Category: Member Spotlight

Welcome to your 15 minutes of fame with Crowded! Let’s get to know you.

Q. So first things first, what’s your real (first) name?

A. Robert

Q. What’s your day job?

A. Programmer

Q. What was the inspiration behind your gamertag?

A. It was a dare from high school 😀 it means always on the dog, but comes from a german phrase always on the hat

Q. How long have you been in the Crowded Group?

A. I dunno about 7 months maybe

Q. In short, what made you want to join Crowded?

A. Josh is my coworker and he made me join ?

Q. What kind of music do you listen to?

A. Lots of stuff. Lately it’s been instrumental covers with guitar being choice instrument

Q. If you could have any super power, what would it be and why?

A. Fly… everyone wants to fly. I don’t wanna go to space, but it would be nice to just get to work without stupid traffic and driving.

Q. Rank your top 3 video games of all time

A. OG Zelda, Rocket League, Earthbound

OG Zelda FTW!!!

Q. What’s your favorite movie and/or favorite book?

A. Toy Story. I always come back to it.

Q. Mario Kart- who’s your driver?

A. Waluigi

Q. What’s your favorite story/moment of gaming?

A. FF7 just the whole movie and plot. I almost cried when whats-her-face died.

*Tear*

Q. When not gaming, what other hobbies do you enjoy in your free time?

A. Building keyboards, programming, playing with kids

Q. What’s your favorite thing about Crowded?

A. LFG. I like that I post or see posts of people looking for groups. The people are cool too ?

Thank you for spending some time telling us more about yourself Immeraufdemhun! We hope you had some fun- enjoy your time in the crowded spotlight!

Welcome to your 15 minutes of fame with Crowded! Let’s get to know you.

Q. So first things first, what’s your real (first) name?

A. Paul

Q. What’s your day job?

A. Techno Entrepreneur. Starting up a robotics company.

Q. What was the inspiration behind your gamertag?

A. I will Eventually make a Titan!

Still waiting……..

Q. How long have you been in the Crowded Group?

A. A couple of months.

Q. In short, what made you want to join Crowded?

A. Coding and geek jokes

Q. What kind of music do you listen to?

A. Medium Rock (Pat Benatar, Bon Jovi, Avril Lavigne)

Q. If you could have any super power, what would it be and why?

A. The Time Stone, duh!? How else do you think Dr. Strange beat out Thanos!

Q. Rank your top 3 video games of all time

A. Destiny, Halo, Civilization

Q. What’s your favorite movie and/or favorite book?

A. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Q. Mario Kart- who’s your driver?

A. Wario.

Wario….now there’s an interesting one!

Q. What’s your favorite story/moment of gaming?

A. Halo 4, when Cortana said goodbye to Master Chief.

Q. When not gaming, what other hobbies do you enjoy in your free time?

A. Building Robots.

Q. What’s your favorite thing about Crowded?

A. It’s friendly and geeky

Thank you for spending some time telling us more about yourself EventualTitan! We hope you had some fun- enjoy your time in the crowded spotlight!

Welcome to your 15 minutes of fame with Crowded! Let’s get to know you.

Q. So first things first, what’s your real (first) name?

A. Ben

Q. What’s your day job?

A. I work in Advancement at The Ohio State University. I’m part of a team that handles all incoming charitable donations as well as manages the constituent database, which has over 3 million records. We’re currently in the middle of a $4.5bn fundraising campaign, so it’s a pretty significant operation.

Q. What was the inspiration behind your gamertag?

A. In college I had a friend who liked to hand out random nicknames. He started calling me Stein because … there’s that actor named Ben Stein (Bueller? Bueller?). That’s it. It’s not my last name. I think it stuck because it’s short and easy to say and inoffensive. I actually started meeting people who thought my name was Ben Stein because everyone called me Stein.

#winbensteinsmoney

Q. How long have you been in the Crowded Group?

A. Not too long – maybe a couple months.

Q. In short, what made you want to join Crowded?

A. I have always been mostly a solo player but about a year ago was getting frustrated how much of Destiny I couldn’t experience solo, so I gave the Bureau of Space Magic clan a shot and have really enjoyed it thus far. The infamous Moose gave you all a rave review and encouraged me to join the Crowded server as well.

Q. What kind of music do you listen to?

A. Pop and Rock mostly. I enjoy 80s music as well.

Q. If you could have any super power, what would it be and why?

A. Probably teleportation. I enjoy seeing new places but generally find the act of traveling to be a pain in the ass.

Q. Rank your top 3 video games of all time

A. Besides Destiny? Mass Effect 2, Halo: CE, and probably AC: Black Flag

Q. What’s your favorite movie and/or favorite book?

A. The Empire Strikes Back and probably Reamde by Neal Stephenson. Can’t recommend him enough especially to gamers and coders.

Q. Mario Kart- who’s your driver?

A. Toad! Sometimes Toadette.

Hey, one less Yoshi out there!

Q. What’s your favorite story/moment of gaming?

A. As a mostly solo player I didn’t raid much in D1, but the summer before D2 I learned there was a way to solo Crota. I had never done it before so it was pretty challenging, but also a fun and rewarding experience. More recently, the struggle for Reckoner was real, but it felt great to finally get that title last season.

Nice job taking down Crota solo! Being a skilled swordbearer felt like a second job for 6 months, but it was a lot of fun!

Q. When not gaming, what other hobbies do you enjoy in your free time?

A. Most of my non-gaming time is taken up by my 3 year old daughter and 15 month old son. I enjoy doing projects around the house and running (but only when it’s warm outside).

Q. What’s your favorite thing about Crowded?

A. The people! Everyone is really nice and helpful and it seems like you all really enjoy each other.

Thank you for spending some time telling us more about yourself Stein49! We hope you had some fun- enjoy your time in the crowded spotlight!

Welcome to your 15 minutes of fame with Crowded…a group you helped create! Let’s get to know you.

Q. So first things first, what’s your real (first) name?

A. Josh

Well, there’s a surprise 😉

Q. What’s your day job?

A. I am a Senior Developer for a company called Stay Metrics. I code in PHP, C#, Javascript and a little bit of SalesForce Apex when they make me.

Q. What was the inspiration behind your gamertag?

A. My XBL gamertag is Spartan8103. The Spartan portion of the tag is from Halo (though sports people think I am a fan of Michigan State). The 8103 was the house number of my parents house where I was living at the time.

Q. How long have you been in the Crowded Group?

A. Since its inception.

*That’s not a defined length of time Josh, just sayin’…..how old is Crowded, anyway!?

Q. In short, what made you want to join (in your case start) Crowded?

A. This is going to go on for awhile so buckle up!

This has not come up much, but now that I have though about it, this is the 3rd group that Pico and I started together. The first one was a Clash of Clans clan, the second one was a Slack group comprised mostly of programmers, and then the current group that we all know and love today!

As for the reason why we started the group, I think we really just wanted a place where a group of nerdy people could come together and hang out online [and during work]. Naturally a lot of discussion happened around video games and programming and when a new topic came up, we added a channel for it to see where it would go. Eventually the Destiny 2 clan was formed and the group became what you know it as today.

Q. What kind of music do you listen to?

A. When I listen to music (which is not particularly often) I tend to listen to modern classical music that are mostly soundtracks. The soundtrack to Interstellar and The Leftovers come to mind. When I am listening to words with words in it, I enjoy older stuff like Pink Floyd and Tool. It really can be all over the place.

Q. If you could have any super power, what would it be and why?

A. I would love to no longer require sleep of any kind.

Q. Rank your top 3 video games of all time

A. (In no particular order) The Legend of Zleda: Link to The Past, Skyrim and Fallout 3

Ooooooooh LttP is an all time great!

Q. What’s your favorite movie and/or favorite book?

A. My favorite movie is The Shawshank Redemption and my favorite book would probably be Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation by Blake J Harris

Q. Mario Kart- who’s your driver?

A. Yoshi (seriously I am starting to think the point of the real race was selecting Yoshi first)

*You aren’t wrong….

Q. What’s your favorite story/moment of gaming?

A. There are too many to list here. One of the most recent ones was the day the Nintendo Switch was announced. This Nerdist News video pretty well sums up my excitement level: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLGNL-bM8qg (Especially the part about being able to play Skyrim on the go)

Nice work!!!

Q. When not gaming, what other hobbies do you enjoy in your free time?

A. I write a lot of code on the side and I am starting to venture into putting hardware together.

Q. What’s your favorite thing about Crowded?

A. The people. I think we have a great group of people that love games and love to chat.

Thank you for spending some time telling us more about yourself Josh, but more importantly thank you for creating crowded to bring us all together! I hope you had some fun with this- enjoy your time in the spotlight!

Welcome to your 15 minutes of fame with Crowded! Let’s get to know you.

Q. So first things first, what’s your real (first) name?

A. Joe

Q. What’s your day job?

A. I’m a Technical Assistant/Administrator for an Independent Contractor

Hey look, someone who’s not a developer 😉

Q. What was the inspiration behind your gamertag?

A. I’ve had like 3 GT’s throughout my time on Xbox and when I bought my Xbox One I wanted a fresh start with a fresh GT. And so I thought back when I played competitive Halo, what was my “playstyle”, and I was the flank/power player. I also thought it sounded cool at the time.

Q. How long have you been in the Crowded Group?

A. About a year and 3 months or so.

Q. In short, what made you want to join Crowded?

A. Well irconfused and I were playing a ton of Destiny and he knew a guy back when we played a lot of The Division and he asked if we could join Crowded.

Q. What kind of music do you listen to?

A. Mostly House and EDM. Occasionally some Jazz.

Q. If you could have any super power, what would it be and why?

A. I’ll be very cliché but I’d like to fly, for no other reason than to fly around.

Q. Rank your top 3 video games of all time

A. Halo, Mass Effect, Minecraft. Mostly in that order.

Q. What’s your favorite movie and/or favorite book?

A. This one is tough. It’s hard to just pick a favorite but I really enjoyed Avatar by James Cameron. The memory of watching at one of the biggest IMAX screens in the country and in 3D and at the time that was the peak of 3D. My jaw just dropped when I saw it. It was such an incredible experience.

Q. Mario Kart- who’s your driver?

A. Dry Bones.

*Yeah! Score one for quick acceleration!

Q. What’s your favorite story/moment of gaming?

A. Favorite moment was back when I was playing Halo 3, I was part of Gamebattles which was like the entry point for MLG. Me and my team single handedly defeated all of the KSI Teams.

Nice work!!!

Q. When not gaming, what other hobbies do you enjoy in your free time?

A. Does VR count? When I’m not gaming I like to go out with friends to the many microbreweries we have here. I bought a drone last year and that has been a blast to fly around. When it’s winter here I enjoy going snowboarding or skiing. And when it’s summer, I go down the shore! I love having 4 seasons.

Q. What’s your favorite thing about Crowded?

A. I love that Crowded doesn’t just focus on one game, there are so many of us here that play an assortment of games. I love playing Sea of Thieves but it’s so much more fun playing with a group of 4, or 7. Something I wouldn’t have been able to do without being part of this amazing community!

*This is what makes crowded awesome!

Thank you for spending some time telling us more about yourself RedeemedGhost! We hope you had some fun- enjoy your time in the crowded spotlight!

Welcome to your 15 minutes of fame with Crowded! Let’s get to know you.

Q. So first things first, what’s your real (first) name?

A. Bart

Q. What’s your day job?

A. SQL Dev

Q. What was the inspiration behind your gamertag?

A. Senex is the Latin for an old man

Q. How long have you been in the Crowded Group?

A. A few months now, honestly not sure

Q. In short, what made you want to join Crowded?

A. I stumbled across the group on the 100.io, and the IT references appealed to me, and then just talking with folks on Discord and reddit.

Q. What kind of music do you listen to?

A. Mainly instrumental these days. I used to be a huge metal head, but now mainly EDM, Synthwave, classical, and some game soundtracks. Things that help me tune the world out.

Metal FTW! Rock on!!

Q. If you could have any super power, what would it be and why?

A. I always wanted to be Colossus from the X-men. Ever since the 80’s when he was dating Kitty Pryde. Now though, probably just the ability to stop time so I could catch up on sleep and not miss out on life

Q. Rank your top 3 video games of all time

A. The Witcher 3, Minecraft, and Dune 2

Q. What’s your favorite movie and/or favorite book?

A. Movie is Dune (David Lynch version 1984), book would be a toss up, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, or, honestly I am not sure, I read a book a week. Anything by Heinlein though is up there.

Q. Mario Kart- who’s your driver?

A. Yoshi.

Q. What’s your favorite story/moment of gaming?

A. The ending of Mass Effect 1 and 2. The story sucked in my family, and sitting there playing it with my wife and son was amazing. After that I would have to say the first time I played EVE online, or entered Ironforge in WoW, with the music blaring.

Q. When not gaming, what other hobbies do you enjoy in your free time?

A. I read all the time. I run a Table top RPG for my wife, and I paint terrain and figs for warhammer.

Q. What’s your favorite thing about Crowded?

A. I can talk with folks, but am not pressured to do anything that I don’t want to do. In other words no one treats me poorly for not raiding in games like Destiny .

Thank you for spending some time telling us more about yourself S3nnex! We hope you had some fun- enjoy your time in the crowded spotlight!

Welcome to your 15 minutes of fame with Crowded! Let’s get to know you.

Q. So first things first, what’s your real (first) name?

A. Mackenzie (Mac)

Q. What’s your day job?

A. I’m a software engineer.

Q. What was the inspiration behind your gamertag?

A. I’m sure I don’t need to spell it out for many of you guys but for non-Destiny folks – it’s part of the dialog from Xol during the Whisper of the Worm mission. “There is no Light here. You are alone. You shall drift. You shall drown in the Deep.”

Q. How long have you been in the Crowded Group?

A. I want to say I joined during Forsaken, so a bit over a year at this point.

Q. In short, what made you want to join Crowded?

A. I was looking for more people to play with in Destiny who were dedicated but also relaxed and easy going. I found Crowded on the100 and they seemed to fit the bill.

*We’re still working on converting Drift to join our Destiny clan- he actually did join for a couple hours(for the raid clan night triumph), but we’re still taking it as a win for the good guys….we’ll convert you eventually!!!

Q. What kind of music do you listen to?

A. Pretty much every genre except country and heavy metal (with a few exceptions). A few recent picks –
DLZ by TV On The Radio
SOURCE by Fever The Ghost
Black by Danger Mouse
Love You Madly by Cake

Q. If you could have any super power, what would it be and why?

A. Flight, definitely.

Q. Rank your top 3 video games of all time

A. Outer Wilds
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Bioshock

Not necessarily in that order

*I love Bioshock!!!

Q. What’s your favorite movie and/or favorite book?

A. Book is Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Movie is Shawshank Redemption

Q. Mario Kart- who’s your driver?

A. Yoshi, but now it looks like I’m copying everyone else.

*Pretty sure 98% of all Mario Kart players pick Yoshi! Those that don’t are the interesting ones haha.

Q. What’s your favorite story/moment of gaming?

A. I’m sure this reveals some deep flaw in my psyche or something but some of the most memorable moments in gaming for me is when the game makes me feel really bad for things I’ve done. For this reason, it’s probably a tie between my Undertale genocide playthrough (basically the whole thing) and a scene in Knights of the Old Republic – near the end of the game if you’ve made choices toward the “dark side” ending, you’re confronted by several of your party members and forced to either repent or double down and fight them. Taking the evil option here really makes you feel like the bad guy.

Q. When not gaming, what other hobbies do you enjoy in your free time?

A. My wife and I like to write and play music together (my wife is a fantastic singer, and I’m passable on the guitar, piano, and occasional vocals)

Q. What’s your favorite thing about Crowded?

A. Definitely getting to answer these surveys.

*Haha glad you enjoy them!

Thank you for spending some time telling us more about yourself You Shall Drift….aka Mac….aka i90ne1…haha! We hope you had some fun- enjoy your time in the crowded spotlight!

Welcome to your 15 minutes of fame with Crowded! Let’s get to know you.

Q. So first things first, what’s your real (first) name?

A. Bruce

Q. What’s your day job?

A. Sales & Account Manager

Q. What was the inspiration behind your gamertag?

A. It’s my name. B Ruce. Someone said it like that in college and it stuck as a nickname, used it when the time came to create a gamertag.

Q. How long have you been in the Crowded Group?

A. 2 months, roughly.

Q. In short, what made you want to join Crowded?

A. I was just looking for a friendly group of people I could link up and get activities done with. LFG isn’t the best over the long term.

Q. What kind of music do you listen to?

A. Almost all of it I am a big-time music guy and I listen to everything from Charlie Parker to Alexisonfire.

Q. If you could have any super power, what would it be and why?

A. I think it would be neat to be able to read minds, so I could get a good read on people and make sure I don’t stick my foot in my mouth when they’re having a bad day.

Q. Rank your top 3 video games of all time

A. GoldenEye 64, LOZ: Ocarina of Time, Mario Kart 64

Q. What’s your favorite movie and/or favorite book?

A. The Dark Tower series, Stephen King. If I have to pick one book out of that series I would pick the Drawing of the Three.

Q. Mario Kart- who’s your driver?

A. Toad

Q. What’s your favorite story/moment of gaming?

A. The best time I’ve ever had in gaming was the very first time I completed a raid, Vault of Glass. I did the entire thing with a real life group of friends so it made it very rewarding. It was also cool to get that throwback picture at the start of Destiny 2 that showed I had completed it and the list of gamer tags of people I finished it with. I use that as my background to this day.

Q. When not gaming, what other hobbies do you enjoy in your free time?

A. I like to listen to podcasts, read, I play a few instruments, and I also play beer league softball, hockey, dodgeball, pretty much any sport.

Q. What’s your favorite thing about Crowded?

A. Everybody seems really friendly and easy going while at the same time being a hardcore destiny freak like myself.

Thank you for spending some time telling us more about yourself BeRoose! We hope you had some fun- enjoy your time in the crowded spotlight!

Welcome to your 15 minutes of fame with Crowded! Let’s get to know you.

Q. So first things first, what’s your real (first) name?

A. Jason

Q. What’s your day job?

A. I am a Digital Video Specialist for a communications company. I handle all day to day tasks for clients that have an audio and or video component. It’s fun and by the time I tire of the current project I am working on something completely different comes through the door.

Q. What was the inspiration behind your gamertag?

A. Once Destiny was becoming a daily thing for me, I wanted to replace my Microsoft generated GT I got when I signed up for Halo 2 (UnknownRainbow2) so I was on the lookout for something. I was on a work trip in Vermont and saw a highway sign that read “Watch out for” and a picture of a moose. It was available so here we are!

Q. How long have you been in the Crowded Group?

A. I first joined Crowded sometime between Spire of Stars and D2 Y2. However it wasn’t until Spring 2019 that I began to truly interact with the group.

Q. In short, what made you want to join Crowded?

A. Oh, no! Here comes the controversy. I became aware of Crowded because I was actively trying to recruit True Pico into the clan I belong to – the Bureau of Space Magic. My efforts were rebuffed and I was invited to join the Crowded Discord instead. All joking aside, this was the better choice since everyone I have interacted with has been a stellar person.

*No judgement- we’re just glad you came around and made the right decision!*

Q. What kind of music do you listen to?

A. I want to enjoy all the music, but I do have a soft spot for 90’s indie as well as any artist that comes out of the Washington, DC music scene. This past year I got a fantastic education in 20th Century county music via a podcast called “Cocaine and Rhinestones”. I am hoping to find something similar for classical music this year.

Q. If you could have any super power, what would it be and why?

A. I already have a superpower. The ability to fall asleep anywhere. Standing up in church, sitting on a curb at the Sesame Place parade, in a dentist chair while they clean my teeth.

Q. Rank your top 3 video games of all time

A. Half-Life, HALO:ODST, Dragon Warrior 1 & 2.

Q. What’s your favorite movie and/or favorite book?

A. I am not sure I have a favorite. The Dark Tower series and the The Sprawl trilogy (William Gibson’s Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive) are the only books I’ve read twice. I will always stop what I am a doing to watch Starship Troopers if I come across it on cable.

Q. Mario Kart- who’s your driver?

A. Yoshi? It’s been so long since I’ve played this. Sorry.

Q. What’s your favorite story/moment of gaming?

A. I love any moment of gaming where everyone is invested and the outcome is uncertain. The initial weeks of the Whisper and Zero Hour missions come to mind. A recent example was a 980 Nightmare Hunt myself and two others were doing for a time trial. We had the boss go immune immediately after becoming damageable and we only had a 60 seconds before we went over the time limit. We did a very efficient clear of the ads then put everything we had into the boss with seconds to spare. When the triumph complete graphic displayed on screen there was so much astonished hype on the comms. Those moments, for me, are the ones I enjoy the most.

Q. When not gaming, what other hobbies do you enjoy in your free time?

A. Reading, photography, exercising, and raising our family of two daughters, a cat, and two birds.

Q. What’s your favorite thing about Crowded?

A. The People!

Thank you for spending some time telling us more about yourself Watch Out Moose! We hope you had some fun- enjoy your time in the crowded spotlight!