I finally took the plunge. After staying away from my own final frontier for years as a career Halo Gamer, I punched a hole through the bedrock and sank even deeper into the depths of inexplicable Geekdom. Claiming titles like “Blogger” and “Clan Overlord” as my own, planning my own LAN Parties, and carrying a cell phone loaded with gamertags belonging to people whose names I actually know just wasn’t enough anymore. I had to reach for the brass ring of Geekery and add it to my collection like a shiny badge of courage.

I crossed the border into the world of Machinima. As a voice actor! The bloggergamer you have known as XerxdeeJ is now a [minor] player in Halo Unyielding, a most aggressive work of fan-driven media. Sure, I had done a Podcast or two in my tenure as a Halophile, but this was totally different. This was the lending of my vocal stylings to a piece of fiction born of a video game and wrought from its construct.

Have a look! Give it a play or three through your favorite application. That’s me as the Communications Officer – clearly the nerdiest role to be had among a cast of characters featuring Captains, Spartans, and UNSC Regulars. You can see my ‘tag in the credits, listed as “TTL Xerxdee” [you will hear from my attorney].

In all sincerity, I would never put myself above the creation of Machinima. It’s honestly more painstaking work than I can stomach. Hats off to the architects of this project. I had never had the pleasure of meeting anyone who actually invested any amount of effort or passion in Machinima. Sure, I had met some people that were proud owners of their own Combat Montages, but the only viable contribution I could make to that was getting shot in the face. Over and over. I am always good for that.

My brush with greatness started with a screening of Halo Unyielding as a work in progress at our TTL AtLANtica Event. Our resident Machinima auteur, a Gunslinger ‘tagged Quikthnkr, had something he wanted to share with us. I told him it would have to be good, since that meant taking The Beta offline in order to free up the projector. As the piece began to roll, my mouth dropped agape. Spaceships! What the hell were Spaceships doing in this Machinima? I started to salivate. With a force-fed Hollywood diet of Wizard-heavy Pop-Culture, I had found my SciFi interests confined to new episodes of ‘Battlestar Galactica’ – and no, ‘Heroes’ does not count, you comic book dork!

This was, truth must be told, beyond what I expected from Machinima. This was custom computer animation. I was floored. Then, it came to light that people in the room had even lent their own vocal talents to the project [we were hosting Foo Mo Jive]. Before I realized what I was volunteering, my hand shot up in the air. “I would love to help!”

Soon after that, I found myself huddled over a script in my home office. I had nothing but a portable MP3 recorder, a standard peripheral computer mic, and the gumption to make it work. When my wife stumbled onto me reciting tactical Spaceship chatter with a towel draped over my head, the questions became unavoidable. “Do you need me to leave you alone so that you can let it rip?” she asked.

A well kept secret about this venerable Overlord is that I studied theatre [among other things in which I actually earned a degree] in college. It had been years since I had flexed that muscle, and there I sat, recording dialogue like “I am using the sensor array as an antenna!” I found myself wondering which collegiate activity best suited me for the task at hand… Exploring the classics? Or watching endless episodes of Star Trek?

Regardless, it was a gas. Thanks for the Halo Unyielding crew for giving me a shot at machine-wrought stardom. Keep up the great work. Talk to my agent if I test well with audiences.

Posted by XerxdeeJ