by Karen Hertzberg on Jul 31, 2009
Almost 4 years ago, shortly after I began work as a neophyte community
manager for Ten Ton Hammer, I ran a contest on our
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ddo">Dungeons &
Dragons Online community site. DDO was ramping up for launch,
and the
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/71988">
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 80px; height: 80px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/71988/preview">
Ralsu's
forum avatar. A stunning likeness?
contest asked gamers to
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/63570">imagine their
character and create a backstory for
them. Many rose to the challenge, but one person, who went by the forum
name of Ralsu, put forth contributions that were undeniably high
quality. This guy could write!
At the time, I was desperately searching for a minion...er, an
assistant to help me
handle the enormous load of DDO content we were trying to publish in
preparation for the game. Clearly, this Ralsu person was a skilled
writer, and he seemed to know an awful lot about Dungeons &
Dragons (almost to epically geeky proportions). I fired off a private
message in Ralsus direction asking him if hed consider working for
the network part-time.
The rest is, of course, Ten Ton Hammer history. Danny Ralsu Gourley
did indeed take
us up on our offer, and he quickly proved himself as not only a
talented writer, but an all-around-good-guy. As he moved through
positions--from DDO community manager to Vanguard community manager
to contest manager,
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/features/free">Top 10
Free-to-Play MMOs columnist, and pony harvester (its an
inside joke that harkens to a time when no one knew precisely what
Danny did or what his title was, just that he did it well)--everyone,
from his co-workers to his readers to our forum community members, grew
to respect and admire him.
And now Ralsu is leaving the Ten Ton Hammer fold. He has a good
reason--his full-time job with
Washington State University occupies his
days, and hed really rather his family get a chance to occupy his
nights and weekends for a change. Even so, and even though he promises
to frequent our forums, were going to miss him.
There was an exciting time during which I was Ten Ton Hammer's Vanguard
site lead and Danny was once
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/71987">
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src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/71987/preview">
Danny and
his lovely wife, Sarah.
again my assistant. The site was so busy
and thriving in the months surrounding launch that we brought in a
couple more part-time writers to pitch in. But it soon became clear
that Vanguard, the game, wasn't going to be the epic success
we'd all hoped it
would be. There were too many cooks in our Vanguard community site
kitchen, so it was time for me to move on and leave Danny, once
again, leading the site. Danny's two staff writers were Eric "Dalmarus"
Campbell and Ben "Machail" de la Durantaye.
Ben, who later moved on to become Ten Ton Hammer's full-time
communities manager,
found a friend in Danny:
Eric, who took over as Vanguard site lead when Danny stepped up to a
position as main site editor and contest manager, echoed Ben's
sentiments:
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/41534">
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 160px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/41534/preview">
Ralsu took
a press tour of an impending FF XI update and developed the hots for
half-Elvaan girls.
When Danny stepped up into the role of Pony Harvester (his catch-all
term for him being a catch-all kind of staff member), he fell under the
leadership of managing editor Cody Bye, who says:
Other Ten Ton Hammer staff members may not have worked with
Danny one on one, but they did find him a friendly confidante.
David "Xerin" Piner valued Danny's ability to think like a gamer, and
not just a gaming journalist:
Reuben "Sardu" Waters, who now heads up Ten Ton Hammer's Champions
Online community site, attributes his position with the site to Danny:
Although Danny and Jay "Medeor" Johnson differ in their opinions on
free-to-play games, Jay respects Danny's ability to appreciate them,
play them, and report on them objectively. At least, I think he does:
Continue on to our member tribute...
And while Danny has made a dedicated and hard-working Ten Ton
Hammer staff member, it has been his
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/52200">
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 150px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/52200/preview">
Ralsu's
Runes of Magic character says, "I'm on a horse!" Take a good hard look.
dedication to the community that
always shone through. I couldn't ask the entire Ten Ton Hammer
community to send me their thoughts on Danny, so I sent private
messages to a handful of our prominent community members
asking them to share their thoughts and experiences:
JenSweet appreciates Danny's one-two punch of wit and valuable
insight:
Kitsunegirl appreciates Danny's patience:
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/71989">
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 300px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/71989/preview">
Quoth young
Danny, "Whoopdee-freakin'-do, a yellow ribbon."
Kralle,
one of our forum friends in Germany and a supporter from back in the
early days of our Vanguard
community site, had plenty to say:
Danny's Top 10 Free-to-Play Games feature was a hit with some community
members, including AngryBeaver:
And Beerkeg adds:
I speak for the Ten Ton Hammer staff
when I say that along with his written contributions we're going to
miss things like Danny's willingness to help, his dedication to the
network, and his dry humor in our internal email communications. And I
think I speak for the entire Ten Ton Hammer community when I say that
we're all hoping to continue seeing him on our forums, even if he's in
"civilian" clothes.
Personally, I'm proud to have been the one
to bring Danny into the Ten Ton Hammer fold. During his tenure here,
I've had the opportunity to write
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/63469"> fanfic-style
quest journals with him (even though the only fans
we managed to attract were ourselves),
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/58324">raz him,
enjoy him
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showpost.php?p=364273&postcount=1791">razzing
others (
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showpost.php?p=350693&postcount=4">way
more than once), and call him friend.
Good luck, Danny! Don't be a stranger. And may every roll of life's
20-sided dice bring you nothing but good things.