By day, he was a project manager for DynaServe, a Memphis, Tennessee based Fortune 500 Company that provided global logistics services. He led the International Integration team responsible for setting up satellite offices around the world and finding ways to get them looped into the company database without compromising security. It was a high-tech job, which suited Jeff just fine. At the core, he was a technophile.
That, however, was a fact that, to look at him, would never be guessed. He was handsome, tall, and fit. He was picked to manage the project, not so much for the technical expertise that he certainly had, but more for his ability to interact with people. The integration process meant talking to people in all walks of life – not just the hyper-geek programmers, but also packers and movers and everyone in between. Jeff’s charisma and exceptional people skills made him the perfect choice to lead the team.
The others on his I-I team agreed. Seven others in all – five men and two women – and to the person, they loved working for Jeff. The I-I team’s experience in the intramural co-ed four-on-four basketball league pretty much summed it up. Jeff was the unanimous pick as team captain, not so much because he led the team in both scoring and assists, but because the others liked him.
“Here’s to a great season,” Doug, one of the others on the team, said at a dinner to mark the end of the season. “Second place is pretty good for us, considering not one of us was ever picked in PE class before dead last!”
“And then only when the gym teacher made them take us,” added Meredith.
When the laughter subsided, Tom added, “Hey, for a bunch of geeks, we did pretty good. The only team to beat us was the cable crew, and look at them…. All a bunch of ex-jocks. Thanks to Jeff, we had a great season!”
But in his ever-humble way, Jeff waved off the compliment citing the whole team’s effort instead of his singular contribution. Yet, when the I-I team looked proudly at the trophy sitting on top of “Gandalf,” their team’s primary file server, everyone knew it was Jeff who put it there.
By night, however, Jeff was a RPGer. A multi-user Role Playing Gamer. Not just any RPG, but Sword Dynasty, the latest massive RPG to hit the 750,000-user mark, averaging 10,000 simultaneous users most every hour of every day and 15,000 on the weekends. Players worldwide logged in to test their mousing skills against the designs of the game.
