A Message from our Commander-in-Chief Being asked to submit something for a newsletter really made me stop and think

about how far we have come since I joined TAW in 2007. I will never stop believing

after this past year that if we want something here in TAW we will have it, period. Our

strength and means is our membership and time and time again the talent is dis-

played as we rise to meet whatever challenges lies before us. TAW as a community is

about success. TAW has had many successes since its founding and there will be

many more to come.

We have a lot on the plate currently for 2011 including the roll out of a new website.

I'm lucky to be serving as CIC during this time not just because of the accomplish-

ments during this time but because of the people I'm so fortunate to serve with. This is

the best leadership team that has ever been assembled in TAW history and I'm confi-

dent that the test of time will prove me right.

On behalf of the TAW community I wish to express gratitude to everyone that is serving

in a leadership role. Thanks for all you do! Your dedication and commitment does not

go unnoticed!

GEN5 Hook

Commander in Chief of TAW

So You Can't Shoot

Straight?

LTC Rinko

You love playing video games,

you enjoy the thrill of being part

of a team acting like you have a

purpose. Yet, when it comes to

a firefight you seem to always

come off worse. Other players

seem to breeze through the

maps, effortlessly picking off

their enemies with one hand

while drinking a cup of tea with

the other.

Continued on Page 6...

TAW on the Social Media Scene

The community of TAW now reaches out to the Facebook and Xfire communities as well. Currently we have

over 600 members in our Facebook community and over 700 members in our Xfire community. If you haven‘t

found us there yet, take a look at the TAW front page. There are links there that will take you to the respective

sites. We are also working on the development of an official TAW STEAM group. It is still in development but

should be launched soon.

Join us—and be a part of the TAW Revolution.

2

Call of Duty Series

review written by

2LT spectralheaven

Call of Duty System Minimum Requirements

* OS: Windows® Vista/ XP / 7

* Processor:Intel® Core2 Duo E6600 or

AMD Phenom X3 8750 or better

* Memory: 2GB

* HDD:12GB

* Video: Shader 3.0 or better 256MB

NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600GT / ATI Radeon®

X1950Pro or better

* Sound: DirectX 9.0c-compatible

-DirectX: 9.0c

What makes a game suc-

cessful? Graphics? Story?

Gameplay? Those 3 values are

definitely ones that people look

up to when talking about suc-

cessful game but if we are to

take sales numbers under con-

sideration there isn‘t a second

franchise in gaming industry

that can stand next to Call of

Duty series. November 9, 2010

marked the day for release of

Call of Duty: Black Ops, the 7th

installment in the series, devel-

oped by Treyarch and so far the

best selling title of whole

series. With over 7 mln copies

sold in first 24 hours and over

19 mln copies sold so far Black

Ops has broken new records as

2010‘s best selling game of

the year.

Continued on Page 3...

The mission statement for "TAW University" is to ensure the continued life

of our organization, through teaching future leaders and continued educa-

tion for our current leaders. This education will ensure the future of TAW

through instilling a "Servant Leadership Mind Set".

Every member of TAW is welcome, from the newest Recruit to the Com-

mander in Chief. All attending will hear what it takes to be a successful

leader in our organization. I will cover the positive aspects of Leadership

such a being a "Servant Leadership", "Mentoring" and "Conflict Resolution".

I'll also cover avoiding the pit falls of "Self promotion", "Bunker Mentality"

and "Position Hogging".

I will be interviewing COL_Feanor of the Vanguard Division at the next TAW

U. We will dig into what is Vanguard and what is their mission statement.

Also how do you form and mold a team out of rag tag group of members? I

know that Feanor will have the answer!

Vanguard is such an important part of TAW's future and it's important that

everyone understand how it works.

Come join us April 3, 2011 at 3:00 pm/est

GEN SoonerOKC - TAW University Commander

It is the responsibility of leadership to provide opportunity,

and the responsibility of individuals to contribute. - William

Pollard

I Corps Spotlight—Team Fortress

Team Fortress division stronger

than ever!

After a mass exodus back in Sep-

tember, leaving us with 11 mem-

bers left, I am happy to report that

Team Fortress Division is back on

track with 50 members and newly

appointed DC and DO.

The new DC is Armony from the US,

who has been the CO of 4th (NA),

taking it from a 3 person member-

ship to 27. He was awarded a sil-

ver star by Army Commander

Sooner for this which was well de-

served. He with his officers, Eriopo-

lis and Shadowmage, has also just

initiated the new from scratch de-

veloped internal campaign called

Domination Fortress.

The new DO is Triumni from

Finland, who has been the CO of 1st

battalion (EU). They have expanded

as well, filling now two squads pre-

paring for the ETF2L european

league. We wish them good luck

and glory to TAW. He was also

awarded the silver star for his ef-

forts.

BGN Dogstar

3

Operation Support

Off the successful deployment of Teamspeak 3, Operations Support has re-

focused its efforts on the upcoming release of TAW.net 2.0. Only a couple

months away, the new website will be a dramatic departure from ―business

as usual‖ and will provide a whole new exciting platform for development.

The new site resurrects some features we have lost from the old website

like event calendars and incorporates many new ones like blogs, wikis, and

commendation system. Core code development is mostly completed, and

we have begun updating the layouts and graphics on the site. Also, the

team expects to begin some initial testing with Central Command in the

next two weeks.

I want to give a special thank you to the team members that continue to

devote hours upon hours of work towards completing the project. If you see

these guys in TS, please make sure you tell them how much you appreciate

their efforts!

Bones

Calbrenar

Cutthroat

Dawnthorn

HeyManNiceShot

Marudor

TheGame

I hope for the next newsletter to have additional exciting news about the

site!

Gen Icarus

Central Command – Support Commander

4

Snapshot of what the new website might look like....

...Continued from Page 2

In single player campaign we assume

the role of Alex Mason, a special opera-

tions soldier that works deep down be-

hind enemy lines risking his life during

dangerous missions. The story of single

player will take us into many different

parts of our globe spanning from secret

facilities set on deserts, through wild

jungles of Vietnam and even into frozen

land of Antarctica in order to uncover the

threat that can destroy the world that we

know.

Of course no Call of Duty game is

complete without a multiplayer aspect

and even though the single player cam-

paign is excellent to play you will soon

want to test your skills against other play-

ers - this is where the real fun begins.

Black Ops offers you 14 different maps

to play on with several different game

types. Players that want to see how good

are their shooting skills will most likely

want to play Deathmatch or Team Death-

match however running around the map

alone and shooting other players can get

boring after a while and let‘s face it - it‘s

best to play with friends than against

them. That‘s where the game modes like

Search and Destroy, Demolition or Sabo-

tage (to name the few) come to the pic-

ture as in every one of them your victory

is dependant on how well you can act in

a team. Communications and good tac-

tics are the kind of tools you will need in

order to come on top and outsmart the

opponent‘s team.

It all sounds great but it‘s a FPS

game, what do I get to shoot other play-

ers? The answer is simple - guns and a

lot of them. Black Ops features many

different guns from the Cold War era

spanning from SMG‘s and light machine-

guns, through assault rifles and shot-

guns ending on powerful and accurate

sniper rifles - each of them can be cus-

tomized by the player the way the see it

Continued on Page 4...

...Continued from Page 3

fit. You want a gun with

silencer and winter camo?

There u go. You need bet-

ter optics along with ex-

tended mags? No problem,

you can make it. Game

provides you with many

customization tools allow-

ing you to create the type

of gun that not only is

deadly but looks great as

well.

Last but not least, the

perks - one of the series

innovation introduced first

by Call of Duty 4 are here

for the taken. 3 different

groups of perks will let you

create your dream class

that later on you can use in

multiplayer and help your

team achieve victory.

So what you are waiting

for? The Call of Duty divi-

sion in TAW is already play-

ing this amazing game on

one of our very own serv-

ers. If you want good multi-

player action wait no

longer, our hardened Call

of Duty veterans will help

you customize your class

and pick the best set up

that will suit your play style

- then you can continue to

get in the game and play in

a team - ‗cos here in TAW

nobody fights alone and

neither should you.

5

State of online gaming by Matthew Reichardt on Aug 15, 2010 12:49 pm

“State of online gaming” is a tech article by Matthew Reichardt of TGN. Reprinted with

permission.

Online Gaming as we know it has molded into a very lucrative business over the years,

with big title like World of Warcraft, Ever-

Quest II, Guild Wars, Ultima Online and

countless more. But what is it that

makes these games special? It is the

sense of having fun with your friends in

a virtual world free of all the problems in

real-life. For many it is a escape. But

what has the Gaming Industry brought in

the past few years? A concoction of

games that seem erily like other games

that we have already played.

There is a sense of bewilderment when I

log into a new game with the expecta-

tion: ―Wow this game looks unbelievable I can‘t wait to see what new features is has!‖;

but instead I find that the game is very similar to another game I have already played

and with no new features. A great example would be the World of Warcraft and Runes of

Magic battle. Runes of Magic is pretty much an exact clone of World of Warcraft, though

it does introduce nice features like player housing and awesome guild management.

Seems like they took a lot of PvP and Guild Management aspect from Age of Conan:

Hyborian Adventures.

Which brings me to my final point, When will a major game company push the envelope

and create something stunning, beautiful and different? That time might finally be on its

way. At the time when Guild Wars was released, the Gaming Industry was especially

stagnant. A lot of good games that had either a Pay to Play (P2P) scheme with great

content, but unwieldy similar instances; or a free game with not too much depth. That‘s

when Arena Net launched it‘s first title, Guild Wars. The tables changed. There was fi-

nally a game with a great ratio of content, beauty and most awesomely no fee to play

after purchase. Since the time of the Guild Wars launch, not much has been done to the

massive degree that Guild Wars did. Again, that is about to change.

In development for years and recently a lot of videos and information has been pouring

out from Arena Net, Guild Wars 2 is on its way and SOON. I can honestly I have never

been more excited for any game launch since the time of the original Guild Wars re-

lease. The team that pushed the envelope the first time is at it again and has learned

from their mistakes. Guild Wars 2 will be a massive game with a lot of features that a

player in any game ever released has never seen before. A few being player engaged

stories, you literally shape the game world; and player engrossed world combat, your in-

game player versus environment (PvE) gameplay will effect the actions of the world in

massive ways. For more information on Guild Wars 2 features and updates visit Guild-

Wars 2 Video Wiki.

Guild Wars 2 has the availability of changing the way we think of gaming all together

with unbelievable feature that other developers only wished they could have imple-

mented. The biggest question remaining is: When will it be released! The good news is

that for anyone going to Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) this year will be able to visit the Guild

Wars 2 booth for a chance to play a demo of the game. Below is a video of what Guild

Wars 2 has in-store for everyone. Until my next article, happy gaming!

Matthew Reichardt is a community manager for TGN. See www.thegamenet.com. He

can be reached via email: matthew@tgn.tv.

Fox’s Maxims: 1. Any virtual gaming team that wishes to be successful must have a passion for their game, a

dependable game-server environment, a website, and voice communications.

Greetings from the BC Division, here's a brief glimpse into recent BC happenings. BC was announced as a winner of

PIO's Division Challenge: Picture Perfect, the rosette proudly adorns our unit pages, virtually all credit lies with the EU

battalion.

The NA battalion's internal competition, approximately at the midway point, format and design is rather unique in con-

ception – contesting European territories rather than the usual 2|3 points. This format, created by GSG Jayy [BC1 FS],

now looks to become the division's competition blueprint.

The command structure of both battalion's now boasts a full compliment of officers, far more stable and active partner-

ships now exist in the battalions, Division Command holds high hopes for both battalions.

Divisional membership levels are as healthy as ever, although traditionally the EU player pool is a fraction of the size of

it's transatlantic cousin. BC2's recruitment team is doing an outstanding job, keeping new applications trickling in and

forwarding U.S applications to BC1. We have recently acquired game server admin support and have been given an

XLRstats site (http://taw.playerstats.net) as a freebie, which is not only a great feature for the division's current mem-

bership but should also prove to be a good recruitment tool.

You‘ve been recommended to be put in the

TAW Member‘s Spotlight. The purpose of the Member‘s

Spotlight is to honor and showcase TAW Members who

have risen above the norm, be it through acts of Meritori-

ous Service or through acts done on the Battlefield.

Thinking back, what drew you to TAW?

For me it was 2 fold. The code of ethics and the promise of

organized game play. I love the fact that everyone in TAW is

treated with respect and the no cheating/glitching policy

was high on my list. As for the organized gaming, here in

TAW that is 2nd to none. I used to jump around the pub

servers for the best part of an hour looking for matches

that had good communication and teamwork.

Do you have any special hobbies or activities outside of

online gaming/TAW?

I build gaming computers on the side as a business and

I've been playing guitar for over 30 years, so I love to col-

lect, play and show off my gear.

Did you admire a famous person? What made them admi-

rable?

I'll go with a sports figure here, Cal Ripken...the ironman,

he's a class act, stayed with one team his entire career

even though he could have made more money elsewhere.

Tell me how you first got involved in with TAW . . .

I just wanted to help out in anyway I could, I let my DC

know that and I was promoted to SO. That satisfied my

desire to feel like I was contributing and to be honest, if I

was still SO, I would be happy.

What was your first impression of TAW?

Lots of rules...lol, seriously I was impressed with all the

hard work everyone in a leadership position put into the

rest of us having fun, to me that's what this is all

about...fun!

What's your first memory of something related to TAW?

How friendly TAW members were on the pubs.

What has surprised you most about working with TAW?

That I get more satisfaction seeing other people having fun

playing then playing myself.

What do you find most challenging about TAW?

When I was DC/CO, keeping things fresh, coming up with

new styles of game play that would keep everyone coming

back. Now that I am in Army Command it would be identify-

ing/grooming leadership potential in other members.

What's the best/worst thing to happen since you started

working with TAW?

The best would be all the great friends I've made since

joining, the worst would be when you have to discharge

someone...never fun.

When you last volunteered, made a donation, etc., how did

that make you feel?

Like part of the team, feels good...right up there with re-

cruiting new members, which unfortunately I am not that

good at.

6

III Corps Spotlight 2.0 —BC Division

In the Scope P.I.O. Interview with GEN Bravehardt

BREAKING NEWS: A new CLC has been named for the II Corps. Congratula-

tions to BGN BeerStud [CC 2CLC]. In other II Corps news...Americas Army3

Division has started Friday Night Retro Night. On Fridays at 9pm EDT, we

play the original Americas Army. We welcome all TAW members to join us

in our Fun!!! The Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead division changed its name

to simply The Arma Division to reflect our commitment to the series as it

evolves. The division hit 100 members on Feb. 24...and growing. We

added a 4th squad to the 1 Bn on Feb. 26, and are organizing the battalion

into two platoons. For the first time since we began last summer, AM has a

full complement of officers and NCOs in both its divisions!

CD: First of all congrats with your promotions, medals or new position. As

CO i never give things away, so if you find your name here then it was well

deserved.

Have been awarded the Conduct Medal: * Holt, Click, Adrian Have been awarded the Achievement Medal : * Reaper, Kenobi, Korn Has been awarded the medal of Resilliance: * Reaper Have been awarded the medal of Excellence: * Kenobi, Hawk Has been awarded the Silver Star: * Solymyr Has been awarded with the very prestige GUMP: * Kenobi Promoted in rank: Holt to LCP. Promoted to new staff position: Click becomes our TS and moves on to the rank of SSG. Hawk becomes our new SA.

II Corps Spotlight So you can‘t Shoot

Straight

Continued from page 1

So, what's there to do? Give up

and go back to playing solitaire?

No, and no I say.

In any first person team based

game there are a variety of battle-

field roles. You may be able to

act as a medic and keep a squad

alive, you may be able to call in

artillery and pound the enemy

from afar. You may be able to run

along behind a tank with a

wrench and keep it running. You

may be able to hide on a hill and

call out enemy positions.

The point is, in game, there are

usually more things to do than

just toss hot lead....and that's

before we get to the main point.

You're in TAW now soldier.

Even if you're not the ninja of the

battlefield we can find important

jobs for you. You could work as a

DI, helping new recruits to join in

our fun and games. You might

find work as a TI, coming up with

new methods for improving the

skill level of your division. You

might take a staff role, and con-

tribute to the smooth running of

your battalion. Eventually you

may make it be a member of the

TFO and take part in discussions

that set the future of TAW as a

whole.

TAW is a land of opportunity. You

don't have to be the best shot in

the world to make a contribution.

Whatever you're good at, what-

ever your special skill is, we can

find a use for it here in TAW.

TAW Treasury is working for you!!!

This year Treasury will be about change. The

first change came late last year as a Treas-

ury Support Lt. Commander (TBone) was

found to help out Jedi and to support all the

Treasury tasks. Another change coming is a

possible new TAW PayPal account that will

help lower the fees of donations under 12

USD/EUR/GBP. This means more of the

money members donate will go towards the

divisions and not to PayPal! Lastly TREAS-

URY is working with a software developer to create a Gaming Community

Treasury application from the ground-up that will replace the current treas-

ury report and excel sheet we use at the moment. The application will

make it easier for us to work with, less prone to errors, create a variety of

reports that are better suited for the divisions and help your command

staff know how many donations are coming in and what is needed to keep

YOUR server running. Lastly it will provide TAW with a formal financial re-

cord system that can easily be audited.

Cheers, GEN Jedi & MGN TBone - Treasury Team

7