Hi,
I'm DGUY, I been around the rpgmaking community for forever now. Many of you don't know me because I'm not very active. I have a habit of checkin this forum once every year or so. Yeah, but I'm making this post now because I feel it's like an end of an era for me. And I guess I want to reminisce about the good times before bowing out of the community.
Back in 97-98, that's fuckin 10 years ago, when I stumbled on a site called rpgmaker.net. It has a bunch of rpgmaker engine, including rpgmaker 95 and the webmaster's, Rast, own engine which he never finished I think. I fricking made a ton of resources for that engine and never got a chance to use them.
Anyways, those were glorious time. RPGMaking community new and exciting. And people were really eager to make and play rpgmaker games. Everyone was trying to out do each other in special effects, graphics, custom systems, coding, all of it. Tons of websites sprung up, from game reviews site, to resources sites, to group production sites. And all of it was full of energetic and ambitious people trying to make their dream game. All those sites are dead now. But back then it was a really fun time to be making games. More importantly, those years were formative years for the community, because events that took place then are what shaped the rpgmaking world into what it is now.
The first major earth shattering event that I can remember is Don Miguel's translation of RM2k. In the real world we perceive history as Before Christ and After Death. But in the rpgmaking community, it is Before Don and After RM2k translation. RM2k was clearly superior to other engines at the time for user friendliness and function, so there was conflicts between rpgmaker.net and their engines vs. Don Miguel's translated rm2k. There were much flaming, and much casualties from both sides, lol. But the rpgmaker.net community slowly deteriorated because their refusal to support rm2k, so I migrated along with everyone to the Don's message boards.
But Don Miguel is a strange cat who speak in hilarious broken english. He doesn't really care about rpgmaking, or its community, only having a laugh with his cronies. Else where in the world, clicks where forming. A dark cloud was forming over GamingGroundZero, once a decent if peripheral community. Also within the walls of iirc chat the trolls were gathering forces and gaining strength. These three fractions would clash against each other from time and time again, and much hilarity ensued. We all had many laughs at their expense. So much flame, so much flame. Forums full of them, chat logs fill with comedic gold of internet drama. Those were the day.
When the dust finally settled, the Don cuts his tide with the rpgmaking community forever, GGZ slowly recede into the caves that they are still hiding in now, and the trolls was also put in their place in the iirc chat rooms to die a slow death. With no where to turn, I final discover gamingw.net, which has been around unbeknown to me. But really, that was the begining of the end for me. I stuck around only because I enjoying making games, and was hoping to finally releasing Chimera Report. That and the occasional flame wars with the trolls, god I enjoy those so much. But real life is calling, and I must leave behind this wonderful hobby and a community that was in hindsight a big part of my adolescence.
Gaming World Forums
Just checking in.