A little over a decade ago, I joined eGO because of TF2 and was met with someone named ScrappyDoo. I got promoted to an eG and switched to CS:S because of Jailbreak and that's where I developed my person and became an admin trainer under bigredking, eventually leading up to a community manager. I made a mistake and it costed me my position as a CM and I was demoted to a DL while being replaced in the same day, which is a slap to the face, but OK. I quickly realized that I did not enjoy being a DL as I felt my experience was more and I stepped down to being an O member.
Fast forwarding, Legend demoted me over a PM for being too mean to people, which is fucking retarded after the work I put in many years and against all grains, but that's OK. That's his decision and his right to do that, but I will never forget or forgive him for that. In a world where I was seen different because of my views, music choices, and issues with talking to people, I found solidarity in eGO and it was stripped from me over a PM instead of engaging in a pivotal conversation about my behaviors. This crushed me and made me feel worthless so I literally stopped using the Internet for a year or two. Crazy what the Internet can do, huh?
I left eGO at my request for a long time and tried to find what I was missing in different communities to no avail; there is no replacement for eGO. Fast forward, I rejoined it under GTA5 because you needed to be an e in order to participate in emergency services. Passing the training and becoming a Paramedic, I was finally involved in eGO again and it made me happy. I quickly became inactive in the GTA5 division because I did not know how to really play, per say. I know how to roleplay and have excellent experience from my Jailbreak days, but I did not understand how to actually play aside from being an excellent paramedic and I didn't have friends in the division.
Now I just post on the forums and try to help others when I can while spreading the gospel of extreme metal, specifically death metal.
eGO meant a lot to me and it still does as my memories of it will never fade and it provided me with experiences that translated into real life. Thanks to eGO, I stopped being nervous around humans and became more interactive with humanity.
Some people might see me as an asshole, but I'm just a straight forward no bullshit guy. I tried to bullshit once and it costed me my coveted position as a Community Manager, a mistake I will not repeat. Two people I will forever respect and who have my utmost loyalty are
@USCG Hammer and
@Artimus for their wisdom, guidance, and ability to develop me into something I was not before. If they were ever in a bind and called me, I would go out of my way to help them in any way I could.
eGO might not mean a lot to people or just might be another community, regardless of rank, I consider this my home and I wish I could get more involved, but I'm so out of the loop with everything.
Thanks for coming to my ted talk.