Alright fuckers I realize I haven't done my essay and i'm procrastinating on both real work + an article i'm working on, let's instead delve into the wonderful work of early 2010s forums.
Let's set the scene: your boy here was an avid forum user with an awful lot of free time due to various reason both within and out of my control. It was a pretty strange period in my life where my life was viciously unstable in every way. No real future prospects, each day was different and there were points were things as simple as meals were a coin toss in the wind.
I was an active member on 2 boards at the time, the Ubisoft forum & The Sucker Punch Productions forums (miss that second site, testament to how important internet archiving is because it basically ceased to exist with no trace.)
These sites were starting to slowly die (or well, I did get booted off the Ubisoft forum. I cannot even remember what I did) - at some point a trailer for Ground Zeroes came out and I was just playing Peace Walker. I had played the other games and was a fan but the series was just kind of there for me for the longest time.
I was searching up some things on Ground Zeroes because the hype from that reveal trailer was real (the graphics were unbelievable in 2012. That demo was insanity) and it lead to me a thread on MGSF.
I also for the life of me cannot remember what it was that got me to sign up, I browsed the forum on and off for a bit but there was one thread/post that I just had to reply to and I thought fuck it, why not?
This was also when I got really, really into The Lord of the Rings (I have a Narsil tattoo now!) so I named my account Aragorn and started commenting. I do remember talking about the Two Towers at some point and naming it The Twin Towers; which is eternally funny to me. It's really what the movie was subtitled in the Middle East for a while!
If you remember, my dear reader, I was an opinionated prick with a lot of free time. So from the get go I started sprinting through the forums, thread by thread, my shadow looming over the boards with post after post after post. Like some Lovecraftian horror that the mere mortal mind could not comprehend; you would open MGSF on a Monday afternoon and all you would say is my name as the latest reply to effectively every thread on the forum. I was quite certain that I had accrued 50 posts within a day. Crossed the 100 thresehold soon after.
I saw all the cool buttons people had and the graphics and that was also a big draw to me. I think we all collectively lose something from the experience when we're just faceless names in a stream of digital consciousness like the modern Reddit experience; everyone had a certain style and easy to associate identity through these tools. Eventually, GRU approached me. I wanted the cool graphics and in on the organizational chats so I was like sure, why not?
GRU was pretty cool. A lot of the people were sweet, just reserved and MGSF lived and died by its drama and high school clique antics and GRU chose to stay in their shell.
It was around this time that the first MGSF awards that I was around for rolled in and not only did I win Best Newcomer, but I almost won Member of the Year with only a week on the boards. That is an achievement no one will take from me and I have it on my resume & my LinkedIn.
It was also around this time that I started getting more involved with the chiding and the bullying. As always, people will always attempt to bring down great titans and I was a target because of my posting frequency. No you fuckers, my posts were not low quality. I will die on this hill - I just posted a lot. Duck you know i'm right despite you bullying me for the frequency.
Speaking of, awards were another thing that made the boards very special.
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As I continued to spend more time on the boards I started forming more and more relationships. Everyone was quite antagonistic towards me so I punched back just as hard and that somehow boiled over into camradarie eventually. In a weird way the boards did teach me to stand up for myself; and while I was always stubborn and opinionated and not the type to backdown I think it emboldened that part of me. Kind of thankful for it, really.
I didn't last long in GRU, from what I remember. I started The Fellowship, which got a lot of hazing naturally - but I think it was genuinely a great org. Collected and gave home to a lot of people who would go on to become cool members on the board (shout out to Strangelove, I love you) amongst other people and since I was so active sniping people before anyone else was effortless. I think this is around the time me and Henry started interacting more. He was just the scary forum admin who'd post once in a blue moon and we all assumed he was a black guy, for some ungodly reason. I think we viciously hated each other for a bit.
I distinctly remember the drama when the moderation was tightened up a little. I was a edgy little bitch so I was distinctly on team ''why are we banning the N word? free speech!'' at the time but I saw reason pretty fast. This was in general my beliefs started turning around from my conservative upbringing towards like, normal person. Now i'm a hardline Marxist, how the world changes~
Anyways, back to digital clique drama: But eventually I got bored of the graphics and the org so I jumped ship. I think my next home was TSF? cool org. Coolest graphics. We were a small but chill group. Boards were just a little too dead though so I think this is when I jumped to Desperado. Great graphics, cool members, very active sub forums.
I think it was around this time that me and Freeman became better friends. Funny in retrospect since even when he was more chill he had some beliefs that would distinctly make me want to deck him in the face today; but that's neither here nor there. I became a lot more involved in the Opinions & Confessions board. So many fierce, fierce fights on there. Lots of users who were genuine waste of skin, but so were the times.
Around this time me and Agent had the idea of starting Anime Hunters. Greatest org of all time. Our graphics were goated. I still think most anime is plain fucking shit but i've softened to a few edge cases. Berserk is a formative piece of art and so is Evangelion. Vinland Saga is cool, where is Season 3?
I also think I started a Peaky Blinders org at some point. Or I was a part of one? I can't remember. Do have a DM inviting someone to that though. I'm sure it was a banger.
I landed in OH eventually. Think this is when me and Henry became really tight, same with Duck and Jass. Always loved Jass, our glorious Caucasian Bruce Lee. His chiding always felt like a big brother and out of love more than anything.
Memory starts drawing blank here. Lots of fights before MGS V came out. Funny how pessimistic about the game I was but ended up being an ardent defender when I was validated in keeping realistic expectations. Lots of fights in the opinions section, so much org drama.
Few highlight moments, I suppose:
1. Anyone remember Mr Tony? oh my FUCKING GOD WHAT WAS THAT. I still remember the IRC chat room he invited us into where he threatened to kill himself if he don't let him back on the board. Expert troll.
2. Diamondqueen. When she came back I was like this person is kind of chill why does everyone hate her but the pretentious side did rear its head eventually. I remember when she had this thing with another super pretentious user (something Bin Tahir) and the circlejerking was insufferable.
3. Mafia games. Shoot novitch. So much fun.
4. The intandem coup. You all know what i'm talking about.
5. When Jason found me on Telegram like 2 years ago.
6. The incessant arguing about Assassin's Creed. Why was that such a prominent topic?
7. Fun game nights over Uncharted 4 multiplayer. Ef9 o Shea turned out to be a dickhead who accused me of something ridiculous but they were fun.
8.
Grudges I will hold to my grave:
1. Taking away my red name. It was so cool. why would you do this to me.
2. Not making mod. I would have ruled with an iron fist and made the world whole.
3. Neglecting keeping in touch with a lot of you.
Because in truth, my reader, despite everything - MGSF meant a lot to me. It was a place of refuge in a tumultuous period in my life. It taught me to open my mind to others, it helped me develop who I am today, and I did forge a lot of relationships that touched me in different ways over the years. The fact that a Japanese man's fictional works brought all of us together, people from varying walks of life and countries and cultures together - there is a beauty in that, a beauty that crystalizes the bright side of the internet.
Eventually, sometime around 2017-18? my life started changing around rapidly. Less time, more commitments, building a career - slowly MGSF faded away. I'm in a very different place in my life now. Built a well paying career out of nothing, which i'm proud of. I'm inked, have a cat, travelled, met people, got my heart broken, ups and downs as things always go. I write, everything from media analysis to screenplays. Maybe i'll end up finishing one and it'll sell - promise to give you all cameos.
But always had a soft spot for this place and ultimately its inhabitants. I'm glad we have this board.
And that's the story of MGSF's no. 1 poster. 33K posts if my memory serves me right.
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