Whooza peeps!?
I'm 20 years old and I'm from Finland. My Splinter Cell coureer started sometime after PT's SvM demo was released. I had never played a Splinter Cell games before and only source of information I had of them was from some magazine reviews I had read from xbox versions. So, I decided to download the multiplayer demo to see how could concept of agents and mercenaries facing each others contolled by human players work.
At start it was very confusing, but very exciting at the same time. Previously I had only played some pretty simple FPS games online and the difference was kinda big in comparison. A bit by bit I got used to the game mechanics and the map (which was Mount Hospital by the way). Sometime soon I met Snakebit with his "amazing" merc tricks. He teached me some useful things and sometime after that I noticed I was playing with him pretty often. Also later I met the brothers who are known now as S.a.S-Predator and S.a.S-Venom. We changed IM addresses so we could meet again and arrange games. Eventually the four of us agreed to buy the full game since pretty much the demo gave everything it had to give (which was quite a many playing hours). I think I was the first one to get it out of the four of us.
So, there I was learning new maps and equipment, getting beat up by more experienced players all the time. As time passed, I got to play with many people that currently are in the clan: Akbari, Winters, Solidus, Snakebit, Predator, Venom and Vedhoc (some of them not active anymore though). I think the story was that Akbari was recruiting "good" players for his clan Smooth and Silent. I heard that Snakebit, Venom, Predator and Vedhoc had joined. I decided to ask if I could join too and Akbari was happy to take me in. He also recruited Vortexx and General a bit later. Sometime after that as Smooth and Silent started getting some reputation, Solidus asked if he could join even though we weren't really recruiting anymore. We decided to take him in just because he was such a nice fella and revolutionary player (I guess the only merc who didn't use tazer and pretty much the only spy who was really stealthy).
When CT's SvM beta got released, I was playing it non stop, mainly with Solidus. When it was closed, it was pain to wait for the full game to be released.
After month(?) of waiting, it was time to play! And so, six months went by fast with SvM only. Such a great time, such great games. Then some things started to bother me more than usual like waiting in a lobby for half the time and constant whining about uzi lag etc. Also at that time, pretty much every common strategy and trick was well known between more experienced people. Sometime last summer I ordered Guild Wars and so, the scale between SvM and GW started to shift towards GW more and more. Lately I've been just rarely and randomly playing SvM just because you can't live without it.
I'm looking forward to SC:DA very much. Let's hope it turns out to be a great release and successful sequel.