From 2001 to 2003, I spent most of my time playing PlayStation 1 and offline PC games like GTA: Vice City, Red Alert, Counter-Strike, and Battle Realms. But everything changed in 2003 when MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) took the Philippines by storm, flooding Internet cafés with excited players.

By 2004, I often found myself at Marby, a well-known computer shop in Bacolod City, where I watched people deeply engrossed in games like Ragnarok Online and MU Philippines. As an eight-year-old kid, I was amazed and curious about their excitement. I asked myself, Why are they enjoying this so much? Is it more fun than playing Counter-Strike with friends?

That same year, a small computer shop opened right in front of my house—my soon-to-be second home for almost a decade (and yes, it still exists today). I was thrilled because I no longer had to walk 936 steps (yes, I actually counted) to the downtown area just to play PC games. (Sorry mama nga naga pa downtown ko nga wala ko ga lisensya)

The Birth of JACKWANDER

This was when my IGN (In-Game Name) was born. I asked the shop’s “kuya” to help me sign up for a game called Gunbound. As I filled out the registration form on Mobius, I reached the field labeled USERNAME.

Confused, I turned to my friend beside me and asked what "username" meant. He confidently replied, "It's USER + your name. Like USERJERWIN." I wasn’t satisfied with that answer, so I asked kuya again. He gave me a better tip: "Use the name of your idol."

At that time, 24, a popular action TV series, was all the rage, and the protagonist, Jack Bauer, was my hero. Since I loved playing Counter-Strike and counter-terrorist games, Jack Bauer was, for me, what All Might was to Deku in My Hero Academia. So, I decided that my username would be JACKBAUER.

Excitedly, I began typing "JACK," but then I stopped—I didn’t know how to spell "BAUER." Not wanting to embarrass myself, I quickly came up with an excuse: "I should change it to make it unique."

At the time, the Banaue Rice Terraces was widely recognized as the Eighth Wonder of the World, so I decided to add WONDER after JACK. However, I accidentally misspelled it as WANDER (which means "to stray" instead of "to admire"). Despite the mistake, I submitted the form and jumped into the game.

Since 2004, I’ve used JACKWANDER in every game I’ve played. Over time, it became my nickname at the computer shop and even my real-life alias among close friends. I have no regrets about it—even though it constantly reminds me of how terrible my spelling was back then! Today, I use JACKWANDER as my professional handle, and I even created my own website: jackwander.pro.

Why People Call Me JACK

So, if you're ever with me and someone calls me JACK, don’t WONDER—it’s not my secret name on my birth certificate. It’s my In-Game Name: JACKWANDER.

I decided to share this because a saw a post on facebook titled “Anong kwento ng IGN mo?” (English: What’s the story of your In-Game Name).

Photo grabbed on facebook.