Ahh, the smell of success. Smell it? No? Surely not; it permeates the air around here. Success is what we have, after all. A relatively small group of individuals with a single shared interest dominate two universal access message boards. That's success, whether it smells or not, but the thing is, some people seems to think it has a whiff of something other about it: a whiff of stagnation possibly. Stagnation is something everyone seems to agree with (or maybe they don't, I don't really know or care) but these same people are clamouring for things to stay the same and wallow in the slop built up on the ground over the two years or so. Or are they the ones itching to press the 'restart' button? Not the same obviously, but there isn't a clear-cut line in the sand (or maybe there is and maybe it looks like this: Vegetaman VS Everyone Else). People are too serious these days. We need to get back something of the old days when people were more serious. Contradiction? I'm not sure, despite agreeing with both statements. Well, maybe not that we need to recapture the old days, since things tend to change irrevocably, but certainly that the game was more fun then. Or was it? I was a newbie and got shouted at by Mumbly P; was that fun? Wait, backtrack a bit: individual incidents don't represent the whole which is nothing but a collection of individual incidents (only if there is enough of them).
There are too many rock/metal/things with guitars in my mp3 library: I must buy more Hip-hop to drown them out.
Back on the track we backtracked on, why was it fun? Because it was an immersive world. It was like living in a massively multiplayer online text RPG. It defined everyone even when doing innocuous things like playing one at a time. I don't remember much about the LTU until later, save for that overly-enthusiastic n00b Vegetaman's ludicrous little Zelda army thingy, but Vets was the place where it was at (I forget exactly what "it" was, however). One at a time was great, wasn't it? Why has no one revived it of late (not to put any ideas in people's heads. Maybe one at a time was "it", or at least part of "it". I got kicked out of the VDC for breaking a ceasefire! That's how serious business was. Today all we have is Vegetaman blowing his top yet again about something or other. We should stop for a bit here, since I can't decide what was better when like everyone else seems to (I think they're bluffing). I like today. I like making nonsense topics especially (reminds me: read the dojo topic!) and reading the nonsense of others. I like watching new persons taking things seriously again (BBBBUUUUUURRRRRRPPPP, hellblade) and persons taking things Vegetaman-seriously. Well, not the latter so much. It reminds me that things might have only changed for me. Maybe the board hasn't declined as everyone insists, maybe we have. I know I have; I can't be bothered much these days; fighting is often an effort and increasingly rarely a joy, but it's still fascinating to visit the board and post irreverent things directed mainly at Vegetaman. That won't change any time soon. Real Life ("are you talking about Shenmue?") also became a lot more interesting (note to all: GO TO UNIVERSITY!).
Front Mission, Bahamut Lagoon, the Tales of series. These are the underground games, like the music everyone thinks they're listening to (but usually aren't; I still see people calling Mos Def and the Tribe underground even now). Unlike in music there is little backlash directed against popular games, except (stupidly) FFVII and VIII (which were, of course, great games, but Wild Arms ownXorz PSX RPGs). If you play these games you are undoubtedly better than your peers, of course (I doubt Vegetaman has even heard of them), but why? It's a strange cliqué these days with a combination of anime, computer games and... something else (aargh! Blink 182! DIE! DIE! DIE!). It goes well with the internet message board population of smart arse 15-year olds with Dragon Ball Z aliases (like ooh, Vegetaman, let's say). I wonder sometimes why the LTU population doesn't visit the appropriate message boards for such opinionated oiks (it's an English term, don't worry) like the Forum, where they can compare notes with other snotty-nosed brats. I see Mike8787 representin' on LUE once in a while shuttin' down positive discrimination or people aiding Misfitneo with ideas about how to murder his stepfather (why don't they ask us these things?)
In conclusion, things are the same as always and changing fast, new people are a blessed curse, and Vegetaman must take up smoking ganja. Please, for our sake.