One more throw of the dice,
One last show,
One final battle,
A famous last stand.
I can quit any time I want,
But tonight,
This night,
One night only,
I say goodbye.
Some of you saw it, some of you missed it, but tonight Gelgarin logged out of Rescreatu for the final time. I honestly don’t know exactly how long I’ve been here at this point, though I’d guess something like eight years. Regardless it’s long enough that I don’t feel I can walk out of this place without giving it a proper goodbye.
I've been here since long before day one. I was here when this game was a completely different game called Forgotten Creatures. It was run by Patrick and it was crap.
I’ve you’ve ever played Marcoland then think of that, but broken, with hardly any features and only one long term active pla[injection]yer. Me. Everyone else had left the game on account of almost none of its features working, but I stuck around for reasons unknown. After a while Patrick handed me some basic development access for the game, and I spent my time creating little role-play quests and sewer mazes for the occasional new pla[injection]yer to enjoy. I don’t think we ever established an active community of more than six, but it was fun.
Eventually we came to a point where Patrick had gone swanning off to join in the development of Rescreatu (I don’t know the pre-history there I’m afraid) and decided he could no longer afford to develop Forgotten Creatures on any level. He did however came back every once in a while to chat with me, and eventually brought me over to Rescreatu as a beta tester.
Res in those days was a very different place, for one the user ba[injection]se was just big enough that a comment made in the shoutbox would usually remain there for the best part of a week. Now you’re lucky if you’re emotional goodbye speech isn’t wiped from view in thirty seconds. I’ve watched Rescreatu grow from pokey start up project that nobody played into the thousand user at a time behemoth that it is today. I’ve watched and contributed to this becoming a game that I am happy to announce in not crap.
I’ve seen or been a part of every major development in Rescreatu history. I’ve spent years as a staff member, and I have spent years arguing constantly with them. These years tended to overlap. Throughout my time here I have encountered more pla[injection]yers than I could possibly hope to remember, although given that I don't bother to remember people’s names that does not say much.
That being said, there are a few pla[injection]yers, past and present, who have enriched this world we play in to such a point that they deserve a mention.
Teresa (o_O), Roza and Tainted, you three are the greatest pla[injection]yers this game has ever known. You were the most dedicated support staff members the game ever had, and you were my favourite people here. But for the three of you this cynical, misanthropic, post teen male would have never made a home here. Rozi walked out of the game for reasons that we shall come to later. Teresa still exists in a fleeting fashion and Tainted remains as the rock around which the entire support department stands.
O_o (I never got the hang of calling her Teresa) is the reason I applied to be on staff, and was my closest friend for the majority of my active days on Rescreatu. She first came to my attention when she started repeatedly giving me Omni eggs to encourage my blogging, and we became fast friends. She talked me in to applying for staff and talked staff into having me on board. We regularly used to sit up through the night (well, night for me, she’s a yank so God knows what time it was) shooting the breeze and having fun in the shoutbox. Teresa invested more into the support work than any other pla[injection]yer this game has ever had. She was so dedicated to the game, even when the game treated her like poo, which as I promised we’ll talk about later.
Rozi was my unflinching source of information. As we’ve established already, my memory for names is not exactly brilliant. So whenever somebody approached me about anything my first course of action would immediately be to jump on messenger and shout “Oi. Rozi. Do I like _______?”. I doubt anybody has ever had quite an encyclopaedic knowledge of this game’s user ba[injection]se as had Rozi, and she would invariably be able to tell me exactly why I didn’t like the pla[injection]yer in question. Rozi will also go down in history as the support staff member who had the courage to do what Teresa and I didn’t, which was to walk out when things went to hell. When the department was completely falling apart, Rozi was the one to man up and say what needed to be said, and for that she should go down as a hero.
Then there’s LeTainted… and what can I tell you about LeTained that you don’t already know. She’s been here forever, and has a better understanding of what it means to be on staff than anybody else. My opinion is that the support division has somewhat lost its way in recent years. Staff members these days have to log their hours and activity because everyone knows that bureaucracy is exactly what you want to hand unpaid volunteers. Support work it the very old days was never pitched to be about how many hours you contribute, or how many queries you answer, or how many infractions you distribute… it was much simpler. You just had to make the game a nicer place to be. Tainted is the only significant person this game has known who I have never seen a single bad word laid against. She’s everyone’s friend and she enriches the community just by being here. Whether that is for five hours a day or five hours a week shouldn’t matter. Tainted learned support work from the very best, which was me, and has gone on to far exceed my ability in the department. There is nobody better a prospective staff member could model their attitude on than LeTainted. She is a legend in every sense of the word.
Oh, and just for the record; at no point in time was I actually doing her. That was just a little joke we had. It was funny because everyone knew I was out of her league.
So to my three best friends, the three queens of the support department, I issue my most sincere thanks. Patrick made the game, but the three of you made it fun. For me and for a hundred others. Thanks girls.
Nekodragon, Kirsti, Gunmetal – I didn’t know any of these three well at all, but their contributions to the game are such that they cannot be ignored.
Neko is, in my eyes at least, the most talented artist this site has ever seen. She’s been around since the very beginning and has contributed so much art it is unreal. More im[injection]portantly, she has done it all for no reward and with no motivation outside of her own love of Res. I cast my memory back to a time when Rescreatu’s art supply way drying up, and when Patrick was legitimately offering an initiative whereby artists would be paid for their work. It was Neko (at least I think it was Neko, and if I’m wrong then I’ll be left looking jolly silly) who stood up and said “no thanks – I do this to support Res, I don’t need to be paid” and in doing so won my endless respect. Neko is symbolic of the unbelievable dedication that has been shown by so many artists to the development of Rescreatu. Names such as Xee, Eenob and… err… I told you I don’t remember names.
Kirsti I didn’t know at all, but she was the first big Gelgarin supporter on the staff and paved the ground for me to finally ascend into a support position. When I finally joined support staff I got access to the Rescreatu staff forum, complete with the four years of game history it contained. Once there I was dismayed to learn that quite a few staff members from history didn’t actually like me very much. As much of a charismatic stallion I was amongst the user ba[injection]se because of my willingness to stand up to staff members when they were misusing their power (for example trying to ban the discussion of politics despite it being expressly authorised in the rules at the time), it turned out that the staff at the time didn’t really appreciate it. There were quite a lot of threads from three past three years calling me an arrogant malcontent, and Kirsti was a reliable contributor to them, pointing out that I was actually pretty brilliant. She even used to post a few of my more controversial blogs on the staff forum in order to generate discussion, and that’s just plain awesome. Good on you Kirsti, the community should fondly remember you for more than just your fancy underwear.
Then there’s Gunmetal, who I did know a little… I just didn’t like very much. I was never fond of having another alpha dog stomping around on my turf, pissing against my lampposts and mounting my women. That being said, Gun’s staff contribution has to be recognised as one of the most extensive in Rescreatu history. You’re not getting a flowery, sentimental paragraph Gun; but I’ll acknowledge that you did a bloody good job and I’ll thank you for it. I hope you appreciate the hell out of it.
Now, you’ve all sat patiently through one and a half thousand words of me thanking people, but we all know that a speech like this would not be complete without a nice big dollop of crying like a schoolgirl. So now I present, the part you’ve all been waiting for, a near comprehensive list of the people I didn’t like.
Matt – Conned me out of my Ishu on my first day as an active pla[injection]yer. Constantly abused bugs and bots without punishment because he had some connection to the founding of the site. Was also a gigantic turd. I hope he gets hit be a falling buffalo.
Whiteraven – Almost destroyed the support department with her constant backstabbing. She always used to come to me to complain about how Rozi and Teresa weren’t strong enough to be members of the support team. At the same time she would go to Rozi and Teresa to complain about how I was too much of a loose cannon to be on staff. She banned people for reasons that had nothing to do with the game, she was unpopular with the majority of the user ba[injection]se and she tried to veto my support staff application and then lied to my face about it. I’m glad she’s gone.
Zara – Actually did destroy the support department. After Hail went MIA Patrick brought her in to try and reform the department. She was not good at her job. She kept us all permanently in the dark about what was going on for months, then surprised us with a list of proposed reforms that still flabbergast me to this day, and told us that she had no interest in discussing any of them with us. This is the point at which Rozi walked out, but it got a whole lot worse.
Zara’s next crime was to fire Teresa for something that Patrick was later forced to admit that she did not do. Zara had from in this area actually; she’d previously kicked eenobegerto off staff for “leaking art”, when in fact it was privately admitted that she was canned for being a pain in the foot. After Rozi, Teresa and I vocally opposed her ideas she decided that she wanted rid of us. After Rozi walked out she sold Patrick on the idea that Teresa needed to go as well (rest assured Patrick lost every scrap of respect I ever had for him that day). Together they pretended she’s leaked some art and fired her. It was only after weeks of poo that Patrick finally admitted that it was all a made up story. Zara also tried to get rid of me, but Patrick wouldn’t agree to it. Zara is the worst staff member this game ever had. She contributed precisely nothing to the game (all of her reforms died a very quick death) and cost the game so much. Rescreatu would be a better place if she had never existed.
Last by not least I’d like to rain my condemnation down upon whatever Muppet in staff decided to delete my post today. Yeah, people who’ve been playing a game for eight years don’t just spontaneously decide to walk out, there is a reason. Earlier today I made a perfectly valid and mildly humorous argument against the reintroduction of Omni eggs, which somebody on staff, I don’t know who (though I suspect 14brokenmirrors) decided to delete. Well sorry, but I’m not putting up with that poo. My post broke no rules and there was no reason to erase it. It’s a tiny, trivial detail, but it’s something that a staff member should not be allowed to do. I don’t have the time to staff this game anymore and I don’t have the energy to fight for twenty hours over every rule again. Maybe, just maybe my walking out will cause whoever erased my post to think twice the next time they go to abuse their position. Maybe the rest of staff will give them dirty looks until they mend their ways. Maybe nobody will care, but I figure it’s worth a try. So to you, anonymous staff member, I say this: You are the reason that this game no longer has Gelgarin, and for that you will surely burn in hell.
The sun is setting and I’m running out of words, so I think it’s time for my famous last ones.
Don't remember me as a veteran... though I was.
Don't remember me as a crusader against fascism... though I was.
Don't remember me for my blogs or forum posts… though I agree that they were pretty great.
Don't remember me for being on staff, or for hatching two hundred Omnis, or for my weird relationship with Letainted… as memorable as they may be.
Remember me for one thing and one thing only.
My ego.
Because; and this is the massive plot twist, I don't really have one. I'm actually an extremely humble and down to earth guy.
My name's Stefan, I'm 22 and a write for a living. I’m quite shy, reserved and don’t like dealing with people a great deal. In my spare time I volunteer with adults afflicted by learning difficulties or special needs, and in the future I’d like to be a teacher.
I'm not a raving egomaniac like Gelgarin. Gelgarin was just a character I made up because it made dealing with staff and buying Omni eggs easier. Over the years more and more people seemed to find Gelgarin entertaining, so I kept the act up. Gelgarin grew to the point of being a part of the Rescreatu mythology, and it has now got to the point where, after years of minimal activity I can step into the shoutbox at will and be instantly recognised by half a dozen people I never spoke to.
So don't remember me for any of the things I did, just remember me for being Gelgarin.
The coolest, most self confident, most intelligent, best in bed, strongest, bravest and all round greatest bad ass son of a gun this game will ever see.
I don't have a clue who most of you are these days, but you're a part of Rescreatu, and as such I'll miss every single one of you.
Gelgarin…
Rest. In. Peace.
One last show,
One final battle,
A famous last stand.
I can quit any time I want,
But tonight,
This night,
One night only,
I say goodbye.
Some of you saw it, some of you missed it, but tonight Gelgarin logged out of Rescreatu for the final time. I honestly don’t know exactly how long I’ve been here at this point, though I’d guess something like eight years. Regardless it’s long enough that I don’t feel I can walk out of this place without giving it a proper goodbye.
I've been here since long before day one. I was here when this game was a completely different game called Forgotten Creatures. It was run by Patrick and it was crap.
I’ve you’ve ever played Marcoland then think of that, but broken, with hardly any features and only one long term active pla[injection]yer. Me. Everyone else had left the game on account of almost none of its features working, but I stuck around for reasons unknown. After a while Patrick handed me some basic development access for the game, and I spent my time creating little role-play quests and sewer mazes for the occasional new pla[injection]yer to enjoy. I don’t think we ever established an active community of more than six, but it was fun.
Eventually we came to a point where Patrick had gone swanning off to join in the development of Rescreatu (I don’t know the pre-history there I’m afraid) and decided he could no longer afford to develop Forgotten Creatures on any level. He did however came back every once in a while to chat with me, and eventually brought me over to Rescreatu as a beta tester.
Res in those days was a very different place, for one the user ba[injection]se was just big enough that a comment made in the shoutbox would usually remain there for the best part of a week. Now you’re lucky if you’re emotional goodbye speech isn’t wiped from view in thirty seconds. I’ve watched Rescreatu grow from pokey start up project that nobody played into the thousand user at a time behemoth that it is today. I’ve watched and contributed to this becoming a game that I am happy to announce in not crap.
I’ve seen or been a part of every major development in Rescreatu history. I’ve spent years as a staff member, and I have spent years arguing constantly with them. These years tended to overlap. Throughout my time here I have encountered more pla[injection]yers than I could possibly hope to remember, although given that I don't bother to remember people’s names that does not say much.
That being said, there are a few pla[injection]yers, past and present, who have enriched this world we play in to such a point that they deserve a mention.
Teresa (o_O), Roza and Tainted, you three are the greatest pla[injection]yers this game has ever known. You were the most dedicated support staff members the game ever had, and you were my favourite people here. But for the three of you this cynical, misanthropic, post teen male would have never made a home here. Rozi walked out of the game for reasons that we shall come to later. Teresa still exists in a fleeting fashion and Tainted remains as the rock around which the entire support department stands.
O_o (I never got the hang of calling her Teresa) is the reason I applied to be on staff, and was my closest friend for the majority of my active days on Rescreatu. She first came to my attention when she started repeatedly giving me Omni eggs to encourage my blogging, and we became fast friends. She talked me in to applying for staff and talked staff into having me on board. We regularly used to sit up through the night (well, night for me, she’s a yank so God knows what time it was) shooting the breeze and having fun in the shoutbox. Teresa invested more into the support work than any other pla[injection]yer this game has ever had. She was so dedicated to the game, even when the game treated her like poo, which as I promised we’ll talk about later.
Rozi was my unflinching source of information. As we’ve established already, my memory for names is not exactly brilliant. So whenever somebody approached me about anything my first course of action would immediately be to jump on messenger and shout “Oi. Rozi. Do I like _______?”. I doubt anybody has ever had quite an encyclopaedic knowledge of this game’s user ba[injection]se as had Rozi, and she would invariably be able to tell me exactly why I didn’t like the pla[injection]yer in question. Rozi will also go down in history as the support staff member who had the courage to do what Teresa and I didn’t, which was to walk out when things went to hell. When the department was completely falling apart, Rozi was the one to man up and say what needed to be said, and for that she should go down as a hero.
Then there’s LeTainted… and what can I tell you about LeTained that you don’t already know. She’s been here forever, and has a better understanding of what it means to be on staff than anybody else. My opinion is that the support division has somewhat lost its way in recent years. Staff members these days have to log their hours and activity because everyone knows that bureaucracy is exactly what you want to hand unpaid volunteers. Support work it the very old days was never pitched to be about how many hours you contribute, or how many queries you answer, or how many infractions you distribute… it was much simpler. You just had to make the game a nicer place to be. Tainted is the only significant person this game has known who I have never seen a single bad word laid against. She’s everyone’s friend and she enriches the community just by being here. Whether that is for five hours a day or five hours a week shouldn’t matter. Tainted learned support work from the very best, which was me, and has gone on to far exceed my ability in the department. There is nobody better a prospective staff member could model their attitude on than LeTainted. She is a legend in every sense of the word.
Oh, and just for the record; at no point in time was I actually doing her. That was just a little joke we had. It was funny because everyone knew I was out of her league.
So to my three best friends, the three queens of the support department, I issue my most sincere thanks. Patrick made the game, but the three of you made it fun. For me and for a hundred others. Thanks girls.
Nekodragon, Kirsti, Gunmetal – I didn’t know any of these three well at all, but their contributions to the game are such that they cannot be ignored.
Neko is, in my eyes at least, the most talented artist this site has ever seen. She’s been around since the very beginning and has contributed so much art it is unreal. More im[injection]portantly, she has done it all for no reward and with no motivation outside of her own love of Res. I cast my memory back to a time when Rescreatu’s art supply way drying up, and when Patrick was legitimately offering an initiative whereby artists would be paid for their work. It was Neko (at least I think it was Neko, and if I’m wrong then I’ll be left looking jolly silly) who stood up and said “no thanks – I do this to support Res, I don’t need to be paid” and in doing so won my endless respect. Neko is symbolic of the unbelievable dedication that has been shown by so many artists to the development of Rescreatu. Names such as Xee, Eenob and… err… I told you I don’t remember names.
Kirsti I didn’t know at all, but she was the first big Gelgarin supporter on the staff and paved the ground for me to finally ascend into a support position. When I finally joined support staff I got access to the Rescreatu staff forum, complete with the four years of game history it contained. Once there I was dismayed to learn that quite a few staff members from history didn’t actually like me very much. As much of a charismatic stallion I was amongst the user ba[injection]se because of my willingness to stand up to staff members when they were misusing their power (for example trying to ban the discussion of politics despite it being expressly authorised in the rules at the time), it turned out that the staff at the time didn’t really appreciate it. There were quite a lot of threads from three past three years calling me an arrogant malcontent, and Kirsti was a reliable contributor to them, pointing out that I was actually pretty brilliant. She even used to post a few of my more controversial blogs on the staff forum in order to generate discussion, and that’s just plain awesome. Good on you Kirsti, the community should fondly remember you for more than just your fancy underwear.
Then there’s Gunmetal, who I did know a little… I just didn’t like very much. I was never fond of having another alpha dog stomping around on my turf, pissing against my lampposts and mounting my women. That being said, Gun’s staff contribution has to be recognised as one of the most extensive in Rescreatu history. You’re not getting a flowery, sentimental paragraph Gun; but I’ll acknowledge that you did a bloody good job and I’ll thank you for it. I hope you appreciate the hell out of it.
Now, you’ve all sat patiently through one and a half thousand words of me thanking people, but we all know that a speech like this would not be complete without a nice big dollop of crying like a schoolgirl. So now I present, the part you’ve all been waiting for, a near comprehensive list of the people I didn’t like.
Matt – Conned me out of my Ishu on my first day as an active pla[injection]yer. Constantly abused bugs and bots without punishment because he had some connection to the founding of the site. Was also a gigantic turd. I hope he gets hit be a falling buffalo.
Whiteraven – Almost destroyed the support department with her constant backstabbing. She always used to come to me to complain about how Rozi and Teresa weren’t strong enough to be members of the support team. At the same time she would go to Rozi and Teresa to complain about how I was too much of a loose cannon to be on staff. She banned people for reasons that had nothing to do with the game, she was unpopular with the majority of the user ba[injection]se and she tried to veto my support staff application and then lied to my face about it. I’m glad she’s gone.
Zara – Actually did destroy the support department. After Hail went MIA Patrick brought her in to try and reform the department. She was not good at her job. She kept us all permanently in the dark about what was going on for months, then surprised us with a list of proposed reforms that still flabbergast me to this day, and told us that she had no interest in discussing any of them with us. This is the point at which Rozi walked out, but it got a whole lot worse.
Zara’s next crime was to fire Teresa for something that Patrick was later forced to admit that she did not do. Zara had from in this area actually; she’d previously kicked eenobegerto off staff for “leaking art”, when in fact it was privately admitted that she was canned for being a pain in the foot. After Rozi, Teresa and I vocally opposed her ideas she decided that she wanted rid of us. After Rozi walked out she sold Patrick on the idea that Teresa needed to go as well (rest assured Patrick lost every scrap of respect I ever had for him that day). Together they pretended she’s leaked some art and fired her. It was only after weeks of poo that Patrick finally admitted that it was all a made up story. Zara also tried to get rid of me, but Patrick wouldn’t agree to it. Zara is the worst staff member this game ever had. She contributed precisely nothing to the game (all of her reforms died a very quick death) and cost the game so much. Rescreatu would be a better place if she had never existed.
Last by not least I’d like to rain my condemnation down upon whatever Muppet in staff decided to delete my post today. Yeah, people who’ve been playing a game for eight years don’t just spontaneously decide to walk out, there is a reason. Earlier today I made a perfectly valid and mildly humorous argument against the reintroduction of Omni eggs, which somebody on staff, I don’t know who (though I suspect 14brokenmirrors) decided to delete. Well sorry, but I’m not putting up with that poo. My post broke no rules and there was no reason to erase it. It’s a tiny, trivial detail, but it’s something that a staff member should not be allowed to do. I don’t have the time to staff this game anymore and I don’t have the energy to fight for twenty hours over every rule again. Maybe, just maybe my walking out will cause whoever erased my post to think twice the next time they go to abuse their position. Maybe the rest of staff will give them dirty looks until they mend their ways. Maybe nobody will care, but I figure it’s worth a try. So to you, anonymous staff member, I say this: You are the reason that this game no longer has Gelgarin, and for that you will surely burn in hell.
The sun is setting and I’m running out of words, so I think it’s time for my famous last ones.
Don't remember me as a veteran... though I was.
Don't remember me as a crusader against fascism... though I was.
Don't remember me for my blogs or forum posts… though I agree that they were pretty great.
Don't remember me for being on staff, or for hatching two hundred Omnis, or for my weird relationship with Letainted… as memorable as they may be.
Remember me for one thing and one thing only.
My ego.
Because; and this is the massive plot twist, I don't really have one. I'm actually an extremely humble and down to earth guy.
My name's Stefan, I'm 22 and a write for a living. I’m quite shy, reserved and don’t like dealing with people a great deal. In my spare time I volunteer with adults afflicted by learning difficulties or special needs, and in the future I’d like to be a teacher.
I'm not a raving egomaniac like Gelgarin. Gelgarin was just a character I made up because it made dealing with staff and buying Omni eggs easier. Over the years more and more people seemed to find Gelgarin entertaining, so I kept the act up. Gelgarin grew to the point of being a part of the Rescreatu mythology, and it has now got to the point where, after years of minimal activity I can step into the shoutbox at will and be instantly recognised by half a dozen people I never spoke to.
So don't remember me for any of the things I did, just remember me for being Gelgarin.
The coolest, most self confident, most intelligent, best in bed, strongest, bravest and all round greatest bad ass son of a gun this game will ever see.
I don't have a clue who most of you are these days, but you're a part of Rescreatu, and as such I'll miss every single one of you.
Gelgarin…
Rest. In. Peace.
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