EPTOrigins: Dream Forge
This is my first blog post (ever), and so I will be covering a wide range of topics that have the singular feature of being connected to what is now my current endeavor, Dream Forge maps and map making.
A Short Blurb on Where I Come From
I began my interest in game modification, as many do, out of a love for games. In my teens I played a lot of Counter Strike (a lot!). I frequented a site named for dead goats (cdg.net) that would pique my interest in game modification. From the Clan of the Dead Goats, I quickly grew to become an expert at 3d polygonal modeling in Maya and 3DS MAX. I worked on a modification of Call of Duty 2, Wartorn Countries, that unfortunately was never finished. Undeterred, I took a class in my senior year of high school in graphic design. From here, I decided that I wanted to become a graphic designer and began college on that path.
I learned about Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, and I worked on many small projects such as student group logo designs and even a university department logo. During this developmental stage I worked as a graphic designer professionally at a small but highly regarded sign company. I was soon let go though as the economy turned downwards and downsizing was the trend for everyone. I figured out the majority of my education in art would revolve around tedious tasks such as art history classes, drawing, and other mediums of art with no emphasis on the business side of art (i.e., how to make a living doing this and how to charge for it), and so I decided to leave the program in lieu of other interests such as economics and political science. Eventually I settled on criminal justice, and 5 years later am now working in the banking industry. Go figure!
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Let me be clear, Criminal Justice is my passion and am working towards a career in law enforcement.
Starcraft II and Maps
I began playing Starcraft II as soon as the game launched because I had fond memories of Starcraft and Starcraft: Brood War. I was pathetic at the game but loved every second of the craziness of those early days. I found TeamLiquid as a result of a google search one day and immediately noticed the Custom Maps section. I was immediately drawn back into a world of game modification--only this time I had an idea of how to approach learning the editing software. Compared to other mappers such as Johanaz, Superouman, and Ironman I had little chance of success unless I improved. I noticed a trend though in the map making community, there were the map teams ESV and TPW and than there was everybody else. This resulted in a tiered organizational structure of the community. One that persists but more on that later.
Dream Forge: Starting Out
One conversational piece during this tumultous period of ESV Korean Weekly's, Map of the Month and the (at that time) singular TeamLiquid Mapping Contest that stuck with me was along the lines of the following: Non-team mappers should not gripe about the team maps and mappers--you have the power to form your own teams and develop together. Lightning struck me. Why not form a team? Why not strive to be the best in this regard?
Thus, I contacted several other map makers who I knew to excel at map making (and who I thought I could learn from) who drew attention within our community for their work. We agreed to form a new map team, a vehicle to propel our work and the community forward. Dream Forge maps was born.
I will follow this blog up with one regarding our early period when I have more time.
