Who is Extensity?

The definition of extensity is “an attribute of sensation whereby space or size is perceived”
Buckle up boys and girls, I’m one of those kind of nerds.

My name is Michael Fagan and I’m MasterOmok’s cousin. I’m 23 years old and I have been playing games since I was a toddler. The oldest memory I have of gaming is, when I was a child my father bought a bootleg NES cartridge out of the back of some random guys truck in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart. The cartridge was so big that it stuck out of the front of the NES, and had a ribbon hot glued to the middle of it to make it easier to pull out of the system. I guess it was so large because it had “150” games on it, of which only a third were unique, the rest were the same game with a different rule set or color scheme. I think that definitely impacted the kind of gamer I would eventually become though, never content to focus on one or two games, or even genres. Every genre is interesting to me, and I think I’m quite capable to pick up anything and within a short amount of time play at a moderately high level (except StarCraft, I don’t have the dexterity for that amount of actions per minute – massive respect to anyone who plays).

Why should you care? Am I just some random guy with no skill or experience?

Well as I said I’ve been gaming, and reading/absorbing gaming knowledge for 20 odd years. I have been fortunate enough to have parents that support my passion and as such have owned pretty much every console/handheld since the NES days. Once I became a teenager and could afford to purchase things on my own though, I became primarily PC oriented. A lot of hours were clocked on Warcraft 3 in my early PC days, playing custom maps and eventually diving into the beast that is DotA (Defense of the Ancients). I played DotA on WC3 for around 6 years, and would regularly compete with local players at a LAN cafe we had in town at the time. DotA had everything I wanted from a genre, strategy, skill, teamwork, and to always be constantly thinking on my feet, having to process information quickly and efficiently. The notion that you could leverage knowledge against your opponent in addition to mechanical skill was something rather new to me and I couldn’t get enough. After playing the game for so many years it started to get stale having to battle Warcraft 3’s engine(like the inability to re-bind abilities and items) as much as other players. Then came along League of Legends, which for the most part was the only other game to tackle the then unnamed genre of MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena). I was hooked from the very first match that I played. LoL definitely felt like it was the next step in the genre. Suddenly many of the issues I had with DotA were addressed, like a client of it’s very own. I appreciated the new control scheme but also the ability to change it to my liking. The graphics were awesome, the champions were interesting and varied, and used just enough mechanics from DotA to feel familiar and easy to learn but different enough to be unique. Before I knew it the hours of my life, and dollars in my bank account were sinking into the game. This was my first experience with a free to play game utilizing micro-transactions for cosmetics and I ate it up. The skins were awesome, and the game was fun enough that I didn’t feel bad about spending $10-$20 every other week on the newest champion or skin that came out. I ended up playing LoL for a little less than 3 years (up until the end of season 2) and had around 1200 games played. I played the adc(attack damage carry – basically the ranged auto attacking character on the team who deals out consistent damage from a safe distance) for the majority of my time with the game. I saw moderate success in ranked play when Caitlyn was in her early dominant phase, averaging a high KDA (kill to death ratio) and around 70% win rate.

Then Smite happened.

I had always been an avid livestream viewer since it began hitting its large stride on Justin.tv (and would eventually make the change to Twitch) with the streaming of League of Legends. Then in July 2012 I was watching an OG streamer named Sooner(who after a hiatus for awhile is making a streaming comeback with heroes of the storm) play a game called Smite. Smite looked awesome, sounded awesome, had a cool mythology backdrop, and a fresh new perspective and spin on the genre I had been playing for nearly 10 years. I didn’t think twice about it, I bought into the closed beta for $30. After downloading the client and playing my first match I instantly started telling every person I knew. Now nearly three years later I’m still every bit enthusiastic about the game as I was the first day. Everything about Smite is exactly what I needed to reinvigorate the genre for me, and I truly believe the next step in the evolution of MOBA’s. The production values are through the roof and always seem to surpass my expectations time after time. Smite has all of the mechanics you would expect of a traditional MOBA but with the new vantage point and the added twist of making the game based around primarily skill shots (your attacks must be aimed, they have travel times and can miss if you do not predict your opponent properly or if something else gets in the way).

How much have you played Smite?

I have around 1,500 games of Smite split between multiple accounts. I found myself creating new accounts with so many different friends joining the game at various points and playing for varying amounts of time, then I would just eventually finish leveling them to 30. The majority of my time with the game has been played on the conquest map variant as it is the most highly competitive I believe that is where the real meat of the game lies. While I enjoy that Smite has the options for many different play styles with their multiple game modes/maps (6 in total, arena, siege, conquest, joust, assault and match of the day, the latter of which being played on all the other maps but with different rule sets enforced each day) I don’t find that, outside of siege, there is much to keep me entertained in the other modes. I thrive on the strategy and the moment to moment decision making and information analysis that is required of the conquest, and to a lesser degree siege, game modes. For me the other modes have too much of a “we run at you from the front, and you run at us from the front” feel that gets stale very quickly. As for the different roles included in the game I mainly play adc once again, but I enjoy playing just about everything in the game except for support. My play style does not suit supports very well and I generally avoid it as much as possible.

What can we expect from your future content?

For the most part it will be Smite themed as that is the game I spend the majority of my time playing. Anything from my personal thoughts and feelings of the current state of the game, things that happened in a game of mine, to coverage of the SPL (Smite Pro League). You may also see discussions between Miraz, Mb131rc, and myself. Other than Smite, I generally tend to be on the early trend for checking out new games that may be in early access. As I have stated before I play a lot of different games and you can expect me to do small pieces of the ones I feel are worth your time to check out. I may also begin recording my game play sessions and uploading videos to Youtube.

Where can we contact you?

Main Smite Accounts:
Extensity
Crossclash
GOML

Twitter: @GzuS_Extensity

Steam: TheSideStepGod

Twitch: SeriousBusinessGuy