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Allow me to reminisce, my friends...


nikki.

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I'm not sure which Spiderweb game I played first. When threads come up asking this question I usually state that I discovered Exile 3 and Nethergate at pretty much the same time, and played them both constantly for a good few months. I completed the demo version of Exile 3 at least three times - finding enough things to do until the Tower of Magi incident on each occasion - and I more or less fell in love with Nethergate. I went crazy for these games, but whenever I tried to work out just when exactly I started playing I always drew a blank.

 

Now, my memories of that time are really clear. There was a lot was going on around me and I soaked a lot of it up, including playing video games. I have some really vivid memories of SW games, but I was never able to place them chronologically. Likewise, I knew that I didn't join these forums upon finding the games, but I always assumed it was just a few months later. It wasn't really that big a deal anyway - I had the games, and I had the community.

 

Earlier this year though, I sat down and really thought about my involvement here; my time in the community. I thought about what I had wanted from it, or expected to find, or even just hoped I'd see here, 10 years ago. I thought about what I'd offered in return, and the friendships I'd made, and then, in the singular way that strong memories rise unbidden, I was in my parent's bedroom in a house I used to live in, around 12 years ago. My brothers and I all shared a room at this time, which obviously made space somewhat tight, and so my old 486 computer (which had been given to our family as a gift and had been passed down to me after a nicer computer was bought) had to stay in my parent's bedroom because that was where it would fit. Anyway, there I was, sitting on a mattress on the floor (money was tight, and beds were expensive), craning my head up to see the monitor, worrying I was creasing up the bed, and that my shuffling around was bunching up the duvet inside the cover. I wasn't worrying too much, however, because on-screen I was in Shadowvale, just before the Ruined Hall. As my memory went on, I remembered the sounds, and reading the item descriptions, and exploring each nook of the map. The sun was shining through the window on to me and the sounds of the game transported me away from our much-too-small house, the stress of the move there (that had jumped on me from nowhere and tore us all away from our home), and a whole slew of other, more personal things, and I remembered being happy.

 

That was in 2001. I know I didn't join this community until two years had passed, but even then I remembered how I hoped that the other people who had played this game - I was sure there had to be some - would have appreciated the sense of escape Nethergate (and Exile!) had brought. I wanted to share every detail of Nethergate with them, and discuss it and continue to be lost within it forever. Nethergate has always had a special place in my heart, even more so than Exile, and I think I finally remembered why.

 

So that was how I started down the path to where I am now. Ten years ago today, I joined this community in the hopes of finding interesting, like-minded people who might have had similar lives to me - or, at the very least who appreciated the feelings I held for these games, and I succeeded. My time here has hasn't always been bliss, and my life in the Real World has changed pretty dramatically too, but I count myself lucky to have been a part of this place for a whole decade. You're all awesome people, and I've enjoyed almost every minute. ;)

 

Thanks for sticking with me, and here's to the future!

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is it a rule that we can't respond to this thread with capital letters?

 

 

also, yay nethergate and exile! it's weird to me to think back to when i first encountered sw games...i think the first i played was the exile iii demo, and it was probably around 1999 (give or take a year). the forums, though...i think i first started to visit the forums in '09, or maybe late '08?

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You young whippersnappers. And your carefree antics. Whippersnapping, for instance. What even is that? It sounds carefree and antic, all right, but also a bit reckless. What if the whipper snaps back? I bet it would smart. Better not chance it. Sure to be bad for the rheumatism.

 

Apparently I joined a whole five days before Nikki. Let me tell you, though, those five days were the best. You young people have no idea. You might think you get it, but if you weren't there, then, No, you'll never get it, and you'll never even know what you missed. When your carefree recklessness starts to irritate me, I remember that you'll never know days like those five, and my vexation turns to pity.

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Some few of us have hit the big 12th anniversary already. Actually, no really active members, as far as I can tell, though Drakey did just poke his head in. And, if you include the original Ikonboard, there are a few more twelvesies that have come and gone.

 

—Alorael, who decided to have an overflow error and start over. He's about to hit two years of Spiderweb!

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Approaching the 12-year mark myself, I must say that Spidweb's games have lost their magic for me, sadly. I was really never into them to begin with, actually. Way back when, I played Exile III's demo, poked around a bit in Upper Exile and Krizsan Province, got frustrated, and quit. Then I discovered Blades of Exile (in about 1999 I believe), and fell in love with the idea of making video games for a living - a dream which more or less wasted my youth up through my first year of college, before I realized it just wasn't in me. To this day I've still only finished three minuscule joke scenarios. It was only this prospect which kept me here, and the games were more or less of a side distraction.

 

I suppose it isn't entirely accurate to say it was wasted though. I did learn a lot about the writing process and sort of developed a writing style for myself. Now I dream of earning money writing fiction and poetry and, although that's likely to be a pipe dream given how little I actually read (or do much of anything, really), I still hope to assist my fiancée, Ashley, in completing her first novel and maybe more. She's a far better writer than I've ever been, even after all these years spent here.

 

Do I regret coming here? Not quite. I suspect that regardless of what hobbies I had chosen in my youth, I would still have ended up pursuing an exciting career in bagging groceries and stocking shelves. I probably wouldn't have met Ashley, and I definitely wouldn't have met some of the wonderful people here and at the Calamity Refuge. The community helped me grow up, guiding me through my youthful foolishness and autistic awkwardness and rudeness, into a somewhat polite, pleasant, kind and compassionate person.

 

So thanks, folks. Many happy returns to everyone who has loved this place.

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I have refrained from this General Forum for quite a while. I will not go into the reason, but I feel that I should add my tuppence to it here. As an oldbie not only in real life as well as in the world of Exile, I have had many enjoyable moments here. It was here, too, that I developed my writing style with which I have made a mark in the Linked In fora. I have enjoyed the interaction I have had here, especially those whit people whose ideas are opposite of my own.

 

I have popped in here many, many times, but life goes on happily here. You may find me on the other fora here, but I believe this will be my last post to General. Thank you all,

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