OZYM4NDI4S

Teams I have been on you may know me from: DOD Dragons of Draconis; ‡MoD‡ Ministry of Destruction; DG Defiantz Gaming/Legacy; #M§# The Midnight Sons. Send me a PM if you think you know me and want to re-connect.

Note: This long-winded bio is more-or-less here to help me remember. Unfortunately had I been on only one team, as originally intended, this would be extremely shorter. It also serves as a small insignificant sliver of MechWarrior online gaming history.

Me: I am an upfront guy and I have a very low tolerance for BS and will call it out when I see it. I am usually really laid back. I get a bit excited when things start to get hairy. I am a great team player. I am not the best but I am far from the worst. I like to talk smack and have a good time but when its business time I get serious. I have been known to verbally abuse pugs. I realize this leaves a bad impression and is interpreted as rage. I really don’t care if it leaves a bad impression and it’s the furthest thing from rage. Because if you are going to judge me soley based on what I say in a pug without first getting to know me then you can go fuck yourself you shallow-minded tard. People are dynamic. There is so much more to an individual than what they say in an online game.

Battletech Background:
I have been a Battletech fan ever since I was about twelve years old when I came across the PNP games Battletech and MechWarrior. I had at one time amassed every original Battletech/ MechWarrior related manual, source book and novel which were all sold off before I left home for the military in the early 90’s. When I was in high school a local YMCA sponsored by a local game shop hosted Friday night Battletech games during the summers. I recall all the tables that were pushed together so these expansive hex maps, some with actual 3D terrain, could be laid out. Ahhh, the innocence.

MechWarrior History:
Early in 2003 I was at the store when I came across familiar looking art on the cover of a MechWarrior4 Vengeance box. Immediately recognizing it was a Battletech computer game I bought it with no hesitation. I never really had any interest in video games up to that point. It was my first computer game ever. I played Vengeance off and on for about a year under various names. I joined the first clan that asked me to join. I had absolutely no experience with online gaming clans or multi-player games up to that point. I was a real n00b, completely naive, gullible and fascinated by the world I had stumbled upon.

My first team was the Dragons of Draconis (DOD) which I joined in 2004. At that time DOD was basically just an open server clan with branches in a few other games. We wanted more action so the few people we had come to Mercs around the middle of 2005 and joined MWL March 2006. Some adapted to the game play in mercs and wanted our team to improve also. After losing just about every PL match we played in MWL I rage quit, the first of many. Since I had the Mech bug really bad I didn't stay away from the game for too long. DOD still wasn't working out and only won a handful of games. Early February 2007 a few of us that shared the same views left and joined Ministry of Destruction, ‡MoD‡. Those that remained changed the name to Dragons of Defiance.

‡MoD‡ was my second team and I really had no intentions of leaving. It was a mixed group of experienced players, more than me, and I always had a good time playing matches and opens with them. I finally was on a team of like-minded players who took the league play seriously. But with the good there was the bad, petty drama queen BS. I quit the team three different times for similar reasons, and I wasn't the only one. The third time I left ‡MoD‡ it was with a few other players around August of 2008.

I wanted to join a team where I thought I could be helpful and someone suggested Undead {UD}. {UD} had plenty of active MechWarrior’s so it was an easy choice to leave when a very good friend asked to help start up a new unit in October of 2008, although it never got off the ground. January of 2009 ‡MoD‡ split and I joined back up with a handful of other former ‡MoD‡ pilots to help keep the team going. Unfortunately it closed in May. I joined Death Dealer Mercenaries DDM in June 2009 and helped them get back into MWL for its brief return. They had plenty of active players so I left in August to help another friend’s team, the Forsaken. During this time I also joined the NBT league and joined a new start up that was an incarnation of The Word of Blake. Although the endeavor quickly dissolved the individuals I had met left quite an impression on me. Not finding a team I really felt comfortable with I asked Rain if I could start ‡MoD‡ back up hoping to capture that “good times” feeling I had when I first joined them. The team lasted from November 2009 to September 2010 because it never truly got off the ground. It was a struggle the whole time despite the best intentions of its members.

During the 2010 Holidays I joined Defiantz Gaming, known as Legacy Gaming at the time. I enthusiastically supported the community's goals so it was an easy choice. DG has its roots in the MW community and consists of a membership that plays a wide variety of games. With the death of a family member I took a hiatus from gaming in Jan 2011. I returned at the beginning of summer 2011 with the same enthusiasm to support DG but it wasn't for long.

Gaming History:
Having met many different, unique and interesting people through MecWarrior4, I began playing other kinds of games with some of them. I began playing FPS, MMO, RTS, you name it I was trying it. Currently I am interested in playing whatever everyone else is playing. I am drawn to the large multi-player games that are surrounded by large active communities governed by fair and just administration.

October 2011 I left the MechWarrior community to pursue modern games and get involved with a true multi-gaming group (clan, unit, team, whatever you want to call it). I spent much time searching and visiting many large multi-gaming communities. I literally started with a list of about 70 groups, and then narrowed it down to 13. I was very anal about the process as I was looking to get involved with a group and stay with them for the long-run.

Still going by the name "CrunK" I joined SWG (Silent Warriors Gaming). One of the criteria I sought was BF3 competitive league play and SWG led me to believe it was their intention to do so upon the release of BF3. Sadly enough SWG were not competitive gamer's as it turns out, so I left to continue searching for my "perfect" team.

Also during this time I sought to separate myself form the "CrunK" persona. That name I had chosen as a joke and it just stuck with me. But it accurately reflected who I was at that time in my life. I chose a name that represents my interests and my point of view on the world. Since it was a common gamer name I had to make it unique. I retired the "CrunK" identity and so OZYM4NDI4S was born. You can find me under this gamer name in Origin, Steam, etc.

Returning to the original list I had compiled I located Fever Clan whom I joined December 25, 2011 1AM CST. Fever Clan is a true multi-gaming community. It was the first time I had been on a VOIP server that actually had 75-150 people on it at any time of the day or night, all playing a variety of games. Fever Clan literally had thousands of active members. And they were heavily involved in competitive league play in many games. In short they had pro gamer's running the BF3 division, and I liked what I was seeing. The BF3 leadership though, apparently was at odds with Fever Clan leadership, so in one fatal swoop the whole BF3 leadership left Fever Clan.

Well guess who Fever Clan leadership asked to run the BF3 division.... you guessed it, me. Instantly I was put in charge of about 100 (give or take) BF3 players. Soon though I figured out why the previous BF3 leadership left. Fever Clan was almost the perfect gaming community. But they placed too much emphasis on zerg recruiting and membership donations, and not enough on the individuals, the people that were putting the time and effort into making Fever Clan look good. They promoted individuals within the community solely based on the number of people they recruit and the amount of donations they gave. Allot like the U.S government and all its greedy corporate flaws.

Fever Clan pissed me off. I wanted to show them just how detached they were from their truly dedicated members, their skilled competitive league players. Within a few days, myself and a few others left with the entire Fever Clan BF3 competitive division (about 34 people) and established H3LL Inc. I had a vision of the perfect community but my anal nature turned some off so I eventually stepped down. H3LL Inc. is still alive and well today but they go by a new name now, Menikmati.

I finally received MWO Beta access on the 3^rd round of beta keys. I literally stopped playing other games. I had come full circle. Whereas I started my gaming career as a green n00b in MechWarrior 4 Vengeance, I returned to the franchise as a seasoned, salty competitive gamer.

I had also given up on trying to become part of a large multi-gaming community and began looking for a permanent home among MechWarrior’s. The MWO boards were packed full of threads with teams looking for players. It was very chaotic. While an organized attempt was made for teams to search for individuals looking for a home the opposite did not exist. There was no organized format to present basic information about these hundreds of teams for individuals to quickly look over. I say "quickly look over" because most of these threads consisted of wordy, flamboyant, pompous, ego tripping presentations. While most presented basic information it was buried in these long-winded presentations. These teams seemingly didn't realize that an individual looking for a team can’t make a truly informed decision if they are expected to read hundreds of wordy posts or register at hundreds of teams web sites just to find out what they are really about outside of their long-winded forum posts.

Alas I found a diamond in the rough. And that really is a good way to describe #M§#, The Midnight Sons. This team fit me like a glove, at first. I officially joined them June of 2012. By the time I was entering MWL #M§# was on its way out, and not in a bad way. With MWO the team reactivated. I knew about them from one of their members, Eagle, whom had played under me when I brought ‡MoD‡ back. The way Eagle spoke of #M§# made me jealous and wish I had been a part of it. Well now I was. The Midnight Sons are a rough and gritty highly skilled team. If you have a thick skin you may fit in. But due to personal differences I had to leave in June of 2013. Exactly one year. I took it hard even though it was my choice.

Currently I’m just kind of “floundering around.” I am half-ass looking for a competitive MWO team to join. The RHOD & Proxis leagues both appeal to me. I have already looked over a handful of MWO teams that appeal to me. Truthfully, MWO has become boring to me. The lack of content and the lack of common sense of puggers have become an exercise in patience. Since I have had plenty of exercise in that already I really do not play much. I have got back into BF3 looking forward to the too soon release of BF4. I have been playing a bit of SWTOR, Neverwinter, MineCraft & Planet Side recently. Other than that the only game that appears appealing is the highly anticipated Elder Scrolls MMO release.


My Stats: I have noticed that some of the teams I have been looking to join require a screen shot of my stats. That is fine and all but how can these numbers be considered reliable given the fact that many players, up until recently, have been plagued by disconnects and crashes. These games played when the disco/crash occurred are counted towards your stats. I am one of these people. Some days were better than others. But when it did happen, it happened practically every game. I personally do not put much stock into these stats for this reason. I would think that a reasonable, logical person basing a decision upon these stats would keep that in mind.

Also what needs to be kept in mind is that not everyone has the opportunity to do 8 man drops all the time. More than likely a guy who pugs the majority of the time (like me) would not have the stats of someone who only does 8-man drops. I know people that will not play unless they are in an 8-man. And they have great looking stats. Anyone that has been playing this game for any amount of time well knows that MOST pugs are terrible. Now I am a great player but I am not so good that I can take on a whole team on my own. That is essentially what is happening when a good player gets stuck with pug-tards. In my opinion for these stats to be a means of judging an individuals skill they need to be broken down to reflect stats played with pugs, 4-mans and 8-mans, not lumped together.

Now for an example of how these numbers are inaccurate. When looking at my mech stats, it says I have one game with a K2 and two with the stalker-5S. Now I know this is wrong. Why? Because I have both these chassis mastered. Now it is possible to master a chassis by converting xp to gxp by spending MC (that’s real money ya’ll). It takes an estimated 57,250 xp to master a chassis. I’m sorry but I am not going to spend that much money just to master two mechs. I’m not saying I have never converted xp to gxp, but it was nothing of the magnitude suggested by my stats.

Additionally, there needs to be a means for players to play unranked matches where stats are not affected. As it is there is no room for "live testing" configs, tactics, or what ever. Every map counts. Knowing that in the back of my head kinda takes the fun out of the game for me.

The bottom line is, with the current state of the game you should not put too much stock into these numbers. They are at most a vague reflection of the pilot they are representing.