Post by Bing on Jan 30, 2022 0:24:10 GMT -5
It took a long time to find the right words for this.
Consider it a blogpost, I guess. The ramblings of a guy who, for today at least, was able to push past his self-conscious nature and talk about something important.
If you wanna read this, please feel free. Nothing in particular here is groundbreaking. It’s just me, perhaps selfishly, sharing something about myself. If you don’t read, then I guess you probably won’t see this part, so you succeeded in your mission.
I was 17 when I joined World of Dragonball: Souls. I played a character named Bing, who has since become my namesake. When I saw the site, I’d figured it would just be something fun to do for a weekend or two. I’d chill, mess with a few of the annoying people in the chat, and maybe have a cool death in a big fight thread.
But that didn’t happen.
I met a lot of people early on that I still have as friends to this day. I think Ed (Nero) had joined just before or just after me, and I recall he and I sending messages back and forth through the forum’s messaging system to plan out a potential thread together. Just like “hey we should have our characters meet!” That was a thing, by the way. Evidently, 2015 was long enough ago that people didn’t congregate on discord. There was the cbox: the tiny little thing that sped messages across your screen a mile a minute at peak hours. Yeah it was archaic, but I think some of my favorite conversations from that era took place in that little box. It was great. We also had an unofficial, unmoderated Skype chat. Plenty of them actually. Usually it served to form cliques, but occasionally the good ones would just be a genchat-like experience.
I remember meeting Vipoi for the first time. He was a big shot back then, a whopping 1 million max power to my meager 9,000. Something about that had been so exciting. It was on a road trip that I messaged him to thread, thinking he’d blow me off and laugh at me like you hear in the role play horror stories they post on 4chan. But he didn’t. Nobody ever did. Still, nobody ever does. The horror stories don’t exist here, nor will they ever. We get our bad eggs, on occasion, but their intentions I think are never as self centered or harmful as they seem to their victims. Everybody is always trying to have fun at the end of the day. That’s pretty important, I think. I’m thankful this place has allowed so many people to do that.
I met a lot of other people early on, too. Names that don’t mean much anymore but meant so much to me then. Scargot, Reikiko, Zexama and Wyntre (that’s Cheri now). I fell in love with so many characters. So many inventive concepts and unique executions. To me I was just a regular character. Bing was pretty plain. His whole point was to be the Tien to whoever played our Goku. Bing ended up being far more important than that, which always surprised me. I feel like it’s egotistical to admit, but I was always proud of Bing. Xylo and Breech, too, who I won’t waste your time on a whole long-winded explanation for. Those who knew them understand why I mention their names, and those who don’t probably won’t care about a character who technically isn’t even canon to the site you’re reading this on.
I felt proud because I was able to attribute to and influence so many plotlines. Shape character arcs and build rivalries. When Bing, the Kami and hero of earth, was killed and turned into a cyborgified personification of his guilt and anger, it mattered to people. It mattered to a lot of people, and that kinda brings a tear to my eye.
I remember when World of Dragon Ball: Souls ended. We had decided it after what felt like a long four years or so. It ended on a high note; with a sort of wish fulfillment tournament. Multiverse stuff, in fanworks, has always felt a little silly. I never understood it until I got to imagine and picture all these AU’s meeting and combating. Xylo speaking to another version of himself; a ruthless, more uncaring Namekian who forced his brother to fuse with him and conquer the galaxy. He was bitter about meeting himself, and I thought that was such an interesting facet of the writing process. To have the ability to quite literally face your worse self was engaging. Unfortunately, I was busy when souls was ending and I missed the festivities. The reads between car rides and retellings from friends made it feel like I had been in there myself the whole way through.
I remember the day the sequel site, World of Dragonball, affectionately nicknamed Turbo, opened. It was called that because we had found a way to automate the grading process. By now I’d been an admin for at least three years (I neglected to mention that above, huh? On-again-off-again admin for six years running is just as impressive) and I recall the elation of opening the site early so members could make characters and check out the new mechanics. Me and Sketch (Hi, Fend) worked hard on the Signature Skill system, which has transmogrified into what we call Sparking Attacks. We were nervous that we’d done it all wrong, because a lot of it was just the two of us. I like to think she did a lot more of the work than I did, but maybe I’m selling myself short.
We had a bit of trouble opening week. Turns out we should’ve tested just how excited people were. The sites gain speeds were ludicrous. If I recall right, someone most certainly hit 20,000 Base power before the month was out. I don’t think it even lasted a fortnight, if you can believe it. I think we had adjusted a little too hard back then; turned the valve a little too low for a little too long. It worked out, though, in the end.
I remember meeting Nashua (Alva/Taori). Vocado was one of the two characters I played then, and he ended up being the leader of the Saiyan rebellion (there was a whole thing with the Arcosians. Don’t worry about it). If I recall right, Nashua and I met up in a thread pretty early on. Building a base in earth’s tundras, which, in hindsight, seems like the opposite of where you’d want to hide from ice demons. That thread was really engaging. Turbo had a lot of threads like that. Simple concepts that worked towards building the world in little ways. Having a base in the mountainous north was canon from then on. People who asked to thread would learn about it, and it became a hub for a little while. I think I mentioned it as far along as two or three years later, when it had become abandoned due to the Saiyans returning home. Vocado was evil, by then, and he fought the President of earth for his Dragonball. It was a really engaging read.
I remember meeting Ramen(unfortunately, he isn’t playing here right now, but he went by Kohi when the site opened). He doesn’t play much anymore. Back when we met it was a bad day for me. A Death Enabled Thread (that’s Action Threads for you new folk) that had gone sour. Mumbo, my other character, has a single buddy in their bid to destroy the Lookout. They had around twenty opponents, and it felt a little frustrating to have my agency taken away. Back then, there was no wound system. If you lost in a big thread, your life was in the enemies hands. Through the good graces of two dozen people, no casualties occurred. I don’t know why or how, but it happened. They were kind enough, as a group, to simply decide that this evil act would be given a slap on the wrist so that we could continue to plot and plan. Ramen was a fairly new player at the time, and thought it’d be cool to fire a shot at Mumbo as he left to give him a “scram get outta here” type mark. On any other day, I’d have considered that a really cool and clever way to build a future relationship. I wish I hadn’t snapped at Ramen in the moment, but I did. Never was proud of it. I like to think I apologized to them privately, but I don’t remember if I did. Whatever the case, we’re friends now(at least I hope we are. Plenty of great threads together.
I remember becoming head admin. I’m not anymore; nobody is. I remember being terrified when I took the mantle. So much responsibility. So much I could screw up. I don’t remember much from this time, only that I was anxious a lot. My mind is funny like that. It’s good at forgetting things that made me scared or angry. I wish it wouldn’t do that so much.
I think, looking back, that I did decently enough. The site didn’t implode under my watchful eye, but I don’t think I made any great strides to improve it either. I was scared to make changes that needed to be changed, and when I handed it off to Sketch, she was just as scared (I think, anyways). I’m glad none of us have to share the burden of leading the team alone. Some of us are a bit more assertive than others on the team, but that’s not a bad thing. That’s how humans work.
I remember when Turbo ended, too. It made me sad when we decided on it. The site had slowed down, due to some reason or another. We all had our theories. My best guess is that the combination of six years of shared stories made it hard for new players to want to jump in, and a string of dramatic fallouts made it hard for old players to want to stick around. I won’t dwell on this too much, because it was a time I don’t remember fondly. What matters is Turbo’s decline brought us here. Ideas swam around, problems were fixed, and by the end of it all?
I remember when Dragon Ball: Sparking opened. It was almost a year ago today. It would’ve been a year old when I was supposed to post this, but I was feeling sentimental tonight and had to gather my thoughts. It wouldn’t feel the same if I sat on this post for a little over a month.
I like to think we’ve done good so far. I think this is our best yet. We’ve said goodbye to a lot of friends along the way. Some dear, others… Not so much.
Lots has happened already. So many plotlines to jump into and characters to interact with. Of the three sites I’ve been a part of, I might argue that this one has the most engaging cast of them all. Sure, I have some favorites that I simply won’t concede due to nostalgia, but everyone has gotten better at writing, and it shows.
Seven years is a long time. There’s a lot of names, encounters and interactions I didn’t mention here, but I wanted to keep the message short enough that someone would take their time out to read it.
There are a lot of people I didn’t give time to in this message, but just know I didn’t forget you. I truly appreciate everyone I’ve met here. Even if we have spats or misgivings, if we don’t talk anymore or never shared a private conversation, just know I do appreciate you.
To Etoru, Maeve, Pieter, Defrosch, Wyntre, Vipoi, Zucceta, Habana, Doctor Kouda, Rabu, Donatsu, Scargot, Zexama, Articho, Toma, Liang, Kaza, Cipher, Ramen, Nashua, Aurora, Cress, Ward, Capper, Bamboo, Bloom, Dosu, Amara, Zerori, Zhalla, Derry, Plato: These aren’t the names you all use anymore, but they’re the names I remember. Thank you.
To Bing, Xylo, Breech, Sage, Kuroma, Vocado, Mumbo, Callion, Min, Erebos and Tuner: Thanks for letting me write you.
For every name I wrote there’s a dozen I forgot. Please don’t take that as my hatred, but as my ignorance and forgetfulness. We’re chillin’ baby.
They say seven is a lucky number. I feel pretty lucky so far.
Let’s hope there’s another seven in my future.
Consider it a blogpost, I guess. The ramblings of a guy who, for today at least, was able to push past his self-conscious nature and talk about something important.
If you wanna read this, please feel free. Nothing in particular here is groundbreaking. It’s just me, perhaps selfishly, sharing something about myself. If you don’t read, then I guess you probably won’t see this part, so you succeeded in your mission.
I was 17 when I joined World of Dragonball: Souls. I played a character named Bing, who has since become my namesake. When I saw the site, I’d figured it would just be something fun to do for a weekend or two. I’d chill, mess with a few of the annoying people in the chat, and maybe have a cool death in a big fight thread.
But that didn’t happen.
I met a lot of people early on that I still have as friends to this day. I think Ed (Nero) had joined just before or just after me, and I recall he and I sending messages back and forth through the forum’s messaging system to plan out a potential thread together. Just like “hey we should have our characters meet!” That was a thing, by the way. Evidently, 2015 was long enough ago that people didn’t congregate on discord. There was the cbox: the tiny little thing that sped messages across your screen a mile a minute at peak hours. Yeah it was archaic, but I think some of my favorite conversations from that era took place in that little box. It was great. We also had an unofficial, unmoderated Skype chat. Plenty of them actually. Usually it served to form cliques, but occasionally the good ones would just be a genchat-like experience.
I remember meeting Vipoi for the first time. He was a big shot back then, a whopping 1 million max power to my meager 9,000. Something about that had been so exciting. It was on a road trip that I messaged him to thread, thinking he’d blow me off and laugh at me like you hear in the role play horror stories they post on 4chan. But he didn’t. Nobody ever did. Still, nobody ever does. The horror stories don’t exist here, nor will they ever. We get our bad eggs, on occasion, but their intentions I think are never as self centered or harmful as they seem to their victims. Everybody is always trying to have fun at the end of the day. That’s pretty important, I think. I’m thankful this place has allowed so many people to do that.
I met a lot of other people early on, too. Names that don’t mean much anymore but meant so much to me then. Scargot, Reikiko, Zexama and Wyntre (that’s Cheri now). I fell in love with so many characters. So many inventive concepts and unique executions. To me I was just a regular character. Bing was pretty plain. His whole point was to be the Tien to whoever played our Goku. Bing ended up being far more important than that, which always surprised me. I feel like it’s egotistical to admit, but I was always proud of Bing. Xylo and Breech, too, who I won’t waste your time on a whole long-winded explanation for. Those who knew them understand why I mention their names, and those who don’t probably won’t care about a character who technically isn’t even canon to the site you’re reading this on.
I felt proud because I was able to attribute to and influence so many plotlines. Shape character arcs and build rivalries. When Bing, the Kami and hero of earth, was killed and turned into a cyborgified personification of his guilt and anger, it mattered to people. It mattered to a lot of people, and that kinda brings a tear to my eye.
I remember when World of Dragon Ball: Souls ended. We had decided it after what felt like a long four years or so. It ended on a high note; with a sort of wish fulfillment tournament. Multiverse stuff, in fanworks, has always felt a little silly. I never understood it until I got to imagine and picture all these AU’s meeting and combating. Xylo speaking to another version of himself; a ruthless, more uncaring Namekian who forced his brother to fuse with him and conquer the galaxy. He was bitter about meeting himself, and I thought that was such an interesting facet of the writing process. To have the ability to quite literally face your worse self was engaging. Unfortunately, I was busy when souls was ending and I missed the festivities. The reads between car rides and retellings from friends made it feel like I had been in there myself the whole way through.
I remember the day the sequel site, World of Dragonball, affectionately nicknamed Turbo, opened. It was called that because we had found a way to automate the grading process. By now I’d been an admin for at least three years (I neglected to mention that above, huh? On-again-off-again admin for six years running is just as impressive) and I recall the elation of opening the site early so members could make characters and check out the new mechanics. Me and Sketch (Hi, Fend) worked hard on the Signature Skill system, which has transmogrified into what we call Sparking Attacks. We were nervous that we’d done it all wrong, because a lot of it was just the two of us. I like to think she did a lot more of the work than I did, but maybe I’m selling myself short.
We had a bit of trouble opening week. Turns out we should’ve tested just how excited people were. The sites gain speeds were ludicrous. If I recall right, someone most certainly hit 20,000 Base power before the month was out. I don’t think it even lasted a fortnight, if you can believe it. I think we had adjusted a little too hard back then; turned the valve a little too low for a little too long. It worked out, though, in the end.
I remember meeting Nashua (Alva/Taori). Vocado was one of the two characters I played then, and he ended up being the leader of the Saiyan rebellion (there was a whole thing with the Arcosians. Don’t worry about it). If I recall right, Nashua and I met up in a thread pretty early on. Building a base in earth’s tundras, which, in hindsight, seems like the opposite of where you’d want to hide from ice demons. That thread was really engaging. Turbo had a lot of threads like that. Simple concepts that worked towards building the world in little ways. Having a base in the mountainous north was canon from then on. People who asked to thread would learn about it, and it became a hub for a little while. I think I mentioned it as far along as two or three years later, when it had become abandoned due to the Saiyans returning home. Vocado was evil, by then, and he fought the President of earth for his Dragonball. It was a really engaging read.
I remember meeting Ramen(unfortunately, he isn’t playing here right now, but he went by Kohi when the site opened). He doesn’t play much anymore. Back when we met it was a bad day for me. A Death Enabled Thread (that’s Action Threads for you new folk) that had gone sour. Mumbo, my other character, has a single buddy in their bid to destroy the Lookout. They had around twenty opponents, and it felt a little frustrating to have my agency taken away. Back then, there was no wound system. If you lost in a big thread, your life was in the enemies hands. Through the good graces of two dozen people, no casualties occurred. I don’t know why or how, but it happened. They were kind enough, as a group, to simply decide that this evil act would be given a slap on the wrist so that we could continue to plot and plan. Ramen was a fairly new player at the time, and thought it’d be cool to fire a shot at Mumbo as he left to give him a “scram get outta here” type mark. On any other day, I’d have considered that a really cool and clever way to build a future relationship. I wish I hadn’t snapped at Ramen in the moment, but I did. Never was proud of it. I like to think I apologized to them privately, but I don’t remember if I did. Whatever the case, we’re friends now(at least I hope we are. Plenty of great threads together.
I remember becoming head admin. I’m not anymore; nobody is. I remember being terrified when I took the mantle. So much responsibility. So much I could screw up. I don’t remember much from this time, only that I was anxious a lot. My mind is funny like that. It’s good at forgetting things that made me scared or angry. I wish it wouldn’t do that so much.
I think, looking back, that I did decently enough. The site didn’t implode under my watchful eye, but I don’t think I made any great strides to improve it either. I was scared to make changes that needed to be changed, and when I handed it off to Sketch, she was just as scared (I think, anyways). I’m glad none of us have to share the burden of leading the team alone. Some of us are a bit more assertive than others on the team, but that’s not a bad thing. That’s how humans work.
I remember when Turbo ended, too. It made me sad when we decided on it. The site had slowed down, due to some reason or another. We all had our theories. My best guess is that the combination of six years of shared stories made it hard for new players to want to jump in, and a string of dramatic fallouts made it hard for old players to want to stick around. I won’t dwell on this too much, because it was a time I don’t remember fondly. What matters is Turbo’s decline brought us here. Ideas swam around, problems were fixed, and by the end of it all?
I remember when Dragon Ball: Sparking opened. It was almost a year ago today. It would’ve been a year old when I was supposed to post this, but I was feeling sentimental tonight and had to gather my thoughts. It wouldn’t feel the same if I sat on this post for a little over a month.
I like to think we’ve done good so far. I think this is our best yet. We’ve said goodbye to a lot of friends along the way. Some dear, others… Not so much.
Lots has happened already. So many plotlines to jump into and characters to interact with. Of the three sites I’ve been a part of, I might argue that this one has the most engaging cast of them all. Sure, I have some favorites that I simply won’t concede due to nostalgia, but everyone has gotten better at writing, and it shows.
Seven years is a long time. There’s a lot of names, encounters and interactions I didn’t mention here, but I wanted to keep the message short enough that someone would take their time out to read it.
There are a lot of people I didn’t give time to in this message, but just know I didn’t forget you. I truly appreciate everyone I’ve met here. Even if we have spats or misgivings, if we don’t talk anymore or never shared a private conversation, just know I do appreciate you.
To Etoru, Maeve, Pieter, Defrosch, Wyntre, Vipoi, Zucceta, Habana, Doctor Kouda, Rabu, Donatsu, Scargot, Zexama, Articho, Toma, Liang, Kaza, Cipher, Ramen, Nashua, Aurora, Cress, Ward, Capper, Bamboo, Bloom, Dosu, Amara, Zerori, Zhalla, Derry, Plato: These aren’t the names you all use anymore, but they’re the names I remember. Thank you.
To Bing, Xylo, Breech, Sage, Kuroma, Vocado, Mumbo, Callion, Min, Erebos and Tuner: Thanks for letting me write you.
For every name I wrote there’s a dozen I forgot. Please don’t take that as my hatred, but as my ignorance and forgetfulness. We’re chillin’ baby.
They say seven is a lucky number. I feel pretty lucky so far.
Let’s hope there’s another seven in my future.