by Cody Bye on May 21, 2009
Since the network’s birth, Ten Ton Hammer has been constantly
shifting and evolving. While the network was growing from a fledgling
few community sites to a sprawling swath of guide goodness, the staff
was also churning, adjusting, and coming into our own. On a relatively
frequent basis, new staff members are brought on board while others
find jobs in the gaming industry or move on to different fields of
interest. But through the years, a few staff members have stayed with
the team for the long haul, and one of the longest careers on the
network has been established by
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/user/16/articles"
target="_blank">Tony “RadarX” Jones.
Eventually, the developers at Sony Online Entertainment’s
Tucson studio (the development house behind
href="http://www.poxnora.com/index.do" target="_blank">
style="font-style: italic;">Pox Nora)
came calling, and Tony couldn’t resist the urge to join his
longtime friends at the online gaming conglomerate.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/68275">
src="/image/view/68275/preview"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px;" />
Tony will
become the community manager for SOE Tucson.
For the staff members that worked with Tony at Ten Ton Hammer, his
absence on from our forums, email exchanges, and instant messenger
alerts will be heartbreaking. However, if there’s any method
for one of our own to leave us, it’s always the most exciting
when they can become an active part of the gaming industry. Tony will
soon be an official Community Manager over at SOE Tucson, and
I’m sure he has dreams to one day guide the community of
EverQuest IV to their Norrathian paradise. Now he has that chance.
Though many of you already know that Tony got his start at Ten Ton
Hammer, it’s certainly important to chronicle the list of
games, columns, and events that Tony has worked on or been a part of
over the past few years. Let’s take a walk down memory lane,
shall we?
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/68274">
src="/image/view/68274/preview"
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Tony was
recruited to Ten Ton Hammer while staring at Antonia Bayle.
Back in 2005, Tony “RadarX” Jones was just a
mild-mannered Floridian attending SOE’s latest FanFaire and
hoping to see his fair share of the latest bikin-clad Antonia Bayle. He
probably wouldn’t have guessed that he’d quickly be
brought on board to help the network’s current
Editor-in-Chief, Jeff “Ethec” Woleslagle, manage
and operate the quickly expanding
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2" target="_blank">EverQuest
II community site.
While the graphics may have been bright and the displays nowhere near
as slick as our current version of the network’s community
sites, Jeff and Tony managed to hammer out a variety of content that
brought in people by the droves. Tony’s spelling
wasn’t going to win him any awards, but the overall EQ2
community had grown to love the polite, intelligent, RadarX.
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.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/49725">
src="/image/view/49725/preview"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px;" />
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.
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
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/index.php?q=node/132"
target="_blank">E3 in Los
Angeles,
href="https://www.tentonhammer.com/events/ion08/"
target="_blank">ION in Seattle, and the
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/leipzig08"
target="_blank">Games Convention in Leipzig, German.
Managing Editor Ben “Machail” de la Durantaye
remembers his first meeting of Tony Jones at SOE FanFaire 2007:
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/49722">
src="/image/view/49722/preview"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px;" />
Due to his
success with EQ2, Tony's reputation preceded him.
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
target="_blank">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
style="font-style: italic;">EverQuest II and
the constant influx of humor into his writing, RadarX and his long time
compatriot Coyote Sharptongue, made the impossible happen
Between RadarX and Coyote, the Ten Ton
Hammer network was not only a
daily place to get your best guides, news, and interviews on any given
game, it was also one of the funniest MMO sites on the web. Between
Coyote’s constant derision of Tony in his retired
column
target="_blank">Not Funny Ever to their
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/66155" target="_blank">MSTing
of EQ2’s
patch notes to the
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/turnip" target="_blank">Ten
Ton Turnip to their
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gameover" target="_blank">gaming
podcast Game Over, the pair has been constantly
waging
war on the cynical, jaded gamers out there.
Coyote had this to say about Tony’s departure from the Ten
Ton Offices:
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/68268">
src="/image/view/68268/preview"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px;" />
Tony (in the
middle left) with the group from E3 2006.
All of the Ten Ton Hammer staffers feel the same way. Tony's constant
dedication to the MMO medium has kept us all enthralled with our tasks,
and his knowledge of the industry put many of us to shame. Our trips to
Los Angeles and Leipzig would have been far from the quality events
that they were without Tony’s presence at them. Ten Ton
Hammer’s Chief Operating Officer John
“Boomjack” Hoskin describes his first encounter
with Tony and his influence on the network:
Jeff Woleslagle also remembers the many trips he enjoyed with Tony
throughout the years:
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/68269">
src="/image/view/68269/preview"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px;" />
Tony (lower
left middle) with the gathered group at E3 2006.
Finally, Karen “Shayalyn” Hertzberg describes her
E3 2006 experience with Mr. Jones. Poor Tony:
That wasn’t the only moment that Tony “bucked
up” and took one for the team. Although Tony had rarely been
in front of a camera, when he was urged to do interviews with
developers at the Leipzig Games Convention, Tony didn’t
hesitate.
Tony with WAR’s
Josh Drescher
Tony with WAR’s
Jeff Hickman
As always, he did an admirable job and really put the Ten Ton Hammer
network’s best foot forward.
Eventually, Tony became our
“go-to-guy” in the Ten
Ton Hammer staff. If there was anything that needed to be done,
especially concerning community sites, Tony was the first individual we
brought on board. After we pulled him away from EverQuest II, RadarX
was moved to and helped create the community sites for
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro" target="_blank">Lord
of the
Rings Online,
target="_blank">Tabula Rasa, and
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/war" target="_blank">Warhammer
Online. And, believe it or
not, Tony learned the ins-and-outs of all of these games within a
matter of weeks. Not only that, but again Tony was responsible for new
staffers at each of those positions.
As his final destination, Tony came to work with me on the main portal
of Ten Ton Hammer where he penned the
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/features/comic-book-guy"
target="_blank">now retired Comic Book Guy weekly column
along with a slew of other features and
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/news" target="_blank">the
daily news. As the least focused of all the Ten Ton Hammer
sites, many individuals find the main site to be daunting, almost an
overload to the senses. Between news, interviews, reviews, and
editorials, the main site crew has to be well-versed in everything MMO.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/42761">
src="/image/view/42761/preview"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px;" />
Tony feeling
the hurt from Leipzig GC 2008.
Did that stop Tony?
Not for a second. He dove in head first, churning his way upstream like
a salmon. These last few years have truly been heartwarming as I got to
know Tony, read his early morning, bleary-eyed emails, and share some
wonderful experiences with him.
My favorite memory of Tony isn’t one particular moment, but
of a week we shared in Seattle at the ION conference. Although Tony
hadn’t been to a conference in a few months, I was just
coming off a slew of early year press events and conventions, and my
internal battery was running low. Tony’s enthusiasm kept me
going throughout that show, and even when my taxi cab driver escorted
me around Seattle for three hours, Tony lightened the mood with one
hilarious comment. He was also eager to see Seattle, so I pointed out
particular places while we careened through downtown and by the Space
Needle.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/42753">
src="/image/view/42753/preview"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px;" />
Tony with
his booth babes.
With Tony’s help, the coverage from the show was
well-received, and I know Tony will continue to bring that sort of
experience and commitment to Sony Online Entertainment.. Again, all of
the other Ten Ton staffers agree that you’ll continue to
excel wherever you land.
**
Keep up the good work, Tony. You’ll be missed, but we know
that you’re going to do what you love. Enjoy your time, and
we’ll talk to you soon!