Ode to my online past

Tocasia's avatar on Flickr I was pondering on the train home (and let’s face it, there’s not a lot else to do on trains but ponder – pity yourselves if I do land the job that requires a 2 hr 30 daily commute) what it is that makes online acquaintances into friends? What is it that gives us such sentimental attachments to virtual places, and why are we always lusting after what is over and done with?

My online history is no more boring or interesting than the majority of everybody else’s. I actually came to it quite late, starting online role playing over at Terisia City, the Castle of Fun, and Garic’s City back in 2001. In the course of this message board related fun, I made some true and lasting friends who I am still in touch with today. I also became ridiculously attached to the message-board community that formed around Terisia City. I had a place there – I was valued, and, I don’t think I am being big headed to admit it, loved. At one point I was even voted ‘mayor’ of the city.

For reasons long and various, but inextricably linked to the dull process of getting older, getting my head sorted, and trying to get a degree, I slowly drifted away from the boards. By the time I moved to Soton I hadn’t been on the boards in near a year and didn’t think I missed it. If I had grown away from the friends I had made there, well, I put that down to the natural drift that happens as people grow older and interests shift. That, and I am an appalling correspondent, so am a nightmare to keep in touch with.

Then a week or so back, I got an email from someone I hadn’t heard from in a while, saying basically “the Bar is back. We miss you. Come play”. I will never know what made me click that link, but click it I did, and as soon as the familiar page opened up I had this feeling that I had come “home”. Bizarre, inexplicable, totally irrational, I know, but that is what I felt. I posted that night with a silly grin on my face. I felt ridiculously happy to be greeted by old friends. It was absurdly easy to slip back into character – I was bar hopping and polishing like I had never been away. The place just felt right in the way that you normally reserve for physical places and people. It was (and oh lord I am blushing as I write this) like a teeny piece of me had been missing and now was found.

Terisia and the people I met there were more to me than just a message board. They gave me a space to work out who I wanted to become. I was, like most everyone else there, a screwed up teenager, who felt she had no voice and no value. I learnt, or at least started to learn, what it feels like to be a member of a community of like minded people. I was instrumental in shaping the place. The person you know now through this blog would be someone completely different if she hadn’t played in Terisia. She wouldn’t be called Cas for starters. RP and MSN helped me to realise, and be comfortable with, the fact I am an incurable flirt at the same time as being excruciatingly shy (yes, the two can go together). I made friends with many people, talked via MSN with most of them, met a handful, and even dated a couple.

Perhaps I am just being a sentimental old fool and what I take for a feeling of “home” is just a feeling of nostalgia for a time that I enjoyed enormously, but that is now over. I do know that some of the old magic has gone – Terisia belongs to a new generation of people. The gaming is different. There are back stories I am unaware of and, I must be honest, have little desire in learning. Just as, I am sure, the current crop of players have little interest in learning the “history” of their board. It’s the Internet, a virtual environment, and constantly evolving, so is the story (six years old now) of how Terisia came into being really that important? Do they care that, way back when, X was romantically involved with Y, before Z stepped on the scene and things went to hell in a handcart? Even the language is different – flibble and eep are just random syllables, and if I tried to explain “plink, squwibble, angrenism” they just wouldn’t get it, let alone understand why mentioning chocolate oranges makes a certain few people grin knowingly.

This is, I feel, exactly how it should be. Places and virtual spaces need to be reused, and peoples relationships with them should be renegotiated constantly, or else they freeze into mausolea, static and dead. Beautiful monuments, perhaps, but essentially meaningless once the founders depart. I happily leave Terisia to the newbies. Let White Knight’s dreaded new generations have as much fun there as I did. I don’t need the place, I don’t belong there any more, and it certainly doesn’t fit into my life the way it used to.

Despite all this, part of me wants to go back to how it was. I’ve flown the nest, but selfishly, childishly, I want it all to stay the same as my safety net. That sense of belonging… I deeply loved each and every one of the people I met through the boards. Drasche, Tiana, Kerrick, Nethya, Shadow, WK, Demon Lord, Rhox, Ephemeron, Zair – I miss them all. Ceres, Ryo, Akasha, Takhisis, and many more. Hell, I even find myself wanting to email shanks again, and we all know that ain’t a good idea 😉

Terisia was my virtual home for several years. Going back there feels like it does when I go back home to Somerset for the weekend – right. Things click into place. The sky is the right colour. At the same time, I couldn’t stay there. I’ve outgrown it. A week, two weeks, is fine, but longer than that I start to want more. I want the bright lights of the big city. I want to meet new people. I guess they are right when they say you can never go back. The past is a great place to visit, but no matter how great an idea it sounds, I doubt you’d want to live there.

15 thoughts on “Ode to my online past

  1. This is an interesting contrast.
    Your experience with Terisia is different than mine with the CoF. After the CoF got it’s own board it really started changing (IMO) for the wost. When I go back it’s nothing like the CoF I used to love.
    I’ve just stopped giong back.

  2. I feel the same way about the CoF now – I went and lurked for a bit when I went back to Terisia, but certain personalities kept getting in the way. Then again, the Castle never meant quite as much to me as Terisia did.

    At the same time, when I say “Terisia” I guess I really mean Shadow’s Bar, which is where it all began, and one of the threads that has strongly resisted all change. The bastion of the Old Guard is still there, so the place still feels like home. If the Bar wasn’t there, then I don’t know if I would feel the same way about it. I also have to admit, the refusal of old and new to mix was one of the reasons I left, and is even more apparent today. I doubt I will be staying around much longer, but… It is nice to know it’s there if I ever really want to go back.

    Still, totally ridiculous how attached I am to the place. I try to explain it to people who weren’t there, or who have never ORP’d, and they just look at me strangely. C’est la vie.

  3. Even I don’t go near the CoF anymore – the only time I do is to take part in the NFL Fantasy Football League (which is only during the NFL season, and only that one thread). I think that says a lot…

  4. I just randomly googled “plink, squwibble, angrenism” because they just popped into my head at some point today, and this was the first result. I haven’t been back to the Bar in a year or so, but I still e-mail Dusky occasionally. I miss the place.

    Zair

  5. (I can’t edit what I just typed?)

    Oh, and I still remember the full meaning of WSPOBWEWIALK and who gave it to him and why. The strange things our brains keep track of.

  6. *pouncy huggles*

    Zair!!!!!!! Hello and welcome to Bright Meadow and the comments! How the devil have you been?

    I haven’t been back to the Bar in a while either. It just no longer fits in with my life, but I do miss it and the fun we all had. I’ll admit to just doing that google search as well and now I have a lump in my throat from following the links. Turns out, I really miss the people!

    I hope you stick around some and join in the fun we all have here 🙂

    (And no, no editing I’m afraid).

  7. I am doing well. Moved on from Terisia years ago, (though after you, I believe.) I moved on to Kingdom of Loathing, a free MMORPG. Ended up on the dev team. Been near four years now.. Thinking of moving on from that, too. If you have any free time I encourage anyone to check it out.. 🙂 We picked up a few people from the boards. Duskyblue, WAK, Chezzelvisbob, Natedogg… I think WAK and Dusky moved on, but Chezz and Nate still play every day.

    I grew up, finished school, got a job, moved out, etc…

    Your entire original post resonated with me. Newbies changing the city to fit their image, and instead of fighting to change it back, I just moved on. But then, how many of us would move on anyway if it was forever unchanging?

    Still, what memories. Randomly patrolling the bar, sitting in the utopia tree brooding. Sipping pan-galactic gargle blasters. Getting yelled at by Shadow to clean various things with a toothbrush. 😉 Serving vanilla bloods.

    Yay nostalgia… 🙂

    Not really sure I’ll hang around here a lot, but I might drop in once in a while. I’ve AIM and e-mail, if you like. ashaman81 on AIM and I think you have my e-mail.

    Thanks for the reminiscing. 🙂

    Zair

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  9. I was going through an hour of Terisia nostalgia myself (silly fool that I am, I still have them every 6-8 months), and I happened to stumble on this page. Just a really beautiful piece Cas,

    Ain’t nostalgia grand?

  10. WAK – gotta love that nostalgia. Feeling a bit right now actually! Thank you for your kind words, and welcome to Bright Meadow and the comments. Hope you hang around some 🙂

  11. No idea if this is still updated or checked, but I found this today while googling Terisia. I too found a home there when a young Zeke was first learning what it meant to enjoy writing. Sure, it was filled with drama and craziness and god-moding, but it was also filled with fun adventures, shenanigans, and friends.

    It’s been nearly a decade since the last comment on this post, and while Terisia and the entire wizo boards may be dead and gone, it still lives on in the hearts and minds of those who were a part of it.

    In the off chance you still read this, and in the off chance that you even remember, me, Zeke says hello!

  12. Crazy how nearly 20 years later people can still reconnect eh? What a world we live in.

    I wish there were still archives or posts left over from TC. I’d love to see just how bad of a writer i was back then, back when I thought I was so great, haha. Even just a way to contact someone for old times sake, see how they are, how they have been, if they kept up their writings or whatever.

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