I just wanted to write a sincere thank you to the community as a whole. This is something I’ve felt like saying for awhile but wasn’t fully sure how to put into words.
For those of you that don’t know me, hi, I go by Toons. I’ve been playing this game for a very long time. I started playing in late 2011. In 2017 I dropped off the game but last year I returned and I’m so happy that I did.
Throughout my time here in this community I’ve made a lot of amazing friends. Friends that would lead me to making more friends, and some of the people I feel like I can honestly say are some of the most wonderful people I know. Although I haven’t met them in person, most of my closest online friends have come from this game, and I cherish each and every one of them.
One of the people I met in my first year playing I met while roleplaying Ghost Adventures of all things. We aren’t friends anymore but we were friends for many years and part of me still hopes one day we can reconcile.
I’ve had a lot of ups and downs with people, friend groups splitting apart, and just drama between friends and being stuck in the middle. While these things were negative at the time I feel like they were experiences that really helped shape me as a person. So much of this game and community shaped my childhood and teenage years.
This community has helped me in so many ways. I can’t imagine what my life would be like without the friends I’ve made or the groups I’m part of now. It’s a place where I’ve found so many likeminded people and a place where I just feel comfortable to be my nerdy self.
I have a lot of fond memories of the old maps when I was a kid roleplaying all sorts of different things. My main hangouts were Ficho Tunnel and Ascension Island. I can still remember how proud I was when I finally got to the top, and then later participating in races, acting as a guide to help people get up, and the whole Hetalia vs Homestuck war that went on in AI (yeah, that was a thing that happened).
The new maps hold a lot of fond memories now too. Last summer I returned after being asked to by some friends and it was probably one of the best summers ever. We had so much fun. I watched the web series Red vs Blue (RvB) just before my return and my friends and I decided to roleplay as the characters from it. At first it started out as just us, but then we found more people to join us and it became a whole group. We have a friend group chat on Discord now and are planning a ‘season two’ if you will of RvB fun. We had a whole plot occur, one of the characters ‘owned’ Kiwimbi Beach which was hysterical (of course only for members of the group, anyone outside of the group on the Beach was not barked at for being on Felix’s beach) — I still refer to it as the ‘Forbidden Beach’ now lol.
We roleplayed in The Grounds sometimes and we still do on occasion with different characters. Through the roleplays in the grounds I met another one of my best friends who I now am in multiple groups with. She just happened to be entertained by the RPs in The Grounds and we befriended each other after running into each other in another map.
I said this before but I couldn’t imagine things without all of these friends I have now, I talk to so many of them every single day and being around them truly makes me happy. It wouldn’t of been possible without this game and without this community. So thank you all. I know there’s probably a lot of you that don’t know me or care about my story, but this community means so much to me. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you. I can’t wait to continue my journey here with you all, and make new friends as well. There are so many incredible people in this community.
