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+--- Thread: What's your MGSF story? (/Thread-What-s-your-MGSF-story)
RE: What's your MGSF story? - Jassassino - 15-04-2025
(13-04-2025, 10:38 PM)Gene Wrote: Nice to hear that I suckered you both in, Jass & BreadHonestly lowkey how crazy influential FH was though for us lmao. I remember when we started to throw about a redesign for it too and came up with new GFX to compete with the likes of the new kids on the block in DiDo etc.
got bored and decided to make Foxhound, just inviting any name to get that magical 15 members initially. But we got there eventually
Had no clue about graphics, running a community or anything really until I started foxhound, so I can thanks MGSF & Foxhound for unlocking my average photoshop skills anyway! I did enjoy my days learning photoshop and creating graphics etc. Got known as the spam org because we had an active private forum haha. Then Nate joined and helped us steer ourselves in the right direction and engaging with the forum as a whole. Enjoyed our nights doing Podcasts but absolutely hated editing them after. I was glad when A Big Crocodile said he'd take over doing it (is anyone in contact with him by the way, or is he here?). I was dead proud when we eventually won best organisation though, the shitty org I started when I was 13 had become a 'serious org'.
![[Image: now-we%27re-cookin%27-vincent-anderson.gif]](https://media1.tenor.com/m/YNEEm-PeCY0AAAAd/now-we%27re-cookin%27-vincent-anderson.gif)
Also, can you guys remember the MGSF Minecraft servers we hosted? black king Gene HolySpawn being some of the other seminal users of it. I remember trying to build roads connecting all of our cities to each other and thus every 20 minutes people would get a notification saying "Jassassino was killed by a Creeper" nonstop lmao.
RE: What's your MGSF story? - black king - 15-04-2025
I remember Deyvetown! I wonder if Cardboard Jesus has any of the old videos or anything from it.
RE: What's your MGSF story? - HolySpawn - 16-04-2025
Ahhhh yes, I remember building my base in a clay Biome. Those were good times, no idea why i stopped playing with you guys lol
Heres another throwback that only the OG's should get. Anyone remember Colin (Trane)?
RE: What's your MGSF story? - Gene - 17-04-2025
(15-04-2025, 03:49 PM)Jassassino Wrote:(13-04-2025, 10:38 PM)Gene Wrote: Nice to hear that I suckered you both in, Jass & BreadHonestly lowkey how crazy influential FH was though for us lmao. I remember when we started to throw about a redesign for it too and came up with new GFX to compete with the likes of the new kids on the block in DiDo etc.
got bored and decided to make Foxhound, just inviting any name to get that magical 15 members initially. But we got there eventually
Had no clue about graphics, running a community or anything really until I started foxhound, so I can thanks MGSF & Foxhound for unlocking my average photoshop skills anyway! I did enjoy my days learning photoshop and creating graphics etc. Got known as the spam org because we had an active private forum haha. Then Nate joined and helped us steer ourselves in the right direction and engaging with the forum as a whole. Enjoyed our nights doing Podcasts but absolutely hated editing them after. I was glad when A Big Crocodile said he'd take over doing it (is anyone in contact with him by the way, or is he here?). I was dead proud when we eventually won best organisation though, the shitty org I started when I was 13 had become a 'serious org'.
Also, can you guys remember the MGSF Minecraft servers we hosted? black king Gene HolySpawn being some of the other seminal users of it. I remember trying to build roads connecting all of our cities to each other and thus every 20 minutes people would get a notification saying "Jassassino was killed by a Creeper" nonstop lmao.
Haha nah definitely man. I should be able to dig my old computer out next week hopefully, I'll see if I can find anything on there for the memory vault.
I used to live on that server basically, it absolutely consumed me hahaha. I had forgotten about the road building massacre! We can't doubt your dedication to proper infrastructure after that though.
(15-04-2025, 05:19 PM)black king Wrote: I remember Deyvetown! I wonder if Cardboard Jesus has any of the old videos or anything from it.I seem to remember a video being posted on the minecraft thread on MGSF but I can't find it. Not entirely sure if i dreamt it to be honest.
RE: What's your MGSF story? - black king - 17-04-2025
(15-04-2025, 05:19 PM)black king Wrote: I remember Deyvetown! I wonder if Cardboard Jesus has any of the old videos or anything from it.I seem to remember a video being posted on the minecraft thread on MGSF but I can't find it. Not entirely sure if i dreamt it to be honest.
I think I remember that as well. Prepare the HMS Go Fuck Yourself, we're sailing into the past.
RE: What's your MGSF story? - NateDog - 18-04-2025
I waited to post here until I had a bit of time free as I knew I'd make an essay out of it so here goes my attempt to not do that. I'll just quote myself from Org Chat first:
Quote:I think I joined in 2008 so I was 17 16, not long before MGS4's release. Spent far too long on that forum and made just over 20K posts, but I'd never take any of it back. I was very juvenile and ignorant when I joined and for a long period after that, but I genuinely credit all of you and everyone else I interacted with the most there for helping me to mature as a person. Sounds like a funny thing to say really, but I've felt that way shortly after I joined DC back then and realised the growing I had to do. Even now just looking back on org threads over there gives me the feels. I could spend so many nights just chilling on the forum.
When I joined I was in a bit of a weird place in school, arguably the same place I'm still in socially. I befriended a lot of the more "popular" people despite never fitting in with them or being like them but me being closer to the more nerdy group. But I also didn't really feel like I fit in there so I often ended up hanging around some of the smokers, who I also didn't fit in with because I didn't smoke.
I've kind of always been flitting between groups while being a loner at heart and I guess that's how I was at MGSF too. I joined a lot of orgs at different points and I left every one of them at one point in melodramatic fashion because I felt I brought the mood of the place down with my occasional rants or moanings. I cringed looking back on old threads and seeing some of my posts in them (although I've seen some that I'm just flat out embarrassed or disgusted by) but it was a key learning period of my life and I'll always have MGSF and the community to thank for getting me through that.
I felt most at home in DC and looking back on old threads in recent weeks I still feel like that was my true home. But I made a lot of good connections in FH and probably enjoyed being within that group and PF the most given how well I got on with everyone, and it was the point in which I felt I contributed most to the forum in trying to help Gene get the org active again and trying to start up some new things like the org awards and the podcast, as well as our own gaming sessions. (For some reason I didn't remember how much the forum seemed to not only enjoy but ended up expecting and even badgering Foxhound about the awards when they took longer than expected.)
I haven't even gone through them all but started looking at my PMs over there and really forgot how many people I spoke to regularly. It was a unique place with a unique community. If you had to ask me for a favourite moment, I have to say it was something I had forgotten until recently. I logged in one day during one of my periods of being orgless to find I had a Foxhound button beneath my name. Rooster (where is that little shit) kidnapped me after telling an admin I was rejoining FH. I laughed at him coming up with that and doing it then and I still find it hilarious.
As for life, everything has changed really. I met someone 11 years ago that made me feel like I finally understood what it meant to be happy, and I have a now 5 year old son with her. We've been through a lot, some things that nobody should ever have to deal with and some things that we're very lucky to have experienced together and have each other for. Things have been difficult a lot given her health issues and us living on one person's wage while trying to move forward in life and getting a house (and ending up needing to live with her family), but we're getting by, for now at least. I often work long shifts (anywhere around 10-14 hours) but also get periods of downtime, although spending 2-4hrs commuting as well sometimes makes it tougher but I won't complain about having a decent and safe job. I cut out my own entire family a number of years ago over a number of things, but I've never been happier to be away from the toxicity and lies. I do miss my nieces terribly and seeing them grow up, but it was a sacrifice I unfortunately had to make for my own sanity and all of our safety.
Guess that wasn't too bad of an essay, for me at least.
RE: What's your MGSF story? - Shyne-Bryght - 22-04-2025
Imagine if someone still had the recordings of the various MGSF podcasts that we had, would love to re-listen to those.
RE: What's your MGSF story? - Dirty Duck - 23-04-2025
I joined MGSF in 2009 after my friend and I got into MPO. I made a handful of posts exclusively in the MGS section over a few months (mainly about how cool Ocelot is).
There was an amusing mix of people. They either ignored how obviously young and stupid my posts were (such as matter-of-factly explaining why MGS5 should not be a game about the entirety of Ocelot’s life without passing any judgement at my idea)
Spoiler:
![[Image: aIl20wL_d.webp?maxwidth=760&fidelity=grand]](https://i.imgur.com/aIl20wL_d.webp?maxwidth=760&fidelity=grand)
Spoiler:
![[Image: ymUAys1_d.webp?maxwidth=760&fidelity=grand]](https://i.imgur.com/ymUAys1_d.webp?maxwidth=760&fidelity=grand)
Fast forward to 2011 and after getting into Peace Walker and wanting to discuss it (my MPO friend didn’t pick it up) I remembered the forums. I figured my maturity and emoticon-restraint had progressed enough since then to feel my old account didn’t best represent me and just made a new one.
Username Background not necessarily pertaining to MGSF:
The community was large enough to be active but small enough to make it feel like you weren’t just a drop in the ocean. The MGS themed orgs tapped into that same part of my pleasure receptors that the clans I joined in MGO did. Dead Cell and Joe’s graphics tapped into every other part of aforementioned pleasure receptors. I am not immune to propaganda and so Dead Cell was the org I ended up in. The org camaraderie really upped my investment in the forums and made me a lot more active. I also remember Henry breaking border laws to compliment my sigs I’d made for myself which was a bit of a confidence boost at the time.
I shared the site with IRL friends that then all joined to try and troll me. I knew this would be their first thought so as Jason said, I told them my username was Granin. I remember one of them being like “it seems like you’re a really big member on there” and finding it really funny. Seems kind of mad that Granin’s influence is now scrubbed from the site and I’m still here. Hope he broke up with that woman and is just too embarrassed to come back rather than still be in a relationship like that.
In 2013 Departed hit me up about starting our own org. The idea of making something of our own sounded really cool and I was on board. At that point running an org felt like a really big deal! As much as I loved Dead Cell it was quite inactive and it felt a bit lonely. I remember I messaged Henry asking whether DC would be closed before I committed to Desperado Enforcement and made a post in Dead Cell’s PF apologising for jumping ship and all sorts. Srs bsns.
To my surprise looking back I wasn’t actually supposed to be in charge of the graphics. Shyne was supposed to be defecting from TSF and making graphics for us. He ended up doing neither as TSF activity picked up a bit so I stepped up to the plate and made the DE graphics. They were well received except for Nate who kept saying about parts of it looking messy…and despite my not changing it he was right. My DE sigs will always bother me. From the sloppy ink splat resolution to the obvious Dead Cell “inspiration” it was a bit amateur-but I was a self-taught GIMP user who was working graphics out as I went along so I was an amateur (not much has changed all this time later). I’m still quite fond of the eventual button though. I treated the org branding as a project and I got a lot of fulfilment from it. I remember telling Jason I’d been working on graphics and him being disappointed when I revealed I meant for the forum rather than for my fast-approaching graphic design coursework. (bit of trivia-this was the same conversation where I told him the org I was working on was going to be called WWE: Wank Wank Einstein. The rest is history.)
The time running DE with Dep and the others was a high point of the forum for me. I really came into my own as a member and I made a lot of friends. The site was a much needed de-stress from real life at points. I was in sixth form and naturally a lot of stupid teething pains type drama happens in those years. The entertainment factor at points was far greater than a video game forum had any right to be. I became a moderator and tried my best to give back to the forums. On some level I maybe tried too hard at points but on another more stupid level I do think being a mod and running an org developed my management and leadership skills. But not enough to count as work experience on my CV, apparently.
I was active throughout. I eventually left Desperado to make a new org with Henry after we got closer. My graphics for The Philosophers didn’t really make any waves in my memory and they would end up being the last real graphics I debuted on MGSF (besides maybe the Ludens theme if anyone remembers that?). I tried very hard to do something more original compared to DE’s “not-DC” look. I still don’t really know if that paid off but I had fun making Phi and Henry and I became a lot closer through it. I don’t remember how long Phi lasted in reality but it felt short lived. I was a lot less invested after the change into Outer Heaven (Henry and I had proper disagreements over it. Remember-srs bsns). I decided to leave the graphics to someone else when we did Tokugawa Heavy Industries. (The name largely left me stumped for inspiration if I’m honest. And I thought maybe I’d lost the spark.) and then-
The Tapaning.
Just like that a site I’d invested so many hours into had become near unusable. The site’s activity had been dwindling and it felt like this put a stop in any of our ideas to rejuvenate it. It was sad. It was a reminder that our home wasn’t ours. We all sort of said goodbye to it.
I’d left university at this point and was starting my life in the “real world.” I didn’t want to commit to being a part of spearheading any attempts that followed to rebuild MGSF, both those that came to fruition and those that didn’t make it past a proposition. I still wanted to have that place to go on the internet but I felt like we’d seen that these things can disappear in an instant and I didn’t want to make something so fickle a priority when I was at that already fickle point where we’re aimlessly wandering through the wilderness of our lives. I wanted to be a part of it; I just didn’t want to be in charge of it.
I found niche community fulfilment and that “project feel” elsewhere for a while after a small grassroots Smash Ultimate scene started in my hometown. I lent into helping the tournament organiser by making graphics and running side-events and trying to bring more people in. It was a lot of fun and was good for meeting people during a time where I was far away from a lot of the friends that I had at university (except Jason who was also part of this Smash scene.) but covid happened and despite attempts to keep it up online during lockdown it never re-emerged afterwards. Another community went their separate ways.
I stayed in contact with a couple of us over those years but it’s just a lot harder without that centralised convergence point. The memories were kept very much alive through my IRL friendships with Jason and Henry throughout the gap years. I stayed with Henry for a while when I was in a rough spot and out of work and when people ask how I met him it always feels hilarious to say he was the admin of a Metal Gear forum I was a part of. I made so many genuine connections on the site over the years.
Sad messaged me about MGL when they made it and I was glad to see a lot of old faces. I signed up and was middlingly active my whole time there. I felt much more reserved as a poster compared to MGSF. I’m sure that’s largely just growing up and being lowkey beaten down by the world. On the other hand I wondered if it meant it was the end of Internet funnyman Dirty Duck. How will they view me if I’m not being an unnecessary dick?! But it was nice seeing what everyone was up to again and reading cult video game opinions.
When MGL was written-off I found myself once again having nowhere I actually wanted to go when I sat down at my computer. The internet felt hollow. I’m sure it felt the same for some of you. To have somewhere to visit to cut loose was vital to many of us and social media just doesn’t do that for a lot of people. I’m so against the direction the internet has gone down and the only way to protest that is to make a website. We can all do it (You should do it. MGF can be your affiliate?
). I started figuring out this site because of that. It’s a learning curve but I’m really happy to have somewhere to discuss MGS and life again. Crazy long post but it’s been a crazy long time.
RE: What's your MGSF story? - NateDog - 29-04-2025
(23-04-2025, 10:58 AM)Peking Duck Wrote: Snip
I really didn't know you played a part in setting up so many orgs, I thought you only did DE. I don't remember critiquing your sigs so much, sorry. I feel like I must have been being facetious because I have no graphical or artistic ability at all so I can't see why I would have said it unless I was trying to wind you up but then again I was a dick. Feel like that end period of MGSF is a bit of a black spot in my memory. Kind of odd then as I feel like you and I started to chat more in and outside of MGSF? But I remember very little towards the end and see very few posts of mine around the later threads that I poked my head into. Weird too given I had thoughts of finally setting up an org but I put it off so many times at the periods where it would have worked so I didn't see it happening.
You telling your mates you were Granin is hilarious. Although I thought his very essence was scrubbed from the forum but it really isn't, I've seen so many of his posts in the org section when looking back recently. Maybe the PF stuff was most of what he deleted? He had some crazy active periods so he couldn't have ever gotten rid of it all, everything from the war on GRU (and basically everyone that wasn't in the same org as him at any given time) is still there.
RE: What's your MGSF story? - Dirty Duck - 30-04-2025
You weren’t being a dick or anything-everyone in the starting roster of DE was giving feedback on the graphics as I worked on them. OJ gave me some advice on making straighter lines and you gave constructive criticism about the sigs. I forgot just how long I spent working on the graphics for DE. And given all that time I still didn’t fix what you pointed out LOL
We chatted a lot for those years but I think it was a lot of gaming sessions and wasn’t necessarily about the forum happenings a lot of the time.
Smash 4 was 2014 so we’d been chatting for years by the time of THI. I feel like new orgs maybe just stopped making a splash in that period? A lot of orgs were just like ones that came before but with different coats of paint is how it felt around that time. But maybe that’s just me. Maybe Ground Zeroes was actually the best org ever.
I think most of Granin’s public stuff was scrubbed by Henry as that’s what his girlfriend was finding. Private forum stuff and org stuff was likely left as you had to be a member to see it which she probably didn’t know.