Star Wars Galaxies: New dev spotted ...

Surprise, surprise, surprise ... there's a new rooster in the chicken shed. Alai_SOE made a surprise visit to a thread about hand cramps and introduced himself to the crew:

I started at SOE as a new programmer on the SWG team about a month ago and have been learning the ropes. Chapter 2 will be my first patch on SWG and I worked on a several things I hope folks will enjoy. I'm excited to be a part of the team and everyone and SOE so far has been terrific - they're all good people.

Previous to SWG I worked on a little known MMO called "Meridian 59" off and on during college and then Ultima Online for about 6 years in almost every concievable role. After UO I did some work on a system that did 3D laser scans of extruded rubber components for a tire factory. In that time I have learned one inarguable thing: Game Studios > Tire Factories.

I'll try to check in on the forums from time to time, but you probably shouldn't expect me to become a regular fixture. Posting on a forum as a developer can be quite a time investment and I suspect SOE would rather have me coding.

Proving that he is, indeed, an MMO veteran, Alai_SOE declined to say exactly WHAT he worked on for Chapter 2 ... but at least now we can call him "the hand-cramps guy."