10 Years of RPG: Share Your Story

[SuperQ19]

Man ten years this site has been up.... And I've been a member for so long as well. I found this site by chance actually while I was studying abroad in Germany. An angsty teenager that wanted to write stories as epic as the fantasies in my head and the stories being produced around me in the media. I started off with my first profile as Qball0019 (maybe some people remember me!? lol, and I'm sorry if anyone does. lol) which very quickly filled with characters for the chat based roleplays. Every day I'd rush home from school to get online and see what was going on. What attracted me to this site was the prospect of crafting my own story and driving my own characters with other people that we all loved. It was euphoric to see how things played out in 'the multiverse', have things go from good to bad, to good, to worse. Although I've had my problems writing when I was younger and stepped on a few toes of people It's all made me a better person.

This site has helped me deal with personal issues, learn people skills to a degree, increase my reading and writing and explore my imagination. When when I left for bootcamp and was terrified of all my friends and acquaintances forgetting and abandoning me, they didn't. Some did leave naturally, things happen and life can't be controlled. Others did move on when I got busy with my career and training but ultimately I've learned to not take things personally; especially with the romances some of my characters had; Now I've matured greatly and work mostly in the forums, but I'm considering going back to chat whenever I find a good chance to sit down and don't have other things to do. How I wish I could just park in front of my laptop and chat with you all for several hours straight like back in high school.

I just remembered, my very first character ever on my old account was an assassin named Falex. Ripped straight out of the universe of Assassin's Creed (the first one!) and things so quickly progressed from there.

I want to thank all you who have worked on RoleplayGateway, this site was and still is a pinnacle part of me as a person. It may seem small and insignificant to other things in retrospect, but I view it in a similar manner that other people view D&D. The stories, characters and relationships we build all matter to us. Now I'm in my twenties, with a well established military career and still visit this site on a near daily basis. I can't picture where or when or even if I'll step away from this site. But I won't forget what I've all learned and experienced here. I now have several life long friends from here and can't imagine what else I'd be doing to explore my writing.

Thank you RoleplayGateway. You've built something that matters to people.

[Awinita]

When I first joined this site back in 2010 I was originally a member on another roleplaying site I wont name here due to how poorly I was treated on that site, suffice to say between the years 2007-2010 were my Non-RP years, I missed roleplaying and mostly took part in writing groups across the country before finishing college in Hong Kong and Beijing and getting my 'masters' in the Hong Kong stunt arena, so to speak

Since 12 April 2010 I have been a member on this site, and at first I only had one, then two, now possible a bakers dozen of a bakers dozen worth of characters within the Multiverse alone! I've honestly lost count of how many characters I have, I know only that about 91% of my characters are feline, or close to it.

I now work freelance as a stuntwoman and stunt director mostly for video game promotional videos here in my hmecountry

The neat thing I love about this site is how crazy it is, uit never gets old or boring here for me and I always find something worth getting my characters in trouble for. I am at the point now wherein roleplaying, and writing in general, are bad habits for me, I either write, or dont get any sleep whatsoever due to the fact that if I dont write my dreams end up being what I should have written before going to sleep

But since joining this site, when I originally told myself to at least "test the waters, if you dont like it you can always back out' I ended up sucked in, gook line and sinker hell the whole fuckin' fishing pole and the fisherman too! I love this site and wont leave it to rejoin any other site. Heck I wont leave this site even if the site owner I got kicked out of called me personally to say I could go back there. I wont, I actually dont loike that site, comnpared to here, that site is history, I got more characters here then anywhere else!

In a nutshell Roleplay Gateway is my crack cocaine now! And that is just the way I like it!

[Quentin Boone]

I suppose I've been here the longest of any who has so far posted, despite what my account says.

I joined this site in 2006 after experiencing some roleplay on teenchat.com. The one thing I remember is that looking for RP sites back then - unless you were in the know - was a real trawl. I must have worked my way through around 50 different sites, link hopping, to find a roleplaying site that showed any signs of activity.

Of course, this was a good while before the pale teal of phpBB3, and the dark hues of gwing.net's forum skin was an immediate draw.

The first thing I did was jump straight into the chat. It wasn't the buggy, server-destroying, fancy AJAX chat you all know now, it was a Java applet that connected to an IRC server. I jumped into the IC channel and was met by scenes of war and death and grief and anger and vows of vengeance.

I didn't step in immediately, and my inactivity was met with a greeting from (I believe) one of the founding members of the site - Miyumi. She talked me through the ropes and I finally entered with a character that would, over the next few years, develop into a true behemoth: Saladin Akara.

Miyumi also became one of my favourite roleplay partners.

But I also made some great friends and RP partners along the way. The likes of the fiery Justin (Zhelir), with whom I'd often argue ICly and OOCly; Donny, the only person I've ever seen to play a Super Saiyan without being overpowered; Gabriel Faile, who was just about the coolest person anyone could meet; April and Tonia, who were influential in the development of my writing; SinfulSoul, who gave me one of the greatest RP fights ever, in the longest RP session I've ever had -- a straight 18 hours of chat RP, twelve hours of which were the aforementioned fight.

And let's not forget Treize Khushrenada, who without any doubt is the best developer of stories I've ever seen. He didn't appear often, but he would enter chat, drop a few scenes, then leave. The next month of RP would be driven by those few posts. Then, he'd appear again, and we'd all realise that he'd left the smallest hints that had the biggest impacts in moving storylines forward.

There was also Edge, who is singly the most effective user of NPCs to ever exist.

This place had a real sense of community, and I revelled in it. When the time came to finally give back to a great community, I developed the first iteration of the Roleplay Academy and helped new people to develop the skills they needed to be as influential as the people I had come to respect and admire for their storytelling prowess.

I helped out with the RPA for a good while after my first stint as Principal, and over the years, as the community grew exponentially, I drifted off - or was forced out - away from the site.

It's a shame that the great sense of community seems lost in the vastness of the site now. For me, at least.

But I will always have fond memories of the early years of this place, as a place where quality and community were paramount.

Long live Roleplay Gateway!

[cl.love]

I joined RPG as a community three years ago, and I gotta say, at the time I was so bad. When I look at the profile I started on I literally cringe at how horrible my writing was. I really loved writing though, so I kept going, and in three years I've progressed so much that I've actually won awards, mostly thanks to the RPG community. I got my inspiration for stories from other roleplayers and actually managed to finish four separate roleplay timelines with my friend Chrian Blaire, which, when I started on this website, I thought was impossible.

By far I must say that my favorite story I've done on RPG is Colorful Notes, one which I'm very proud of. I wouldn't have been able to do it without Chrian Blaire, my writing partner, and of course all the inspiration I got from other roleplayers. The RPG community has helped me through a lot of hardships in my real life - when I was upset, I'd come on here and vent story ideas or read ongoing roleplays. I know for a fact I probably wouldn't be as good of a writer if I hadn't joined RPG, and I might not be the same person I am today. For that I am eternally grateful.

Happy Birthday, Roleplay Gateway!!

[Draruto]

A study hall with the girl I've only dated lead me here

[Uruken]

So, um...I'm am so amazed that this site is still around with active users and adventures still playing out in the classic play-by-post style that I first was so engrossed by. To be honest I haven't been active at all in the ten years that have elapsed since I first joined but I just wanted to put my two cents in here to say that I am awed by the dedication of the administration and the veteran users who have continued to make this place a real community. So much has changed since I first joined and yet it's also really familiar in a charming way that makes me nostalgic for my youth. Like other users, I joined this site when I was very young (around 12 years old to be honest) and for a good year and a half I really enjoyed sitting in the chatroom talking OOC with the wide variety of people that roleplay on this site and gaining new insights/perspectives that my young mind had yet to comprehend. It used to be the most exciting part of my day to log-in and see how some of my favorite adventurers were playing out, or getting to know new people. The best part about this place for me though was that it felt safe. I never felt threatened by other users, I was never harassed or trolled obsessively (and this was like 2007-08 when "trolling" really came into its own as a distinct behavior online), the users here have always been friendly, helpful, generally supportive and most of all good storytellers.

I know I haven't been an active user at all, but I just thought on a whim to check up on this old place and I must say I am very impressed. Keeping carrying on you brilliant people!

[claw]

Eight years. As of writing this I have been on here a mighty eight years. Boy has it been a hell of a wild ride the whole way through. I first came here as a wee little 12 year old, burning up the limited broadband usage to play shitty youtube videos at stupid a clock and hope nobody would notice. Not much has changed but at least I don't have limited broadband now. It hardly feels like eight years though, I don't think I would even recognise myself back then if I met me now.

Of course, I haven't really changed too much, I'm still an edgelord and a bit of a shitbag but at least now I'm open about it. Little 12 year old me came here and found a place where his imagination could run wild and free and happily until of course it all came crashing down by the fact that I couldn't write for shit! Seriously, I remember once saying something along the lines of not using commas because it was only the internet and didn't really matter. Boy did I need a slap or two. At least now I can go through more than two seconds without being dreadful.

Eight years ago I could barely string together a sentence, now here I am so many years down the line and boy are things different. I'm sitting comfortably atop a co-written novel, two novellas and a third piece in the works. Maybe all those years ago I had the ambition to do what I wanted but I never had the skill for it or the vision to make it anywhere near a reality. And I know for a fact I could never have done it alone, everyone I roleplayed with have improved me, helped me grow, taught me new ways to write, new characters to feel and think and grow and love and hate and laugh at. I have come so far from a boring generic character (Namely the guy who was just described as carrying any weapon he wanted), here I am years later with characters that have grown, fallen in love, formed rivalries, sparked dynasties and even spoken with gods!

Eight years ago I thought I knew what it was like to imagine a world that you wanted to see, to envision the countless thousands of possibilities of creation. Today I have been proven wrong time and time again by you. You and everyone else on here. All of you have amazed me with your talent, your dedication, your determination, your love. All of you have given a spark of yourselves into the worlds you created that I had the honour of joining in and with the characters I had the pleasure of interacting with. I have watched as demons battle with men for the fate of only a handful of souls. I have watched as entire planets are consumed by the fires of war. I have cried as characters have come up against their greatest trials and sometimes not even won, yes actual tears, don't judge. I have laughed and lived and loved a dozen times over in the last eight years through the lenses of my characters.

In the past eight years I have been a vampire lord, a god of war and a god of fire, I have been a mutant, a necromancer, a hero, an AI, an enigmatic figure with great power, a king, a beggar, a torn prince, a lover, a fighter, a dreamer. With the wonder of creations I could never even dream of, in worlds I could never have conceived of I have learnt the measure of what it truly is to write, to collaborate. It is to love, to share the simple gift of creation. That inherent part of us that wants to reach out and make something grow and something great. I have come to cherish that gift that this site provides from each and every person I meet on here. Every new character I read, every new setting I see, every wonderful adventure I experience I love even more than the last. And I know I could never in a million lifetimes even consider the wonders other people have created.

Eight years ago I was alone, a child suffering from major bullying issues and a wide number of behavioural problems. I was scared, alone, confused and perhaps most importantly rarely more than a few bad moments away from wanting to end it all. I lived in an emotionally abusive home, was told exactly who to be and what to think. I wasn't even sure about my sexuality let alone open about it. This site was the first place I truly opened up about it, the first place I began to feel comfortable with myself. I suppose Script helped a lot when he was still around, being the first real gay role model for me helped more than I think he realised.

I went through secondary school on this site. I went through college on this site. I joined and then left the Army on this site. I moved up and down and all around the country on this site. I finally cut off my abusive family and started living for myself on this site. No matter how low my life got, no matter what shithole I found myself in, I always had this site. I will always, no matter what comes to pass, remember the friends I made on here. My writing partner umademeink96, Perks, Creed, Patch even if I bug him to hell about his card games, Cole, Script, Weilacca, Jack, Rari, Applesauce, Sambea, Davien, Sif and yes, even you Sugs. I will not forget one moment of this, not one second of the time I knew each and every single one of you.

Eight years ago, I was alone. I felt empty with the world, hated everything and despised myself. Eight years later I am for the first time in my life happy. For the first time in my life I feel free to live my own life by my own rules. I am happy, I have friends, I have grown and become a writer. And it's all because of this site. From the bottom of my decrepit and ruined heart I thank each and every one of you for the wonderful adventure that is life and the wonders of growing up on Roleplaygateway. It was a better place to grow up than I could have ever hoped for. Thank you.

Yours
Claw
AKA Harry Waite

[Grahf]

I came here looooong ago, took a leave of absence after a productive RPG time, and I am now back. Lets dust off that old arena...=)

[Killa]

My story isn't really any different than those here. Hello to all reading this. I wandered onto here from a mobile chat site called mocospace (To this day I am still there). My character is kind of a dimensional wandered of sorts, so every once in a while I'll go looking around for new worlds to explore, hence leading me here from there.

I guess if you want to know a little about me, I recently left the military, specifically the United States Navy. My job the first 4 and a half years was Aviation Ordnanceman and the last 3 were temporarily assigned to Naval Security Forces Afloat, so basically for those not familiar with Naval Security it was pretty much being a cop but on a carrier. A big part of who I am was never having married parents and living with my father a majority of my life, who was a marine. My biological mother passed away due to a massive heart attack while I was in and although she was poor and had a heart of gold, she, unfortunately, left this world from what I heard alone. It was that day that I promised her and myself that no matter what I would be outgoing, respectable and a man she could be proud of.

That was the later part of my life. Can you imagine how I was growing up? The complete opposite. I was practically a mute, I didn't like to talk to anyone except my twin (so not even family members) who eventually had twins on her own. That's pretty much it for me. I've had embarrassing moments like everyone else, I've had very physical fights growing up, I've made friends and best friends, I've lost and I've won. I'm no stranger to life and have been homeless before, currently, at the time of this, I am 30, single with no kids. It's going to be interesting to see what's in store for the rest of my life.

Nice to meet you and I hope to see you around here.

[DLTrapKeep]

I came here looking for a hobby, something to do besides street crime and fighting.

I have been tied in with some 'unsavory' people, for a long time (7-8 years), and, in the last month, I finally decided to step back from that lifestyle. I scrambled around for a few weeks looking for ways to fill my time, hobbies and whatnot. I think this is my favorite one. The people are nice, the forums seem chill, and, nobody seems to be here to drag anyone down.

I've always written, but never really done roleplaying. usually stuck to poetry or short stories. This is much more fun, and interactive.

I haven't been here very long, but, I will say this, everyone seems helpful, friendly, and even though I haven't been here long, I'll be sticking around

Thanks for having me, -D

[Angmarillion]

I have been a member of RolePlayGate for some hours, and for a platform boasting with its progress over 10 years I find it clumsy, outdated, and actually not newbie-friendly at all.

I have no problem with deleting my account, but even the oldest Dungeons & Dragons book, still written on paper back then, included hints on how to host people for a roleplay session. Even, when smack it, plunder it, upgrade equipment, then repeat were all it called fantasy roleplay.

What makes me angry is that this was listed as an interactive live-chat roleplay, while it is mostly play-by-post. And people pretending to be American or UK should actually rarely make more grammar mistakes than I as a Non-Native-Speaker.

"But otherwise this waste of time was nearly OK"

[chauffeuurr]

I wasn't even sure of what exactly it was when I first joined the site. All my life I had loved to write even though the technical bits of writing never came easily and still don't to this day. I have progressed though, and that's one plus for me.