RVBFAN314
NJ
Joined Feb 2007
Member #555,845
An old fucker who signed up in the Blood Gulch Chronicles days. Currently shakin' off the rust and gettin' cozy again. Man is it good to be home.
Posts
WELL I'LL BE GODDAMNED
HOT GODDDAMN, IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK!
Did ya miss me?!
And now comes the final curtain call.
It was hard enough watching the servers get shut down, but the whole site. That hurts.
I've been a fan of Rooster Teeth for at least two years before ever signing up to the sight. Been here more than half my life.
Despite the ups and downs, and the multitude of scandals, damn was it fun.
Any of y'all still here, it was great to know you, and I'm forever grateful for the memories.
Farewell, Rooster Teeth.
This is RVBFAN314 signing off... For the final time.
P.S. Fuck David Zaslav, and fuck Warner Bros.
Curtain Call
Well... Here we are.
Mere hours from now, Rooster Teeth as we knew it will be gone.
The forums we spent so much time with, scattered to the digital ether.
All those moments gone, reduced to mere memory in a moment, like breath on a mirror.
It was a hell of a run, wasn't it?
In the years I've been here, no other site felt so much like home. And I sure as hell made a few great memories... Like this
Boy, that was a fun time...
And I still remember the time Luke Mckay actually liked one of my posts!
I think that will be my crowning achievement.
And now, it's all gonna be gone.
I wish I knew when and why it all changed. Did the site grow up without us? Did WE grow up and leave the site behind? Is this the decision of the staff we've all known and loved all these years, or is this at the behest of some out of touch corporate master?
I'll likely never know, and it doesn't really matter now...
The facts are simple. The site is changing, the forums are going away. I guess this place just... Doesn't need guys like me anymore...
I should clarify, I came to this site all those years ago because of two things: RvB. and the forums. That's what got me here, and that's what kept me here. Without the forums... Ain't much reason for me to stick around, y'know?
But the time I spent here... Well... It was some of the best times of my life. And I want to thank you, all of you, from the bottom of my heart, for being part of it. It's been an honor, and a privilege, to know each and every one of you.
Now I ain't gonna drop off the face of the internet or nothing. I'll still be lurking here. Just don't expect me to be posting anything. Lord knows I gotta get my money's worth from that 60 dollar sponsorship FIRST Membership.
Plus you can always find me, usually under the username willjar313 or Wil-Jr (a name I came up with HERE, no less). I mean, I DO have a steam account. Not to mention, I'm a fan of a lesser-known guy named Nash, who streams a weekly show called Radio Dead Air every Monday night from 9 pm to 2 am Eastern. He also does Game streams every Wednesday night and Tech Q&A every Saturday night on Twitch.
Also a big fan of Pat, formerly of Super Best Friends Play, who you can find here.
Also been occasionally browse the forum of a site called The Middle Ground. It's a site based around Sprite comics, if anyone still remembers those...
And of course, lastly, I'll be over on the Forums rats, yuckin' it up with all them fellas under this username you know and love. If any of ya got a craving for that old school Rooster Teeth feel, come on over, and drop a few friend requests.
And who knows. This might not be goodbye FOREVER. Maybe RT will bring the forums back, and I might just swing by and visit again. But it IS goodbye, for now at least.
And with that, all has been said, and all has been done. So now, all that's left is to leave you all with some good goin' away music.
But what song to pick?
I AGONIZED over this choice, throwing ideas back and forth the entire time I was writing these last journals. Love Me Like There's No Tomorrow by Queen? Back to Zanarkand from FFX? We'll Meet Again by Vera Lynn? Hell, a couple songs I already used were lined up to be the last song. Yeah, I thought way too hard about this, but finally, I came to a decision. I figured out exactly what song I want this long goodbye to go out on.
And I think the choice was... Perfect.
'Til we meet again, guys!
This is RVBFAN314... Signing off.
Endings
In the time I've spent here, I've seen many things come to an end. Some welcome, some not.
I remember the day the Halo 2 servers got shut down. I remember the ending of The Leet World (I know they claim to be making a return, but after so long with no news...). I remember the end to many a webcomic, and many a YouTube series.
Each time, I'm left with a sense of emptiness. Like I'm no longer complete.
And now, the RoosterTeeth I know and love is coming to an end, and that feeling is back and stronger than ever.
I wish I could say dealing with it gets easier with time. That you grow numb to it.
It does not.
Life is full of endings, and that only ever stops once life itself ends. And even then, it never stops.
Because Life is full of beginnings, as well.
Memories
I've said all that needs to be said. Done all that I feels had to be done. All that's left is to sit and wait for the end.
And yet, I still feel the need to write to you now.
About what? I don't even know.
I suppose I could write about all the good memories I have of this place. Hanging out on forums, RPing, waiting for the next RvB video to drop to try and be the first to comment...
Those days are long gone, but there was still a record of them on here, evidence that it happened... Soon, even that will be gone, and all those great times will be but memories, curiosities for me to look at as I wander the empty halls within my mind. That shall be that, and nothing more.
And then, I fear, I will eventually forget, and they will finally be no more.
All I can do is try with all my strength to hold on to those memories for as long as I can.
And Here We Are...
And so, more than 12 years after that fateful day where it all began, here I sit, typing this journal for you all now.
If you had told me the path my life would take in that time, I would never have believed you.
In the time since my absence, I got a new job, my niece has reached the age of 5 and is in Kindergarten, I've learned how to build PCs for myself, and upgraded my main PC Alpha from it's first gen i5, 4 gigs of RAM, and GT 240, to a 2nd gen Ryzen 5, 32 gigs of RAM, and a GTX 1070. Basically, my life is looking up right now.
And yet, with the site as we know it on it's way out, I've never felt so down.
This place was practically my home for years, and while it's changed so much in the time I was gone, there was still plenty that's familiar. Only to be told that even that is going away.
It feels like time passed me by. That I should've done more.
I should have tried hanging out with the friends I made here more often.
I should have tried to go to at least some local get-togethers.
I should have enjoyed this place when I had the chance.
Ah, but alas, at the end of the day, all those should-haves and could-have-beens are merely wishes, and I need to focus on the reality.
If there is any consolation, the old site will live on in some form, thanks to the Forum Rats!
This site is trying to be a duplicate of the old site's format, and so far, It's looking pretty good.
Perhaps I can get a second chance there, and do what I can to make sure it succeeds. Speaking of, y'all should go there and check it out. We could always use more people.
Coming Home
I got my newest laptop, Delta, in October of 2018. With it came a realization: I had a laptop that wasn't a decade-old piece of junk! I could regularly go on RT again! And that's exactly what I did! Quickly typing in the site and...
Oh wow. I HAD been gone a long time... The main page was just so... Different.
Gone was the forum-like page showing the latest news. Now it was the latest video, and the currently updating series. When I logged in, I was in for even more of a shock. The UI was WAY different, looking more like witter than what I remember, not to mention that it's kind of crap. Seriously, I choose the image tab, select a different page, and I have to reselect the Images tab to see that second page! That is so clunky and inconvenient! Oh well, at least I won't have to look at that if I just focus on what forums updated in all those years- and none of them updated.
...Okay.
Well I got all these new friend requests to look at. Oh man, It's good to see some new blood here Most everyone else on my friends list haven't been active for years, so maybe I can start new with these... Bots.
All these requests... Are bots.
And all the friends requests I would get for literal MONTHS after my silent return... All. Bots.
(Author's Note: I was informed after writing this that what I thought were bots were actually accounts that had reused passwords and were essentially hijacked using stolen credentials. Said accounts can't be deleted due to being legitimate RT accounts. My mistake, though I will be keeping it in as these were my thoughts at the time. Again, my apologies for my error.)
This is ridiculous! Where are the site mods? Are there even enough of them or are they just super understaffed?
Just... What HAPPENED to this site?
This was the birthplace of my social life, and the core of it for over five years! I had expected better of the guys running it. I expected serious improvements of what few problems I had when I left. I wasn't expecting... Some kind of bootleg Netflix and bootleg Twitter stapled together!
I just... I knew things would be different. I knew things would change... I just didn't they'd change SO MUCH for the worse.
I continued to lurk for those months, catching up on Red vs Blue, and taking a look at Camp Camp (Which, by the way, is a damn good show), And finally gathered the resolve to restore my sponsorshi- Sorry, FIRST Membership, so I could catch the new season of Camp Camp, and that's when I got a new shock...
35 bucks a year?! Jeez that price spiked (Don't even get me started about them raising the price to 60 bucks). I still paid it, but it was a shock to see another thing had changed so much.
After that, I had planned to make a true return by writing a series of journals complaining about the changes, and how things were better back in the day and basically just go full "Old Man Yells At Cloud" on anyone still paying any attention. However, I just kept putting it off, having other things that needed doing more urgently. Until we got the news mere weeks ago. Had I known this would be the site's fate, I wouldn't have complained as much. Though I suppose it's a moot point.
Changes
I'm not sure whether it happened before or after I began my 4 year leave. In fact I'm not entirely sure of any of the specifics, but around this point, RT was acquired and is now owned by AT&T. With this acquisition came changes, though if that is mere coincidence or there is a direct correlation, I cannot say with certainty. Nevertheless, the effect was the same. Slowly, surely, the community-centered site we all loved became something... different.
More live-action stuff was made, a heavier focus was put on the stuff that was popular with a general audience like Achievement Hunter and RWBY, and perhaps the biggest change, RT was merged with Screwattack, hence why Death Battle is now a RT show.
Granted, none of these would have been bad things, had they made sure the community side of the site was an experience people didn't hate.
But at this point, I'm fairly certain RT wasn't making those decisions anymore. That was in the hands of their corporate overlords, who don't care about a community.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, the site morphed into something... unenjoyable. The content portions turned into what feels like Netflix, and the community? It just feels like Twitter with a forums section stapled on as an afterthought. This unbearable experience coupled with the rise of sites like Reddit likely motivated a bulk of users to look elsewhere well before we got to this point.
And don't even get me started on renaming Sponsorships to FIRST memberships. It feels so much less special now, and I have serious issues with the name.
But alas, at the time I was unaware. Desperately looking for work while doing the most with what cash I could get. This was a dark time for me, what with the constant rejections slowly crushing my sense of self-worth. But finally, my determination paid off.
In July of 2018, I got me a job.
Since then it was slow going, and while I wan't making much, I was making far more than nothing. Eventually I was able to buy a newer laptop, and months later it occurred to me that it could handle Rooster Teeth, and I could FINALLY return to what had always felt like home.
However, what I returned to, was far different from what I left.
But The Years Went By, And The Rock Just Died...
About 2013 is when it all started. the week before my 21st birthday was the worst week of my life. At the start, I more or less lost my job. In the middle my mp3 player died. At this point, I figured it couldn't get much worse than that...
And that's when the week was capped off with my grandmother dying.
Needless to say, when I turned 21, I needed a drink.
Still, the situation on RT was more or less normal. I was keeping up with the RP and forum replies, as well as new episodes of Red vs Blue, and there was no indication of anything different.
It was around the middle of 2013 when it started. Most of the forums I followed, the Freelancer RP being the most noticeable, the replies just... dried up. They ground to a halt. And sure, it was likely due to me having a small list of forums I followed, but it still felt bad to see. 2014 was nowhere near as good to me as the end of 2012, but it wasn't near as bad as what was to come. I had a decent amount of spending money coming in from mowing the neighbor's lawn, and to top it off, my niece was born in June of that year. I was still feeling pretty good.
That would change when 2015 rolled around.
Time I would've spent hanging out here and engaging in my Green Lantern RP was quickly overtaken by job application after job application as I searched desperately for a job. I had no money in my account and the neighbor moved away, so while I wasn't homeless thanks to living with my folks, I was more or less broke. It was around either this point or the very end of 2014 that my sponsorship was no longer renewed, and ran out. Not that I noticed, being so focused on looking for work. As if that weren't bad enough, my laptop had died, forcing me to use a then 6 or 7 year old laptop I was using to experiment with a Windows/Linux dual-boot (For those curious, this system was named Eta and Iota. I would refer to the whole laptop as "The Twins"). This laptop, while far more functional than I anticipated, didn't have the hardware to browse RT regularly, forcing me to begin my 4 year absence. And during that time, things changed...
I'll cover that next time. Until then, some music...
On Top Of The World
The introduction of Groups to RT started a whole new chapter of growth for me as a person. Introducing me to fandoms I would never have found otherwise. Early to mid 2009, I was joining every group I got an invite for. Eventually, out of boredom, I started looking through them. One peaked my interest, The Angry Video Game Nerd.
Curious, I looked into it. This was my first exposure to online game reviews.
As with Halo, I was hooked immediately, watching AVGN episodes one after another. This inevitably led to watching the feud videos between the Nerd, and the Nostalgia Critic. This of course led me to Channel Awesome, then known as That Guy With The Glasses, and having more than like, three contributors as the shitty behavior and self-inflicted shenanigans were not yet public knowledge.
In any case, from there I quickly became a fan of Internet shows like Atop the 4th Wall, The Spoony Experiment, and Radio Dead Air (which you can watch every Monday night from 9pm to 2 am EST.), and was learning about movies, games, and other such media I never knew existed.
There WERE ups and downs, of course. My first laptop, Gamma, died in 2009, though by the end of that year, I got my first true gaming PC, which I immediately dubbed Alpha. Not to mention that this is where I convinced my folks to pay for the 20 bucks a year to get me Sponsor status, renewing every year as a birthday present (Yes kids, back in the day, we were called Sponsors, and we only had to pay 20 bucks for a whole year). And this was just in 2009 and the start of 2010.
With 2010 came my graduation from High School, the start of college, and the next discovery this site granted me: Forum RPs. Y'see, one of those groups I got an invite too was a Project Freelancer RP that had us make our own Freelancer, and naturally, I got dibs on New Jersey.
These things, reviews and RP Forums, formed what I think is an integral part of my personality.
I even tried my hand at both of those things right here, writing reviews on emulated games, and trying to make my own RP group based around Green Lantern. Looking back, these were both a little embarrassing, but I still remember the ambition I felt trying to make them work, and if I had the chance, I'd happily make them all over again.
And Red vs Blue... Oh yes, our dear RvB was more popular than ever. You could tell when a new episode dropped for public viewing because the whole damn site slowed to a crawl, if not outright died entirely. Not that that bothered ME much, having a Sponsorship that let me watch a few hours early. And the forums ran wild with theories and speculation, some of which yours truly took part in.
Yes, as the title implied, from 2009 to 2012, I felt like I was on top of the world, and this site was great to me. But sadly, this would not last forever.