were starcraft fans, so I started going to LANs and got back into starcraft. I played on Iccup, a private, competitive server, until Starcraft 2 came out. I played SC2 competitively for about 5 months, before having to quit due to my new time-demanding job as an accountant.

After going to PAX East, a huge video game convention in Boston, and receiving a beta key for Diablo 3, I got very excited for its release, and ordered parts for a new computer from Newegg to build specifically for running Diablo 3 on Ultra (of course what I ended up getting was complete overkill). Before it even came out, people on the D3 forums were talking about Path of Exile, so I played in one of the beta weekends, got to level 20, and absolutely loved it. I was sad I had to leave the game for Diablo 3 (I just didn't have enough free time for both), which was coming out within a few days, so I bought a Bronze supporter pack, knowing one day I would come back.

2 months later, having played 250 hours and racking up $600 in RMAH sales, It became clear to me that Diablo 3 fell short, and would not be the game I would play for years to come. No patch could fix the fundamental flaws it had, so i cashed out and quit, and upgraded to Gold on Path of Exile using some of the proceeds from my Diablo 3 sales. I've been playing PoE a ton since then, and continue to enjoy every bit of it. I think it's safe to say, Wraeclast will be my home for the next few years. I look forward to gaming with you all!

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