History

1990s

TDO was formed on December 5th, 1997, and was the brainchild of Stendarr. Originally, TDO was set up as a European X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter squadron, playing on what was the Internet Gaming Zone.

Stendarr's first recruit was Kntajus, who took over the leadership when Stendarr left. Ably assisted by Adonai, TDO's membership grew in the late nineties with new people joining us from all over Europe, as XvT remained popular for an extended period. One of the things that set TDO apart was the creation of our own custom XvT campaigns and missions, which proved popular right across the world - the campaigns were downloaded by XvT fans as far apart as Puerto Rico, Japan and Australia. They also featured on a cover CD of a UK-based PC gaming magazine in 1999.

2000s

As time went on, TDO diversified into other games as well, including Colin McRae Rally, Unreal Tournament and Tactical Ops to name a few. As is to be expected, the membership changed somewhat over time, but a sizeable core of the membership stayed present, and they remain in contact to the present day. In fact, 2009 saw the weddings of 4 TDO members (not to each other!) and there was a TDO presence in the guest list for each one, across 3 different countries in Europe.

The summer of 2002 saw the organisation of the TDO LAN Party in Ulm. Some sterling work from Jippo in setting this up saw in the order of about 75 people from all over Europe packing up their PCs and making their way to a small unused industrial hall in Southern Germany. The success of this event prompted a followup LAN Party the following year in Amsterdam, which was smaller scale but equally as enjoyable, and even combined a day of paintballing.

With the release of Star Wars Galaxies in 2003, the obvious Star Wars ties to our original XvT heritage meant that a lot of members became active again and joined in. With the benefits that a larger guild brings within an MMO, TDO was merged into the larger group DND:

• Diuturnal - TDO members;
• Nomad - NJ members, from our long-time friends and rival XvT squadron, Nomad Jedi;
• Dwarfers - RD members, from the Red Dwarfers squadron in the game Jumpgate, which already had some TDO and NJ members within its ranks.

SWG was a firm favourite for a long time, and for many members was their first experience of MMO gaming.

2010s

TDO received a breath of new life in 2011, when it was recreated as a guild in World of Warcraft, and you can find plenty of details about the guild's exploits elsewhere on this site. At the end of the same year, the wider DND group also experienced its own (brief) resurgence when Star Wars: The Old Republic was released.

Although a combination of real life issues and a dying WoW server put paid to the TDO WoW guild in mid-2013, guild leader Kntajus still actively plays and can be found on Twitch with his current guild, often battling some of the hardest content in the game.