Ryan James O'Sullivan

PC Gamer is collecting the top 100 games of all time from its readers – you can check out the site here.

Here is my top 10:
* Ultima Online
My first and best MMO experience – started a life long love affair with virtual worlds and MMOs

* It Came from the Desert
A little known title but one of the best games of the post sierra adventure game world

* Everquest 2
The first MMO where I reached and actively participated in end game. I will never forget EQ2 and I believe it is the clear winner of the third generation

* NHL
My gateway drug to sports games. I remember playing the NHL series on a sega for the first time – I was sold and had a reason to buy consoles for many generations to come

* Battlefield 2142
I still don’t get why this game didn’t take off like other FPSs. IMO this is the best battlefield title.

* Star Wars: Galaxies
This game came dangerously close to recreating the Ultima Online experience. The SOE team was brave enough to take on the sandbox game format but was not brave enough to stand by it. I’m still waiting for another studio to take a shot at a true sandbox experience.

* Final Fantasy XI
I haven’t put nearly the time into this game that I wish I had. I believe that this is the best end game out there but the community and the developers got in the way of making it accessible

* Civilization
Civilization requires no introduction – I remember playing this in Keith’s basement; probably one of the first games I played on the PC (as opposed to the amiga)

* SimCity
I don’t know if this qualifies for a top PC game as I played it on the Amiga 500 – but again, Sim City requires no introduction.

* Team Fortress 2
The newest title on the list. The team at Valve has managed to create a very accessible and very FUN experience. I’ll be falling back on TF2 for years to come.

So what’s your list? Post in the comments

One of World of Warcraft premier raid guilds, Death and Taxes has disbanded. These guys always seemed a bit of an oddity to me as far as raid guilds go; they seemed to be a group of guys (and gals) in it for the right reasons: to have fun, enjoy the game with a group of friends, etc.

They’ve now broken up and one of the guild’s leaders has made a post over on their forums that illustrates better then anything I’ve ever seen before the importance of never losing your way as a guild. It is very important as guild leadership to know what your group of people is about and what you want to accomplish as a guild. Even if you aren’t one of those “formal” guilds that has a charter – I’d highly recommend a mission statement. It’s such a shame to see a guild who’s worked so hard on progression just evaporate.

Progress doesn’t happen all in 1 night, but apparently some people that we had here didn’t understand that. They thought bosses just fell over the first night because of the tag over their head, and the most important thing was how much damage they could do at all times. Newsflash – it doesn’t work like that. It’s pretty ironic that the first people to jump ship when progress wasn’t going fast enough, were the same ones jerking off in the 5man, and holding up the raid on the first day. Progress takes time, and world firsts don’t fall from the sky, they’re the result of a lot of hard work, and effort. The reputation of this guild was built on the backs of a lot of hard work and dedication from EVERYONE. The guild was bigger than any of us, and we knew it.

…..

Once upon a time we had pride. Pride in our guild, pride in ourselves, pride in what we’d done. Pride is showing up and giving your best effort, ESPECIALLY when you don’t want to be there, because your guildmates deserve that. We didn’t always get world firsts, it’s impossible to always be first, that’s just not how the game works, but we showed up every day, EARLY and busted our asses, and we were proud of what we accomplished, be it world first or world 1000th. We didn’t whine or complain about our fucking groups, or worry about loot. We killed bosses. Period. We gave our best effort because those around us deserved it, because the guild deserved it. We had pride about what we had done, not what those before us had done. But we also didn’t have false pride. Once upon a time when people couldn’t or didn’t want to keep up the raiding schedule, they had the guts and decency to let the rest of us know. Now they slink off into the night without even a word.

Read the whole post here.

My quest to find solo friendly games has led me to two places. To cover my MMO needs I’ve followed Jim, Evan and the boys into Lord of the Rings Online. I’ve really come to enjoy the storyline gameplay and playing through the central storyline quests with a static group has been a lot of fun. Our plan is to get together a few days a week and work together on the main storyline quests and do side quests, crafting, etc on the off nights. The game offers a lot as a casual game with many great virtual world elements. One of the coolest things I’ve ever done in an MMO was playing music in front of the prancing pony the other night. LOTRO allows you to play music in the game using various instruments. Its just a really cool example of how Turbine makes LOTRO more then just a game. If anyone is looking to try the game out check us out on the Firefoot server – we’ve got a guild setup and everything…

My other casual-post-baby poison is a facebook game – PackRat. Evan convinced me to install this (as a rule I avoid all things facebook outside of basic communication as a rule) and I’ve been having a blast ever since. The game is really simple – You steal, buy and craft collectible cards and try and come up with full collections.

Outside of gaming I’ve been busy with work and getting atvtrailfind.com ready for release. I’m hoping to have the site done this weekend!

This obviously was a big year for me. I had a great year at work hitting a few great career milestones and of course Paige entered my life. Looking back on the year I’d have to say this is probably (even if you put aside the baby) the best year Tammy and I have had married, despite some health issues with Tammy, etc.

Paige entering our lives was obviously huge. She’s a almost 5 weeks old now and already she has had a profound impact on who I am as a person and how I live my life. I think the thing I look forward to most in 2008 is the thing that made 2007 so great – Getting to know this wonderful addition to my life and growing as a person because of it.

For 2007 I had some fairly simple goals:

• Pay down my debts
  This one is going fairly well. I had large consolidation loan with my bank that is now nearing the 1500 dollar mark which is just fantastic. My credit card has managed to stay under 500 dollars and my retail cards are at an all time low.
• Have A Baby
  This was a goal that appeared on both Tammy’s and my goal lists for the last 2 or so years. This dream finally came true
• Move Towards Process Improvement at Work
  Back in the fall after some interesting job interviews and tough days I finally managed to get the position I’ve been working for since I moved to the corporate offices at Indigo – Process Improvement!
• Move Into A Town House
  Managed to knock this one out by January. Our previous apartment wasn’t bad (ish) but we really wanted to get into a house before the baby came… and we did it.
• Hit End Game In An MMO
  I hit level cap in EQ2 this year and have done plenty of raiding. Check and check

 Goals that didn’t get accomplished:

• Getting my weight back down to my pre knee injury levels
• Eliminating all debts (paid down was the achievable – eliminating was the high hope)
• Finding a project and sticking with it

For 2008 I have some goals that I really hope I will accomplish:

• Being the best father I can be to Paige
• Being the best husband I can be to Tammy
• Getting back down to my pre knee injury weight
• Eliminating all debt by the end of the year (this year I think we’ll do it… we are in a really good position)
• Starting with my annual bonus start a new fund for a down payment for a house
• Double my RRSP (retirement) contributions as soon as possible
• Take my new planned project from idea to launch… I’ll have more on this in a few weeks, I can’t wait to share what I’ve done so far I really love it (its ATV and internet related – some of you have seen it)
• Hitting level 70 in World of Warcraft

I can only hope that 2008 is half as good as 2007, a year that really gave me more then I ever could have hoped for.

In terms of my best list for 2007:

• Best books read: The Testament of Gideon Mack, American Gods, Shadow of the Wind and The God Delusion
• Best games played: Everquest 2 (both expansions this past year were amazing), The Orange Box, and BF 2142
• Best music: One Republic – fantastic album from beginning to end

Good bye 2007, bring on ’08.