*This is my newest page on
Http://encicra.com for the TT Project but I figured it is just as blog worthy.*
Know Your Trader (My gaming History..Long Read!)
My name is Dustin "Encicra" Parker. (Note: I was not always Encicra in games mentioned below.)
In ‘01/’02 I got my first computer because I was now in 7th grade and would be needing one for school projects and the like but also to get into the game StarCraft. Before this point in time I couldn’t wrap my head around why anyone would want a computer in the first place. I didn’t even know how to use one.
The first PC game I owned was WarCraft and a bunch of it’s expansions, which all came with the computer. I rarely played it because like I said I was going to be getting into StarCraft with some friends. It was in StarCraft that I first learned of things called Clans, which would be Societies in EU, and how to be part of them and eventually lead them successfully.
After a few years of playing and after the server was invaded by Korean chat and insanely talented/hardcore players, I was introduced, by a friend, to the first MMORPG I ever played…Runescape. Originally, I was very put off by this game altogether but about 3 months on a boring afternoon I decided to log on to the account I had made and give it another go. My character was still on Tutorial Island so I learned the ropes of the game and was off into the world and from that point on I was hooked.
I played Runescape for about 5 years of grinding and skill but around the 2.5 year mark I tried my hand at trading and being a merchant. I soon learned the market and began specializing in Rare Items. I had a large stash of Santa Hat’s, Party Hat’s, Halloween Mask’s, etc. You name it I had it at one point or another.
Eventually they developers stopped releasing new rare items into the game and the economy went belly up. So, I sold off everything I had and just let the GP sit in my account and went off looking for my next MMO.
I did some research into finding the right game for me and what I found was Ultima Online. I stayed with UO for about 5 months, being a trader/swordsman and during that time managed to grow my gold amount to be able to afford a castle and a large quantity of rare items but the problem again was the economy was destroyed due to the fact that the game had been around so long and gold sellers/buyers were a larger portion of the player base. So I lost interest.
After leaving EU, me and a buddy moved into The Sims Online and started up a property between the two of us. It was small but we didn’t use it much while we saved up funds to a point where we eventually bought one of the top 100 list properties on the Interhogan Server. We became quite popular on the server and on the Alpha Pines server, more so on Interhogan. We were known for winning large amounts of player competitions and just generally like around the town. The problem with this game is Maxis failed terribly at delivering us some content and what we did have grew stale, so there was nothing new to keep us in the game.
At this point I moved back into Runescape and took up PK’ing (PVP) trading on the side to keep the funds up for food to heal with and armor/weapons to hunt with, while also looking for the next MMO I wanted to get into and this is when I came across an article about a 26 year old Aussie who purchases a property inside a virtual world for 26 000 USD. This sparked my interest.
Naturally, to me, I had to play this game. So, I moved into EU in October ’05 and wandered around watching and learning everything I could about this deep/complex virtual world, which brings us to the present day.
Now, I’ve started up the TT Project in an attempt to establish myself in this game like I have in all others I’ve played and help usher in large scale player business’s into EU.