Since around 2000, Merauderweb has existed in some form or another. The current incarnation of Merauderweb is a tumble style site, covering subjects which happen to strangely co-incide with some of my interests: ASP.NET, C#, Visual Studio, Lotus Notes/Domino, Gaming, MMORPGs, Rugby, and much more.
History
Merauderweb started as a place for me to store a few online tools I wrote for the browser based strategy game Planetarion many years ago. From there the site turned into a place to store a few photos, and a Sandbox to experiment with a few techniques in Domino web development. From there, it slowly morphed into something more (ir)regular.
Name
Many years ago, in the days of dial-up Internet access, I was forced to choose a login name when signing up to a new ISP. Wishing to use an alias, the author scanned his CDs and settled on "Merauder", a lesser known (but awesome) Metallic Hardcore act hailing from NYC. The name stuck, and has been used in many MMO games since, as well as being used in another form here.
The Author
I am a New Zealand based Consultant with over 11 years experience in many countries. I am passionate about online gaming, development (mostly but not limited to IBM/Lotus Notes/Domino and Microsoft ASP.NET), mobile technology, computers in general, and many other aspects of life.
Gaming History
Roughly in chronological order with some highlights / info where appropriate:
- Planetarion - Played from Round 2 -> Round 6, Member of [Fury], Officer of [Wrath], occasional GC or MoC, member of various top 10 / top 20 Galaxies.
- Legend Of Mir 2 - Played on Phoenix (Europe) server fairly heavily for a few months. Member of The5thElement around the era when they took Sabuk wall from The Outlaws.
- Dark Age of Camelot - Played somewhat sporadically on Prydwen (Europe), mostly in Midgard although a little bit in Hibernia as well. Played as a Skald and a Spiritmaster.
- Diablo 2 - had characters on US West and Europe. You'd have recognised them if you saw them. I wish Diablo characters weren't purged, as I've been tempted to dust off the old Diablo boxes and go for a blast on more than one occasion.
- Starwars Galaxies - played for 2 years across Eclipse / Chimaera. Chimaera characters were Merauder (Jedi Knight), and Placostarus (one time Carbineer/BH, later respecced into a Pikeman tank). Eclipse char was Merauder (Master Creature Handler/Carbineer). My SWG subscriptions were cancelled after the much talked about Combat Upgrade finally killed any enjoyment of the game.
- Guildwars - Played various classes on the US servers in the early stages of the game before they decided everything was "too hard" and smacked it over with the care bear wand.
- FFXI - Merauder, a brief run on Unicorn
- WoW - Aaah yes WoW, played briefly on Blackrock (mostly) and Lightbringer (sometimes) on and off for a couple of months. Characters were Meraudess (Alliance / Rouge) and Kirale (Alliance / Warlock) as well as a couple of mule characters.
- Everquest 2 - the 30 days free trial sucked me in. So far, the mechanics of EQ2 seem very good indeed, it's just a shame the artistic style is a wee bit lacking. I'm playing on Venekor PvP server at the moment, as a Necromancer called Meraudess (yes, pet classes - gotta love em, and Necro is incredibly overpowered :p)
- Legend Of Mir 3 - Ugh, I'm playing in the USA beta of MIR3! What the hell am I doing? Why am I doing this?
The Rest
Besides what's already been mentioned, there's a lot of other stuff I've done or currently do. I enjoy writing, although I feel somewhat rusty at the moment. This site is hopefully a vehicle to change that. I've had a few small pieces published for a few technical magazines, and I'm aiming to get back into that soon. I also currently do a small slot on Saturday morning radio, where I talk about Geek related stuff - gadgets, new tech, and anything else which is geek related or that I feel is randomly interesting.
I used to play bass in a couple of bands, and for a brief time I drummed too. I enjoy outdoor sports, and currently (but sporadically) snowboard and rock climb. I used to skateboard (mini ramp + street mainly) in my younger years, however was forced to give it up after sustaining some fairly painful knee injuries.
Contact information.
I am on IRC (Netgamers), ICQ and MSN pretty much 24/7, and of course I always respond to email.
Mission Statement
Merauderweb follows all policies that drive bricks-and-clicks e-business sites, following a whiteboard virtual ROI strategy with the intention to grow next-generation portals using incentivize value-added infomediaries.
The policies are implemented with the intention to empower dot-com initiatives and seize world-class users, following methodology based around the theory of incubate efficient mindshare.
If we can generate innovative web-readiness and integrate enterprise paradigms, then our leverage of viral mindshare will allow us to expedite B2B infomediaries and repurpose viral architectures. This is vital in todays world, where the business that can morph B2B content and synthesize extensible users is the business that is best positions to manage the expectations of their customers when it comes to the demand to transition out-of-the-box vortals.
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