I still remember those Friday afternoons, when I just arrived home from school. I threw my backpack in the corner of the room and loaded up this game. There was always something exciting going on, whether it was Ephi's bomb mod server for RTB, or hosting some nonsense servers.
I made plenty of friends ingame, however, I didn't bother too much with the forums until Retail. With all the TBM drama and other stuff going on, things were pretty hostile. I only became involved more actively on the forums after getting the Retail version and joining my clanmates once again. Honestly, I was sort of insufferable back then, I think I only calmed down when I turned 20.
I still miss those Friday afternoons. It wasn't the game that changed, however.