They don't :c
Gender: Male
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Rank: Moderators
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2008 6:34 pm
Posts: 3188
I remember June 2007. Out of the freaking blue, my uncle got me a Nintendo DS Lite. It wasn't my birthday, it wasn't Christmas. It was... June. Out of the kindness of his heart, he just bought me a DS, and a copy of Super Mario 64 DS. Gaming in my country is an extremely expensive hobby, partly due to our currency being shit when converted to US dollars, and partly due to game and console sellers here being very limited, and taking advantage of the low demand by severely overpricing games and hardware. So even though I wanted a DS really, really badly, I knew I would never be able to buy one, let alone games for it. Yet there was my uncle, who I know could afford one, but of course never asked him to, since I knew nobody but myself should waste money on something meant only for myself. There he was, gifting me one, alongside a copy of Super Mario 64 DS... and an R4 flashcart.
I know what you're thinking. I dislike piracy as much as the next guy, I really do. I think we all know when a game's developer is completely deserving of our cash. And there's nothing I'd love more than giving it to them, to contribute to them, to invest in them, so they can continue developing great games with that money (I actually plan to buy copies of these games or games that are worth as much as them as soon as I have money of my own and I can afford them.) But I lacked (and still lack) the money to afford a single game, due to the reasons I mentioned... and I kinda wanted my uncle to feel proud, or at least, I didn't want him to feel he had completely wasted his money on me. I actually didn't know what to do with the R4 for three or four weeks, during which I played nothing but SM64DS, day after day. Until I finally decided on piracy. So I started browsing ROM sites.
The first game that caught my eye, for reasons I may never know, was the plain-looking visual novel "Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney". A.K.A. the game that changed my life.
As I said, I may never know what attracted me to it. I mean, there were no reasons why, why would such a game attract me? I had grown up on casual PlayStation titles like the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon games. I had never experienced groundbreakers such as Ocarina of Time or Metal Gear Solid that may have gotten me into gaming (and to this date I still haven't managed to beat any of these two.) So if somebody had asked me "What's the first game you're going to play on your spanking-new DS, having the entire library at your disposal?", I probably wouldn't have answered a
Japanese legal drama. Yet I did end up downloading it, and it truly was the game that changed my life.
The game itself was amazing. From the very First Turnabout to Turnabout Goodbyes. Then I beat the game. My best friend at the time had interests similar to mine, so I told him about this wonderfully weird game I had found, and now was eager to tell him I had finished it and how great it was... but HOLD IT! A new case has been unlocked! Never before had a game surprised me that way (remember, my gaming past was practically non-existent and composed entirely of great, yet casual games.) For that I still thank Takumi. Then I beat the excellent Rise from the Ashes, and told my friend about it. Apparently he had done his homework, and through some cool-looking fansite, found out that there was a sequel to that game expecting me... and a third game in the series was coming out the following November! That was like two months and a half away, so I was stoked. Immediately after that I got to playing "Justice for All". With school and everything, I got around to finishing it by November... the month when, according to that fansite my friend had shown me, the third game was to be released. When the time came, I downloaded "Trials and Tribulations", completely obnoxious of the drama the game's developer had put fans through before deciding to release the game in western territories. I blissfully downloaded it, and played through it.
By the time I was done with the (to me) tear-inducing Bridge to the Turnabout, which would be beginning January 2008, my view on gaming had been completely revolutionized. I no longer thought games had to be only for a couple hours of fun every now and then. I now knew gaming could mean entire new worlds with new, full-fledged characters, awaiting me to explore it through whatever gameplay method, as simple as they may be. After wiping my tears dry, my first reaction was denial: "This can't end here! There has to be more of this! They need to make another one!" pretty much summarizes my thoughts back then. I needed more Ace Attorney... and conveniently for me, the fansite my friend had shown me listed a fourth game in the saga, that had been released in April of the previous year, and was to be released stateside the following February, which meant in just a month I would be... wait, what's this? This site has a... forum? How the hell did I not notice this before!? I honestly hadn't. Anyway, I knew the basics of what a forum was: everyone had their own accounts, and they would post comments on their own topics or other people's. But I had never been in one. Yet I was willing to give it a try. So I hit that Forums button.
That day was the 21st of January of 2008. If you haven't done the math yet, let me save you the bother: that was 4 years and two days ago. I immediately created an account by the name of "ivanramos13". My first post was in... the Berry Big Circus. Heh. It was a thread in which each poster would mention an AA character, the following poster would describe that character in one word, and propose a different character for the poster before them. I believe my first post was a reply to a member called... I forget, but the words "Gamer Erman" come to mind. I don't remember what character I was describing either, but I do remember proposing Lamiroir for the next poster, who was this Gamer Erman man too. He replied that he didn't know what character that was (neither did I, mind you), so he couldn't describe her. I remember replying... immaturely. I soon got a PM from a member then known as Bleachlover, who let me know that new users could introduce themselves in the Press Conference subforum. I did so, noticing my earlier posts had been inappropriate... but blaming my little brother for them. Of course he had never heard of the site, but I got away with it :3
I can't stress enough how much my life has changed since then. I discovered the true nature of the Internet throughout the years, and learned how to get by in here. Some call it "netiquette". This forum and its community have taught me that. I now cannot conceive life without the Internet (whether or not that is good or how sad that is are not open to debate), the Internet you guys taught me how to use, and I plan to make a living out of this knowledge (and its expansion) in the not-so-distant future. Thank you, Court-Records, for opening up the path that is defining my life.
...But that's not important right now. At least, that's not what I want to thank you guys for in this thread. What I want to thank you for is this four years I've been here. This four years of pure awesomeness that are now memories... During this four years I have laughed at Fapman's hilarious sprite comics... I've loved every second of RevFirst and Darzie P's "Channel Six", Tajiri Ami's "Reminiscence ~ Countdown", Greeny's "Francis Equitas: Ace Casanova (And Attorney)", Witcheys's "Justin Case: Ace Attorney", and Lida_Rose's "Last Comic Standing: PW Style" smiley comic (remember smiley comics?), thanks to which I got my first Internet friend (thank you for everything, Lida, and I swear we'll make LCS come back some day!)...
I've admired the skills of Ceres and Zinle at sprite-making and Vickinator and Purple Angel at graphic editing... I've wowed at EnterTheJawsTheme's "Gyakuten Saiban Appellate Project"... I've learned how being trolled feels like with Holy Hell... I've regretfully let Hakuro DeKiller's "FB-11: Turnabout Assassin" to die when I ran out of things to do without sounding like an idiot... I've looked up at Croik, Wooster, General Luigi, DL-69, Tinker, Ceres, Gerkuman, Anders, Mikker, Lunaria, Nose, Mayhem, Blademaster_Orca... and then, thanks solely to one guy, Electroboy, I've joined their ranks, and become the 4th most post-prolific staff member of the Forums (I cannot thank you enough, Electro, I really can't.)... I've also learned that a troll's best weapon can be image macros, thanks to the many accounts of proxy-master Proxy... and I then learned the art of trolling with DoMaya...
I've discovered roleplaying, taking part in RPs such as the (to me) legendary "Legions of Darkness RP", the highly promising "Court-Records: The RP", and "The C-R Adventure", alongside book_wyrm, Lida_Rose, Figaro, BlackJack, Dimbo, PandaPrinzessin, Dawn, BladeSatoshiX, Wanacoba, Greeny, Percei, ShadowEdgeworth, denerop, LordWolfODonnell, Meenyman, Ptapcc, Inquisitor Amakiir, Val Valkyrie, Nadindi, yuzikichan, Robin Goodfellow, and probably others I am forgetting (sorry if I am D: )... I've witnessed the end of MechaBowser's pioneering Case Maker, the rise and fall of both the DS casemaker and PWLib, the former of which I spent an entire year of my life helping develop (anyone remember the never-ending development of 1.2?), I've watched the war between both unfold... I've witnessed the release of some fancases, including the epic Turnabout Substitution, and the way-too-prolonged development of end-all-be-all fangame Remnants of the Past... and I've even tried to make my own fangame! I even have lots of very cool ideas I wanted to use for it (if I may say so myself), which I now intend to develop into an animated feature of sorts (more on this if I ever get it off the ground, promise)...
The entire Lawyerman Project has passed me by all these years... I've witnessed some of the most important "events" in the "history" of C-R, like the banning of BlackJack and Lind_L_Tailor, and the subsequent creation of The Otaku... I've learned to hate The Otaku, then I've learned not to, and to accept them... and then I've seen some of this community's most valued members moving there... I've felt bad for wannabe4chanmod (a.k.a. Fetus, anyone remember her?)... I saw the new (now old) C-R Family Tree emerge from the ground thanks to CarChaseCityMan, I've become that Tree's moderator, I've had a C-R family (let's see here... son of Lida_Rose and Aliucon, husband of Furtzurbus (<3), father of Jaydrick0620, .Marisa., Allie_Fey and godot_blend_#107! Did I get that right? Haha)... I've to build the Tree the incredibly ambitious RP City... HELL, I've even tried my hand at fanart!
There's just too much stuff that's coming to my mind right now... so many fanart, so many fanfiction, sprites, sprite comics, smiley comics, flame wars, discussions, arguments, flame wars (haha), speculation, hype, disappointment... I want to mention it all, but I simply can't, I'd really love to list everything but not only do I forget, but also if I tried to list it all here, I'd lose more readers than I've already lost by making this post so freaking long.
And here we are, C-R. We've got six game sin the series, the latter of which is causing some stir due to Capcom not wanting to localize it (fortunately there's the fan translation going on), but goddammit, we've got a series of six consistently-high-quality games! With an EPIC cross-over on the way that promises to blow the previous six titles out of the water! Made by the creator of the first four games everyone loves! Who, when not working on Ace Attorney, was doing Ghost Trick, one of the most original, if not one of the best new IPs of this generation! We've gotten a
spiky-haired lawyer into Marvel vs. Capcom 3! We have an online-chat Ace Attorney simulator in beta! The C-R Family Tree has grown anew! We've got a movie adaptation of the first game coming out next month in Japan! And we've got the best newshound from Japan we could ever have hoped for! (Thank you, JapaneseGIRL!)
And need I remind you that you lot helped make it possible for us to gather $3000 for an admin that was going through the worst time of his life?
Yes, one could say we are a bit inactive right now. Actually, that might be a big understatement. But we are not dead. We never are, we never were and we never will be. We've got a franchise in its 10th Anniversary (that means it's 10 years old!), with a potential megaton coming this Friday from Japan, and even though the western situation is dire, we must hope it won't last. We have our dry streaks, but we will come back. We always do. The old members may never return, but new ones will take their place. But they'll never replace them. But they'll keep this place fresh. This has always been like this, and I believe the future will be no exception.
So thank you, Court-Records, for the four years of my life that taught me about gaming, people, the Internet and the world as a whole. I owe all that, in a way or another, to you. But most importantly... thanks for the memories. I had a blast. I hope the years to come are just as awesome, and even better.
See ya in 2016... if we're all still alive next year!