Honored Roman of the Month for June – DavidJensen

The Gods & Heroes Dev Team is excited to recognize another outstanding member of our community. We are always looking for great people who are involved in the Gods & Heroes Community via our forums, game testing and involved with our Social Media sites. June marks our last Beta Program Honored Roman of the Month. After launch, you will be able to nominate other players and even yourself!

For June 2011, we are spotlighting DavidJensen! We’re very happy welcome him to the ranks of Honored Romans. Enjoy!

Where are you located?

I live in the town of Weatherford Oklahoma. A town of about 15,000 population. You can get from your house to Wal-Mart or to work in 5 minutes from just about anywhere you are. I’ve lived in as large of a city as Houston and Austin and Oklahoma City. I actually like smaller town life. Great for raising my son.

How long have you played & supported MMORPGs?

I started dabbling in MMO’s in 1992 with a game called Neverwinter Nights (the original-not the remake). That grew into a part-time regular player of Meridian 59 in about 1997 or so. That quickly faded to the power of Ultima Online in 97 also. By the time EverCRACK came out in 99, I was a regular nightly player in a raid guild trying for the elusive fabled items.

I migrated to DAoC after that and Ragnarok Online. City of Heroes came along. Ive covered several years jumping around in Asian MMO’s that would hold my attention for a while then did EQ2 and D&D Online. As a Conan reader I couldn’t pass on that IP and Star Trek Online. I’ve tried several not even mentioned. So I guess Ive been involved for quite some time.

What other games do you play? (Tabletop, console, Miniatures, casual games)

I must confess, I own a Wii. I play that on occasion with the family. I do dabble in RTS’s when I don’t want to be online. I don’t do instant gratification games like shooters and twitch games. I haven’t played miniatures for probably a decade but there was a time I had my own painted Eldar Army for Warhammer 40k. (Yet another IP I’m looking forward to in the MMO world.)

What other hobbies or activities do you enjoy outside of gaming?

My main “activity” is mowing the lawn. My 3 year old son and I take walks 3 or 4 days a week and go to the park for an hour or so before dinner or on the weekend a couple times a week. I surf news sites for the latest and greatest and follow the political scene pretty aggressively. I have in the past collected Baseball Cards and Comic Books but now they just sit in the attic. Although our game is on hold due to members being in the military and out of town, I am a member of a RPG group which cycles games every 3-6 months, so it keeps fresh.

How did you find out about Gods & Heroes?

Gods and Heroes popped up on the radar in “believe” through MMORPG.com two or three years ago through Perpetual when they were looking for testers. I jumped in and was there till the end when they closed shop. When Heatwave picked up the IP, I found out and started following the progress again. Then out of the blue, I got a beta invite, probably as a result of having my name in the previous tester database. And thank goodness, its been nice to see it evolve and grow.

What is your favorite class in Gods & Heroes?

That’s a hard question. I like the Soldier and will be choosing it as my main for the endgame survivability and solo-ability. The Gladiator is by far the coolest to fight with and I spend more time watching Gladiators who join my group than I do my own. Their moves are awesome looking. And lastly, my MMO-heart lies in the Priest. It is the usual pick of classes and I’m sure as the classes oscillate back and forth in power level, I will be rolling up a Priest to bring my Deity’s justice to the masses.

What excites you the most about Gods & Heroes?

Minions. I gravitate toward solo play as my time is broken frequently with my son running around. I saw the minions as a way to facilitate that and still get to enjoy the social aspects of the game like joining Tribes or forming up for dungeon raids.

I have always enjoyed the Roman genre since I was young. I watch all the HBO Roman shows. I love the time period.. so the game is a natural fit.

What is your favorite aspect about the Gods & Heroes Community?

So far? I’d have to say the willingness of others to share. They share their knowledge, time and gold to help others along.

In regards to the devs. I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the beta’s Ive been in over the years. Some good, some bad. Some released, some didn’t. Something the dev’s need recognition for is their interaction with the public. They are responsive in the forums. You always get an answer and sometimes from several. Sony could learn from them. They may or may not institute everything we bring up but.. I truly believe they have at least heard us and discussed it before making whatever decision they do.

What recommendations can you make for fans who want to get involved with the Gods & Heroes community but don’t know where to start?

Wow.. that depends on how “involved” they want to be. The Tribe of Speces Fides Bulla is full of active testers. We openly pass out our Teamspeak IP of 174.142.97.72

You can also just post a New Player type message in the forums. Several will say hi back. In the old days, I would just start playing and listening to the chatbox to see who is looking for grouping. The saying is: Birds of a feather flock together. Just start playing, improving yourself, be sociable and as you get higher and higher levels, you will start seeing the same people over and over. The reverse is.. they will start seeing you everywhere as well. Badda-bing.. badda-boom.. you start getting invites.

If your a proactive person.. just form your own tribe. There are ALWAYS people looking for tribe (guilds for the new player). Sift through those to find like minded people and within a short period of time you have lots of players logging on under your banner and looking to you for social aspects and leadership.

Cake vs Pie. GO!

Yes please, chocolate!

If its chocolate.. its hard to mess up either one of those buuuuut.. on my birthday I eat cake. Chocolate pie is consumed in mass quantities during Thanksgiving. The tie breaker is cup-”cakes”. I eat them just about any time they are offered. So 2-1, victory goes to cake.