Post by Wesley on Jan 8, 2012 3:58:19 GMT -5
The moment you've all been waiting for...
I know a lot of people have been anticipating this moment forever. I guess you could say it was inevitable. By now, most of you already know who I am. Either you've heard about me through other people on this forum, or else you've met me for yourself. Either way, it was only a matter of time before I decided to shed some light on my own personal experience. Many people have mentioned my name in the past, all tales of how truly great I am, or how horrible I am as an on-line fighter. Indeed, there are many people who love me, and many more who hate me. However, allow me to put aside a lot of these third-person tales for a moment as I share with you my own story, in my own words.
First of all, I was never what you would call a 'roleplayer', so that is a myth. I never really found storylines to be of much interest, to be completely honest with you. No, from day one, I was always interested in fighting. I guess you could just say that I was very aggressive. Blame it on the drugs, blame it on the streets, blame it on my ego for all I really care. I was always a fighter, from the very first day I discovered the internet. What's different about it, however, is the way that I approached fighting. I was a martial artist. I'm still a martial artist. But I was also a lyricist, so I guess you could say it was always in my nature to fight with words. Some might call it chance. Others might call it fate. Either way, my story begins the very first day I signed on-line.
The year was 1998, or close to then I believe. Like so many others, I found myself in Multicity at that time, which was a free server hosting many different chatrooms with all different sites and topics. Of course you had the music channels, the gaming channels, the business channels and everything else you can think of. It was very similar to IRC, MSN or Yahoo!, but yet it was very unique at the same time. I found myself there around 1998 or so, at a time when on-line fighting was extremely popular amongst hundreds of people. Needless to say, it did not take very long for me to become one of them. Now just for the record, I can't remember exactly when or how I got started, but one of my earliest memories takes place in Multicity at Kad's DBZ/RPG Battle Chat, so I'll begin my story there.
At the time, many on-line fighters were accustomed to Auto, which is how I got started. Auto was the typical stereotype 'noob' style in Multicity, having no rules whatsoever with no real skill requirements. Everyone was doing it, myself included. But when I got to Kad's Chat, everything changed. Over time, just by fighting so much, I started learning how to type way faster than the Auto practitioners, and through this process I started to become what you might call a 'Freestylist', which is basically an Autoer who types way faster actions with much longer descriptions. If an Autoer is a noob who types 2-3 word actions, then a Freestylist is an intermediate speed-based fighter who types way longer actions involving more words. Freestylists do not use connections, however, so it was still technically Auto, just more advanced. Keep in mind, back then there was no such thing as an Auto or Freestyle tutorial. We did not have written rules, so to speak. Instead, everything was based on speed and honor.
I can't even count how many Autoers and Freestylists were defeated against me in Multicity, but there were literally hundreds of them. At that time, I was using a human character with a sword or a gun, whereas most people were using semi-divine characters with magic or energy. D&D was very popular at that time, as was DBZ, VTM, Pokemon and GW, so it was very rare for human characters to appear, much less survive in any sort of chatroom conflicts. I did very well, however, and soon everyone was starting to notice me. I started getting assassination attempts and challenges from people, but with every victory I gained, the more famous I became, until finally Cloaked Warrior Rias found me along with Dark Saiya-jin Vegetto, and together they became my very first on-line fighting instructors.
Rias (Brian) invented a speed-based system called AA, which was very similar to what I had already been doing before except that it involved connections following after each action. This system later paved the way to my experience in T2, which at that time, was just a whisper in the wind. By the summer of 1999, I was one of the greatest speed fighters in all of Multicity, a fact which was never disputed by anyone back then. Nobody would dare challenge that claim until many years later, after I had already stopped practicing speed in favor of T1, but by that time my WPM had dropped considerably because I wasn't on-line as much. In all of the speed-based fights and tournaments I participated in, never once was I ever defeated. I single handedly defended the Castle of Dragons, Tuxedo Mask and U&M chat all by myself against the entire Yakuzan Zaibatsu, and conquered everybody who tried to takeover Multicity or it's affiliated RPG chats. That explains the reason why today, I am both hated and loved by so many people. Everybody knows my legend, but very few truly understand the sacrifices that were made.
Away from the computer, my life was taking a turn for the worst. My best friend died, my family was split apart and I was expelled from regular schools. I started doing drugs and getting into a lot of street fights. Around the summer of 1999, I met another on-line fighter and we became close friends. Today, everyone knows him as Nonpareil (Eric), but back then I knew him by a different name. Together, we were like yin and yang. We teamed up in Multicity and fought hundreds of people back to back. At around the same time, Dark Saiya-jin Vegetto introduced me to Keiyin Mitshuura-ken (Jason), and I became a member of his clan at the Castle of Dragons, where I first started posting my lyrics and poems.
I met a lot of good folks at the Castle of Dragons, among them Watcher (Sarah), Scorch Lethae (Ryan), Victor Kuroji (Chris), Xiang Seunsom (Lily), Melkor (Matt), Angelina (Ashley), Shadow Air (Selene), Thalia (Alex), Jade and several others who became my close friends. I introduced them to Nonpariel (Eric) and that's probably the closest I ever got to being involved in any good storylines. Unfortunately, good fairy tales were never meant to last, and those days are all but gone from my memory now. In 2001, Eric created the Castle of Blackfyre and opened a chat on Metawerx, where we all started to split ways and have a falling out with one another. Around that time, Eric and I became enemies, and I started to associate with other people. That's how I met Hidoshi Nobunaga (Mark), Thrall Ryne (Kermit), Circ Aloriath (Bryon), Ryoga Shinjo (Vic) and many others.
Hidoshi taught me RCM, while Thrall taught me TRBS, two systems which they created and which I was very fond of. I never practiced either one of those styles, however, because by that time I was already leaning towards turn-based textual combat. However, I still occassionally practiced Freestyle and eventually Jade brought me to Comicity where I met Shin Gouki Z (Kenshiro) and Kao Vegeta (Eric 2), two of my very close friends. Kenshiro initiated me into the Z Senshi and gave me a copy of his Freestyle tutorial, while Kao Vegeta gave me a copy of the Comicity Freeform tutorial that is presented here on this very website. I stayed in Comicity for quite a while, learning all that I could from them while accepting challenges and defeating everyone who tried to beat me. Even though I had already passed my prime as a speed fighter, I was still undefeated, and eventually I earned respect in Comicity just as I did in Multicity several years ago. To this day, I am still good friends with Kenshiro and Kao Vegeta.
Once I started going to Comicity, I started learning a lot of curious and dark things about Nonpareil (Eric) which caused me to hate him even more. I found out he had impersonated Shin Gouki Z (Ken), which really didn't surprise me, since he had impersonated me in Metawerx on occassion. I also found out that he had lied about many things which I thought to be true when I first met him, so I started to loathe him even moreso than I had before. I made a promise to Kenshiro that I would honor the Z Senshi and exploit anyone who turned out to be a fraud, or dishonorable fighter in any way. Again, you can see why today so many people hate me. But again, those are the sacrifices one must make in order to preserve the custom of on-line fighting. I never asked to be popular. I did not choose this path, it was just given to me. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.
In 2003 I decided that I wanted to share everything I learned with the on-line fighting community. By that time, I was going through a personal flux in my life and had decided to honor everyone who ever made contributions to on-line fighting. I started going around interviewing different people whom I considered to be like my 'seniors' for lack of a better word, and people who I truly respected as on-line fighters. Among them was Shin Gouki Z (Kenshiro), Hidoshi Nobunaga (Mark), Juntai (Matt), Circ Aloriath (Bryon), Cloaked Warrior Rias (Brian), Thrall Ryne (Kermit), Legendary Warrior Scias (Max), Dalmuros (Alex), Kellindil (John) and many others. This is around the same time I came out with the FBC philosophy, also more commonly known as the JKD on-line fighting tutorial.
I met Nonpareil (Eric) again in 2005, and was invited by him to participate in the GT-League's grand tournament, to which I accepted. I found out about Roleplay Gateway, and the rest as they say is history. I met Liberazi (Dexter) around 2008 or 2009 in Nexxus chat, and privately trained him along with a handful of people who would later become the next generation of on-line fighters. Although it is true that Dexter has done a lot for me as far as my reputation is concerned, I still feel like there's a lot of pride and arrogance coming from him, and in many ways he reminds me of Nonpareil (Eric) back when we first met. I originally initiated Dexter into the Z Senshi, but I recently stripped that honor away from him because I'm afraid he's still not ready for it yet. When I had the FBC tutorial in mind many years ago, it was never meant to be another fighting system. FBC is free-based textual combat, 'free-based' meaning it is not confined to speed-based or turn-based textual combat. It's not a style, it's just my way of expressing my respect for the founders of on-line fighting.
Any arrogance I had in the past, is in the past. We all make mistakes, and mistakes are what we learn and grow from. When we cease to grow, we cease to live, and at that moment we begin to fade away. I can't help but feel somewhat responsible for the way textual combat has changed over the years. It almost sickens me. But if I could ask for forgiveness, I would, and if I can help others to change it, I will do so. I am no longer an on-line fighter. I gave that up a long, long time ago. My whole outlook on life has changed since then. Today, I continue to guide others and help them whenever I can. But I don't claim to be a better fighter than anyone else, nor do I hold a grudge against anyone for things that happened in the past. If something continues to happen, well, that's a different story, but I'm not looking to make any enemies. That's not why I'm here today, and certainly not the reason why I made all those sacrifices many years ago. If people can't be honest, and humble, and honorable, and show respect for other people, then they have no business in on-line fighting. Any ways, those are my thoughts and these are my words. This is my story, so I hope you enjoy everything you've just read.
Take care.
I know a lot of people have been anticipating this moment forever. I guess you could say it was inevitable. By now, most of you already know who I am. Either you've heard about me through other people on this forum, or else you've met me for yourself. Either way, it was only a matter of time before I decided to shed some light on my own personal experience. Many people have mentioned my name in the past, all tales of how truly great I am, or how horrible I am as an on-line fighter. Indeed, there are many people who love me, and many more who hate me. However, allow me to put aside a lot of these third-person tales for a moment as I share with you my own story, in my own words.
First of all, I was never what you would call a 'roleplayer', so that is a myth. I never really found storylines to be of much interest, to be completely honest with you. No, from day one, I was always interested in fighting. I guess you could just say that I was very aggressive. Blame it on the drugs, blame it on the streets, blame it on my ego for all I really care. I was always a fighter, from the very first day I discovered the internet. What's different about it, however, is the way that I approached fighting. I was a martial artist. I'm still a martial artist. But I was also a lyricist, so I guess you could say it was always in my nature to fight with words. Some might call it chance. Others might call it fate. Either way, my story begins the very first day I signed on-line.
The year was 1998, or close to then I believe. Like so many others, I found myself in Multicity at that time, which was a free server hosting many different chatrooms with all different sites and topics. Of course you had the music channels, the gaming channels, the business channels and everything else you can think of. It was very similar to IRC, MSN or Yahoo!, but yet it was very unique at the same time. I found myself there around 1998 or so, at a time when on-line fighting was extremely popular amongst hundreds of people. Needless to say, it did not take very long for me to become one of them. Now just for the record, I can't remember exactly when or how I got started, but one of my earliest memories takes place in Multicity at Kad's DBZ/RPG Battle Chat, so I'll begin my story there.
At the time, many on-line fighters were accustomed to Auto, which is how I got started. Auto was the typical stereotype 'noob' style in Multicity, having no rules whatsoever with no real skill requirements. Everyone was doing it, myself included. But when I got to Kad's Chat, everything changed. Over time, just by fighting so much, I started learning how to type way faster than the Auto practitioners, and through this process I started to become what you might call a 'Freestylist', which is basically an Autoer who types way faster actions with much longer descriptions. If an Autoer is a noob who types 2-3 word actions, then a Freestylist is an intermediate speed-based fighter who types way longer actions involving more words. Freestylists do not use connections, however, so it was still technically Auto, just more advanced. Keep in mind, back then there was no such thing as an Auto or Freestyle tutorial. We did not have written rules, so to speak. Instead, everything was based on speed and honor.
I can't even count how many Autoers and Freestylists were defeated against me in Multicity, but there were literally hundreds of them. At that time, I was using a human character with a sword or a gun, whereas most people were using semi-divine characters with magic or energy. D&D was very popular at that time, as was DBZ, VTM, Pokemon and GW, so it was very rare for human characters to appear, much less survive in any sort of chatroom conflicts. I did very well, however, and soon everyone was starting to notice me. I started getting assassination attempts and challenges from people, but with every victory I gained, the more famous I became, until finally Cloaked Warrior Rias found me along with Dark Saiya-jin Vegetto, and together they became my very first on-line fighting instructors.
Rias (Brian) invented a speed-based system called AA, which was very similar to what I had already been doing before except that it involved connections following after each action. This system later paved the way to my experience in T2, which at that time, was just a whisper in the wind. By the summer of 1999, I was one of the greatest speed fighters in all of Multicity, a fact which was never disputed by anyone back then. Nobody would dare challenge that claim until many years later, after I had already stopped practicing speed in favor of T1, but by that time my WPM had dropped considerably because I wasn't on-line as much. In all of the speed-based fights and tournaments I participated in, never once was I ever defeated. I single handedly defended the Castle of Dragons, Tuxedo Mask and U&M chat all by myself against the entire Yakuzan Zaibatsu, and conquered everybody who tried to takeover Multicity or it's affiliated RPG chats. That explains the reason why today, I am both hated and loved by so many people. Everybody knows my legend, but very few truly understand the sacrifices that were made.
Away from the computer, my life was taking a turn for the worst. My best friend died, my family was split apart and I was expelled from regular schools. I started doing drugs and getting into a lot of street fights. Around the summer of 1999, I met another on-line fighter and we became close friends. Today, everyone knows him as Nonpareil (Eric), but back then I knew him by a different name. Together, we were like yin and yang. We teamed up in Multicity and fought hundreds of people back to back. At around the same time, Dark Saiya-jin Vegetto introduced me to Keiyin Mitshuura-ken (Jason), and I became a member of his clan at the Castle of Dragons, where I first started posting my lyrics and poems.
I met a lot of good folks at the Castle of Dragons, among them Watcher (Sarah), Scorch Lethae (Ryan), Victor Kuroji (Chris), Xiang Seunsom (Lily), Melkor (Matt), Angelina (Ashley), Shadow Air (Selene), Thalia (Alex), Jade and several others who became my close friends. I introduced them to Nonpariel (Eric) and that's probably the closest I ever got to being involved in any good storylines. Unfortunately, good fairy tales were never meant to last, and those days are all but gone from my memory now. In 2001, Eric created the Castle of Blackfyre and opened a chat on Metawerx, where we all started to split ways and have a falling out with one another. Around that time, Eric and I became enemies, and I started to associate with other people. That's how I met Hidoshi Nobunaga (Mark), Thrall Ryne (Kermit), Circ Aloriath (Bryon), Ryoga Shinjo (Vic) and many others.
Hidoshi taught me RCM, while Thrall taught me TRBS, two systems which they created and which I was very fond of. I never practiced either one of those styles, however, because by that time I was already leaning towards turn-based textual combat. However, I still occassionally practiced Freestyle and eventually Jade brought me to Comicity where I met Shin Gouki Z (Kenshiro) and Kao Vegeta (Eric 2), two of my very close friends. Kenshiro initiated me into the Z Senshi and gave me a copy of his Freestyle tutorial, while Kao Vegeta gave me a copy of the Comicity Freeform tutorial that is presented here on this very website. I stayed in Comicity for quite a while, learning all that I could from them while accepting challenges and defeating everyone who tried to beat me. Even though I had already passed my prime as a speed fighter, I was still undefeated, and eventually I earned respect in Comicity just as I did in Multicity several years ago. To this day, I am still good friends with Kenshiro and Kao Vegeta.
Once I started going to Comicity, I started learning a lot of curious and dark things about Nonpareil (Eric) which caused me to hate him even more. I found out he had impersonated Shin Gouki Z (Ken), which really didn't surprise me, since he had impersonated me in Metawerx on occassion. I also found out that he had lied about many things which I thought to be true when I first met him, so I started to loathe him even moreso than I had before. I made a promise to Kenshiro that I would honor the Z Senshi and exploit anyone who turned out to be a fraud, or dishonorable fighter in any way. Again, you can see why today so many people hate me. But again, those are the sacrifices one must make in order to preserve the custom of on-line fighting. I never asked to be popular. I did not choose this path, it was just given to me. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.
In 2003 I decided that I wanted to share everything I learned with the on-line fighting community. By that time, I was going through a personal flux in my life and had decided to honor everyone who ever made contributions to on-line fighting. I started going around interviewing different people whom I considered to be like my 'seniors' for lack of a better word, and people who I truly respected as on-line fighters. Among them was Shin Gouki Z (Kenshiro), Hidoshi Nobunaga (Mark), Juntai (Matt), Circ Aloriath (Bryon), Cloaked Warrior Rias (Brian), Thrall Ryne (Kermit), Legendary Warrior Scias (Max), Dalmuros (Alex), Kellindil (John) and many others. This is around the same time I came out with the FBC philosophy, also more commonly known as the JKD on-line fighting tutorial.
I met Nonpareil (Eric) again in 2005, and was invited by him to participate in the GT-League's grand tournament, to which I accepted. I found out about Roleplay Gateway, and the rest as they say is history. I met Liberazi (Dexter) around 2008 or 2009 in Nexxus chat, and privately trained him along with a handful of people who would later become the next generation of on-line fighters. Although it is true that Dexter has done a lot for me as far as my reputation is concerned, I still feel like there's a lot of pride and arrogance coming from him, and in many ways he reminds me of Nonpareil (Eric) back when we first met. I originally initiated Dexter into the Z Senshi, but I recently stripped that honor away from him because I'm afraid he's still not ready for it yet. When I had the FBC tutorial in mind many years ago, it was never meant to be another fighting system. FBC is free-based textual combat, 'free-based' meaning it is not confined to speed-based or turn-based textual combat. It's not a style, it's just my way of expressing my respect for the founders of on-line fighting.
Any arrogance I had in the past, is in the past. We all make mistakes, and mistakes are what we learn and grow from. When we cease to grow, we cease to live, and at that moment we begin to fade away. I can't help but feel somewhat responsible for the way textual combat has changed over the years. It almost sickens me. But if I could ask for forgiveness, I would, and if I can help others to change it, I will do so. I am no longer an on-line fighter. I gave that up a long, long time ago. My whole outlook on life has changed since then. Today, I continue to guide others and help them whenever I can. But I don't claim to be a better fighter than anyone else, nor do I hold a grudge against anyone for things that happened in the past. If something continues to happen, well, that's a different story, but I'm not looking to make any enemies. That's not why I'm here today, and certainly not the reason why I made all those sacrifices many years ago. If people can't be honest, and humble, and honorable, and show respect for other people, then they have no business in on-line fighting. Any ways, those are my thoughts and these are my words. This is my story, so I hope you enjoy everything you've just read.
Take care.