Nuclear Strike Imminent, Bye Bye Condoms

Question: What was your first experience with online communities?
Short description: Describe the first online community (forum/message board, blogging site, etc) you were a member of. What kind of role did you have there, and how did this affect your perspective of the Internet?

Ah yes, the interweb, a wonderful place indeed. I believe I was in third grade when everyone was like 'OMG I HAVE LEVEL 14 [insert neopet name here]!!!” Well, I was way way dumber back then than I was now so I joined the 'cool kids'. Everyone was playing it; although I usually just filled my animals' tummies and played games once in a while. Every chance I got I would play that game for what, the next few months? Now that I look back on it, I hadn't done anything productive in the entire summer being in third grade and all. I didn't really care about my grade, unlike now; grades are everything now. You fail, BAM, you get penalized by your parents in some way. So I quit in the last week of summer. I never really interacted with anyone and if I did, I would usually go by an alias. My god this really took away part of my life huh?

Next was Gunbound, which was cool for a year. It got boring so my friend introduced me to Maplestory. It was Open Beta so I joined. Being the idiot that I was, I dropped my Mark of the Beta. I thought it was just taking up space. I regretted that for a long long time. As the Open Beta closed, GMS officially opened. Naturally, I introduced it to my brother and he hogged all the time on the computer playing it; as we only had one back then. Haha, I look back on it and laugh at how retarded I was, playing all those non bloody games. My bloodthirst started when I played Resident Evil at my friend's house. Now, I play a LOT of gory games. Granted I don't have those good consoles so I just use the computer. Left4Dead and Half Life 2 are currently my favorites. I enjoy shooting Combines in the head and soloing Witches using a pistol.

Oh boy, I remember the time I first saw MMOTales. I remember reading stories by map1eholic, Aaru, JF, all those awesome people! I lurked around for a year and enjoyed reading the blogs in silence. I finally summoned the courage to sign up, I was still an idiot; less but still and idiot. I used a really weird ass name and mind you, I still enjoyed Maplestory. I remember one of my first blogs; I was asking how to advance in Rebirth RO! Ganzicus quietly helped me and all was well. I quit at level 72 though lol. Being on these sites with the really cool people managed to get me to clean up my act on the internet. I started acting well, more mature when I started using MSN more often than AIM.(I find AIM redundant now with MSN, I have it only to satisfy my friends in school now.)

Being on MMOTales really changed my life a lot, actually. It taught me that not everyone on the internet is bad and if you can talk with your friends, you can have a good time. Naturally, I was really quiet in the 6th-8th grade; which were my Junior High School years[2005~2008]. Now, I'm more active and open to others and I make fun of other people just for the fun of it. I love seeing their reactions. However one sole fact still remains about the internet; it's still filled with illogical assholes who have no respect. I remember one time on Combat Arms, I make several accounts to go on the newbie channel and I got a 23-9 K/D. Almost the entire other team was screaming, “omg this fgt hax, rprt him” or another variation which includes something about me hacking. (No, I still suck at CA and I'm not playing ANY games for a bit)

Now I am on VuTales. It's been a while since I've had this sensation but I actually feel like I'm home on the internet. No more pompous bastards saying that I hack, no more illogical asshats that don't believe I can kill stuff, best of all no education to learn.

Vusys, your awesomeness surpasses your actions. I am grateful to you for helping me feel like I'm home on the interwebs and hopefully, I can have some good memories here. Long live Vusys!

Have fun not pressing the “I Like This!” button at the bottom because I know this is horrible, kthxbai.