Danjo Olivaw

If you run a website long enough, eventually you'll reach a point where you can't imagine it without certain people. Danjo neatly fits into that catagory, being someone who always seems to be around when I'm playing games online. If games were like Cheers, everyone would yell his name when he logs onto the server. He's a sturdy presence, you can count on him to kick some ass if he's on your team. You can also count on feeling pretty good about kicking HIS ass if you manage to score a kill on him. This is Danjo Olivaw's profile.

Who the devil are you?

One fourth of Team Awesome, one third of GWJ's cursing contribution to Xbox Live, and five twelfths of something else.

What are you supposed to be doing during the day when you're reading GWJ?

More often than not I'm supposed to be doing boring clerical stuff involving invoices, manila folders, envelopes, and the like. I'm a middleman between middlemen, in a company that functions solely as a middleman for other companies, and I try not to think about it. Nothing is produced, our profit margins are high, and no great service is provided. For a while this was amusing, like I was wandering around in Catch-22. Since that motivator evaporated I try to remind myself that I like to eat, but I don't really like to eat, so I guess I keep showing up for the sake of consistency.

Sometimes a stray belligerent post makes its way from LSUS, where I'm perpetually one year away from teaching the high school maths. Sines, fractals, and rhombuses aren't going to insinuate themselves into the minds of future generations. Well, fractals might.

How about family? Kids? Pets? Particularly meaningful inanimate objects?

I don't have any of those things. Thanks for asking.

What was your favorite game over the last year or so? Why?

That's a rough one. Last year was a killer. A single year isn't enough time to judge these games objectively, but I think I'll have to go with Halo 3. The last thing that game needs is another advertisement, but combat mechanics, indulgently scifi setting, and enemy AI just gel with me. The ability to run through it, with the rest of Team Awesome is irresistible.

Which game are you looking forward to most?

It's difficult to tell. There's a slew of coin-toss releases coming in the next year, each with potential but with a fifty percent chance of turning up crap. Resident Evil 5 seems like the best sure thing, so long as the recently announced coop pans out. Resident Evil 4 was glorious, but begged for a second player to team up with back-to-back.

Most of the others don't really strike me as sure things, even if they have the potential to be pretty amazing.

What is your fondest gaming memory?

The first time I saw Mario 64 in a kiosk at Sears, thinking, "The bastards finally did it. They made a world." They didn't just describe it with words, or paint a two dimensional sliver, but crafted something new from scratch, right out of their minds. It takes quite a bit to humble a thirteen year old, but that first romp in the Mushroom Kingdom was more than enough.

Finally, why do you play games at all? Why haven't you outgrown them?

It's mostly for the worlds. The medium itself presents all these opportunities for the exploration of fantastic settings. I can't help but wonder what's around the next hill. I have to know.

Beyond that there's the element how these fake worlds relate to how we perceive abstract concepts, misusing our built in ability to understand the world in three dimensions in order to form analogies for abstract counterparts. We think of the future as in front of us, unless your an obscure tribe that reverses the analogy. Words are on the tips of our tongues.

There's this forced application of space to ideas, and so I can't shake the feeling that there's a relationship there to the worlds we run around in games. If abstract ideas can take place in space, what about abstract spaces crafted entirely from ideas? I think there might be some insight hiding around one of these hills.

Maybe not, but since I'm looking anyway I might as well pay attention.

Also, they're something I can get better at. Learning by itself is fun, and games provide opportunities for learning in a manner that is accelerated enough to provide an opportunity to learn about how we learn. Give us a new control scheme we must figure out how to walk again. That's an amazing tool.

Thanks for taking the time to answer our hard hitting questions! Any last words?

Make sure to define victory for yourself, because winning isn't the point, it's the context.

Comments

Great profile. Nice to meet you, Danjo!

Beyond that there's the element how these fake worlds relate to how we perceive abstract concepts, misusing our built in ability to understand the world in three dimensions in order to form analogies for abstract counterparts. We think of the future as in front of us, unless your an obscure tribe that reverses the analogy. Words are on the tips of our tongues.
There's this forced application of space to ideas, and so I can't shake the feeling that there's a relationship there to the worlds we run around in games. If abstract ideas can take place in space, what about abstract spaces crafted entirely from ideas? I think there might be some insight hiding around one of these hills.

All hail to Lobo II!

Nice to meet you, Danjo Olivaw

Praise to the raised frequency of Employee Profiles!

Danjo wrote:

Make sure to define victory for yourself, because winning isn't the point, it's the context.

And that's coming from someone who wins a lot. Still, very true.

Danjo wrote:

an amazing tool.

This captures Danjo perfectly.

Congratulations, buddy.

Go Team Awesome!

Great to finally have a face that goes with the voice.

It's always great to play online games with Danjo, especially when he is on your team. Some of my favorite gaming moments with GWJ also involve Danjo. One of my favorite was when I would play Oblivion, and would get chat invites from Danjo to play his version of co-op Oblivion. I definitely made walking around Cyrodiil more interesting.

dejanzie wrote:

Nice to meet you, Danjo Olivaw

Praise to the raised frequency of Employee Profiles!

Praise indeed.

Danjo, I've always meant to ask you, where did you get the name? There's a 'Danjo Olivaw' flying around in space in Escape Velocity Nova that, as the player, you can randomly meet.

Coincidence?

For robots, there is no coincidence. Only planning and execution.

Danjo,
Will you marry me? I've got a ticket to California...

Nice to meet you, Danjo.

Beyond that there's the element how these fake worlds relate to how we perceive abstract concepts, misusing our built in ability to understand the world in three dimensions in order to form analogies for abstract counterparts.

I love GWJ.

Nice profile. Danjo=pwnz0r

wordsmythe wrote:
Beyond that there's the element how these fake worlds relate to how we perceive abstract concepts, misusing our built in ability to understand the world in three dimensions in order to form analogies for abstract counterparts.

I love GWJ.

I hate to agree with Jazzhands Mk. II, but this part of your profile was really well articulated, Danjo.
I feel the same way about the worlds and their exploration. That drive to see what lies 'round the bend is what really draws me, and I think you captured that very well.

Congrats on the profile!

This thread makes me want to put on my robe and wizard hat.

Here's one for my fellow Zombie Skater and the originator of GOW's "Danjo-ing"

dejanzie wrote:

All hail to Lobo II!

That's some high praise right there.

Folklore wrote:

Danjo, I've always meant to ask you, where did you get the name? There's a 'Danjo Olivaw' flying around in space in Escape Velocity Nova that, as the player, you can randomly meet.

What and odd coincidence. Danjo is just easy to read and say, good for gaming purposes. Olivaw is a unique identifier that also serves to express heritage.

ChrisLTD wrote:

Danjo,
Will you marry me? I've got a ticket to California...

I don't marry people.

ChrisLTD wrote:

Danjo,
Will you marry me? I've got a ticket to California...

You promised a marriage many years ago.

Danjo, don't trust him!

Sup Danjo!

How about family? Kids? Pets? Particularly meaningful inanimate objects?
I don't have any of those things. Thanks for asking.

Derby is going to be really sad when he reads this.

Yay Danjo!

IMAGE(http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o119/souldaddy109/funny-pictures-scared-cat-naked-guy.jpg)

Danjo Olivaw wrote:

What and odd coincidence. Danjo is just easy to read and say, good for gaming purposes.

Easy to say, except for those of us who read it as a Japanese food and embarass ourselves constantly by saying it improperly. That's a good picture, but I think I'll still see you mostly as the contrail of the bullet you just killed me with.

I don't think my Halo ranking is going to improve until they find a way for me to send cookies over XboxLive.

Just wondering, but is the name Danjo Olivaw inspired by the character R. Daneel Olivaw from Isaac Asimov's Foundation series? If not that would be a pretty crazy coincidence.

lunabean wrote:

Go Team Awesome! :)

Go Team Awesome

...Team Awesome Groupie (hanger-oner)

Nice to meet you, great profile.

Go Danjo!

Gunner wrote:

Just wondering, but is the name Danjo Olivaw inspired by the character R. Daneel Olivaw from Isaac Asimov's Foundation series? If not that would be a pretty crazy coincidence.

That's it! I knew I saw that name somewhere before. If it's a coincidence, it's what Infinite Improbabilty Drive runs on...

I wrote:

For robots, there is no coincidence. Only planning and execution.

Great profile, nice to meet you Danjo!

For some reason I had always assumed that Danjo Olivaw was secretly John Oliver from The Daily Show. I guess that's been proven untrue with that picture at the top...unless it's a fake.

Gunner wrote:

Just wondering, but is the name Danjo Olivaw inspired by the character R. Daneel Olivaw from Isaac Asimov's Foundation series? If not that would be a pretty crazy coincidence.

I think the "Positronically Delicious" tag ought to give that one away...

He's totally a cylon.