No way!

The first story I ever heard about Jack "Statesman" Everett was on the CoH forums. As the story goes, a player was on his way to the green line in Independence Port when he saw Statesman fly past him. As the story goes, Jack was logged in on his signature character showing off the game to some execs, and this player just happened to catch him in the act. There was a certain sense of mythical magic about that story, a lot of responses like "No way!" and "THE Statesman?!"

I've no idea why that story sticks with me, but years later my own personal character had somewhat reached that level on the Justice server. Through a combination of being active on the forums, having one of the most awesome avatars, being involved in and later leading many, many Hamidon raids...I had reached a point where I went somewhere in game and someone I did not know said "No way! THE *blank*." Isn't that what most players wanted out of playing a super-hero MMO...to have some player look at your carefully crafted avatar and say "No WAY!"

My first introduction to the RL Jack was while I was at the offices of Cryptic interviewing for the position I was eventually offered. I was standing in one of the hallways of their cube-farm chatting with some of the people there and looking out the window into this enclosed into the atrium in the center of the building. Some unfortunate employee had walked out for a break and managed to lock themselves into this inescapable inside-out room and was banging on the door to be let back in. Jack came strolling down the hall, past the door and loudly proclaimed, "Don't let him back in...he'll never learn." Without even pausing, disappeared around the corner.