AoW Heaven Staff

Nojd – Site Director (“Seraph”), Graphics & Design, Game Units, Spells, Links, Forum Moderator, Downloads Manager
Joined HeavenGames: August 1, 2001

“I discovered Age of Wonders during development sometime around -97 or -98, and have been following the game ever since. I was known under the name “Tron” until early 2001, and joined HeavenGames in June the same year. I live in Stockholm, Sweden, and make my living as a system developer in a consulting company, with Java as the favorite programming language. I wrote my first computer program in plain old Basic on an MSX computer in 1981, and since then I’ve graduated as a Master of Science, Computer Science. When not in front of a computer, I’m usually playing soccer, floorball, squash or golf. A couple of weeks each year is spent downhill skiing, primarily telemark style. That’s definitely the best way to spend a vacation!!

In November 2003 I was given the Seraph title when Angel Draco no longer could give the AoW Heavens the time needed to keep everything running smoothly.”

Cay – Tournaments & Competitions, Wizard’s Ladder Administrator, Forum Moderator
Joined HeavenGames: April 30, 2001

“April 20, 2000 at 1:21 PM EDT was the fateful moment at which I installed Age of Wonders (AOW) on my computer. If I had known then just how much of my life it was going to consume, I may have turned back; luckily, I didn’t! I must thank Raymond Bingham (Triumph Studios writer) for introducing me to the game in the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic Usenet newsgroup. If it weren’t for him, I would have missed this gem of a game entirely, and the great community of people that goes along with it. I was instantly addicted to a wonderful game, and soon discovered the just how much fun the PBEM option could be. In fact, it’s so much fun that I have yet to finish either campaign! One year later, in April 2001, Draco invited me to join the HeavenGames staff as a cherub and help him moderate forums on AoWH. Now as the transition from AoW to AoW2 approaches, I continue to moderate forums for AoWH, as well as organize tournaments and competitions. I also administer our multiplayer Wizard’s Ladder.”

With respect to my personal life, I was born May 27, 1971 — you do the math! I’m a single male living near Toronto, Canada, and currently I’m employed as a research assistant (plant biochemist) in the Department of Biological Sciences at Brock University . Outside of work and AoW I love watching all sports, participating in mountain biking and soccer, visiting art galleries and museums, and listening to music (especially, techno/trance).”

Jerker – Scenario Designer for Tournaments & Competitions
Joined HeavenGames: October 9, 2001

“I am a civil engineer and been working for the largest Swedish construction company for the last two and a half years. I recently decided to change careers and just started working as an international sales technician for a small company in the south of Sweden; a job that will send me on a few laps around the globe. Something that is just in line with one of my greatest interests – travelling. Fortunately, that it also an interest I share with the love of my life, Eva, with whom I was married in 2000. Other interests are playing sports (practicing them mostly – I’m not much of a TV person), malt whiskey, cooking, photography and of course playing and making maps for AoW. A dream is to help Triumph Studios making maps for the sequel to Age of Wonders.”

ChowGuy – News Writer, Guilds Forum Moderator, Game Mods
Joined HeavenGames: February 1, 2002

“I’m a software developer and contractor specializing in automation and embedded control systems. B.S. in Electrical Engineering back in the dark ages, and an old Avalon Hill strategy gamer. Not big on most fantasy or RPG games but got into AoW when I found the demo, liked the feel, and stayed with it. Lurked on the Lifeline since it opened and eventually found my way here.”

TalonThorn – Scenario Design Content and Scenario Reviewer
Joined HeavenGames: August 29, 2002

“Having been an avid Master of Magic fan, I was there in the “First Age” – before AoW1 was released. I found it to be an exciting time. I really enjoyed the demo and wanted to become a mapmaker or to write something for the game, but my computer could barely play it. It wasn’t until November 2001 that I “rediscovered” the game, and shortly thereafter learned Triumph Studios was making a sequel! Not wanting to be left out this time around, I frequented the forums and even preordered the game in April. Once AoW2 was out, I began work on several articles and tried to answer questions in the Scenario Design forum. I guess this is why Bluecollarheaven invited me to become a Cherub in August 2002.

I am pleased to be a part of the group and hope I can continue to contribute while maintaining all my other hobbies (too many hobbies!). I spend too much of my time at work as a programmer analyst, and too much time late night not sleeping. I like to do philosophical “research” in my spare time because no one will pay me for doing it. I am married (11+ years), have three kids (all out of the house; stepdad), six cats and one dog. Besides that, I play 20+ hours of games a week (mostly online). How do I find time for AoW2/HeavenGames? I hope you all like cats! ^,,^ Meow!”

swolte – Forum Moderator
Joined HeavenGames: August 12, 2003

“AoWI was one of my favourite computergames when it came out and I played it single player for a long time. Of course, as with most games, my interest slowly died for the game. I jumped to Baldurs Gate as my other favourite and at one point I wanted some more info on a BG sequel and I began surfing the net.
Thats when I discovered ‘forums’.

To kill the time between the BG series I looked around and I saw my dusty old copy of AoW1. I started playing it again out of boredom but found that I needed more of a challenge. Started a pbem with my brother and soon I was having another game with a friend as well.
Thats when I discovered an Age of Wonders!

These games were sooo much fun that I began to wonder. Hmmm, would there be forums of that too? I came on this site that was f! illed with (mostly) mature and extremely kind people (HeavenGames). I even made a few posts and got pulled in the frenzy around a sequal; AoW2!! These forums became an addiction in itself and the interaction with devs was amazing! The fan-made maps were so impressive (DIX and Elquein) that I got ambitions on mapmaking as well..
Thats when I discovered HeavenGames

I became known with the BTOOIC (buildable teleporters off option in cities) which I thought was a creative way to get some lighthearted attention for a heated subject that was discussed to death. It got a bit out of hand and it grew to become the biggest AoW-clan around with over 60 members! I discovered the joys of mapmaking and got totally hooked with AoW2-pbem-ing. Then, another sequal was to be made.. Shadow magic.

One day I was asked by Arnout if I wanted to help them out with the development in Delft (Holland). I am a part-time teacher (with a special interest for history) and I work as a researcher at the VU (biological psychology; brains and genes and stuff..) but THIS was an opportunity I could not pass on. I took up all my free days and arranged whatever minute I could spare! A dream coming true! 🙂
It was an awesome period I could write a lot more about (but I notice this piece is getting very long), but I can say that ‘our devs’ are some extraordinary kind creatures with a heart for the game! When Shadow Magic came out I was asked to become ‘greenified’ as well.. I was glad to be able to do something back to a site that gave me so much joy!”

hiranu – PBEM Ladder Administrator, Forum Moderator
Joined HeavenGames: November 8, 2003

“I’m a Unix administrator with a BS in Mathematics of Computation from Rensselear, and a JD from Pittsburgh School of Law. I passed the New York Bar exam only to go back to computers as a much better way to make a living. (With all due respect to Angel Draco.)

I’ve been playing age of wonders since it first came out, but have never played any comercial multiplayer games until AOW:SM came out, and I decided to try out a few play by email games. (Before that in the early 90’s I played Dominion, Empire, and Conquer multiplayer on unix systems at universities, but that was a whole different world, with text only graphics.)

In the first few months I ended up registering more than half of all the games to the wizard’s ladder, and so I started asking around to see if I could maintain the ladder. Seeing as I was making so much work for the ladder administrator, they agreed and I became a cherub in October of 2003.”

jamieJME – AoW2/SM Monthly Challenge, Forum Moderator
Joined HeavenGames: November 8, 2003

Magog – News writer, Downloads Manager
Joined HeavenGames: November 8, 2003

Angel Draco – Founder of the AoW Heavens. Still a Halo at HeavenGames, but no longer active on the AoW Heavens.
Joined HeavenGames: November 1, 1998

“I’m an attorney, currently working as a judicial law clerk, but I will be moving into private practice soon. I also act as general counsel for HG, drafting legal documents and protecting our copyrights and trademarks.

I started working with HeavenGames during my second year of law school on November 1, 1998, upon an invitation from Angel Alexander after I submitted an FAQ I had written for Caesar 3 Heaven. I had been reading the Age of Empires Heaven forums for over a year and was familiar with HG (then called “Heaven’s Gaming Sites”) and some of the staff. I joined Caesar 3 Heaven as a Cherub, moderating the Game Help forum and updating my Gameplay FAQ. A short time later I was promoted to Angel, administering the Downloads section, and a short time after that I became the Co-Seraph of Caesar 3 Heaven, along with Alexander I and Reckless Rodent (the famed “Webmaster Triumvirate”; Jayhawk soon replaced Alexander I in the Triumvirate), but stepped down from webmastering when I was married later that year in May 1999.

With a reduced–but more focused–workload, I worked on Pharaoh Heaven and Zeus Heaven, with minor contributions to Stronghold Heaven (and was lucky enough to have beta tested all three of those games). We launched Age of Wonders Heaven (AoWH) in April 2001 primarily as a central custom map downloads resource–as that was something the AOW community was lacking at the time–and the rest of the website grew up around it, eventually attracting many talented members of the AoW community.”