The Future
 

In terms of OWF itself, I think it has no future. We now exist in the form of 'post universe' where only black holes exist and all the stars are dead, but now and again, Hawking Radiation causes a black hole to explode in an absolute glory of light once in a few billion years.

This is one of those moments. There are a few people who still come on here, now and again. This thread is for us.

Rather than a specific topic, I think we can just huddle here and wait til whatever is hosting this site is dead for good. VBullet was it?

It's mad that a thread like this would be pruned immediately but there's so little traffic that I'd consider it a suitable funnel for us to just talk bollocks for a bit.

How's life been treating you all?

EDIT: Just noticed my last infraction in 2011 was due to threatening to throw spuds at STM. Nice one, Nate. Did you work at 4chan part time?

I feel like there's a mental leap I'm missing here.

Dix you were the cause of so many of my fucking infractions you bastard oh god I miss you.

I'm in my 20's, but I really struggle to get to grips with Discord. It's a bit too instant for me. I was pretty sad when everyone started jumping ship there.

Part of me always thought this place would pick back up again. Boy I was wrong! The ARG was probably the last hurrah of the forum for me personally, a real renaissance. (Friendly reminder that ARG started over 4 years ago WHAT.)

This place was a massive, massive shithole at times, though. I found myself joining in with the negative atmosphere on several occasions when I was probably like 14, just to "fit in with the cool kids". Don't think I was ever downright awful to anyone but probably would cringe at my attitude at times on here back in the day, but then again who wouldn't I suppose!

I was never particularly close with anyone on here, but always enjoyed discussing all things odd with all'ya. Never been part of another forum, and probably never will be.

Life is fine for me in these crazy days, and I hope you're all well too.

i also can't deal with discord aside from personal servers with friends. in general i don't think i have the time or energy for chatrooms & having online friends


i've only gotten 1 infraction here and i've never been negged because all of my posts are milquetoast. if anyone negs me now it's mandatory that you leave a message that makes me smile

I definitely think there's an energy aspect to it for me too. I always feel the need to scroll back to see what I missed, so end up feeling overwhelmed and don't bother going on. Completely appreciate that's a me thing and not a problem with Discord itself.

Never had an infraction, but have been negrepped 3 times for being pretty rude. 1 of them I think was a bit harsh. The other 2 I was definitely being an internet asshole.

I feel I've reached a zen with online communication now. Nothing is worth arguing about with someone over the internet haha.

i've had a bunch of infractions because i was an abrasive twat. i say 'was', i still am i suppose. just more mellow. i don't know exactly how many i've had because a few of them were deleted by the powers that be a couple of years ago when i got banned, mainly because i was genuinely sorry being a cunt. lessons were learned. Nate and Xav are good guys man.

pretty much same here. i like the 'instant chatroom' aspect but i feel too exhausted to engage with it all at times, logging on can feel like a chore. that's why i've only joined a few small discord servers, and the larger ones i have on mute anyway. for me its a way to converse with old buddies i don't want to lose contact with.

that wasn't me, was it? i seem to remember getting ratty with you a few years ago about a PSP game or some shit. i look back now and cringe.

I use Discord for a reading group, and to catch up with Phylum every six months. I think that Nate & Co. did an absolutely stellar job here of keeping things relatively well functioning and to-the-point over the years. The Discord server is fucking lawless, and I struggle to keep up with instant messenger with more than one person these days. I'm glad the community lives on in some form, but to be honest I miss the old clique more than anything, and I don't think Discord will recreate that.

OWF was great. I used to log on of a morning and spend ages reading through everyone's posts. I know to an extent I'm looking back through rose tinted glasses, but the fact that it took a few minutes to a few hours to get a reply to something sort of meant that the quality of people's posting seemed to be better, I guess? On a whole, anyway. I think it's fair to say that I wasn't the most loved person for the first few years I was on here (no shit, I was like 12 lol), but I'm really glad that I stuck with it because I think I developed some real, powerful and lasting friendships. Again, I've not seen that sort of closeness and camraderie transferred over to the Discord.

I will lament OWF's passing, but I'm so fucking glad I found this place. I think it's the first internet community I joined, and by far it was the best.

The year of my join date changes depending on time zone.

Also I was literally 11 when I registered here. I'm not sure why people like Nate and Wil volunteered their time to keep retarded kids like myself in line but I thank them for it because this place shaped my adolescence in a way and I probably wouldn't be the same without it.

I'd prefer using the forums over Discord. I like the way forums work, compared to Discord's instant replies. It allows for more time to ruminate on an appropriate response. Discord gets better laughs though.

It's a little sad to know that the forums will be coming to an official end, but such is life.

Tbh if OWF actually does come to an end because of Alcar or whatever, I would feel comfortable setting up a successor if there was interest.

Been a while hey. I've hopped onto the Discord, Soulstorm news reeled me back in. I don't read it that much, but I'm around.

As STM said we chat every 6 months. I go through patches of chatting with MM too.

I was 12 when I joined. Lots of stuff went over my head and I was scared to open the Zoophilia thread. I'd like to thank the members of this forum for making me realize how dumb anime was from a young age otherwise I might have turned into a disgusting weeb in my teens.

Totally agree with STM that the thought and effort that went into forums was special. Sad to see them die off, not just here but across the whole internet.

I stopped posting here regularly in 2014, the year I started uni. In the last 6 years I started and dropped out of a music degree, then started and finished a Computer Science degree and entered the workforce. I have a desk job at a bank now, programming 9-5. I live in Melbourne as of this year which is much cooler than where I grew up. Also been with my awesome GF for 2 years this month.

I commentate video game tournaments in my spare time. Done a few live events now, the highlight so far was being on stage at PAX Australia 2018. Ramping up for more in the next year or so - corona has already cancelled a few events sadly.

I was really lost in the world when I was a teen. Felt alone and sad and angry a lot, and didn't have many people close to me. Having a space online to come talk shit and make friends meant a lot. I have kind of worked my shit out these days. Life is pretty good.

Hope everyone is doing ok, especially with how this year has been. Look after yourselves.

holy shit it's Phylumz! much love my friend!

i recently friended MM on Discord, but that was because i didn't realize i had befriended an old account of his that he seems to no longer use or something, and didn't realize for years. that would be because i'm dumb.

just for future reference if that ever became a thing i would be interested in joining, especially if it means continuing a forum environment for Oddworld fans. it would be like TGA except not run by a megalomaniac. and not crap.

PHYLUM I SUMMONED YE. So glad to hear you're doing OK, matey. I remember someone saying, I think it was OANST, that people tend to leave OWF once they get their shit together. I think we've almost passed that point now though. Everyone I've spoken to from OWF recently seems to be doing better now than ever. You love to hear it.

I remember you were having some health issues back then. How are you going now?

Yeah really good. Never got diagnosed, just had to work on my health myself. I struggled with fatigue for about 6 years all up, 2010 - 2016 on and off. Building up again was slow. In 2016 I started with a skipping rope. It was hard to do a single jump, but soon I could do 10 then 50 then 100. I started going for lots of walks, usually 1-2 walks per week of 5-10kms. Made some diet changes that helped a lot too. More fibre and yoghurt every morning for a healthier stomach was a turning point of my life.

I'm the strongest I've ever been now and still getting stronger. Joining a gym was high on my list of Melbourne priorities but then lockdown happened.

I was 11 when I joined and never really posted anywhere other than the old .lvl files thread and Oddworld Mods & Hacks when Jango's thread was still going. Pretty much everyone from there aside from Paul have disappeared, bit sad really. I only remembered about johnnyk89 the other day, it was pretty funny in retrospect.


Hope everyone's doing well anyway, I only really lurked in Off-Topic as I didn't really know how to reply to anything, always kinda wish I did though.


As for the Discord, I think forums lend themselves better to moderation in general than IMs. Posting on here feels more formal to me than what I consider a casual chat on there. I suppose it's not everyone's cup of tea.

It wasn't you no. In fact, that was one of the times that I thought I was being a dick haha. I definitely cringed reading my comments back so sounds like we feel the same way about that one!

Whilst we're all chatting about the pros and cons of forum life, how did everyone feel about that period were JAW were extremely active on here?

I remember at the time it seemed really cool that devs were being so up close and personal with the community, but looking back I can't help but feel it interfered a bit probably with their work and the way the forum went about it's business too. Strange times indeed.

Also I'm still bitter OWI nicked one of my Memes from the Oddmemes thread and shared it on social media without giving me a shout out, and then ignored me when I mentioned I made it. What's that about man? What a bunch of Glukkons eh? Haha

OWF is better than Discord because the avatars are bigger and Discord doesn't have Native theme.

There's a lot I could say about this place, but I think instant messaging has crippled my literacy in much the way YouTube has crippled my attention span. But it's nice to sit down and write something; something premeditated. You reflect on it more.

I wish I could add to the positivity, but the truth is I've been pretty much floundering in realspace since I left OWF. I always figured that people here would be happier imagining my success than hearing the underwhelming reality.

Last few days I've been teaching Nepsotic how to play Morrowind. That's been fun.

This. The conveniences of modern internet life have spoiled us. Back in the day I could spend upwards of an hour on a single post here (though you'd never be able to tell from looking at any of them).

It has been a journey of many trials and tribulations, but it has been worth it, to carve a man from a boy. (Lizard boy)
Also it's hilarious how much better than Skyrim this 2002 game is, even with all its weird bugs and quirks.
Skyrim is like the sterile corporate Morrowind, with every ounce of personality and charm having been stripped from it. Much like how Should-be-Naked strips for comfort, Bethesda stripped TES of any depth to appeal to a broader demographic. It's like poetry.

But yeah morrowind is sick

Joined here in 2007, I think after getting stuck after managing to 'break' Abe's Oddysee where I somehow managed to bypass a Slig I wasn't supposed to and as such was trapped forever...

Never been much of a regular (as you can see from my post count), but I come back every so often, usually when replaying an Oddworld game of some kind - started (and very quicky disliked) New 'n' Tasty last night for the first time, hence my presence again today.

But yeah, every time I do come back this place just seems to be deader and deader. I suppose it's not surprising given how slow development on Soulstorm has been, but the fact there are still threads from 2018 on the front page of the 'Oddworld Discussion' section tells you all you need to know.

And for what it's worth, I'm only a few months off 30 and I'm not sure I could really even explain to you what Discord is, let alone whether I like it or not.

Certainly doesn't help that the sign-up function hasn't been working for donkey's years :p

To be fair, it's turned off rather than buggy.

Huh, I thought it was just binned. Fair enough! :monster:

so this is literally it then. we've been unplugged from the life support, the DNR has been confirmed, now we're just waiting to blip out of existence. honestly, that's quite sad. i will miss this fucking strange place. and all the people in it, including you, Nate_dawg. i joined when i was 17, i'm now 30 for the love of christ. it scares the shit out of me how time has just disappeared like that.

https://newfastuff.com/wp-content/up...06/nkIwtPv.png

Old men are the future.

All the country specifically for old men.

i think we should have a country specifically for odd men, 360 of them

You know, this might be the last place I still use my second oldest password ever. Somehow I feel that's significant enough to be worth mentioning. I've been here since 2007, probably around October, if memory serves. I remember I used to use an old Microsoft ME computer at the time (probably a collector's item for Rory now). It would be fitting to include something more about the passing of time, but instead, I'll fill in with an update about my life, though I suspect most Discord savvy members know this story fairly well and those exclusively here may only express the passing interest in that matter.

When I joined, I was still in my early days of schooling, not even in high school yet. I've since been to Australian and Danish high-school, nearly finished a university degree in physics (master's level) and plan to become a high-school teacher, since while I enjoy the academic side of things, I've found university so underwhelming and frustrating that I would rather deal with high-school. Picked up hobbies, here and there, including game dev, music composition (not that I'm good at it), wine brewing, tutoring kids, rollerblading, cooking and a some lot more. I gave up my fantasies of being a writer which, even when I was 13, I wasn't entirely sure I believed in so much as liked the thought of in a romantic sort of way.

I grew out of my anti-social habits and graduated from being a loner because I couldn't talk to people to being a loner because I didn't want to talk to people to being a sociable person to going back to being a loner because I don't want to talk to people. Which was nice, if also a bit of a long walk for nothing.

I wonder what I might say to a younger me.

Lay off the smilies in your forum posts, perhaps.

There was a long-running trend of scaring off newbies. It could have been possible that this place would be bustling with the new generation if we hadn't have been that way, but who knows?

Remember the sex thread? Good times.

Did we ever really want new members?

We'd never admit to it, but no.

Yes.

Maybe.

Who can say?

We're dying, but we're not dead, not yet.

It's my belief that SoulStorm will be the last entry in the series, and Nate willing, we'll have an influx of new members, and the occasional ones that discover Oddworld thanks to the wealth of buggy ports available on every system imaginable until its ported enough to be second only to doom.

However if I am wrong and SS is a success with a sequel announced, we may have another golden era.

Time will tell, but whatever happens I'll stick around for the ride.

That's hopeful thinking, but be realistic. People who get into a new game are not going to go onto a forum and talk about it. They'll stream it like little faggots and squeal with joy over the most inane shite. The only activity that'll come out of this place when the game ships is from folks who are aware of this place.

And a lot of 'em have seldom graced this place in years, so we're stuck with the usual ponts.

Like Varrok, and his amazing ability to detach the camera and put it up Abe's ass.

I swear down someone said the forum will be going permanently offline this year anyway? In fact, isn't it already overdue?

If it was all a ruse to revive forum activity, it almost worked. :fuzblink:

Most new Oddworld fans will go to Reddit. Not some obscure outdated forum full of entrenched members like us. Sad as it is to admit (or isn't sad, I'm not sure which) the forum is really not a popular medium anymore and our forum is bordering on obsolete.

Quite sad. At least here they'll get some idea about what sexual intercourse is really like.