That ship set sail, long ago now.

When World of Tanks received the 7.0 update, back in December, 2011, a map called Fjords was part of that package. Some have identified this ship, found in the harbor of that map, to be a Type 1934A Class Destroyer from Germany. None in the real world have survived to this day.

Although this ingame object can't be damaged or destroyed by players, it does make for an interesting background filler. I knew then, it was a sign of something coming. I just didn't know when that was going to be.

Fast forward a few years to the release of World of Warplanes. Although some of the ships on certain maps have either been changed or flat out removed, I was still able to find a Destroyer on the Pacific Ocean map, in version 1.7.  By reading the hull number, I was able to find out exactly which ship this was depicting, the USS The Sullivans DD 537, a Fletcher Class Destroyer currently preserved in Buffalo, New York.

Over the last two years, I couldn't even began to count how many times I have destroyed this ship, her sisters and all of the other virtual naval representatives in that game. Let's just say it's been more than a few.

Now, with finally taking the plunge and downloading the Closed Beta client for World of Warships, I am in the Commander's chair of a Destroyer of my very own. I spent a few (okay, more than that) real world dollars and picked up a tier V Soviet Gnevny Class Destroyer named Gremyashchy. The real one was used as a target for a Soviet nuclear weapons test in 1957, off the Novaya Zemlya archipelago.

I was fortunate enough to receive an invite code from my friend, MagusGerhardt, for the Rock, Paper, Scissors test for World of Warships, back in December, 2014. I had a small window of 72 hours to get a taste of this new game, under development, to see if I would like it or not.

In mid-March, I received an email stating I had been accepted to Ships, but I ignored it, for the most part. Things were still looking pretty good concerning World of Warplanes, so why bother with adding another game to my collection? Then, I took a little vacation.  But, shortly after me and my family returned, something clicked. I can't explain it, I had this odd and sudden urge to download it.

So, I did. Not only have I progressed down a few tech tree lines, I am developing a much better understanding of the game. I spent some real money and picked up my first premium ship, setting a few playing goals in progress.

That's the story of how I got to this point. Come back again and I will tell you more of where I am at and planning on going.