Well, hello hello hello!

Joined Jun 2005
7K Posts | 0+
Louisburg, NC, USA
Hey y'all!

Been a while, I know. I was sitting here thinking this morning that I have to come back to a certain site that has always been fun to hang out at.

But, why was I gone so long? Well, I'll tell you.

2009 was the start of it. I lost my house and things seemed to start to spiral downward. I started to close off a lot of hobbies that I had and really just do nothing but stew. I moved into a rental and for three years got harassed almost daily by an emotionally unstable landlady. That had t stop. So I moved again, and managed to find a place that seemed solid.

Well, things at work started to deteriorate. I had some issues with a manager who made it his daily goal to find fault with me and publicly humiliate me. Well, I got transferred, and left a few months later. During that time my car blew a head gasket on the way home. So, I was stuck driving my wife's gas hog 80 miles each day.

But the good part? When I left, I was able to raid my 401K and finance my way through school. I start my first IT gig in a few weeks as soon as the security clearance is finished. Yup. I'll be working a help desk at the post office. Add that to the fact that I scored a Jeep for almost nothing to replace my car, and I have to say things are starting to look up. I even get to head to a local grocery store check on a part time job I wanted. 40 hours a week at the post office means I can work about 15-20 hours at the grocery store to have some play around money.

I'm also going to see if my oldest wants to start hanging out here. He's glued to the 360 most days anyway. I'm gonna upgrade to the new one when this one gives up the ghost.

I'm going to lurk around a bit before I really jump back in.
 
Nice and welcome back and sweet use of the biblical!

EGA has all but given up the ghost (blatant plagiarism) but there's a few still holding on. A lot of us are same age (within a decade or so) and about the time people started graduating and getting real jobs most trailed off. Dave (bluevoodu) sold the site to a guy that's posted a few times and gone dark. At least he's somehow paying to keep the lights on. A few of the mods stop in every once in a awhile but few people post at all. I quit posting for a long time (got wrong girl, got wrong girl pregnant, work up one day wrong girl moved in, wrong girl got pregnant again, wrong girl messed up friends, side business, spent my money in drug form, finally got rid of wrong girl) but now I'm back in the hobby because my kids adore this junk! I see more of the old crowd on steam than anywhere else.

And that's another thing you'll find, steam has killed of a lot of the console interest. Just using myself as an example the ps4 xbox one is the first generation of consoles I didn't buy at launch or at least dang near it (well I guess I did get the wii u for the kids for a Christmas present that year) since the ps1. That's insane. I've started hardcore collecting on the legacy consoles and buying my aaa games on steam the Christmas / summer sale after they come out. Console games I wait till I can purchase for a few dollars when gamestop has a buy 2 get one or a nice clearance on previous generation stuff. I've had to buy new shelving since the 360 and ps3 games a dirt cheap at gamestop.

Retro, grindspine, and creepin still are fairly active and another half dozen or so of people you'd remember are on occasionally to a lesser extent so there's people to talk to, and who knows, maybe some of the guys returning can help stimulate things again. I for one am happy to see a regular return.
 
Wow! A familiar. Glad to see you. And happy that things are beginning to look up. For a while I had this dream of having the last post in everything on the site. I am glad that maybe that will not happen,... ;) ... yet. This place needs some life.

I hope that this site can get back on its wobbly feet. And as always I have become more and more entrenched in retro gaming.
 
Dude! Welcome back!!

I'm sorry to hear about your struggles but glad to hear you're back on your feet. This place has changed a lot but usual faces are still around. I'm mostly here just to have some casual conversations with old friends. Don't really feel like a moderator anymore. Though, I can still help clean up if there is spam or something.

Hope you stick around. :)
 
Keep hope alive!

I would personally like to see new members myself. I wonder what keeps them from joining.
 
It seems like the forum is a passing fad. The only forums I can think of that are still fairly active are places like IGN and Gamespot where the forum isn't the main draw. Specialized forums are still trafficed (sites like Toms Hardware come to mind) but the casual ones seem to have withered. The forum boom seems to be over and going the way of the chat room.
 
There's Neogaf. Which is probably the biggest video game forum right now. They're so big, they actually do have a bit of influence in the industry.

I tend to read there. I still haven't joined. I guess Facebook and twitter makes forums a little less relevant.
 
Nintendo 64 Forever and PcEngineFx are still getting the traffic. I go around to those quite often and am a member. But I do agree the forum boom is over. CreepinDeth you nailed it. I also think that things like Facebook & twitter have had their impact on places like this. Then you also have twitch. It is places like this that pioneered the way to those places.
 
I haven't been posting since my situation isn't far off from Dart's. After a failed move to a new job in a new city, I am trying to recover my finances by working two jobs during the week... Last week I worked sixty hours and slept only about twenty... That doesn't leave a lot of time for Monday through Friday internetting!
 
new city? I guess that means you moved out of FW, I had no idea. Sucks that didn't work out, are you back or still in new local?
 
targetrasp said:
new city? I guess that means you moved out of FW, I had no idea. Sucks that didn't work out, are you back or still in new local?

Wow, your reply was from two years ago.

I had moved back to Fort Wayne, but am STILL working a morning job at a dermatology clinic laboratory and an evening job as a guitar tech. I am beyond overworked. I have spent far too little time gaming, socializing, exercising, resting... Pretty much have just worked over the past 29 months.
 
I got into that groove but completely burned out. I was finishing up a degree (seem like i'm always finishing up something and just quit) I was trying to renovate a bigger house to move in to, and had just gotten my bosses job, on top of a few other projects and single parenting two kids.

I got fatter, balder, more stressed, and pretty much everything was getting neglected.

I've consolidated, sold off, settled on the home I've actually got paid off, focused, and have found that actually spending less time at work I'm more productive.

Decompress, distress, reconnect with friends, working your butt off should be much less permanent that 29 months
 
Yeah, I am shaving off work hours when I can, but still never feel caught up with everything.