Yet another nostalgia thread: 2020 Edition

[Kyle20]

Hey all.

I know this is like the third time one of us has the done the ol' "I came back and checked ZaRWoC again after a few years, let's make a post and be sentimental" thing, so maybe it's getting redundant, but there's a feeling in my gut that I'm not the only one who randomly checks in here like once a year.

It feels absolutely bonkers to be writing a thread here 1. as an adult and 2. in the crazy, tumultuous year of 2020, in the heart of the coronavirus/etc. etc. but I actually have a reason that jogged my memory of this place...

For years and years and years I've always wanted to do something but kept putting it off. That "something" was to take the time to sit down and write out a very informal autobiography of sorts. Just for my own personal safekeeping, almost like a retroactive diary or something. It isn't because anything interesting happened in my childhood, but rather because so much of it happened online. Because so much of my childhood and adolescence was completely digital, it's not collected in school yearbooks, photo scrapbooks, soccer trophies, physical memorabilia, etc. Likewise, I can't bounce memories off of my parents or brother (like you would with family/school memories) because they don't know anything about my time online.

For these reasons, I've always had this deep-rooted fear that as I get older, I will completely forget some parts of my childhood. Without those yearbooks and "IRL friends" to bounce the memories off of, there's nothing stopping the ol' brain from just letting those old memories drift away. So I've always wanted to open a word document and feverishly write down everything I can remember of my "digital growing up" so that I could print it off, put it in a box, and read it when I'm older. There's a lot of stuff that happened as a kid (like hanging out on ZaRWoC) that knocked domino pieces over to who I am today, and it would be a shame to forget all of that and think my childhood was all just basement sleepovers and middle school art classes, because that's not really an accurate summary of what it was like and what was important to me.

SO...I'm just posting here to say: I'm thinking of you all, cherishing the old memories, and jotting them down for myself. I hope in some way, shape, or form, you do the same. If you're like me, a lot of your growing up was done online on scattered websites that will probably go offline eventually, with it all deleted. So don't put off jotting down some notes for your future self so you remember the things you did that impacted you the most.

Hope you're all doing well.

I've been doing well myself. 5 years ago I finished that webcomic Soul Symphony. In the time since then, I've worked on a video game ("A Dance of Fire and Ice" on Steam, iPhone, and Android) and also did contract animation for Jackbox Games. I owe everything in my creative life/career to this forum and the silly sprite comics and roleplays we all made together.

If you're feeling nostalgic, I hope you'll join me in jotting your memories down in some sort of cloud-saved or printed-out version and stick it under your bed or in your closet with the rest of your childhood junk. I'm sure we'll all need it for a trip down memory lane someday, when nobody even knows what a "message board" is.

[Kyle20]

Jotting as much down as I can on this digital timeline of my childhood, here's the draft of the ZaRWoC portion:

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"From these searches, I stumbled upon “sprite comics”, a form of webcomic that is made using video game pixel art instead of from freehand drawing. Bob and George was one of the most famous ones at the time, which completely absorbed my attention. I spent afternoons reading through the multi-year archives. I then fell into Drunkduck.com, a website where people could freely upload their own webcomics.

After becoming a big fan of a few different video game sprite comics, I registered an account and began making my own. They were very shabby and child-like, and were made in MS Paint. I made sprite comics based on Megaman, Kirby, Zelda, Sonic, and more.

I followed the creators I looked up to onto a message board called The Zany and Random World of Christi. It was a forum where we discussed and shared our comics, talked about video games and TV shows, and roleplayed. I viewed my role models as old and wise adults compared to me, but most of them were about 15-19 at the time. This is wild to think about with hindsight, but considering I was around 10 or 11 at the time, I guess they were adults comparatively speaking. Because of the age gap, they were kind of up-on-a-pedestal in my mind. I think the way I thought of them is probably similar to how a lot of people thought of their older cousins.

I spent hours everyday after school on ZaRWoC. It was, to be honest, my biggest source of socializing at the time. I was even distinctly aware at the time that I preferred being on the message board rather than going outside and playing sports with kids on the block. I felt more comfortable there, and I was doing things I enjoyed.

At this point, I still didn’t think of myself as an “artist” really. I was making characters, comics, pictures, stories, and roleplays, but I barely even registered it as a creative outlet. It was just what I wanted to do. More than any other goal of artistic expression, I think I was way more motivated by wanting to make people laugh. Most webcomics at the time were comedy-centric, and I was enamored with the idea of seeming funny, witty, and popular. I think that was really the kernel of my motivation. That and just having a place to hang out and fit in.

ZaRWoC was a really fun place to be, even though I felt less mature and grown-up than the other members. I guess I was like the baby brother of the group, haha. We made stuff, shared stuff, told stories, and had stupid arguments. Because the message board never got popular or bloated in size, it always felt tight-knit. In my mind I called it a “small-town forum”, to differentiate it from other message boards at the time that had hundreds, or thousands, of members. It usually hovered around about 5-6 active regulars.

I started and stopped sprite comic series with very little dedication. I would get like 10 or 15 pages into an idea, then get bored with it, then start a whole new series. I started uploading comics on a Drunkduck competitor called Smackjeeves.com as well. I even tried one that wasn’t a sprite comic, making really primitive drawings using my mouse. In the end, nothing stuck."


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It feels good to get all this jotted down on a page, so I don't forget when I get older. Sandwiched in between paragraphs about a Dragonball Z browser MMO and learning to draw. I can't wait to take this out of an old shoebox and try to explain it to my parents or future spouse/kids/whoever what any of these words mean. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before all of these sites, ProBoards included, are wiped clean off the face of the internet. This will be my lame equivalent of a high school bowling trophy.

I'm sure my once-in-a-blue-moon posts here probably make me sound like an overly sentimental, overly nostalgic kind of guy. I promise I don't actually sit around thinking about 2005 message boards all the time, hahaha.

Hope you're all doing well. Stay safe and healthy.

[Cutter]

Apr 9, 2020 12:46:20 GMT -5 Kyle20 said:

I'm sure my once-in-a-blue-moon posts here probably make me sound like an overly sentimental, overly nostalgic kind of guy. I promise I don't actually sit around thinking about 2005 message boards all the time, hahaha.

Like you said, for a lot of people who grew up on the internet, this stuff was a part of our childhoods. I'm equally guilty of reminiscing over this stuff, at least every now and then.

Sprite comics represented a niche overlap between game fans and creatives. They were popular and easy to get into, with a big supportive community. And this was even in the early, fragmented days of the internet. The same could be said of roleplaying, there were plenty of active communities you could stumble into and be a part of. This forum happened to be both.

I think that "niche" aspect of it is the reason why we all got along so well. We all had a lot in common and... well, to be blunt, we were all pretty nerdy. You have to be dedicated to participate in a Megaman comic and roleplaying forum. And it worked. You could make a post about anything and have a decent conversation. I always looked forward to checking in on the forum and seeing what's new, spending time writing up a response or a new topic to discuss.

I travelled around a lot when I was younger, so my internet time could be sporadic. I still made time to drop by when I could, because it felt like hanging out with a group of close friends. It was oddly comforting having that connection, wherever I went.

Apr 9, 2020 12:46:20 GMT -5 Kyle20 said:

I viewed my role models as old and wise adults compared to me, but most of them were about 15-19 at the time. This is wild to think about with hindsight, but considering I was around 10 or 11 at the time, I guess they were adults comparatively speaking. Because of the age gap, they were kind of up-on-a-pedestal in my mind. I think the way I thought of them is probably similar to how a lot of people thought of their older cousins.

Same here. I looked up to the forum regulars like they were the cool kids at school. They were eloquent, witty, and they did creative stuff like drawing or roleplaying.

I never really thought about the age difference. I don't remember if people explicitly said how old they were, but you could guess based on the way they talked. I felt like I was at the bottom of the pecking order, because I wrote like a little kid... Which I was.