Igiss Q&A Thread

[SevereTrinity]

I don't think I've logged on this account in about 10 years, and haven't played Disco in closer to 14 or 15 I think.

Man Igiss, how the hell you doing? I don't have any words that can jog your memory of who I was to you way back when, but I started playing Disco when I was 13, and you can probably do the maths if you care but that's a long time ago in my life.

I don't have any questions for you other than asking how you are. But I do want to tell you of the impact you had in my direction in life, of how the world you created gave a little boy a chance at life, and of the man I am today who wants to thank you for dreaming.

Disco got me through a time in my life when I didn't really have friends, where I used to hide in corridors at school to avoid eyes, awaiting the chance to run home and log onto the computer and enter a world set against the rich tapestry of a space opera, where I could be whoever and whatever I wanted to be. It was a form of escapism, and in true 13-16 year old form I tried to be incredibly edgy (seriously, look at this username!). I was a bit of a dick, but I met a lot of people and was exposed to a world where I learnt some social norms that I avoided in daily life.

I was good at one thing, PvP, and it gave me the arrogance of being 'better' than other people that set me on the path my path in life. I expanded that arrogance into egotism, and then when I finally found my place in the real world, tempered it into quiet confidence. Because I thought I could PvP, I decided at 17 I needed to do a sport. I started boxing, and within a few weeks of getting punched in the face I realised that arrogance is the trait of someone good at something, who has not yet met their limit. I have since spent a lot of time in life finding my limits, and breaking them now.

Space has always enraptured me, from stargazing with my father right through to taking on one of many guises in the world you helped make. I went on to study the stars, kinda - physics was my university degree. I spent a lot of my career after university meandering from one thing to another, but I've finally settled into software engineering (because computer is friend!), Now I'm at the forefront of another distantly adjacent frontier to the space world you built for me, that being AI.

One final reflection. I read some of your comments in this thread about how you tried to be the voice of reason for all sides, but if you were to do it again you would probably try to resolve conflict without making everyone equally happy. I was once one of those people appealing to you! I can't even remember what had happened (nor did it matter), but I remember not getting a decision I wanted from some admin or mod developer of a sort, and appealing to you. You did your best to allay me, but you wouldn't go against your team, and shouldn't have in any regards. You are 40 now, I am 31. Back then, I would have been maybe 15 and you 23/24. I now realise how absurd such a situation truly was, a child appealing to someone barely an adult. None of us really have anything figured out at those ages.

From what you've written here, things seem like they haven't been easy for you. In my view, you have always been a champion for the betterment of others, the only difference today is that you are using your voice as much as your actions. Keep using that voice.

Thank you for giving me the playground I needed as a child. Because of the sandbox you built, I explored who I was, and the man I am today is proud of that person.

Take care, and I hope our paths cross again.