"Seriously? He's leaving and posting a semi-heavy farewell thread yet names it a play on an R.E.M. song?" Yes, yes I am.
This is my farewell and most likely my last post for a long time, if not altogether.
I'm not so good with farewells, but I will try to make this as long as I can to fully explain everything and apologize in advance for the possible stream of consciousness-esque writing, as it is somewhat late and I will allow myself to wander.
To start it out, I must say that the odd thing is many are probably not surprised that I am deciding to leave (which includes resigning from all staff positions at the appropriate times), especially due to my extreme lack of activity in these past few weeks. But, I will let you know that I had made my decision to leave almost a month ago, after a computer problem forced me to not do anything for about two weeks. Before that time, probably starting a little after getting elected to this Council, I had contemplated it quite a bit, and eventually decided on resigning as soon as this Council term was over (some of you might've remembered my fail chat PM to Jenkar where I mentioned it). However, after said computer problem, I felt myself almost entirely unable to get back into everything, and my desire to leave and give my titles to those who had the dedication and diligence that I once felt I owned towards such things had encouraged me to post in the Council private board that I would be leaving the end of the month (posted June 1). So, with it being almost the end of the month, I have posted this, and will probably be in chat even less than I am now.
Yes, this the part where I talk about some very very very very very very (etc.) key people in my communitiedness.
The first person in this is one that is probably the most obvious to everyone: Jenkar. Jenkar and I have had our interesting and nom-filled friendship since maybe 6 months after I joined (mayhaps earlier). Honestly, when I first joined these forums, I had felt like there was a massive rift between the "vets" and us newbies. In my opinion, albeit one of a very new player, Jenkar was one of those that seemed to be new enough that he easily talked and explained things to us newbies, yet "old" enough (though not mature enough, obviously
) that he at first seemed more of a mentor. Oh, and another cut in this will be me saying I know it sounds like I'm complaining about the vets and such, but it was just my opinion at the time, and was not directed towards certain/nameable people (just "vets"), and my opinion on that has been changed for a while. Anywho, Jenkar's mentorship (in my newbie eyes) quickly turned into a (what I hope is) mutual friendship, and we have been friends/associates/nommers/bickerers/etc. for quite some time. Also, a sidenote, Jenkar was the one who encouraged me to apply for TO, which turned into me joining Council, becoming a Chat Mod, and becoming a Guildmaster.
The second most significant (sorry, I will only cover two, since there is not nearly enough room or time or finger strength to talk about everyone who has had positive influence on me) is a certain Master of Life/Deck Helper named willng3. I had honestly never held much of a conversation with will until maybe 8 months ago, but once it happened, we quickly became friends and oftentimes used each other to vent about such things. I was very sad to see him go those couple months ago, but oddly enough, I'm taking the same "route" of leavingness as he is: life issues are not forcing me to quit, but I am able to leave by my own for reasons I have semi-disclosed.
Here's a bit of history: I am Iman00b8 (changed to n00b in the .com to .org move), I am [censored] years old, I live in Minnesota, and I joined this community August 1, 2011, which I for some reason still remember simply because I didn't join chat until the day later, so in the .blab it said my join date was August 2, 2011. I got my first staff position, Tournament Organizer, around September 2012, though I had applied for Warmaster those couple months beforehand. Umm, I became a Counciler and Chat Mod a few months later, and Guildmaster (as well as creating a skeleton for Guilds with plastiqe, by myself when he vanished, and then concreting it and creating further new ideas when Hyroen was chosen to be a fellow Guildmaster) I have been on Kongregate, how I found out about Elements, since December 11, 2010, and I have resided in the same chat room since probably December 12 of the same year. Oftentimes I'm on Kong, so if you wanna talk/etc., just whisper or PM me or something (Kongregate name is Iman00b8, and yes, those are zeroes).
As stated before, I'm not the best writer in the world, and I seem to be able to ramble as my mind goes down its meandering path, so I shall end my farewell post abruptly with these last few sentences.
To older players: keep doing what you are doing. I lost my motivation for the actual game of Elements quite a while ago, maybe a few months before this last War (which saddens me to know that will spent all those cards on me when I hardly did anything). Community-wise, make sure you be patient with everyone you see here, something I freely admit I lacked in, because if older players had not done the same for you, you probably wouldn't be where you are now. Not everyone is as mature, smart, or grammatically correct as you may think you are (and might even be), but everyone is different and expresses themselves differently and you should help reduce bad qualities while encouraging good ones. Here's something that shows things can be changed: when I first joined Kongregate, I was the type of person who would use few vowels, talked with numbers, and most if not all of my talkings were using unintelligible acronyms and failed spellings. Now, I hope I am slightly less so.
To newer players, or newer players that have at least 200 posts: you must also be patient. Being as small as it is, there are parts of this community that are very tight-knitted and may feel impossible to breach. As I said before, when I first joined, I felt like there were newbies and there were vets, and vets would never both to talk to newbies, but I was quickly proved wrong. You may need to act more mature, as quite a few older players (sometimes I think I am included in this list) might act like they're the type of person who is always serious and never has any fun, but once you get to know them, you will discover that they all have their own fun, unique personalities that might take some work to unearth.
Well, this is it. I'll check around for the next day or two, but after that you probably won't see me until Trials are over, where I will silently observe all the winners.
Thank you all for contributing to my fun almost-two years in this community, and if you wish to be able to further communicate with me, you can add me on Kongregate, my username being Iman00b8, or PSN, where if you PM me yours/PM me asking mine, you shall (most likely) get it.
Thank you all for everything,
This is n00b, signing off.
