I've been in the Army the past three years. It pretty much consumes my life, so I don't come here much anymore. But when I do I find I recognize the names of people less and less each time. Good to know we're still getting new(ish?) members.
GW definitely made me a more creative person. Making games got me into writing, and that has become my favorite hobby. Weirdly enough, the articles I wrote for GW years ago have been reposted around the Internet on other gamemaking sites, though with different names listed as the writer.
Those articles were terrible, but I mainly wrote them for myself, to remind me of what I thought at the time made for a good story.
It's been a long time, but I still recognize a few names. Marmot, Afura, ATARI, Mateui (holy crap!), Faust (awesome!), Dada, Kaworu, Hundley (I don't think we got along, but hello again!), and geodude are the names I remember from this topic alone.
I can't remember who it was, but someone once saved a quote by me saying I vowed to never, ever leave GW.