This page is some personal thoughts. Details about about my career on can be found on my work page.
I’m a software developer, gamer, guitar player, husband, and genuinely nice guy 😁.
Work is Play
My career is in software development. My hobbies, for the most part have looked very similar to my day job. Not surprising given the programming obsession took hold at age twelve. My Commodore VIC-20 attached to an old black-and-white television and I could not be parted. At least not until I upgraded to a Commodore 64 😎.
Sometime between building silly horse racing games jammed into 3.5KB of memory and graduating from college, I made a decision to take this whole programming thing seriously. That happened during the mid-to-late ’90s, right around the time this crazy thing called the Internet was starting to be all-the-rage. My timing couldn’t have been better, and, as a result, most of my grown-up work has been Internet related, and much of that has been for startups. It still doesn’t really feel like work though.
Gaming
Gaming in all its forms takes up a big chunk of my free time. Board games are a big part of social activities. Personal favorites include a lot of cooperative games like Pandemic (especially with the expansions), Castle Panic (again, the expansions are great), and Elder Sign. Cooperative games keeps the peace in my family since my wife and I are both competitive, and play to win.
Computer games are also a regular activity. I watch very little television, as I prefer to spend my at-home evenings gaming. I love just about any game that involves building things, Civilization being one of my favorites. I also really enjoyed playing Transport Tycoon, and I still play OpenTTD fairly regularly.
The Lord of the Rings Online
The Lord of the Rings Online by Standing Stone Games is my current obsession. Released in 2007, it may seem a bit dated compared to popular titles. However, ten years of content built out by a development team that cares deeply about being true to Tolkien’s lore has produced a game world that is simply unmatched.
This game has driven me further into Tolkien’s writings than I ever thought I would go. It’s been a real joy to study middle-earth while exploring the world and narrative of the game.
I’ve also made a good number of friends and met many interesting people through The Lord of the Rings Online. The community surrounding the game is second-to-none, and I am lucky to have an active part in it.
Ultima Online
One of the most incredible gaming experiences from my past was playing Ultima Online for many years. I met a lot of great people and had a lot of fun building and enjoying the online community we created.
A note about this image:
The Ultima Codex has more details regarding how this piece relates to UO. The art belongs to The Brothers Hildebrandt. I had the pleasure of meeting Greg Hildebrandt at San Diego Comic-con several years ago, and I now own a wonderful print of theirs of Tolkien’s Fellowship above my mantle.
Ultima
My love for Ultima Online grew out of my admiration for the Ultima series of games. I played Ultima 6 through 9, with Ultima 7 definitely being my favorite.
I’m also proud to back Richard Garriot and his team with their latest effort, Shroud of the Avatar.
Guitar
My guitar skills are semi-amateur, and that’s being generous. I generally impress people, more by the fact that I have any musical talent at all than how well I actually play. I’ll strum a riff, and anyone listening will respond with something like: “wow, that almost sounds like a song.”
While I’ve been playing for a few decades, my interest lately has been reignited due to the Ubisoft game Rocksmith (and now, more specifically, Rocksmith 2014). I now try to play a little everyday, mainly so the callouses on my fingers don’t soften up.
While I’m not bad at Jack White’s Icky Thump, here’s a great YouTube video by someone much better than I am showing off Rocksmith 2014. The game is a great piece of technology, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for the interactive mix of computer games and music. (I really should figure out how to create videos this way, it’d probably force me to work harder.)
Home
I grew up in rural Canada. Much of the time it looked not-unlike this scene from my parent’s lane toward town. While I do miss the really long summer days, I don’t miss the snow or the mosquitos.
After a brief stay in Australia, a university education, marrying my college sweetheart, and several years of freelance development in Western Canada, I finally landed in the Golden State.
I now live in San Francisco. I love to explore all it offers, whether hiking the hills, exploring Golden Gate Park, dining at the small neighborhood hot spots, or soaking up the nightlife. To describe the two places as worlds apart is an understatement. Suffice it to say, I very much enjoy the city.
Contact me
Besides the links in the footer to several of my online presences, feel free to contact me at darren.boyd@gmail.com.