Imnsvale
13-07-2005, 02:34
I started playing NationStates my sophomore year of high school. A friend told me what it was about and I just had to check it out. I remember hopping onto the forums a few days later, because the forums were super-flakey back then and there were periods where you couldn't get in for hours at a time. It was annoying, but it almost made the posts seem that much more meaningful. I think my first post was something to the effect of taking someone up on the offer to drill for oil in their nation. Naturally, I thought this was just about the coolest thing ever. I wasn't super involved, but I posted on a somewhat regular basis. I remember Ma-tek's (EOTED) International Security Alliance and thinking it was so cool that I was part of it, never mind its fictitious nature. I remember being a part of the International Space Station (Wazzu/Darkskye/Derkesthai 's project) and kept thinking it was damned cool.
Fast forward about a month later, to March 2003. Someone posted a bit of IRC transcript of Ziotah being a dork in general. I'd had some minor experience with IRC in the past, but I still had to go find a client and download it. (Snak 4.8.4 for the Mac, and I still use the same version despite all the nifty updates this application has recieved.) Naturally, I thought this sort of thing was funny as hell and I just had to log on and join this.
<Ziotah> LISTEN
<Ziotah> THE INTAKES ARE FLAT ALSO The Come out of Flat Circles like Fighter Jets
<Scolopendra> Kolchuga finds HOLES
<Ziotah> BUT
<Ziotah> THEY ARE HIDDEN INSIDES
<Scolopendra> You can't have intakes HIDDEN INSIDE
<Ziotah> We also outdated the Kolchuga System
<Ziotah> ;/
<Ziotah> stfu
<Klamath> of course you did:D
<PresidentScroob> Ziotah: You are familiar with Kolchuga?
<Ziotah> Its Technology
<Ziotah> ;/
<Scolopendra> IF YOUR BOMBER IS SO FUNKING STEALTHY, KOLCHUGA WILL SEE THE HOLE
<Klamath> lol
<Ziotah> we have no holes
I logged on to #nationstates back when it was still on irc.freenode.net and there was a whopping five or six people in the channel, and this was some sort of record for the time. :P THis was when a nation named "SiamSiam" ran #nationstates. I proceeded to have great times on IRC as well as on the forums. Perrier banning space, leading to the WMNK and all that. I remember Vthnaar thinking I was middle-aged, that was funny.
My memory of this next bit is hazy. (Perhaps someone else can help fill this in.) All I remember is someone named Zoland posting clearly unacceptable pornographic things to the forums. (I'd rather not mention what they were, lest unsuspecting people get curious and fire up Google.) This was back in the Dark Time, before forum mods, so we had to wait until [violet] could clear it out and arrange forums bans and the like. This led to the first round of forum mods, people like Amerigo and Demoness and Menelmacar and Melkor. (I probably left some people out, sorry about that.)
Interlude: Amerigo is a land of contrast!
Oh man, the eternal thread. Oddly enough, I remember this rather well. The thread topic was: "I know you're all thinking it..." and the entirety of the first post was: "Wouldn't it be great if Kits was actually a chick?" Bam, several pages of confused people that really did think Kits was a chick. I think this was the first really huge thread on the forums.
http://www.needcoffee.com/html/toys/images/scthulhu1.jpg
THE SANTA CTHULHU PWNS J00!!1!
RASDFJKNRTPNIOGUIUINSDDFJN *CHOMP*
Summer of that year rolled around and I finally scraped together enough cash to go out and buy Jennifer Government. I promptly proceeded to plow through it in about one three hour sitting, because I just HAD to find out what happened to Buy and Hack and everyone else. Everyone should read it.
Later that summer, I participated in the biggest thread I ever have, the Ruhrian Invitational Rally. It got to 38 pages, at least. I've forgetten where we stopped.
This whole next year, for some reason, has nothing that stands out in my memory. Perhaps I'll remember more at a later date. The only thing I can think of, was (according to my regional happenings) 504 days ago, my region got invaded or something. I don't know because I didn't pay attention and only noticed after it was all over. That was pretty cool, though.
http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/page=display_region/region=Matrix
I remember the Jolt move and all of the associated chaos, but unfortunately, i don't remember when exactly that was.
Skipping to Summer 2004, I remember Khenala asking if I wished to be sponsored by him for the Triumvirate of Yut. I was shocked, in a sense, this was something I never thought about. This was meaningful for me because the people I first encountered on IRC were the Yut-sters.
And now, I'm off to college, moving several thousand miles away to Rochester, NY from Tucson, AZ. And I still have friends from IRC that I've met though NationStates.
I'll probably add more thoughts later, but I just wanted to get this out there now, it's been sitting in a half-completed form oh my hard drive for about two weeks now.
I don't know how interesting this is to anyone else, but I just wanted to share my experience with NationStates. Thank you Max Barry, for creating this free website that gives thousands of people at least a few minutes of joy each day. Thank you to all the mods and other people that help to keep the place running, all for free. I thank all of you who've interacted with me on some level. This is truly a great place.
Fast forward about a month later, to March 2003. Someone posted a bit of IRC transcript of Ziotah being a dork in general. I'd had some minor experience with IRC in the past, but I still had to go find a client and download it. (Snak 4.8.4 for the Mac, and I still use the same version despite all the nifty updates this application has recieved.) Naturally, I thought this sort of thing was funny as hell and I just had to log on and join this.
<Ziotah> LISTEN
<Ziotah> THE INTAKES ARE FLAT ALSO The Come out of Flat Circles like Fighter Jets
<Scolopendra> Kolchuga finds HOLES
<Ziotah> BUT
<Ziotah> THEY ARE HIDDEN INSIDES
<Scolopendra> You can't have intakes HIDDEN INSIDE
<Ziotah> We also outdated the Kolchuga System
<Ziotah> ;/
<Ziotah> stfu
<Klamath> of course you did:D
<PresidentScroob> Ziotah: You are familiar with Kolchuga?
<Ziotah> Its Technology
<Ziotah> ;/
<Scolopendra> IF YOUR BOMBER IS SO FUNKING STEALTHY, KOLCHUGA WILL SEE THE HOLE
<Klamath> lol
<Ziotah> we have no holes
I logged on to #nationstates back when it was still on irc.freenode.net and there was a whopping five or six people in the channel, and this was some sort of record for the time. :P THis was when a nation named "SiamSiam" ran #nationstates. I proceeded to have great times on IRC as well as on the forums. Perrier banning space, leading to the WMNK and all that. I remember Vthnaar thinking I was middle-aged, that was funny.
My memory of this next bit is hazy. (Perhaps someone else can help fill this in.) All I remember is someone named Zoland posting clearly unacceptable pornographic things to the forums. (I'd rather not mention what they were, lest unsuspecting people get curious and fire up Google.) This was back in the Dark Time, before forum mods, so we had to wait until [violet] could clear it out and arrange forums bans and the like. This led to the first round of forum mods, people like Amerigo and Demoness and Menelmacar and Melkor. (I probably left some people out, sorry about that.)
Interlude: Amerigo is a land of contrast!
Oh man, the eternal thread. Oddly enough, I remember this rather well. The thread topic was: "I know you're all thinking it..." and the entirety of the first post was: "Wouldn't it be great if Kits was actually a chick?" Bam, several pages of confused people that really did think Kits was a chick. I think this was the first really huge thread on the forums.
http://www.needcoffee.com/html/toys/images/scthulhu1.jpg
THE SANTA CTHULHU PWNS J00!!1!
RASDFJKNRTPNIOGUIUINSDDFJN *CHOMP*
Summer of that year rolled around and I finally scraped together enough cash to go out and buy Jennifer Government. I promptly proceeded to plow through it in about one three hour sitting, because I just HAD to find out what happened to Buy and Hack and everyone else. Everyone should read it.
Later that summer, I participated in the biggest thread I ever have, the Ruhrian Invitational Rally. It got to 38 pages, at least. I've forgetten where we stopped.
This whole next year, for some reason, has nothing that stands out in my memory. Perhaps I'll remember more at a later date. The only thing I can think of, was (according to my regional happenings) 504 days ago, my region got invaded or something. I don't know because I didn't pay attention and only noticed after it was all over. That was pretty cool, though.
http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/page=display_region/region=Matrix
I remember the Jolt move and all of the associated chaos, but unfortunately, i don't remember when exactly that was.
Skipping to Summer 2004, I remember Khenala asking if I wished to be sponsored by him for the Triumvirate of Yut. I was shocked, in a sense, this was something I never thought about. This was meaningful for me because the people I first encountered on IRC were the Yut-sters.
And now, I'm off to college, moving several thousand miles away to Rochester, NY from Tucson, AZ. And I still have friends from IRC that I've met though NationStates.
I'll probably add more thoughts later, but I just wanted to get this out there now, it's been sitting in a half-completed form oh my hard drive for about two weeks now.
I don't know how interesting this is to anyone else, but I just wanted to share my experience with NationStates. Thank you Max Barry, for creating this free website that gives thousands of people at least a few minutes of joy each day. Thank you to all the mods and other people that help to keep the place running, all for free. I thank all of you who've interacted with me on some level. This is truly a great place.