Staff
Kevin “Grim” Stallard -Track Director
Kevin has been speaking on panels at Dragon*Con since 2002, when he was (literally) pulled out of the audience to speak about EverQuest. (You can blame Trevor for that.) Starting as a MUD developer in the early 90′s (Star Wars MUD, RealmsMUD), continuing as a Guide in EverQuest, taking a bit of time to do some early beta testing on World of Warcraft, and finally winding up as a columnist at Massively.com as well as somehow running the MMORPG track at Dragon*Con, Kevin has done a little bit of everything from development to testing to customer service, to high-end raiding. Currently, Kevin has cut his MMO addiction down to Rift, Age of Conan, and World of Warcraft.
Trevor “Palehorse” Legg – Assistant Track Director
Trevor has been involved in gaming panels at Dragon*Con for nearly a decade. Way back when EverQuest and Ultima Online were the only games in town (at least as far as MMO’s go), Trevor was running MMO panels as part of the EFF track (which still claims to run online gaming, much to our annoyance). In 2002, as part of a panel on EverQuest, he recognized a loud-mouthed smartass in the audience as a classmate of his from high school and convinced him to participate as a panelist for the next couple of years. Who knew that he would be responsible for unleashing Grim on the rest of Dragon*Con? (ed: Yeah, Grim wrote this… consider it incentive to write your own bio. That goes for the rest of you as well!)
Mike “Critus” McGreevy
Otherwise known as the “Sane One” in the DC*MMO braintrust, Mike has the double misfortune of having to work with many of the DC*MMO staff on both DC*MMO as well as being their “Guild Lemur” in World of Warcraft. (yeah, Mike isn’t actively playing WoW anymore, but he’ll always be our Guild Lemur.) Mike is an accomplished thespian, and as a result of many positive mentions in his stage reviews has demanded to be introduced as “The Always Magificent, Michael C. McGreevy”. How he convinced Grim to go along with this idea, nobody is quite certain.
Krystalle “Netgoth” Voecks
In addition to her fine work on Massively.com (which is how she came to be part of the DC*MMO family), Krystalle is co-host of The Snarkcast where she tries, in vain to keep her co-host on topic. Krystalle is also our co-host for the World of Warcraft Meet and Greet, and will be one of our DJ’s for the MMO Gathering of Heroes party at Dragon*Con this year. Has the distinction of being the only member of the DC*MMO team who has played more MMO’s than everyone else on staff (combined).
Rafe “SHUT UP, RAFE!” Brox
When we absolutely, positively, have to get something done. Rafe is our “go-to guy”. For all the abuse that he receives at the WoW Meet and Greet (see above nickname), he dishes it out as much as he takes it. Rafe will be co-hosting our Fun with Funcom event this year along with serving as one of our two DJ’s at the MMO Gathering of Heroes party.
Rafe maintains his bulletproof, kilt-clad physique by engaging in a ridiculous exercise regimen (folks with a morbid sense of curiosity and/or a high CON score can visit Digital Discipline if they think we’re kidding about how insane he is). Also, along with Mike and Krystalle, he writes a gamer-flavored fitness blog at ShrinkGeek.com.
Ian “Coffee Master” Wickenkamp
We love our Coffee Master. He keeps us going (and going…and going…) through the weekend with the most evilly potent caffeinated brew in the universe. Don’t plan on sleeping for a week after drinking a pot of his coffee. Ian has played many MMOs over the years, but only just recently got his first “end-game” character. If you do an image search for “Altoholic”, you will find his picture… a lot.
Jason “Jhaer” Pace
Jhaer, also called Jason, was formed out of the aether in the mid-1970s, which explains a lot. Raised on a steady diet of BASIC and ROM chips he escaped onto the Internet by modem – 300 baud, which also explains a lot – and wandered the digital wastelands. From the Solar and Barren Realms to Britannia, from Norrath to Azeroth, he survived the Trade Wars, the Global Agenda and the outbreak in the city of Malton, he has puzzled with pirates, freed realms, gone to wizard school and danced until dawn with heroes in spandex. He has seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. He watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time… like tears in rain… No, wait, that last part was Roy Batty in Blade Runner. But it could be true. Seriously. Either that or Jason is programmer who has gaming and movie geek issues. But, hey, who doesn’t? Am I right?
Jason also maintains a blog called Aim for the Head at http://weblog.probablynot.com
Megan C. Tindale
At the early age of eight, Megan was carefully guided into gaming as her mother helped her create a silly little Elf mage for her first AD&D campaign (2nd edition). Over the years, due to exposure to game consoles and nerdy parents, she fell deeper into the gaming community. When she was 13, she attended her first convention. When she was 14, she entered the amazing world that is Dragon*Con! She has attended every year since. In 2005, she was given a 10-Day trial for World of Warcraft. Within two days, she hit the level cap, and promptly acquired a full account. Megan has since hooked her husband, Chad, onto WoW, and through a random suggestion, found herself co-leading a moderately comprehensive panel on the Lore of Warcraft at D*Con 2010. Apparently, she did something right, because Grim invited her and Chad to DCMMO Staff, starting 2011! Now she can be found bustling about the GA Aquarium, or desperately trying to maintain her warcraft-lore website, Lessons in Lore.
Chad Tindale
A survivor of the golden age of gaming (NES), and a veteran of the renaissance of gaming (PS1), Chad has often viewed games as more of a highly exploitable art-form than a hobby. First coming to online gaming with Phantasy Star Online (Dream Cast), Chad found it highly inefficient to be forced to depend on others to achieve your goals. After many years of shunning online gamers as having fallen into “the trap”, his wife forced him into trying World of Warcraft. After an initial month of… “go get twenty of these… now go kill twenty of these”, Chad started finding the story line more interesting than the gameplay itself. Eventually falling into “the trap” himself, he now keeps seven characters at max level and instructs players on “how to do it without feeling stupid”, and “use this addon, not that one”. In 2010, Chad decided to begin applying his knowledge to helping people at Dragon*Con. Offering to guide a class on Addons and a more comprehensive one on Lore, He and his wife meticulously dissected the story and came up with a mildly interesting show, which has now spawned a website, Lessons in Lore, and due to mild acceptance is coming back again for a more hands-on part in the DC-MMO team.
Tiffany “Tirani” Mork
Sometimes, it really is all about who you know. Having run in to Kevin years ago while riding jockey on an ISP’s abuse desk and met Rafe on the UserFriendly Comic forums over a decade ago, Tirani is the kind of girl to stick by her friends until you have to pry her off with a mallet and chisel. Eventually, she got suckered into invited to join Rafe’s WoW guild and the rest is, well, a whole lot of hours spent abusing her liver and irritating her Raid Lemur with “Hey Mike, can I pull now?” While now retired from raiding due to ongoing critical hits from Life, she still can occasionally be found tooling around Stormreach Harbor and Azeroth.
Matthew “Shen” Brincefield
While relatively new to this new-fangled ‘MMO’ gaming, Shen has been entrenched in fantasy gaming and video games since his childhood. He was forever changed in a horrible industrial accident involving an old D&D boxed set and an Atari 2600. His condition evolved when friends convinced him to try out World of Warcraft. Now, he strives to keep his gaming activities social, preferring party games and meeting virtual friends in real life whenever possible.
James “Dragonfly” Whitaker
I have only been to Con twice (2010, 2008) having missed 2009 deployed overseas. I am a hermit on the lake about an hour east of Atlanta and probably the youngest one you have ever heard of (29 by the time D*C rolls around). While I don’t like to leave the house (because this is where WoW/Rift/my dvr/my GIANT dvd collection/etc are), I do like to stay busy. I gravitate to online professions (customer service, web admin, etc) and night positions. I work as a night auditor at a hotel where they have quick internet for, you guessed it, WoW/Rift/etc.
Haley “Energizer Bunny” Bowers
I’ve been playing video games since I was two or three, I started with UO, then moved onto EQ, and I’m a vanilla wow player. My guild is Seizure Salad on Twisting Nether, and on there everyone calls me Ehi (short for my toon’s name: Ehisarel). My family plays WoW together nightly, and at family get togethers we work through D&D campaigns or join up for a raid or two.
I am also a prominent programmer on my schools robotics team, was Ceo in this past year , and when I’m not tankin it up I’m usually breaking robots. Other teams of robotics call me the Energizer Bunny (Eb) as am a person that likes to be moving, talking, jumping, dancing, doing Something.
Mark Cogan
I’ve been a gamer since the old 1st Edition Dungeons and Dragons.
Started playing video games in arcades back when pinball was king (and 10 cents a game). Cut my home-gaming teeth on one of the first Atari game systems, and it’s been downhill ever since. Never been hard-core, but rabid might be a better term. Currently working on
building a new gaming computer rig (damn those components are expensive). My first Dragon*Con was, in part, the fault of many of the current DC*MMO staff, having been in they very same WoW guild. I promised myself long ago I was done working at conventions. (Ha ha. Neener Neener. You can’t quit me. -Grim)
Morgan Skye
Morgan is a special snowflake. All she does is amazing. After all it
only took one snarky email to get invited to this party! Not that it’s something to be proud of, mind you. She’s a con vet in more ways then she’s willing to claim until alcohol is involved. While somewhat informed about MMO’s, her heart lies with her Xbox 360. Asking her about how much she’s spent on Live points will make her cry. Really!
When not playing, baking cupcakes, or pretending to be a Ghostbuster with her vacuum, she’s making costumes of all kinds for any occasion.
Please note: Morgan must be kept at least 30 yards from other costumers at all times. She has an uncontrollable need to pet fabrics and ask inane questions. If she starts heading for one promptly squirt
her with water while firmly yelling ‘No!’. Take care: Despite her calm appearance, Morgan is feral and will bite.
Sam “The Shadow” Levine
While not a local to GA, The Shadow (note: not to be confused with the bad Alec Baldwin movie of the same name) has found his way to Dragon Con for many years, first as luggage crammed in the back of an SUV were he slept for nine hour ride 15 years ago, to now Driving an SUV at the head of a six vehicle caravan formed starting in South Florida. For almost 20 years Sam has been a Game Master for Tabletop and Larp RPG’s, at home as well as Dragon Con. Dubbed The Shadow 3 years back as he most of the time is running around from one place to another at Dragon Con to Volunteer all over he is not seen or noticed doing so. After a hated but much needed year off from Dragon Con, The Shadow will return and might be standing right behind you and you would not even know it….