this place is seriously the best and i still think it's the best thing that ever happened to me.
meeting people who actually liked pc gaming and mostly just stuff to do with computers made me feel better than what i do with my life. i was always made fun of irl for being a pc gamer and generally just being made fun of too. that changed with this place and most of high school.
i also met my true best friend here and you probably guessed it: mackthehunter
he saved up his own money to come out here (and again but things happened where i got a job and work got in the way of things) and meet me and to generally hang out in the city i live by, chicago.
i'm in the process of planning my own trip out to canada next march and staying up there instead over spring break. i wouldn't know him if it weren't for this game and forum to ever exist.
there's other people i know here where they're almost on the level as mack and i (rings, glenn, skate...and many more since there's others whom i got to know on a personal level) but they'll never beat how close we are even though we're separated by distance.
most importantly, the forums really taught me how to actually be social without being a loving handicap. i used to be socially awkward on a grand scale and i couldn't really talk to anyone at all. this really put me on a bad start for high school since i came from one of the smaller schools. i ended up talking to alot of people over time and overcoming it thanks to the forums and the people i met in high school. other than high school, organizing the event blockoworld and running ievent/blockintosh/tomcorp and avialliance (yes i was running ievent and avialliance at the same for a short time) also helped me get over this social barrier. it forced me to talk to people whom i never met before and get them into the event.
i'd say this place really changed my views and attitude on things for the past 6 years i've been here.
best 20 bucks ever spent in my life ever.
