About

Who am i?
My name is Richard Hasselt, but probably most know me as Hauntshade, which has been my online nick for many years now.

The name Hauntshade came from some random name generator when i was searching for a nice name to use when i was playing Delta Force Black Hawk Down in a squad competitively and needed a cool looking name that wasn't something like n00bKilleR68436.

Gaming, the beginning.
One of the first computer games i played was Pong on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 16k, yes i am that old :)
Although gaming really started when the Atari 2600 showed up in our house.
One of the games i really enjoyed playing back then (and still think it's awesome) was H.E.R.O., i remember many many hours playing this game with my father trying to beat eachothers score every day.
Later i moved on to the Commodore 64, which was basicly my first personal computer and of course the original Gameboy, which introduced portable gaming.

But of course than you get older, start your first job, priorities change, i got involved in music playing in a band and that's when gaming took a back seat.
That is until i found Grand Prix 2, an awesome Formula 1 simulator, i can not remember how many hours i spend in that game, but it was a lot :)
I participated in some "online" competitions, had my own Simracing team (JordanGP2, later Quicksilver Simracing Team).
This was not really online competition, but more submitting your savegame after crossing the finishline and then compare them to other players kind of thing, but there was a huge, and great comunity behind this.

Online gaming.
My first mmo was Star Wars Galaxies, i found this game (in 2004) after playing Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, the idea of a big open world where you could "live" your life as a Star Wars character realy draw me in.
I had heard many stories about SWG and one of the things i heard was about killing other players and looting their stuff, sso needless to say when i logged in the first time and created my character i was terrified other players would kill me (little did i know, i wasn't aware of RP servers or PvP servers).
So my first character was a female.
I figured making a female character i would be a bit saver and other players might not kill me on sight :)
I made her an entertainer and spend the first few days hanging around the cantina dancing until i learned that player could not just kill me on sight :)
Ever since than my first character in an MMO is usually a female, it just kinda stuck with me, maybe it's just a habbit now :)

The blog.
This blog was started when, at a certain point i felt the need to seperate my gaming blogging from my personal blogging.
This is just a place for me where i put down my thoughts about my gaming adventures, if you take look at some of my early post you can see this blog basicly started out as an online diary and that is still how i like to see my blog.

Where did the name "To Worlds Unknown" come from?
Well it comes from a scifi book called To Worlds Unknown published in 1960 by writer W.E. Johns, who is also the writer of a book series called Biggles, i have been a fan and collector of the series since i was a kid and as part of my collection i also came across this book.
I just thought this was an awesome title for a blog and fits perfectly with the idea of exploring new worlds in MMO's or other games :)

Gaming today.
I really enjoy the big open world games, a place where i can just leave real life behind and explore new worlds and adventure my way around.
Eventhough i often enjoy the singleplayer RPG's the most, you can still find me in many MMO's, although i often wonder why i play MMO's.
I like to think that the main reason i play MMO's is the big open world that is available and the idea that this world lives on when you log off, unlike a singleplayer RPG where everything stops when you exit the game.
One of the downsides of a singleplayer RPG is that there is going to be a time when you are done with the game because there is simply nothing left to do, with MMO's always being in development and new stuff/expansions being added there is (almost) always something to do and of course going out to adventure with other players also adds something to your gamplay experience.

What am i playing?
Well the easiest way to see what i am playing is to check my Raptr or to click on the Currently playing link above where you can see my PC, Xbox and PSN gamercards.
I am currently subscribed to Star Wars the Old Republic and World of Warcraft and i also have lifetime subscribtions to (now free to play) Lord of the Rings Online and Star Trek Online.

I am a huge fan of BioWare, so will play any of their games, i am also a big fan of the Fallout and the Elder Scrolls series so i am keeping an eye out on the upcoming The Elder Scrolls Online.

Contact me.
Email: hauntshade(at)gmail(dot)com
Twitter: @hauntshade

There are quite a few other ways to contact me, on the right side there is a section with links to many profiles/social media/game sites where you can find/add me.