I'd like everyone to congratulate LordMeatwad for earning the TacticalGamer Distinguished Volunteer Ribbon. The anonymous nomination writeup is below for anyone who wants to read it (no names are given for the people who write up nominations, they are submitted and voted on by the site and game admins anonymously. this was passed to me by one of the TG admins who knows I'm involved in Aion so I could embarass Meatwad publicly ). This ribbon was awarded for his hard work and dedication to making Aion a true addition to the TG family. Congratulations Meatwad, you earned it.

Award for October 30, 2009: Distinguished Volunteer - LordMeatwad
LordMeatwad is the sole driving force behind the formation and success of the addition of Aion to the long list of TG-supported titles. From the beginning of the closed beta series, Meatwad saw great potential in the game being a part of TG's MMO community. It is a game that encourages strong teamwork and would be completely in-line with TG's core ideals. He wrote news articles to press the game on the community, gave complete support to anyone who needed it with technical issues on the game, even frequently researching problems on his own to find solutions so that other people would have the ability to play.

Subsequent to the closed beta series, he didnt just wait for the open beta or release to come rolling around to continue moving forward with the game. Instead, he reached out into the interested players of the community and formed a leadership team. He took charge of making sure all of the minutae of getting Aion put together as a proper part of TG was taken care of. He organized the rules, laid the foundation for the "legion" and its operations (a Legion is the Aion form of a guild). The bottom line is that he wouldnt settle for Aion being on a probationary status. He put in the man-hours and personal attention to make it a full fledged part of TG. Without his herculean efforts, Aion may have been yet another in a long line of games that might have only caught passing attention. But instead, he turned it into a thriving part of the community, growing by the day and currently standing on over 40 strong.

As a result of the sum of these actions, as well as the fact that he continues to play a very active role (not only in leading the Aion community, but also in its continuing organization and structure), he has gone beyond the call in a volunteer capacity. As such, I nominate him for the Distinguished Volunteer award.
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As a side note, this goes to show that anyone can make an impact on the community anytime they want. You dont have to be a player of one of TG's many FPS games to get ribbons or nominate people for them. Right now, there are no MMO specific ribbons, but there are site-wide ribbons such as the distinguished volunteer and outstanding conduct ribbons (as well as others) that can be awarded to anyone in the community. If you feel like someone has done an exceptional job, gone above and beyond the call of duty, or otherwise distinguished themselves within the Aion and TG communities, dont hesitate to submit a nomination. The big green link in my signature will help you out with that if its something you want to do.

Again, congrats Meatwad!