Mike Davenport
I am a 47 year-old husband and father of four. I am an IT Specialist for the Department of Defense and an avid comic fan. As a young man I first got interested in comics with graphic novels like the X-Men "God Loves, man kills". Growing up in the inner city of Washington DC in the 70's and 80's, the imagery spoke to me and I was hooked.
I got into computers very late in life, my first PC belonging to my wife. After some degrees and certifications, I work with them for a living...go figure. It was the same for gaming, as a late bloomer, it was mostly PC games for me, especially once I tried my first MMO, City of Heroes. Here was a melding of the two things that I loved. Through CoH I discovered a certain creativity I never thought I had in a virtual world that drew you in like a good book.
After years of playing and creating, City of Heroes ended and although there were a couple of offerings trying to fill the gap, none rose to the potential that I saw in City of Heroes. I always felt that the game had a potential that was limited by the technology of the time and was sunsetted for reason not having anything to do with it's potential. It was this potential, what CoH could have been, what it was moving toward by the time it closed was a motivating factor for this site.
Why Marvel?
Going back over my copy of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition, I realised Marvel had unwittingly already laid the narrative ground work for a game that was even more expansive than City of Heroes, DC Universe Online, Champions Online, or even Marvel Heroes. My plan was to structure those ideas into a cohesive presentation, get as much input from other fans and those in the industry to sort of "crowd built" pitch game developers and eventually Marvel themselves. The key word in this day and age is buzz and getting out there presenting this idea in the right circles is how to do it. The immediate goal is get people asking "What is the Marvel Universe Online?"
