One of the things my opponents accuse me of is being different people online. I am me, and no one else.
But I figured I would at least explain the origins of my handles to those who don't know, but also because it will help some understand why I know so much.
For many of the youth of today, they are born with the blessings of touch screens and microwaves. But for myself, born in the early 80's, I was there at the start of the internet boom.
My brother's ability to get me started with computers led me to be one of the first kids I knew playing games on their computers. My first love in computer gaming was Warcraft II for DOS. Oh yes, MS-DOS was lovely, when I wasn't running windows NT
I grew up, learned to love some other games. Soon I found Tom Clancy's : Rainbow Six, which I played throughout high school with my friends over LAN, and sometimes over the internet. My preference, before I meet other genres, was fps. My parents at the time had 56k, not cable, and so we were frowned upon at the time. My own kids would never play a game with how terrible that was.
But soon times advanced, I got cable (and eventually FIOS), and was able to actually play. That is where I soon found some of the marvels of the early internet gaming world, Counterstrike (and it's mods Team Fortress, Day of Defeat) and 10six. But eventually, I came to find a new game, Everquest.
Everquest, for those who don't know, is the first fully 3 dimensional massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) set in a persistent world. It was revolutionary at the time. I ended up playing a bit (see here) with my new life partner, my future wife. So I understand kids today when they level up their characters to the max, as I did, and go through all the top end raids (which I did and even organized - the above post was pre-Luclin and we ended up clearing everything.)
Everquest is where the name Xoduz comes from. I created it in reference to the Exodus, the book, the event, and the boat. I had to try to fit it into the names that it would allow me to when signing up since it required a name for your in game avatar.
In Everquest, I soon meet a friend who enjoyed his own role playing. He played an ogre, and so he had a particularly rough time pronouncing the name Xoduz.
Xodus... Soduz....Sodus....Sodas!
And so the name Sodas was born.
I didn't use the name until a board error / glitch on the old Theoryland ezboards forced me to change my name (which I only had 400 or so posts under that handle, so no biggy). But once I did, it fit.
Our tribe moved on from Everquest. We tried our hands at some other games, including Dark Age of Camelot, Horizons, and Lineage II.
Then we beta tested Guild Wars and enjoyed it so much we invited the rest of our friends and crew. It was great because the content had only a minor 20 level grind to it, I was able to play both as Xoduz (monk) and Sodas (mesmer/warrior). While Xoduz was the more powerful character, being able to easily solo the Underworld by himself, I preferred Sodas in groups, which was more often. And more so, Sodas fit my personality, becoming my favorite handle.
Guild Wars also lead to the beginnings of the Guild Heroes of the Horn. We did not create it by ourselves, it was a joint effort, but it was part of who were were for 4 years and we were there at it's start. We loved it and will always remember the members who joined us in some pretty epic good times.
But of course, life took precedence. I ended up growing out of video games and really just being online to talk about sports (see GOAZCATS forums). So when I tried to register there, the name was taken, so I asked to have the name 4Life. I've always been For Life. That has never changed.
In any case, hopefully now you see the origins of some of these names.
Jeremy
