Other [Issue 71] Road to Reporterhood

[marc.jp_44 20,837]

 

G'day reader! Yes, I'm the new kid on the block (not Jenny from the Block), the debutant, the newbie or whatever you wish to call me. Some of you may know me by previous names, those being "marc.jp_44," "Phenom," "that Australian guy" or "the guy to go to if I haven't been picked as a winner for TTC this week." Well, for those of you who don't me, this is an introductory piece. Let's get right into it!

 

My Grassroots | 2015

 
I began my journey, so to speak, somewhere in April of 2015. I used to play another game and played it for quite a while but my friend in real life introduced me to Tanki, which he found through Miniclip. I soon found the Game extremely captivating, there's nothing that can quite capture the starting stages of a good Game. Within my first few days I managed to rank up pretty quickly. On the 25th of July, a certain loading bar caught my eye:

The certain banner that interested me.

 

I had many questions when I saw this banner: What is a Clan? How do you find a team? What are friends? I have none :c
The biggest and most important question, though, was "where can I find the Forum?" In my previous Game, I used to be quite active on the Forum as I liked the concept of being able to chat about something you are interested in with people who share a mutual appreciation for the Game. After finding it, the first thing I sought to do was find a Clan. Like a dog to a bone, I sniffed out the best low-rank Clan and immediately applied. Back then, I judged Clans according to how cool their logo looked. Within an hour, I scouted a Clan bad enough to accept me worthy of my presence:

Greatest application, eh?

 
From then, things moved pretty quickly. If my memory serves me correctly, the Leader took way too long to accept me so I ended up applying to a new Clan, which I then left because another Clan accepted me. Basically, trying join a Clan was a dog's breakfast back then! My intention of joining a Clan was never to train, "training" was a foreign concept to me, as a vastly inexperienced gamer. I only joined to befriend a few blokes to play with on the battlefield. Within a couple of weeks, I had already started my new Clan (which FYI I still have bookmarked for sentimental reasons ^_^). I contacted some random underground designer to design my Clan page for me and pretty soon, I managed to prepare a swanky new Clan page. The Forum/eSport Mods were really helpful, even back then. Me, unlike most people, actually read the Guidelines thoroughly to creating a new Clan and made sure that my page would be perfect (apart from the fact that I forgot my Skype ID, thanks Darky  <_<). The oldest picture I can find that I took was a battle in Esplanade CTF, I still vaguely remember the battle:

 

Ohh, the nostalgia! Esplanade battles were a major hit at lower ranks.

 
I found a few friends, such as DejanSavic2000 (now @xX_I.Love.Her_Xx) who were really supportive during the whole process. I became friends with their Clan (Unstoppable Gold Hunters) and they helped me grow mine. Within just a month, the stress of managing a Clan got to me and I "merged" with Unstoppable Gold Hunters. Somehow, we acquired 106 pages in this small month (HD ain't got nothing on me, I was doing it before it was cool  B)) and nearly 30,000 views (this was actually the highest amount of views in Newcomers at that stage). Little did I know that these friends would be with me for a few years and I'd even end up being colleagues with some of the Moderators who helped me out.
 
After a few months of staying under the radar but visiting the Forum, I decided to pursue my passion for writing by enrolling in Tanki Writers Group, which, in hindsight, probably led me on to become a Reporter. This group was a lot of fun. Somehow, I actually whipped up a couple of pretty decent Articles (here, here, here, here and here). I finished my year by purchasing a lovely Tornado Kit to test out my new XP/BP "skills." I also made my first discovery of a wild XT in a Polygon CP match:
 

Here lies the elusive "Hornet XT" contrasted with my slightly less cool Hornet M2.

 

Unfortunately, there were some major issues with TWG, which leads me on to my next year. 
 

Exposure | 2016

 
Fortunately for us, the Reporters let us enjoy our New Year festivities but then exposed the fatal flaws of the Club. On the 30th of January, 2016, Fen made a long rant explaining how things such as plagiarism and blatant disrespect, which is understandable but he was a bit too vague, not taking everything into perspective. Drama aside, this total collapse of TWG actually indirectly sparked the rise of AWC - a much more organised system used for unofficial Articles to be posted, with guidance from AW Staff. 
 
In 2016, I started really venturing into the Forum and found it extremely interesting. Mid-way through the year, I also pursued my interest in XP/BP by joining an XP/BP Clan. 2016 was very fun for me and I probably reached the pinnacle of my playing career (in the aspects of skill and enjoyability). I also joined a thing called "STG Club." It was an unofficial group of players who used to regularly play Save the Gold battles. These STG's soon became a massive craze. Ironically, the STG events were far more enjoyable prior to the release of the Gold Supply, which removed the value behind trying to get the Gold Box to drop.
 
Towards the middle of the year, I developed a newfound hobby of editing Tanki videos. I made compilations/gameplay videos and slightly edited them, this started on my rank-up to Lieutenant General. It was an interesting period and it was fun to try out some new things.
 
Going back to the STG topic, these were some of my most enjoyable experiences in the Game. 

One of the slightly more memorable "Save the Golds," where the Gold Box dropped at 28 fund.

 

Given the fact that Gold Boxes did not simply just drop at the touch of a key, there were rather harsh rules and penalties for those who cheated or took the Gold Box when they were not allowed to. In saying that, however, these rules guaranteed that the Events would be super fun to participate in, for everyone just wanted a fair match. 
 
When I decided to join an XP/BP Clan, I had some extremely fun moments, too. Weekly trainings was always a highlight as we used to play for fun and occasionally in rare maps. This brought diversity to each training session, as well as an aspect of not knowing how the Gameplay of the map works, instead of playing the standard Sandbox CTF match every week. 
 
2016 was the year in which I really became active on the Forum and started venturing into new departments of the Game. I started the year at Second Lieutenant ( ) and finished the year at the rank Fieldmarshal ( ).

 

Service | 2017

 

2017 was undoubtedly my defining year in Tanki Online. It was the most enjoyable year for me in the Game, despite the fact that I actually played very little. In the first few months, my Clan that I was a long-term member of underwent some large changes in operation and I was no longer with the Clan anymore. I was not liking any of the updates hitting the Game and I felt that overall, gameplay was becoming stale. Despite this, I still found the Forum an enjoyable place to relaxe and socialise in.
 
On the 13th of March, I submitted my Wiki Application. It was essentially a final reach for me. If I made it, I made it but if my application was rejected, I most likely would have quit Tanki for a few months. Thankfully, 6 days later, I was accepted as a Candidate. My Candidacy was extremely enjoyable as everything was so new and foreign. A large part of this was because I had a very reliable Admin who was extremely supportive.
 
The first project I was tasked with was updating the Hulls pages in the Wiki. It was a long and extremely gruelling task. The amount of micro-upgrade updates that were being rolled out was insane. Each Micro-Upgrade table took about 10-20 minutes to do and you had to remain extremely focused, for mixing up values would be a disaster. On the whole, however, I thoroughly enjoyed being a Wiki Editor. I was finally accepted, together with @N_O_C_T_U_R_N_E on the 1st of May. 
 
In my early Candidacy days, I gave up on trying to play on my Main Account (. I picked a cool username and picked a combo I was comfortable with, then began progressing through the ranks. I have to admit, playing on a brand new Alternate Account is extremely entertaining ... until you come across buyers. Gameplay is pretty overpowered for those of whom are already seasoned players but I must admit, buyers somewhat ruin the entertainment but sometimes, they also provide some competition! 
 
A few months passed and again, I found Gameplay becoming a little boring. This time, major updates weren't hitting and I was feeling very comfortable in my current role of Wiki Editor. I felt like I wanted to give back more to the community. The idea to restart Tanki Thinking Challenge was always lingering in the back of my mind, so I finally decided to give it a shot. On the 17th of November, I flicked Sergei a PM and we eventually took the conversation to Skype. The prizes, details and rules were clarified before I officially launched the brand new edition of Tanki Thinking Challenge. It was a very proud moment for me, as it's always great to see something that you've invested a lot of time into flourishing. 
 
Since then, Tanki Thinking Challenge has seen many weekly Quizzes with millions of crystals and dozens of Gold Boxes being awarded to Tankers. It's been a good few months managing it (even when I was greeted with a picture of me being hunted down by Tankers with pitchforks because one Quiz accidentally stuffed up  :ph34r:) and it has been even greater to know that we contributed to making someone's day just a little bit more exciting. 
 
Last but not least, when I felt like it was time to turn over another page in the Chapter of my Tanki career, I decided to apply to become a Reporter. It was a long-term goal of mine, ever since I was a Warrant Officer. Time will tell how I end up serving in this role but there's one thing for sure, I can't wait to find out!

__________________________________________________________________________

 

Stay tuned! Hope to see you in my next article!

[sharjeel_777 987]

Nice article and thanks for TTC with help me alot regrading crystals and i really like ur quiz because ur quiz is too much easy than ninja,sorry ninja but that is the truth!,xd

[Magenta 5,165]

hehe

[lukey0 27,543]

You have a very interesting history.  ;)

 

This is why you're so inactive on TWR

[GrandExecutioner 1,403]

You just couldn't resist writing all about yourself could you? :P

 

 

 

Nice biography!

 

 

Edited January 17, 2018 by GrandExecutioner

[You.Have.to.die 519]

You sure did have some interesting moments.

[maryam98 1,171]

2016: to .

2017: to (wait for it..)

Good Job!

[TO_King 818]

Nice Article !!!

 

 

Nice Application

 

 

[Quarks 2,255]

The implosion of TWG truly was a sight to behold. After about a dozen crappy "Ultimate Guide" knock-offs, and me essentially being away that entire weekend, I came back to pages upon pages of self-immolation that I was thankfully not the leader at that time to deal with. What started out as a good group of writers - many of us actually did become reporters - became a grab bag of people who couldn't really write and had bad leadership. At least AWC was formed, a lot of good comes from that.

 

Did I mention that I am hurt you didn't mention me ;(, because I am, and always remember, I BEAT you. Btw, congrats on becoming a reporter.

[r_trooll15 827]

The implosion of TWG truly was a sight to behold. After about a dozen crappy "Ultimate Guide" knock-offs, and me essentially being away that entire weekend, I came back to pages upon pages of self-immolation that I was thankfully not the leader at that time to deal with. What started out as a good group of writers - many of us actually did become reporters - became a grab bag of people who couldn't really write and had bad leadership. At least AWC was formed, a lot of good comes from that.

 

Did I mention that I am hurt you didn't mention me ;(, because I am, and always remember, I BEAT you. Btw, congrats on becoming a reporter.

you back???

[marc.jp_44 20,837]

The implosion of TWG truly was a sight to behold. After about a dozen crappy "Ultimate Guide" knock-offs, and me essentially being away that entire weekend, I came back to pages upon pages of self-immolation that I was thankfully not the leader at that time to deal with. What started out as a good group of writers - many of us actually did become reporters - became a grab bag of people who couldn't really write and had bad leadership. At least AWC was formed, a lot of good comes from that.

 

Did I mention that I am hurt you didn't mention me ;(, because I am, and always remember, I BEAT you. Btw, congrats on becoming a reporter.

Yeah, what happened to TWG was pretty darn bad. :/

I think I made a crappy old piece summarising what happened but couldn't find it. 

 

:x Sorry and thanks. :D

[LIMITFULL 1,793]

Love the Happy Dragon shout out as to the best spammy clan...
:wub: :ph34r: