Moving Forward

My journey down the path of mapping with Hammer World Editor was just beginning. My first map was the doors map, dm_doors_5. It was a crude map but it was playable. I was proud of it and, of course, I put pushwalls in it. <smile> No one knew in August of 2005 that I would make as many maps as I have over the years, I certainly didn't intend it to go this way. However, the maps gave me and our clan an identity that has linked us to HL2DM. How ironic, given that HL2DM is the game that blew our clan apart just 10 months earlier. How ironic, given that many of my clan-mates from our Half-Life beginnings despised HL2DM and completely refused to play it. Yet, this game would put GDawgg Clan on the map, so-to-speak, in spite of our near 100% collective disdain for the game.

My maps and our HL2DM servers helped to make GDawgg Clan identifiable to many players as time passed. But going back to August of 2005, we were still in survival mode, looking for a good FPS pc game to change the direction of the clan. We tried getting into Quake 4 but it was a bust. We had servers for this game and one of our former clan-members, Keeper, even made a killbox for it. However, Quake 4 suffered from the overwhelming popularity of Quake 3 Arena. Q4 just didn't and couldn't measure up. It was a complete bust. Then we found F.E.A.R.-DM.

It was spring of 2006 when WRATH talked me into buying this game. By that time I had made 20 HL2DM maps and 17 Half-Life maps. Yes, it was a binge, 37 maps in 8 months. Mapping had opened a door to my creativity. I even made a killbox for F.E.A.R.-DM -- map #38: http://gdawgg.com/900.html.

F.E.A.R. was great. WRATH, Swiz and I played it a ton. That was all we had. It was a whole truckload of fun too. This game gave us an avenue away from Half-Life and HL2DM. It was precisely what we needed. Both WRATH and Swiz used to kick my butt regularly in F.E.A.R. but i didn't care because we were back to enjoying gaming again like it had been with Half-Life.

I was grateful that we were finally moving forward. WRATH and Swiz were too. We played F.E.A.R. until we simply got tired of the game.

Next, we began adding new members from HL2DM...