@balinares When this is all over, I really want as many of us who will still speak to each other to get together, somehow somewhere, and basically have our own Big Chill/Return of the Secaucus 7* moment.
(*two very similar films about a bunch of ex-hippies reuniting in middle age and taking stock of their lives)
@zebratron2084 In the community whose long cold demise I suddenly find myself achingly mourning right now, I don't even know where people went. Re-reading logs, I realize I'd all but forgotten most of those people, whom I adored.
This is a horrible feeling. I'm taking it hard.
@balinares And I can't even read logs. Far too painful for far too many reasons, lost friends being one of the most prominence. (That plus the fact that me circa 2005 comes across as so CRINGE -____- )
Don't beat yourself up to harshly for being different when you were younger.
We all were.
That's how we got to here.
@JulieSqveakaroo @zebratron2084 @balinares if you don't mind me saying, part of being in a golden age is the inability to know you're in one, or recognize when it passes.
i miss many of the friends i had back when i was at my social and creative peak, but mostly i wish i had known the friends i have *now* back *then.*
@zx3 @JulieSqveakaroo @zebratron2084 Yeah. Back then it felt like every day. It *was* every day. It would have been hard to imagine that one day, 20 years later, I would come to miss it this suddenly, this hard.
@balinares @zx3 @JulieSqveakaroo And again, the idea that there's just... nowhere. That the RP scene collapsed so badly that people recommend F-List (which may have changed but I recall as VERY minimal effort RP) is just shocking. I just assumed someone would take over and there would Always Be A Party Somewhere. And if there is one, if people are still doing that kind of high-concept polymorphic queer-friendly love storytelling at each other... I sure as fuck haven't been invited. :)
@zebratron2084 @balinares @JulieSqveakaroo my take is that the fertile grounds upon which our Weird Pretendy Fun-Style Games were sown have been largely liquidated or repurposed as money and net-gentrification took over; we assumed that new spaces would pop up and we'd move the floating party to new locales. that sort of didn't happen as those spaces were more locked down and less friendly to our purposes.
@zebratron2084 @balinares @JulieSqveakaroo in addition, i believe that there *are* still huge amounts of Weird Pretendy Fun-Style Games happening out there; but they're happening in places we were not the first to settle, being played in ways that we would not have thought of. private islands in the distance, if you will; finding that magic balance of self-sustainment and enthusiasts with money/time.
@zebratron2084 @balinares @JulieSqveakaroo hell, looking at the last decade, we're coming off a trauma Katamari that just got a little smaller a few months ago. building communities is HARD, and it's way easier to pick and choose your social experience from a list of ready-mades. maybe we shouldn't be surprised that what we're looking for is rare right now. doesn't mean it will always be this way, though.
@zebratron2084 @balinares @zx3
I won't say (because I refuse to believe it) that it's completely gone, but it has distinctly gone more animated... VR chats, avatars, and such, and I can't begrudge the idea that folks went all in on making their insane imaginations more visually distinct instead of textually, because that's just how some folks parse things... I mean, I totally get why I went to drawing more than writing...
... I dunno...