Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Growing up as a small town boy in Eastern Washington State, I had aspirations of becoming a professional football player. It was a fun dream, and it certainly wasn't for lack of trying on my part. However, some things in life aren't meant to be, and my dream of NFL glory hit a wall when I couldn't grow any taller than six feet and two inches. Instead, I've become something of a professional game player, and although I make nowhere near as much money as I would in the NFL, its been a career that's almost as exciting.

Chris Kluwe, Minnesota Vikings' Punter and WoW Player

However, there are a few individuals that are in an opposite position; there are men and women in professional sports that have a true passion for video games. We've heard of many of them and talked with arguably the biggest of them all (Curt Schilling), but the internet has been abuzz lately with the infamous story of the NFL punter that was going to change his name to Chris 'Warcraft'.

The fact that the story has amassed so much attention is intriguing. There have been so many non-gamers that have approached me and the Ten Ton Hammer staff about this piece of news that we decided to track down Chris "Warcraft" and find out more about his story.

It turns out that Chris "Warcraft" is actually better known as Chris Kluwe, a 27-year-old, record-breaking punter that plays for the Minnesota Vikings. A quick Google search of Chris' name returns a whole list of articles talking about punting and video games, along with his stats that establish him as one of the premiere punters in the NFL.  On top of all this Chris is a  long time player of massively multiplayer online games. According to Chris, he got his start in gaming when he split his toe open at a friends birthday party at Seaworld and was subsequently laid up for a few weeks. To keep him entertained, his parents nabbed him a Nintendo Entertainment System and the rest is history.

Troll Rogues are set to become the new hot class. Take that DKs!

Concerning MMOs, Chris was first involved in the genre when his high school friend asked him to help install Ultima Online. "It took us a couple hours to get it installed and running," Chris said. "But we finally got it working." After they successfully loaded the game onto the system, Chris said that he was hooked. Even after so many years (and so much World of Warcraft), he still contends that Ultima Online is his favorite game.

"Everything was just so open," Chris said. "You could advance the skills that you wanted without having to worry about classes. The PvP seemed to be better balanced than today's games. The world was so open, and you could buy and own a house. Even though I really enjoy the level of polish that is in World of Warcraft, there was just something different about Ultima Online."

Since that time, Chris has definitely played his fair share of online games, including EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot, Asheron's Call, Age of Conan and Warhammer Online to name a few. However, his attention is obviously fixed on World of Warcraft. Since there's so much attention placed on his quote about becoming Chris "Warcraft", I wondered just how much time Chris spent a day on WoW.

"I play about five or six hours a day," Chris said. "I actually just bought a laptop so I could get my fishing and non-combat achievements done while I'm not at home."

And he isn't joking about the hours. Recently, Chris received the "Loremaster" achievement, which bestows the title aforementioned title on his character. This also means that Chris' character has completed thousands upon thousands of quests. This guy obviously doesn't joke around.

Chris raiding with his daughter.

For his main avatar, Chris plays a Troll Rogue [Editor's Note: Glory to the Horde!] that he's been using since the very beginning of his online experience. "I don't make a lot of alts," Chris said. "I like to just do everything on my one toon. I'm a completionist, and that worked out well when the achievement system got put in."

On top of all the quests, Chris is a pretty avid raider, and his guild is now actively farming Sartharion. Chris explained that his schedule actually works out pretty well for all the WoW that he plays. "My practice pretty much consists of punting the ball for 45 minutes a day," he said. "I don't have to watch much film like the other guys on the team. When I go home I spend as much time with my family and my new baby girl as I can, then when she goes to sleep I get online and raid."

When I asked Chris about his thoughts on the new expansion, he pretty much had the same ideas that the entire internet is gnashing its teeth about. "It's easy mode right now," Chris said. "I honestly can't wait until they put in Utgarde Keep or whichever raid they come up with next, because Blizzard needs to up the difficulty a little bit."

For the most part, Chris is incredibly open about his gaming to his teammates and the general public. "My teammates come up to me pretty regularly asking for video game advice," he said. "There's a bunch of gamers on the team, just not a whole lot of MMO players. It's a different sort of time commitment." And it was really his teammates who originally thought of the name "Chris 'World of Warcraft'" which was eventually shortened to just Chris Warcraft.

While the joke about changing his name has made Chris famous among the internet community, he is just another example of how online gaming continues to put every gamer around the world on equal footing. Chris loves WoW, just like the rest of us. We plan on following Chris' progress with the Minnesota Vikings, and don't be afraid to ask him any questions in our forums. He certainly reads everything about WoW that he can, so he may just pop in and answer a few of your thoughts!