Looking for suggestions on a gaming laptop

1. What is your budget?
1500-2000 flexible
2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
17-18 inch
3. What screen resolution do you want?
preferably 1080
4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
yes
5. How much battery life do you need?
not important
6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
yes skyrim,wow,guild wars 2, others not sure, would love to be able to play at high settings with good fps
7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
photo, video editing, lots of multi tasking
8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
minimum 500 gb
9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
i would like it future proof for 2-3 years the easier it is to upgrade the better
11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
cd/dvd
12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
I like dell specifically alienware, toshiba and acer dislike, hp I dont do mac,
13. What country do you live in?
US
14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I have been looking at different rigs now trying to settle on certain builds wanted to toss this out there to get some other opinions. Right now I am leaning heavily on alienware m17x or m18x but not sure how exactly to build to get the most bang for my buck. I have to be mobile otherwise I would sink it into a desktop gaming rig but at this time that is not possible.