Staff Farewell Tribute to Tony “RadarX” Jones - Page 2

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Posted Thu, May 21, 2009 by Cody Bye

After Jeff was promoted beyond the realm of EverQuest II, Tony took the reins of the site and proceeded to make it his goal to become the top EQ2 site in the world. To help him accomplish his dream, Tony helped bring in a variety of individuals to the site, but Savanja was the first.

Tony is the reason why I hooked up with Ten Ton Hammer. I was off doing volunteer pieces for Casters Realm, and he had landed a nice gig with “these new people.” He had just started a month or so before me and was given lead of the EQ2 site and a couple of unruly writers. Training those days consisted of "We need this done...do it" and that made for a lot of late nights and a lot of good fun in-game.

EverQuest 2 was where Tony spent his initial TTH time.

And Tony’s influence would spread far beyond his individual staffers. Through his position at Ten Ton Hammer, Tony was able to influence people in ways that most of us try to emulate. Too often, the gaming industry feels like some sort of VIP club, where only people who know people tend to get in. Tony helped people break down those walls and experience the hard work and thrill of working in a field of pure entertainment. Anna “Morvy” Dotson was one of those individuals, and she absconded a life of accounting to eventually land a place as a game tester at Microsoft.

Having given up on ever having anything to do with the games industry, Tony urged me to come join Ten Ton Hammer even if it was only on a volunteer basis. That volunteer bit turned into a job, and that job eventually landed me my current position as a Game Tester Lead contracted to Microsoft. Meeting him last spring at the ION conference in Seattle is probably my happiest memory of him. Talking to the man for two-ish years, having him convince me to turn my life around (who needs another accounting job?) and then finally meeting him was quite the event in my eyes. It was like meeting a rock star!

Throughout his tenure at Ten Ton Hammer, the man known as RadarX has been a frequent participant in the network’s busy summer conference schedule. From that first meeting at SOE’s FanFaire in 2005, the future SOE staffer consistently maintained a presence at the FanFaire’s while managing to attend E3 in Los Angeles, ION in Seattle, and the Games Convention in Leipzig, German. Managing Editor Ben “Machail” de la Durantaye remembers his first meeting of Tony Jones at SOE FanFaire 2007:

Due to his success with EQ2, Tony's reputation preceded him.

When I first started at Ten Ton Hammer, I was playing Vanguard and EQ2. Often while looking up guides for EQ2 though Google, TTH articles would pop up and Savanja and RadarX' names were all over them. Wherever I looked, there was another article by RadarX.

I went to Fan Faire that year, and made my rounds introducing myself to many of the SOE staff. And wouldn't you know it, almost every person I spoke to and told I was from Ten Ton Hammer immediately asked, "Oh, is Tony here?" or "Oh, TTH, I really like RadarX."

This guy was an icon in the SOE gaming community, and it was well earned. Hell, how many people can say they have their faces printed on trading cards? Quite frankly, I was a little intimidated by the guy.

I never got the chance to work with Tony as a fellow CM, but I was fortunate enough to cross paths with him on a few projects at Ten Ton Hammer over the next year or two. It didn't take long for my feelings of intimidation to turn into admiration. I simply can't think of anyone else I know that's better suited for a job in this industry. He has the passion and personality, and what SOE gains is our loss here.

*Shakes fist* Curses to you SOE for nerfing our network!

And truthfully, few people can claim that they’ve gotten their mugshot hand painted onto a trading cart (he's the bottom left). Few professional athletes can claim that precedent, let alone your average, working class individual. Yet with his constant knowledge of EverQuest II and the constant influx of humor into his writing, RadarX and his long time compatriot Coyote Sharptongue, made the impossible happen

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