Post
by Dogbreath » Sun Sep 18, 2011 9:45 am
I dunno, back in the day, I used to be able to spend 4 or 5 hours a day playing a single DOS game. And that'd be all I'd do, I wouldn't play it and check Facebook every half hour, or switch out with a movie or a fanfic, or anything. My entire attention would be dedicated to that game.
Then I'd come on here and talk about it, and get really excited and start other threads here.
For the past 2 years or so I simply haven't had the focus to keep going. It's still my intent to one day have played every major DOS game ever made. But I don't even have the time to start right now, and I'm always being distracted or doing something else when I do have time off. I can't just retreat into my dungeon and, say, play Pools of Darkness for 20 hours straight anymore.
I still remember glorious summer vacations wasted playing Baldur's Gate or Master of Orion or Alien Legacy... sadly, that life is no longer for me. It takes a pretty special game to get me interested enough to play seriously - Dragon Age was the last game to do so, and that was almost a year ago.
As far as the community aspect, though, I still keep in contact with most of you. I hung out with Thunderdog every day for like 3 months, and we went to a Rammstein concert together back in May. The Gods themselves have endeavored to delay my inevitable meeting with Gamer (going so far as to BREAK A SHIP that I was on en route to Oz), but one day soon we shall meet and <strike>bring about the Twilight of the Gods and usher in a new age of darkness</strike> have tea and scones and engage in pleasant conversation.
I still come here a few times a week and try to post whenever I can. I'll start thinking up some new topics to start to revive discussion, but I'm pretty comfortable now with the idea that DGF as a community forum has ended - all of us who were teenagers here and grew up together (Gamer, TD, Sasha, Wally, Wardrich, JTA, Da_Goat, TSM, Bobo, Ro@m, Larry...) have moved on to college and careers, there's not much left here, we haven't had any long term new members for several years.
It's fascinating and humbling to look back at all the posts I've made in the 9 years and 4 days since this specific forum started and see how much I've grown and changed as a person. I used to be such a self absorbed prick, and my decisions and ideas about leadership were pretty terrible. Why do we have 43 moderators and administrators? Why did I create 37 million subforums (of which like 85% are never used) when 3 or 4 would've done fine? Look at all the times I abused whatever power I had or banned people for nonsensical reasons or proclaimed some overwritten rubbish I just thought up like it was some philosophical axiom instead of a pile of horseshit. Look at what a terrible writer I am.
And yet, this forum has been like a refuge for me since I was 13 years old. In all my travels, it's the one place I've been able to go and feel at home.