Spartan[nK] wants to play StarCraft II at BlizzCon 2008!

Here is the story of a young man on a mission. A mission to provide the best services on the internet to the StarCraft community for free. A man with the hopes of being a part of history.

That man is Kris, but more professionally known as Spartan[nK]. Now following along as I tell the story of said person and his journey over the past decade.

Summer, '98
On a nice summer afternoon, Kris -- a 11 year old boy -- and family were carousing a local retail store for the usual browsing and shopping. Kris, being curious and uninterested in the items his family members were looking at, ventured on his own to the game section, little did he know that this day would change his life forever.

Bright lights, TV screens, and box after box of media -- which consisted of VHS tapes, Nintendo games, and Gameboy games -- littered the area and overwhelmed the little boy. He trotted along aisle after aisle peering at the covers of the boxes when suddenly something caught his attention. At that very moment he was now staring face to face with a dark mysterious character with orange eyes and purple skin resembling the texture of a reptile.

What is this? Who is this? Nope, none of those questions went through Kris' head. Instead, all he could think was, "COOOOOOOOOOOL!" with a hint of drool peeking out from the corner of his lips.

Above the character's face was printed one word that would consume this boy's life for years to come.

"StarCraft"



'98 to '01
Kris was now in middle school. Every day after school he could only be found in 1 of 2 places.

The first was the computer lab at school which consisted of under 2 dozen computers with tiny monitors all with a kid in front of it playing some sort of game, but mostly StarCraft as it was the latest craze then before Tomagachi and other pocket-sized electronic pets came along. Most of the kids then did not own a personal computer, and much less have internet access. It was here that Kris and friends would get out of class early and line up just to grab a computer to play on and against each other. Hundreds of gaming sessions like this would occur throughout these years.

The second was at home where he fought with his brothers for computer time. Every day was the same. Kris would hop on StarCraft and play on his 56k internet connection with the thousands of other kids on the Blizzard service known as Battle.net. Kris never had the urge to do anything other than play StarCraft. Although, he did track and field in middle school he was still consumed by the game.

'01 to '05
Interest in StarCraft fizzled a little as Kris got his own computer eventually and tried other games. Continuing track and field in High School also consumed more of his free time to play games, but he still managed to whet his appetite each day. These years he started to get more competitive amongst his friends and online communities. He had his high points were he was a force to be somewhat reckoned with, but he could never keep up with the ever evolving StarCraft community. Kris went through several clans, that he either created or was a regular member in. To name a few.. F[5], x[H]y, PiMpX-, cbs-, OfThe, S.W.A.T, and lastly [nK]. At this point in his StarCraft lifetime he understood what it meant to be a part of a clan, had the experience to oversee other players/members, and earned quite a reputation among a few hundred StarCraft players. Nefarious Knights, sporting the tag [nK], was his most recent clan that he founded and to this day he still represents. The clan was started on June 20, 2004 and quickly became a force to be scared of in the Fastest community.

In early 2005, he took more interested in money maps, such as BGH and Fastest. The community of gamers that surrounded these maps were unique, but looked down upon by most of the regular map players. Nonetheless, they were still StarCraft players, played the same way, and fans of the same franchise. At some point in time, Kris and a few clan mates were talking about how cool it would be to have huge tournament to find out the best Fastest player. Jokingly, someone mentioned they should have a ladder -- like the popular WGT league at the time -- for everyone to compete in. No one took that idea seriously.

A few days later, it was mentioned again after another **** talking fest broke out as to who was the best of Fastest's west community. Kris took it upon himself to set out and create the league. This marks the beginning of one of his greatest achievements in his StarCraft lifetime: Vile Gaming Tour (which would later expand into something bigger).

January 5, 2005.. remember, remember, the 5th of nove- ..January?

'04 - Present day
Over the past few years, Kris' project -- his baby, if you will -- saw many changes, many seasons, and many faces. Vile Gaming, the new entity stemming from VGT, has had it's ups and downs, but is still standing strong today.

Side note: VG went through several domain changes. The first was nk.ssxh.net, then vgtour.net, then vilegaming.net, and now vilegaming.com.

---

It is now 2008, 10 years after the release of StarCraft and StarCraft II has been announced (and hopefully the 2009 release stays firm). I am now 21 years of age, a college student, work part-time, spend all the time I can with my girlfriend in the real world (that I met through StarCraft), and works on the VG network as a hobby.



I won't turn this into an advertising blog, but check out my work when you can!
http://vilegaming.com

BlizzCon 2008 is upon us and I want to go. Heck, who wouldn't? Do I really need to say more? I think BlizzCon, this year, will be the best of the previous ones held thus far. Largely in part because it is the last one before StarCraft II's release (at least I'd hoep so). It would be a great experience to attend such a convention and would be a great event to add to my StarCraft life story. Going to BlizzCon would be a great way to get a hands-on StarCraft II experience and do some snooping around.

So far I think StarCraft II is going in the right direction and I truly am impressed, but not surprised by Blizzard. They are a great company, if not the greatest of all time. Blizzard is obviously putting more time into getting the community sites involved, which is what the franchise really needs. I can sleep safely knowing that they will not go the same direction with StarCraft, the original, and their lack of community involvement.

I have been a slave to the game since the year it came out. StarCraft is the only game I have never been able to drop -- even after playing World of WarCraft for a few months *gasp* (yes, I survived WoW) -- mainly because I have done so much for the community and I enjoy doing it. It would be a shame, and very hard, to just drop VG today and let it rot. I never plan on leaving the StarCraft community. Hell, I'm sure I'll be playing StarCraft II until the next sequel comes out, at which point I'll be too old to play and forced to retire.

The future is now! The future is in your hands. Grab the bull by the horns and never let go because this ride isn't stopping for anyone. I'm grasping as if my life depended on it.. are you?