I had a lot to say. Like 20 pages worth, there's a lot. I spoiler'd it so the page wouldn't stretch on for an eternity. Click at your own risk fellas.
Heh, where do I even begin? I admit I've been thinking about what I would say since I made this thread, but have been having trouble coming up with how to put it all into words, as well as just how much I want to say. I honestly can go on for hours if someone isn't here to shut me up, I'm sure you've all seen me go off on tangents about ZV history and whatnot at one time or another, so a lot of you probably know what I'm talking about...
I don't want to go on forever about myself like I'm trying to make a sale or anything but I feel like I should say a few things about my earlier experiences on Zero Virus. I first joined ZV in September 2003, so I'll have been here a full 10 years at the end of the summer. I was just 13 years old at the time, still a novice to online communities (ZV was pretty much my first) and really to computers in general (I had only gotten to using computers for the first time in the June before I joined.)
Zerovirus.net was kind of my go to site for MegaMan info ever since I realized sites like that existed. I only joined the forum because my brother and I got stuck trying to get the Shoryuken and the information on ZV's site wasn't very clear. I made a thread and Xero was kind enough to walk me through it. Afterwords I just stuck around because I saw there were a handful of spriters and that was something I was interested in (sprite comics like Psyguy's "That's My Sonic" and Bossman's silly comics on ZV were what first attracted me to the internet, and were originally shown to me by my sister, who was far more into computers than I was.)
I was a bit of a pest at first, mostly due to being 13 and never really being a part of an online community before, so I had no idea how to properly act really. I know I was a real handful for Xero who was a brand new staff member at the time (I even got threatened with the ban hammer a couple of times!) so I'm sorry for that, but I'm glad that our friendship evolved so much from that time.
On that note I feel like Xero really does deserve an honorable mention here. Even though we started out as him being the new, hardworking staff member trying to clean up the messes and me being the annoying newbie challenging his authority and patience, he was very good to me (you see this is back when Xero was still nice... Some of you can't even imagine but our veterans know what I'm talking about.) He always was there to answer questions for me on the forum, and did his best to help me without making me feel bad (my very first PM on ZV was actually Xero randomly PMing me to tell me how to spell Sesshomaru's name because he saw me struggling with it in a thread, and wanted to share with me without calling me out on it publicly.) He taught me a lot about spriting, and inspired me to make comics. Over these 10 years he's been a really good friend, always there to give me advice or just listen to me vent when I had problems. It was with his good words that I came to be an administrator on ZV and since then I feel like we've made an unstoppable team. I know he hates hearing stuff like this cause it makes him feel old but he really is like the older brother I never had, and I admire him a lot. So if you're reading this Xero, thank you for everything.
I have a lot of really good memories from those early days. Tony and Ultimate Zero were probably my first friends on ZV, and even though Ultimate Zero is long gone and Tony and I kind of are arch nemesies, I still consider Tony one of my oldest friends and most cherished things about ZV. Even though I give him a lot of crap (it's his own fault for making it so funny, really!) I can't imagine ZV without him. He's one of the things that made ZV great for me in the beginning, and is one of the few things that has been consistent around here for my entire stay.
In the first couple years of ZV I made a lot of friends who I'm still close to today. Renegade and Vilex joined close to the same time as me. Vilex was an odd case, (this might be an embarrassing story for him, so if you're reading this, sorry Nick!) because we actually got to know each other because he was stealing my sprites and posting them on his site, and me being the n00b I was, I was sooooo mad, writing him all kinds of angry e-mails and stuff. He eventually did take down the comics and added me on MSN and tried to be friends with me. Admittedly I just thought he was weird and annoying and wanted him to leave me alone, but something about his quirky, special kind of dumb was kind of endearing, and even though I couldn't stand him at first, I came around, and we actually became really good friends (I still consider him one of my closest friends on ZV, even though we don't talk often and when we do I want to kind of strangle him half the time, but that's just the kind of relationship we have I guess.)
Renegade was a little different, we were just kind of bros. Though we didn't talk much in the earlier days, he was Xero's number one groupie (still kind of is...) and admittedly back then I was always kind of jealous that he seemed closer to Xero than I was. Getting to do cool stuff like see Xero's comics before anyone else, get to be a main character in Xero's comic, earn a Bloodline coat before anyone else! Was hax I say. But Rene was one of the members closer to my age and we got along well. We collaborated on sprite works and comics a lot back in the day, hell we still do collaborate on projects on occasion (Project Awesome, anyone?) and he's always been a good friend. I remember such fond memories as us going into long in-depth speculations as to Kate's true gender, him trying to teach me how to french kiss (sounds gay but it was actually just some really awkward and in hindsight silly descriptive details...) and though I hated him for it at the time, him trying to help me get over my ex girlfriend when we were going through a pretty nasty breakup. He's always been a good friend and just generally a really fun guy (in a recent conversation with someone he actually was tied for first for my own opinion of ZV dude that would be the most exciting to hang out with.) So if you're reading this Rene, I give thanks to you too.
Another major person in my time on ZV (at least in those earlier days) was Kate. I know a lot of newer members have no idea who she is, and many of our older members have mixed feelings about her from the numerous experiences, but she(/he?) was one of my closer friends on ZV for a long time. Kate first introduced herself as a boy when she was new to ZV, and we became buddies pretty quickly (we're talking early 2004 here people) but after about 6 months Kate revealed that he was actually a she! That was a pretty big shock to a lot of us. Though I'll be perfectly honest I can't say with absolute certainty today what gender Kate is. She was always a bit of an enigma, never seemed comfortable in her own skin so she was constantly trying to reinvent herself (every time she came to ZV she had a picture of a different girl she was claiming was her, sometimes she made dummy accounts pretending to be a boy again, all kinds of weird stuff.) It may seem like it's none of my business to publicize this kind of stuff but I do mean it in good nature, and I mock this behavior just because I thought when Kate was being true to herself she was a very pleasant person, and I liked talking to her, so there was no reason for her to have to try and hide. I'll even go so far as to admit (knowing full well I just said I can't say for sure what gender she ACTAULLY is...) Kate was my very first internet crush. But when she was a dude we were good buddies, and when she was a girl we were still good buddies with awkward chemistry (well we actually had a kind of love/hate relationship, still do really, every other time I see her I alternate between having a blast and wanting to strangle her...) so it doesn't really matter to me what she actually is.
On the subject of Kate, I actually owe her my staff position I guess. I'm not sure how it happened but in I believe it was late 2004 or mid 2005, she got really close to Bossman and in one of Xero's absences got herself bumped up to admin. Kate and I were buddies and all but I feel like especially at the time she may have been too immature for that kind of power, because she kind of just used it to do whatever she wanted. There were a lot of upset people on ZV because of that, and Bossman taking her side caused a great divide in ZV's community. During that time Zero Virus' community was actually divided between numerous forums (my brother, sister, and I had a forum, Xero and Renegade had a forum together, Tony and Xzero had one, Fusion and Sonic had one, Kate had one, Shaunman and Ztrl had one...) and so when ZV was deemed uninhabitable there was no shortage of places to go, so most of the community moved to my sister's board.
I don't mean to toot my own horn but I used that opportunity to try and mend a lot of fences in the ZV community (since I had most of the members on my siblings' forum and I was good friends with both Bossman and Kate) and when almost everybody left Kate did see that she was kind of acting inappropriately, and stepped down from her position and asked that I take it over. I actually refused because I honestly had no idea what I would do with that kind of power and didn't think I needed it, but Bossman insisted I at least be a mod since I was apparently good at getting people to calm down and talk, so that's how I got my green stars. Though honestly I felt a little bad because Shaunman (another good old friend of mine from the early years of ZV) was a major contender in the whole separation of the ZV community, and he was who organized a lot of people and encouraged them to protest and leave ZV, and I told him I was going to try and fix it and ended up walking away from the thing with a promotion while he didn't really get anything for his trouble. I had always imagined he would be a staff member on ZV someday though, it's almost a shame he went and got a life... But last time I talked to him he had a wife and two kids and was very happy, so maybe it's better he did something more important with his time. (Who am I kidding what's more important than ZV, amirite guys?)
I feel like becoming a staff member was a very major thing for me on ZV, in both good ways and bad ways. After becoming a staff member I became way, way more dedicated to ZV. I started religiously checking the forum several times a day, tried to help everyone in every way I could, tried really hard to maintain a constant presence, and became (I guess you could call it) obsessed with trying to find ways to improve ZV and make it more fun not only to attract new members, but keep our current ones interested. But at the same time, I feel like a similar problem as with Kate existed in that I wasn't really prepared for that kind of responsibility, and sometimes didn't really know how to handle myself.
When I was first starting out on staff I didn't have much power, and I liked it that way because I wanted to feel like I earned my power. But what that meant was all I could really do was modify and delete posts and stuff. Sometimes I feel like I bothered Bossman and Xero a lot back then with suggestions and whatnot, and admittedly I did try a little too hard sometimes to assert myself as a Staff Member on the forum, which I'm sure a lot of people could have done without. I feel bad about that, so let me just say now, thanks for putting up with me guys!
Around 2006 we got a huge influx of new members on ZV. From late fall 2005 to summer 2006 we had A LOT of people join that ended up being pretty permanent around here. Swim, Silver, Bloodbane, Random, Nicktendonick, Dray, HZ, Paranoidmage, Person, Rick, and Smoke to name a few. It was a pretty hectic time on ZV just because there were so many new people showing in such a short time, and in addition to those listed we had a lot of newbies who didn't stick around but had little regard for the rules. Bear in mind this was also during the height of Frozt's activity... So needless to say, it was a busy time to be on the ZV Staff.
Early 2006 though, right in the middle of Frozt's rampage and the explosion of new members and activity, Xero had lost internet access for a period, so there was no admin to keep everything running smoothly during that time. I tried my best, but I talked to Bossman about recruiting a new staff member. Reaver was my choice, since he had been around for pretty much ever and since he lived on the other side of the world, he could be around to keep an eye on things when I was sleeping. Reaver happily accepted the responsibility, but I don't think he realized just how much of other people he'd be forced to interact with because of the job... He worked himself crazy trying to keep everyone in line, and if I do say so myself I think it started to get to him, and he became increasingly more hostile toward newbies. By the time I had Fusion and Tony recruited onto staff as well to help us keep everything in control, the damage had been done, and when Reaver and Fusion had some disagreements over how to handle some problems, Reaver got fed up and quit his job on staff and left ZV. I felt really bad about that, and it took about a year before anyone got Reaver to even come back to ZV...
On that note I'd like to say a few words about Reaver. I feel like he's an underrated member on ZV. Admittedly he is easy to overlook because ever since his early days on ZV he's always just kind of lurked, but I feel like he' s been just as dedicated a member to Zero Virus as many others, and has been a good friend too. A lot of people envision Reaver as just kind of a jerk because he doesn't talk much, and when he does he's usually critical, but I know he really is a nice guy. One of my favorite examples of such is when I was taking my 3D Design class in 2008. I was excited to be taking 3D Design, but unfortunately it turned out the teacher had no idea what he was doing... He barely taught us anything, and was struggling to show us examples covered in the book every day in class. For our final project, we were expected to make a chess set in 3D, but because he didn't really teach us anything I had no idea what I was doing. The night before it was due I was freaking out trying to make the damn pieces in Maya and couldn't. I remembered Reaver was taking 3D Design too, so I asked him for help. And I'll tell you what, Reaver stayed with me all night, and into the morning and afternoon the next day as I struggled with that, helping me in every conceivable way every step of the way, even though in his time that was the equivalent of working from waking up in the morning until 3 am. So anytime Reaver acts like a jerk, or someone says he's kind of a jerk, I just chuckle to myself because I know despite how he portrays himself he's a really nice guy and a good friend. So if you're reading this Reaver, thank you.
2006 and 2007 was in general a really tough time for me as a part of ZV's staff though, and in life in general really. By summer of 2006 I was an administrator alongside Xero. During that time Frozt was smacked with his permanent ban, which was all things considered pretty sad because even though Frozt drove us all crazy I actually liked him. Mid 2006 then due to some problems in the way certain situations were handled, Fusion lost his staff position, a thing I feel like he's always blamed me for. That same summer I broke up with my girlfriend (who I had made the dire mistake of inviting to ZV while we were seeing each other, a very very poor decision on my part due to how awkward things were after we broke up, since she didn't have the courtesy to leave ZV after that even when our relationship got really nasty...)
On the note of Fusion, before that gets swept by, I feel bad about our relationship. We didn't really talk much in the older days of ZV, we were both just kind of there but didn't interact much. When Bossman asked me if I wanted more staff to help me and Reaver out though I looked to find members who I was familiar with and who had been around ZV for a long time so that I could expect them to know how things are supposed to go around here. I picked Tony and Fusion since they were the only active members who had been around longer than me and weren't already on staff. Fusion seemed really honored to have the job and talked to me about some really ambitious ideas after he first joined the staff, so I felt really bad that we ended up having to demote him. I feel like ever since then we've kind of been at odds with each other. We fought a lot during the time between mid 2006 all the way to late 2008. I never wanted to fight with him, but it always seemed to come to that. Even though we don't butt heads very often anymore it still feels like even to this day he kind of holds a grudge against me. I don't know if it's just because we're too different or if there's some lingering resentment or what, but it always seems like there's some tension between us, even when we're being friendly. I don't like feeling like he doesn't like me and hope that some day we can bury that hatchet. I try not to think negatively of him despite our differences and try to take his side whenever I can in arguments to show that we do have some common ground. So if you're reading this Fusion, I hope you see that I'm not as bad as you may think, and I'm sorry we got off on the wrong foot.
One nice thing about 2006 though was with the huge crowd of new members, it made the forum ideal for doing stuff like events. That's how the Carnival came to be. I don't wanna sound like I'm bragging but the Carnival was a concept I came up with during one of my absences from ZV, and I discussed with Xero when I got back. He liked it, and so we held our first Carnival in March of 2006. It was highly experimental, as we had no idea how these things should go, so we had tons of games and contests and events as a sort of trial to see what people liked. When we saw that got the most participation (mostly the ZV Trivia, Scavenger Hunt, Musical Avatar, and the Art, Spriting, and Writing contests) we kind of had a template that every Carnival that followed lived by.
The first OFFICIAL Carnival took place just two months later, in June 2006. Done up as a celebration of ZV's birthday, it introduced the 4 Panel Comic game, came back with a lot of the stuff people enjoyed from the trial Carnival, introduced gaming tournaments, and was a 2 week long celebration as opposed to the one week the trial Carnival covered. It was a real blast, so much so that we couldn't wait to do the next one. Because of this, both 2006 and 2007 had two Carnivals each. One in June to celebrate ZV's birthday, and another in December to celebrate Bossman's. With each Carnival though the games and events got more complex, so when 2008 rolled around we decided to discontinue the winter Carnivals, and decided we'd just pour even more into the summer ones to make it worth the year long wait. Coincidentally, 2008 is when we debuted the concept of massive, forum-wide team battle events during the Carnival, so it's for the best that we scaled it back to one Carnival per year at that point, I dunno what I would have done having to run two events every year... It worked out nicely though, because with the repeats on those couple years, we came out to 10 Carnivals in the end; one Carnival for every year of ZV. So it's almost like those winter Carnivals were just making up for lost time, and by 2008 we'd caught up so we were able to relax.
The Carnival came to be one of my favorite parts of ZV, and one of the biggest things I looked forward to every year. To me, it embodied everything that was great about ZV. It brought us together, we played games together, we had fun and competed. We were active on both the forum and in the chat, we saw people we didn't usually get to see.... We made comics, we made sprites, we created art and we reminisced about ZV and our good times together. For that reason, I really am sad that the Carnivals have ended. But I'm hoping we don't need things like big long events and games to help us remember our sense of community and enjoy each other's company.
I feel like I've spent a lot of time just rambling on about ZV History and my own time on ZV, and at this point that may be getting a little boring. So I'd like to change things up a little and just start rambling about people, events, and memories I hold dear, rather than following some chronological pattern.
I wish there was time to acknowledge every single person in detail, as so many of you have touched my life in a lot of ways. I think you're all great, so if I forget to mention you specifically, I'm sorry. My bad. There's a lot to say, but so little words to put them all into. I've already rambled about Xero, Tony, Vilex, Renegade, Kate, Reaver, and Fusion, so I guess I'll spare them more embarrassment.
Random, I dunno why this guy is one of the first dudes I thought of after writing that last paragraph but whatever. Random has always been an enigma. When he first joined he was a nucking foob, as I'm sure he would admit as well. But I always thought this asshole was the best thing. In his early days he just laughed at everything and rambled about stupid things nobody (not even he) really understood in a testament to his name. Even though today he says he despises the name "Random" and laments using it for so long that it's now impossible for him to shake it, I think he still does live up to his name as you can never really be sure what he'll do or how he'll react to something. Sometimes it's frustrating, sometimes it's fun as hell. I mean really I've always found this bastard hilarious, no matter how dumb he was being. I was really prudish, reserved, and controlled in my earlier years of ZV, as some of our veterans may remember. Random was one of the first things on ZV that showed me that it can be fun to just explode with randomness and not care. I found the crazy stuff he did and said so amusing I couldn't help but emulate it, I still do in fact. And one of the best parts is he can switch it off, and be totally serious if you really need him to be, so he was always helpful when I needed his honest opinions or needed to know something about something he was knowledgeable in. Random, if you're reading this, thank you for being such a funny dickwad. And thank you for being a good friend too, I guess. Bitch.
Ztrl is another important figure that comes to mind. I remember when he joined in 2004, and honestly he didn't make much of an impression on me. It was another case where we just both happened to exist and it didn't make much difference. The first half of 2006 though he became more active and so we interacted more, and regrettably we didn't get along very well. He talked himself into a temporary mod position when chatting with Bossman one time, and so he and I butted heads over that due to differences in how to manage the problems the forum was facing at the time, so we kind of got off on the wrong foot. It was only made worse during the controversies that transpired mid 2006. Summer of 2006 had a lot of bad things happening in spite of the good spirits the Carnival brought (Frozt bannings, Fusion's demotion, Sevi joining, my girlfriend and I breaking up and her subsequently lingering around ZV and repeatedly publicly humiliating me, etc...) so there was a lot of tensions running high on ZV in that time period, and I know Ztrl didn't like me very much around then. Toward the end of that summer though he started reaching out to me a lot, and honestly I thought it was a trick at first to find some kind of dirt to use against me, so I was usually very brief and careful about what I said in our encounters. As we talked more though we got to know each other better and better, and we both kind of opened up more. Before long Ztrl became one of my best friends on ZV, and even though we don't talk that often anymore I still consider him to be. We've had our disagreements over things and don't always see eye-to-eye, but he's always been a good friend and even though I complain about everything a lot (and well he kind of does too I guess, we just work that way I suppose) we always got along, and I've had a lot of fun working with him on various silly projects over the years, even if some of our bigger ones may prove to be nothing more than pipe dreams... If you're reading this Ztrl, I'm sorry if I haven't always been a very good friend, and I thank you for being good to me.
Majeh and I have had a kind of odd relationship since the very beginning. He was another case of someone who was around for awhile but I didn't really talk to. We didn't actually talk for the first time until we got our first SigmaChat chatroom integrated on ZV. But our interactions were mostly limited to me doing something to bother him and him brutally killing me (pretty much how he is with everyone always.) We didn't actually talk a lot though, mostly he just liked to RP in the chat and I liked to ruin everyone's time while we were RPing. I kinda was getting the vibe he didn't like me very much until 2008 when we started our first serious RP with an ongoing story in the chat, Dragon Ball ZV. Admittedly I got involved with that with the sole purpose of messing with Majeh and Silver, but I actually got pretty into it, and now these suckers won't RP without me. Regardless though, over the years Majeh and I started talking more, and I became rather fond of him and found I could trust him. 2007 is when the chatroom pretty much officially became a huge deal on ZV, and (mostly due to not being able to leave Toy alone for more than 3 minutes) there came a lot of demand to have a constant staff presence in the chat room. I tried to be around constantly but I couldn't really be there ALL the time, and due to his constant presence in the chat, Majeh became a prime candidate for the new staff position we were seeking to be in charge of moderating the chat room. And since then he's been our resident sentinel; laying in wait, always watching, and then brutally killing troublemakers when they come. Even still though, Majeh and I don't have a lot of long-lasting conversations, mostly it's just little bits of small talk and shooting the wind here and there, but it's still nice. And we've reached the point where we're comfortable confiding in each other just when we need to vent or need a second opinion on something. Majeh's shown himself to be a real down to Earth and trustworthy guy (when he's not murdering people) and I'm sure he'll butcher me for this but it's a shame more people don't get to see the gentler side of our resident murder man. So here's to Majeh for being so great.
All that talk of Roleplaying reminds me of Silver. Silver was like 12 or 13 when she joined ZV, and was the only active female member at the time she joined, which was a huge responsibility to have on a forum full of barely pubescent boys... She didn't stand out to me much at first, to be honest. She joined during that mad rush of new members between late 2005 and mid 2006 though so I as a new admin had my hands full, so I didn't have time to stop and get to know a lot of the new people yet. My first lengthy interactions with her was she started sending me concerned PMs on the forum because apparently Sevi was writing some pretty lewd messages and sending them to her. Which was one of the major contributors in him getting Ass-Pirated and banned (the other key factor was Xero being terrible, but that's another story for another day...) After that though Silver started talking to me very often. She usually liked to talk to me about some of her real-life problems, and I shared some of my own as well, so we kind of helped each other blow off some steam once in awhile. She was kind of prone to long spells of inactivity though (still kind of is) so we didn't talk very consistently. We got closer when we started RPing together in 2008 (after I started actually participating instead of trying to ruin it.) I always thought she was really sweet but I don't think she really had her priorities straight. She was constantly trying to find herself some internet boyfriends despite my advice ever since she was a youngin and I feel like that just made her time online more stressful and jeopardized a lot of friendships, so if there was any advice I could give her now it'd be for her to focus on her own happiness instead of trying to find it through others, and to find herself a real man if that's what she wants so bad. She's nice and she's pretty, she should have no trouble finding a real-life boyfriend. If you're reading this Silver, sorry if that was a little too personal a thing for me to just share. Nothing to be ashamed of though, you're just too nice for your own good sometimes! But anyway she was always really nice to me, and I think I count her among my closest friends on ZV as well. I had a lot of fun when we used to talk for hours on end, it's kind of a shame we don't have time for that anymore. But thank you, Silver, for always helping lift my spirits and keeping my self-esteem elevated when I needed it, you're a good friend.
Swim is another one I wanted to address personally here. Swim was yet another that was part of that huge surge of new members in the 2005-2006 timeframe, and I'll be honest he kind of annoyed me at first. Mostly just because he kind of challenged a lot of ZV traditions at first (and particularly gave me a lot of grief over The Fire) but to his credit as soon as he realized he was bothering me he wrote me a PM on the forum apologizing. And I appreciated that a lot, showed a lot of character and his slate was clean as far as I was concerned. I really enjoyed how active he was over the next couple of years, it had been awhile since we had such a dedicated member. He was really interested in ZV and our community, and got really involved in all of our activities. He tried out the chatroom when he could once we integrated that, he played the hell out of the Card Game when that was a thing, he was always one of the more active participants in the Carnival, and on top of all that I thought he was a really cool guy, I had a lot of fun when we'd chat on MSN or something and just talk about life and share stories. When the need to fill a position arose I pushed really hard to get him on staff because to me he was the nonstaff member on ZV who I felt was both the most active and the most dedicated to ZV's community. I actually have a lot of regrets over how that ultimately played out... I can't say much for how he felt on the matter because honestly we haven't really sat down and talked about it, but to me it felt like once he went off the college a kind of rift opened between us. He wasn't as active on ZV anymore (which is understandable with starting college) but it seemed to me anyway when he did show up and would talk to me, that something had changed, like now that he was in college our age difference mattered a lot more and he seemed to treat me like I was a lot younger than he was all of a sudden. I guess there was a lot of factors that played into it but both Xero and I got really
really frustrated when he would pop into the chat and do Bob's "`epic" script and then dart out (which not only completely disrupted our conversations but we were also a little offended that he wouldn't say hello or bye, even if we started trying to talk to him when we saw him sign in.) And when he refused to stop and talk to us about it when we asked him to take the time and speak to us, because we wanted to give a more personal explanation instead of sound like we were writing an angry e-mail, it just kind of hurt a little, I guess. I felt like he didn't really have any regard for us like he used to, so to me at least it felt like he had undergone a big change and didn't care about us anymore. Kind of like I was losing a friend. When we finally did talk, I feel like we were both so frustrated that neither of us really handled the situation well and the whole thing just exploded unnecessarily. Sorry, didn't mean to force everyone to relive that whole issue again (there was a lot of controversy over it when it got publicized on the forum as I'm sure some of you remember...) Bottom line is I feel like our friendship was permanently damaged by that and I feel bad that it went down that way. I'm really glad that after we decided to bury the hatchet Swim hasn't appeared (outwardly at least) to harbor any grudges over it, and I hope someday we can go back to how things were. So if you're reading this Swim, I'm sorry. And thank you for being such a big part of ZV for all these years.
Ed deserves an honorable mention too. When Ed first joined he was just another douche joining specifically to pedal his own site, which we always just kind of overlooked those dudes cause they usually would join, post in the Site/Programming board, and never show their faces again. Ed actually came back though and was popping in the chat and stuff. I dunno if he actually cared about ZV or was just looking to advertise his site more (probably both) but he did stick around and turned out to be pretty cool. Random didn't like the name "FDSuprema" though so through a long process he deduced that he should call him "Ed." Originally I saw the name as kind of a slur, and only called him "Ed" when he was making me mad, but eventually it kind of stuck, and now he answers to it I dare say more reliably than his actual name (even in real life.) Ed has always been really chill but also a lot of fun, and has been a real trooper and put up with our crap rather well. He was always really helpful on ZV, and in just 5 months netted himself one of the fastest staff positions in ZV history (second only to Xero, who got his in just 3 months.) I feel bad because Ed's site was kind of dwindling in numbers and he came to ZV to get more, and I feel like we (mostly me) kind of ended up scaring off what few members he had left when we drifted to his site. And once we scared everyone off we kind of just went back to ZV. I like to think of it as we assimilated Ed's site into ours though, with ZV and SSK being partners now, and we just purged the stupid people! (Which was all of his members but whatever.) Anyway. Ed has always been a fun guy to have around, and an important part of my life not only as a friend but also because I'm kind of dating his sister... He and his family moved up here (like seriously a 3 minute drive from my house) in February of 2012 and I've seen him like I think literally every day since then. I feel a little bad about the circumstances regarding mine and his sister's relationship though. It happened kind of suddenly, one day we were just best buds and the next we had kind of admitted deeper feelings for each other. I always thought it was kind of unclassy that I didn't talk to Ed about it first and make sure he was okay with the whole thing... Regardless, he seems to have given his blessing and has been really cool about it, so for that I'm thankful. If you're reading this Ed, thanks for being such a good friend and devoted member of ZV, and I'm sorry that I haven't been a better friend.
Running out of walls of text to shell out but still so many dudes I want to acknowledge. Bloodbane, awesome dude. BB is one of them guys that came around in 2006 during that now very frequently referenced explosion of new members, and I regret admitting that he and I actually haven't talked THAT much in all the time he's been around. We've only had like a handful of one on one conversations that weren't about our roleplaying, but I still enjoy him a lot. I like that he thinks everything is funny, and he's always been really down to earth and easy to talk to. He's the kind of guy you can just walk up to and chat with, it's a shame he's so busy with school and stuff these days, I miss having him around all the time.
Fann I feel like I should mention as well. A lot of people are unsure of how to handle Fann, and that's understandable I guess, he's a little weird. But I can't help but find his kooky behavior endearing, even when he says terrible, terrible things it's just like "Awww there goes crazy uncle Fanny off on one of his tangents again!" Still regardless of his silly behavior, we met on another site and admittedly I found him obnoxious as hell because he was so uptight. But when he started having problems with the other forum I offered him sanctuary on ZV and he's warmed up to our light-hearted nature well, and I feel like it's changed him in good ways. I enjoy how invested he is in our friendship, and feel bad that due to timezones he usually doesn't show up til I'm really tired or in bed so I don't get to talk to him much. I think he's great and not enough people give him the chance he deserves.
Rick! Talk about underrated, Rick rules. I feel bad because Rick and I have talked to each other like just the two of us literally once since he's been on ZV, and that was back when he first joined in 2006-ish. And that wasn't a nice conversation, because it was me telling him he was banned. This was during our zero tolerance policy on sprite theft, and someone had reported to me that he stole some sprites. I very stupidly just jumped the gun and banned him on someone else's word, and within minutes of me saying that I took care of it, someone else told the guy who reported it he was retarded and shared with me the common base Rick and the supposed victim used, clearing poor Rick's name, after which I unbanned him and apologized. Since then Rick has been consistent on Zero Virus, for about 7 years now. I'm not sure if he's shy or just kind of reclusive but he doesn't talk much, never really has. But nonetheless he's been one of ZV's more dedicated members, and I feel really bad that he doesn't get more acknowledgment for it. Especially since every time he does talk or do something it's great. He's like Random in that he's one of those guys where I just Goddamn love watching him do things because it's almost always worth it.
Zafer is another strange case. Zafer has technically been around forever too, he first joined in I wanna say 2006-ish, give or take a year. He was also kind of a nucking foob when he joined though, and was just kind of obnoxious. I never really minded him but he did spam a lot I guess and got on some of the other staff's nerves, so when one of them told me that they had warned Zafer one last time and banned him, I wasn't terribly surprised. Zafer came back to ZV a year or two later, and was banned again for trying to evade his ban. But when he came back most recently about a year or so ago, he handled it a lot better. He didn't make a thread on ZV saying "YO I'm back bitches deal with it" or something dumb like that, he actually just came into the chat and asked to speak with me, and asked me if he could come back. And I said yes, since I didn't have anything against Zafer and it seemed like he'd matured. And I'm glad I did, because he's become a new but important part of ZV since then. He's like the ghost of ZV Past, doing all the things we used to do back in the day; He's active on the forum, he's spriting, he's making comics, and most importantly he's inspiring the rest of us to do the same. Since Zafer's come back I've felt for the first time in a long time a lot like I did when I first joined ZV, and that's something I'm grateful to him for. I can't say we know each other very well personally but I find him to be nice and I'm glad he's part of our community again.
And then there's Cem. Cem I guess kind of falls into that same category with Random and Rick, I just get a kick out of him every time he does anything, even if it's incredibly dumb. Cem I've actually gotten the pleasure of really TALKING to and I must say he's pretty great. We don't agree on everything but he generally is good about being open-minded to what I'm saying even if we disagree, a courtesy you rarely get... ever. Which is what makes talking to him so easy and fun. I don't actually know if he likes me or is just nice to me and pretends to like me but how can anyone not like me, he must like me. Cem is just really easy to get along with and I think we needed someone like him on ZV really badly since sadly a lot of our members can be on and off stand-off-ish. He doesn't know this but I've promised my girlfriend to him, I told her if I ever died she goes to Cem because I trust Cem to be good to her (and not touch her.) Bottom line is Cem owns, everyone give him stuff.
Still so many people that deserve acknowledgment, I'm gonna be doing this for the rest of my life. Sonic and I had some good times around here, he was always fun to talk to as well. We never agree on politics but that's part of the fun I guess, I enjoy debating him on that stuff (even if he is incredibly wrong, but I like a challenge!) He thinks he wins our arguments but I know better.
In all seriousness though he's another ZV lifer and I miss having him around, I wish he'd stop by more often. Sorrum is a cool guy too, whatever happened to his sorry ass? I always found him enjoyable (except when he'd text me at 8 in the morning.) Sorrum is underrated I feel, nobody really thinks to mention him when talking about cool guys on ZV but when he's actually around he's great. Vile also owns, Vile is a more timid kind of silly than we're used to around here but I find him to be really down to earth and cool when he does swing by and chat. Very approachable guy and also just generally interesting. Al, let's talk about Al. Al annoyed the hell out of me when he was new because he seemed to talk down to a lot of people on ZV, but after being swatted on the nose a few times he seems to have gotten the picture (though maybe some of us overracted back then.) Still though Al has been pretty consistent around here for awhile now and I think he's nice, and enjoy seeing the silly and awesome things he draws. He's another underrated but still valued member of our community. God there's so many people I could talk about; Bossman, Brimstone, Netto, MOX, Xzero, Shaunman, Alter, HZ, Ruin, Scarlet, Paragon, Smoke, Paranoidmage, Person, Rellik, Craft, Peytral, Emermarie, KO, Blackcat, Ne0, Chaos, Slayer, Nicktendonick, Elusis, Flame 13th, JY, and much more. Really the list just goes on and on and on and on, if I stop and talk about every single person around here I have fond memories of I really will be writing this forever. So some of you will have to forgive me for not acknowledging you personally. If you'd like me to write a paragraph dedicated to you just shoot me a PM and I can arrange that.
All this talk of fond memories and people who I'm close to is nice and all but I guess to be real for a moment, not every memory is exactly nice. There's a lot of mistakes I've made in my time on ZV as well, and a lot of people that I don't exactly have a wonderful relationship with (through either my fault, theirs, or a little of both.) I feel like it's only fair to acknowledge that stuff as well. I've already talked about some of the hardships I'd faced with Fusion and my regrets over some aspects of mine and Swim's friendship, so I won't get into that, but there's a lot of other people I don't feel like I get along with as well as I could.
HZ is a good, recent example. This one is particularly disheartening because he's been around since 2006 and I've always liked HZ. I enjoyed sharing comic ideas with him, we roleplayed together, we drew each other's characters, and just in general liked talking to him and found him to be a big part of ZV's crowd of regulars. It was apparent though through a few of our conversations and some arguments over the years that he had trouble grasping my sarcasm (there were times he got upset at Random and I calling each other names when that's literally just something he and I do for fun, for example.) I'm not sure if it's because I wasn't good at conveying when I was joking, or if he had a negative impression of me all along and just assumed I meant all the mean things I'd say, or if it really is just that hard for some people to tell sarcasm over the internet. Regardless, we had a few high-tension situations in recent history that made me question whether our friendship was one-sided or not, and that seemed to come together when we had a huge fight (that admittedly I provoked) in which he told me he's had a rather low opinion of me for a long time and claimed his spotty activity was because of his dislike of me. I feel bad about that because I really did always like HZ, and even though we haven't always agreed on everything I always was under the impression we were friends regardless. It's made me sad that we haven't spoken in months because of this. I don't think it's a problem that could have been easily avoided though, as the problem was much deeper than any one thing either of us did...
Paragon is an interesting example. While he and I are cool now (at least in my book, and seemingly in his as well) we didn't get along very well in the early days of ZV. Some of our older members may remember that Paragon has been around ZV since as early as 2005 I think, and was banned at least once before being hit with his "permanent" ban that was strictly in effect from 2007 until just recently (less than 2 months ago I think.) I'm not gonna sugar coat it or take all the blame because anyone who was around back then, especially Paragon himself knows he was a dickwad back then. But I probably didn't make anything easier. I was still young at the time so I was obnoxious, and seemed to get under Paragon's skin. And I admit that I may have singled him out a lot in the earlier days just because I was wary of people from larger spriting communities joining ZV because we unfortunately had a track record of them only doing that to talk down to our members (I'll go so far as to admit I was very cautious about Smoke when he first joined for the same reason, even asking a couple staff members to keep a close eye on him...) So when Paragon first joined, I as a brand new staff member and recognizing him as a frequenter of large spriting communities such as Bob and George forums, had my eyes on him constantly. His natural dickishness combined with my jumpy behavior and breathing down his neck constantly made for a very volatile situation, one that intensified around mid 2007. I felt bad for Xero because he and Paragon actually got along but because the two of us were always fighting it was starting to come down to a decision, and Xero issued the order to Paragon to leave me alone or he'll be permanently banned, and told me similarly to just not talk to Paragon at all if that's what I have to do. It worked for about two weeks but after Toy instigated a witchunt against Vilex and turned it on me when I defended him, the whole thing exploded and resulted in Toy and Paragon's permanent banning. Paragon had a bit of a presence over the years, making rare appearances in the chat now and then to troll and get kicked, but we hadn't seen him in a long while when he rejoined ZV and wrote me pretty much acknowledging that he was a jerk before and asking if he could come back to ZV, as it was the only community he used to be a part of that still exists. I had a lot of reservations about it, but Xero put it in perspective nicely when he said "Well if we let him back in and he's good, then yay we got another member. If he's bad, then we ban him and make fun of him. Win/win." In the end I think it was a good decision because he's been much easier to get along with since his return and it is nice to see another face on ZV. It's just too bad it took us so long to get to a functional relationship.
Man speaking of that 2006-2007 period that was a really bad time to be a Purple. Admittedly I was going through a lot of real life problems but I had a lot of problems on Zero Virus as well. During that time Fusion was still fresh from his demotion and so we were butting heads a lot. Also as previously mentioned I had recently broken up with my girlfriend who I had made the mistake of introducing to ZV because she was hanging around even after we split up and was increasingly mistreating me publicly. Plus that time period is also when Starblade joined ZV (who only a few of you may remember) and he kind of decided he didn't like me either, along with some gal named Dove (pretty much the same story) and this is also around the time Paragon and I were at each other's throats at its worst, as well as when Toy joined ZV. I also believe this is when we Ass Pirated LunaZeroX too. It was just kind of a disaster. They all kind of hated me and at times it seemed like there were coordinated efforts to make me miserable (not accusing anyone of anything, just seemed that way sometimes and I at the time was suspicious of it. XD) They even had their own channel that they hung out in and banned me from on IRC that really only kind of backed the Legion of Doom image they had going on (I took comfort in thinking of myself as Batman and them as my Rogues Gallery though.
)
Point is though I realize I ruffled a lot of feathers back in the day. Even if my Legion of Doom was explainable as Fusion being upset, Paragon being a dick, Toy being... Toy... LZX being an Ass Pirate, Dove just blindly following Paragon, my ex being my ex, and Starblade being secretly in love with my ex. Doesn't change the fact that I was kind of a brat and had my own spells of terribleness here and there. There are some other recent examples of people who I have regrets over. Scarlet and Ruin are a couple examples. Scarlet I actually don't know if he dislikes me or not but I get that vibe sometimes, like he doesn't like me but is too nice to say anything. So if Scarlet is reading this and is totally cool with me, sorry. But if Scarlet is reading this and doesn't like me, well... Sorry too I guess. Ruin I know has found the way I acted more than disagreeable for awhile now, kind of similar to HZ but I feel like the beef Ruin may have with me is not so deep-seeded and is based more on misunderstanding. I actually like Ruin a lot and think he's hilarious but he seems to have a negative opinion of me, which saddens me greatly. I just think we don't talk enough so when he does on rare occasion see me being a pain in the ass he may not realize I'm being as light-hearted as I really am. Sarcasm over the internet and all that stuff. That and we're totally at odds over the Michelle issue, which is another can of worms I should probably address...
Michelle, whom many of you know simply as "Sunny" is a long-time family friend of the Ed household. She was essentially like a second little sister to Ed growing up and Aerin's best friend since pretty much ever. And since they did everything together then when Ed and Aerin became part of ZV back in 2008 so did Michelle. I actually liked Michelle a lot when I first met her (mostly because she was self proclaimed as my "number one fan") and just thought in general she was sweet (albeit a little shy) and pleasant to talk to. Things were cool for a couple years, and we chatted now and then on ZV and it was fine. But I guess puberty decided to hit her like a truckload of bricks because suddenly over the course of a month she underwent a huge transformation (that I suppose would correspond with her starting high school?) where she became a lot more active, and with it a lot more assertive in the community. To a point where she interjected herself into conversations constantly tried to talk to everyone all the time. Which honestly would be totally fine if she wasn't really mean about it. I understand that's how teenagers are and all (with all due respect she is a lot younger than most of us on ZV, especially at that time) but it started to get out of hand. She mouthed off to Xero and I a lot, I had to constantly break up fights between her another members, and she seemed to be planting some seeds of manipulation going about talking to several members in private and convincing them she was their best friend, and then going behind their backs and talking crap and it just in general was causing A LOT of unnecessary tension in our community. I put up with it and encouraged others to do the same for two years hoping she'd grow out of it but it only seemed to escalate, especially after Ed's family moved to my town, and escalated to an unbearable level once Aerin and I started dating. Because at that point she was trying to force Aerin to choose between her or me, since she decided she hated me on the count of my "stealing her best friend." Which I admit I did feel bad that her and Aerin were separated when they moved (I've had friends move away and know it's terrible) but I feel like any rational human being would realize that was out of line. I'm not gonna lie, Michelle and I butted heads in the chat a lot and it was both our faults (we both antagonized each other for various reasons) though I usually tried to do it to teach her a lesson (I made a point to only poke fun at her when she was being rude to someone else, to show her what it was like... That backfired spectacularly.) I don't wanna go on about Michelle forever but while I am sorry my friendship with her fell through, as well as Aerin's friendship with her, I don't regret her being banned. Again, I feel like any rational human being who understood the situation to some degree would agree she was out of control. I'm really sorry that Ruinaru and I don't see eye-to-eye on how she was handled and it may even impede our chances of being good friends but I and many others have been in his position, the sympathetic ear hearing her out and trying to show her the world isn't a bad place. It should speak for itself that it's ended up the same every time. She may just be like Vilex in that she needs to learn the tough lessons in life the hard way.
In general I think I haven't always been that great. Gonna be real here for a moment guys so pay close attention, you ain't gonna see it again. But I acknowledge that I'm a difficult person to be around sometimes. I like to act egotistical and talk myself up even while fully understanding my place. I like to talk about things I don't understand just to be a part of a conversation. I like to poke fun at people and be silly and obnoxious just for the sake of a laugh (even if I'm the only one laughing.) I say inappropriate things, I tell bad jokes, I go out of my way to annoy people, and I make scenes. I'm stubborn, impatient, crude, and sometimes even a bit of an attention whore; All you people out there who have ever tried to walk me through why I'm terrible, believe me, I understand. I've lived with me a lot longer than you have.
But I would like to think that I try hard to make it clear I don't mean any of it, and try really hard to be a good friend whenever I can, and hope that that balances everything out. I've made my fair share of screwups over the years, that much is obvious. Like kicking people in the chat for laughs was funny in moderation but I did take it too far at times, and even though I bitched out the people who brought that to my attention at the time I realize that now. I realize in hindsight that the situations that lead to Fusion and Swim being dropped from staff could have been handled better on my part and maybe even prevented if thought through more carefully. Same goes for Ne0 really (not gonna go into another paragraph but long story short he got mad at me, tried to kick me off staff, pissed off the rest of the staff in doing so, and in the end lost his own position.) I realize that I probably pick on Tony a little too much at times, and could have avoided fallings out with HZ and maybe even Michelle as well if I was a little more careful with the way I acted in certain situations, and maybe acted a little more sincere on occasion.
I know I said my ego was a front but it is true I have a lot of pride, and a very negative trait of mine is my reluctance to apologize or admit I was wrong. If I'm wrong in an argument I don't back down even if I realize halfway in that I'm wrong, I keep fighting and the name of the game becomes convincing the other guy that I'm right or at least not wrong in spite of the facts. I also even when I do something really bad or uncool and I realize that what I did or said wasn't okay and feel bad for it, I have trouble apologizing. I know a lot of people when we've gotten into fights have tried to point out my personality flaws presumably for my own good and I've just brushed off what they said. But in truth I do take those things to heart. I just don't like to admit that I'm wrong and you're right and apologetically accept it. SIGN OF WEAKNESS, I AIN'T WEAK, SCRUB. Bear in mind that my acknowledging that this is a thing and it's not okay does not mean I'm going to stop, to hell with that. I acknowledge that I'm doing something bad and feel bad about it and will quietly try not to make the same mistake again, that's all ya'll are getting from me. You want me to say that you're right too then you're outta luck bub. It may sound like I'm screwing around again but nope still being real here. While I do recognize my flaws and work little by little to fix them, and I don't think I'm the greatest thing ever, the truth is I do think I'm a little great. The people closest to me (on and outside of ZV) all think I'm wonderful the way I am and I ain't gonna ruin their day and risk changing what drew those amazing people to me to make one of you happy because you think I'm maybe a little too mean. I'm not just referring to the whole not apologizing thing, I actually probably should get on that, but whatever. I mean the whole sarcastic and obnoxious thing. That stuff is fun and I'm not gonna stop that, sorry bros. Gonna have to love it or deal with it.
...One thing I'm not sorry about in terms of my terrible relationships on ZV though is, you guessed it, Toy. Whoah nelly I don't think this guy even deserves honorable mention here but Imma say this for the record that there were a lot of people I found unbearable at one time or another but Toy by far takes the cake. I see a lot of our less active veterans like Sonic or Swim at one time or another voicing concern over dissent in the ZV community and attribute it to things like arrogance among the admins or the existence of the chatroom creating cliques, and whatnot. And while on some level that may be true, those things can really be traced back to Toy hilariously enough. Back in the day, even when we were being a pain in the ass, Xero and I both tried to be nice, and fair in every situation. Toy saw to it that there was none of that, he was just so awful every minute of every day that it was literally impossible to be nice to him. I tried, I tried hard, really
really hard to be good to him and to keep others from tearing into him when he was going around constantly antagonizing everyone and being a git, and he repayed me by going out of his way to make me miserable and trying his damndest to tarnish my reputation. He tried both mine and Xero's patience and tried it and tried it and tried it until there was no more patience left. For anyone ever. By the time we banned Toy both Xero and I were so fed up with nonsense that we had no niceness left to go around any longer. Because one thing Toy taught me is that when people know you're going to be nice to them no matter what, they have no reason to show you any respect. So from that point on I figured I preferred people expecting me to be mean, that way when I was nice it was more likely to be appreciated. He also is the reason the chatroom took off in the ways it did. Before Toy the chat was just a casual thing we did every now and then, I would usually pop in if I was bored and for a little before bed and that was it, just to say hi and see how everyone was doing. But Toy had a nasty habit of pretending to play nice until the staff were gone then being a dickwad to everyone. And one night it backfired when a small group of forum goers did the same thing and waited til all the staff went to bed and then laid siege to the chat with anonymous names and viciously flamed Toy. Which in hindsight is hilarious, poetic justice but at the time it was a big deal and Toy pissed and moaned until we agreed to have staff members in the chat at all times "in case of emergency." And even though Toy is long banned it created the habit our staff members have of idling in the chat even when away or sleeping that still exists today. Which having that nonstop presence unfortunately for our friends who don't like chatrooms as much caused the chat to become way more important as a social thing, and may have admittedly left out those who didn't frequent the chat as they did miss out a lot. There isn't anything that can be done about that at this point though, so for those of you who have voiced disdain for the chat taking the place of the forum, sorry bros.
You can thank Toy. Man that guy was awful, I tell ya what I didn't wanna use this post to knock on anyone but at this point I just unapologetically do not like that guy, I would write a letter of recommendation for any and all of our Ass Pirates before I would vouch for Toy's character in any meaningful way. He's tried to convince me to let him back in ZV as early as the beginning of the year too, and I'll tell you he hasn't changed one bit since he was officially banned. Sometimes I wish he'd come back more often though, I really do like banning him.
But uhh. Anyway. I don't really wanna blow this whole post talking about members individually. To me this post (now more like essay) is more of a testament to ZV, not any one member. Zero Virus has done a lot for me. I don't think I'd have really gotten into spriting to the degree I did if not for Zero Virus. I certainly would have never made a real sprite comic if I hadn't been here. I probably would be a much different person if not for ZV. Zero Virus taught me a lot of things, my time on staff for example has taught me a lot about what it means to be a good authority figure, such as how important it is to be respectful of your staff and all others, while still maintaining a strong and commanding role. It taught me a lot about managing others as well and just how to be social in general.
My time on staff has also taught my a lot about event planning what with the Carnival and all. Admittedly every Carnival has been a learning experience, right down to the last one, but I think I've taken a lot away from it. Every Carnival I spent a very long time analyzing every aspect of it; what worked, what didn't, why the stuff that didn't work fell through, how to make it better. How to get people excited for things, how to motivate the staff, how to include people in activities, a lot went into every Carnival and I had a lot of fun figuring all that stuff out. Because when it comes right down to it, nothing excites me more than making/running games and people playing them. Even when I was just a child, I spent hours and wasted God knows how many sheets of paper planning my own makeshift RPGs and card games and simulations just on paper for my brother and sister to play with. And as I've been on ZV I've gotten the hang of computers and have been able to relive those times on a much larger, more involved scale. I'd be lying if I said the Carnivals never stressed me out but they were also some of the greatest fun I've ever had on Zero Virus, and I'd like to thank each and every one of you for being a part of that because it really did mean a lot to me, you have no idea.
Zero Virus introduced me to a lot of things I never got to experience in the outside world in terms of people. I grew up attending a tiny private school with less than 150 students, and pretty much all of them were just quirky mormons. And the school's social environment was very, very controlled... I never partook in after school activities or left the house even, so I lived a very sheltered life. Zero Virus was the first time I was part of a diverse community, but because we were all united under some common interests it helped make it not so scary, because I felt like no matter how different I was from some of the people here I still had something I could connect with them on. I've met people from around the world with various backgrounds, views, interests, personality types, diversity of all kinds. I've learned a lot about how to treat people, as well as what to expect of them and how to handle stuff like jerks and criticism. I've met some good people, some bad people, and really gotten to experience a little of everything.
I've picked up so much from other people's experiences too, things that not only affect my outlook of the world but also lessons that apply to my own life as well. Through Xero I've learned that life's number 1 rule is to have fun. Renegade and many others have shown me that sometimes real friends have to make tough decisions for the sake of their buddies. Vilex has taught me that sometimes the only way you can truly learn a lesson is to take a chance and make a mistake. Tony has taught me that it's okay to be passionate about stupid things, Random has taught me that a little spontaneity can go a long way, Majeh and Reaver taught me never to judge a book by it's cover. Being on the internet in general you encounter a lot of things that are less than true, ZV is no exception and some of my experiences here have taught me a lot about reading between the lines, to take gossip as a grain of salt, and to make educated and well thought-out judgments. Paragon and Zafer have taught me that people can change, Fusion and Swim have taught me that actions can have serious consequences, and hell some arguments with HZ among others may have even taught me some humility. And then there's experiences like those with Toy that have taught me that some men really do just want to watch the world burn. I could go on and on about the life lessons I've learned from all of you but we'd be here all night.
But if there was one thing in particular that I can say I took away from Zero Virus, something that's changed my life in ways I never thought possible and brought me unimaginable bliss, it's love. Whoah guys watch, all aboard the sappy train choo chooooooo. I'm of course talking about my wonderful girlfriend, Aerin. Aerin who I met 5 years ago as just Ed's bratty little sister, who since she's become part of our community has been a valuable friend. Someone who's always been there for me when I needed someone and listened to me when I needed to talk. Someone who has made me feel good about myself when I was down, someone who I could always just sit down and chat with. Someone who would listen to me ramble for ages about stuff she didn't understand just to humor me. Aerin helped me when I was in a very bad place emotionally when I was wasting time chasing girls who were just taking advantage of me for the things I would do for them with no hope of my efforts ever being rewarded. She listened to my gripes and my hopes and fruitless aspirations, and she was always there to cheer me up, and with her and Ed being two of my best friends, I was happy to do anything I could to help them secure a home up here when they had to move and humored the idea of moving to Washington. And since they've moved up here I've gone and visited every single day, and it didn't take long for my feelings toward Aerin to intensify, and despite all my better judgement I put myself out there, and thank God she returned my feelings.
Aerin and I have been together for a year now, and I must say I've never been happier in the history of ever. It really is a wonderful thing when you're essentially dating your best friend. She's transformed my life in so many ways, and I owe it all to Zero Virus, really. If I wasn't a part of this wonderful, amazing community I would have never met the love of my life. Just as important is the friends I've made on Zero Virus, you guys mean more to me than just about every person I've ever met in real life, there are people around ZV I've known longer and know better than people I see regularly in real life, and when my world has started to come crashing down, I could always count on ZV to be my safe haven and raise my spirits and give me people who matter to me, and more importantly people who care about me.
Zero Virus has been an amazing thing for me. I've grown up here, I've made some good friends here that I consider family. And that's really what we are. Ruinaru said it well when he said that just like a real family, we have good times, we have tough times, we make each other laugh and sometimes we want to strangle each other. But what makes a family special is no matter what, they're always there for each other. We always stick together. We look out for each other, we inspire each other, we pick each other up when we fall. We laugh together, we cry together, we unite under common goals, and no matter how far away we are or how long it's been since we've seen each other, we always come back to each other and it's like nothing has changed. I can't speak for everyone but that's how I feel about ZV. I love (no homo) and cherish every member of our community, even if it seems like I don't notice you or we don't talk often. And really I wouldn't trade Zero Virus for anything. Each and every one of us are great, but together we're something much more.
Zero Virus is the greatest place on the internet. This place, and all of it's members have changed my life and shaped who I am. You've all taught me so much and brought me indescribable happiness. You've all been good friends and I'm sorry I haven't always been as good to some of you as I should have been. I just want each and every one of you to know how much you mean to me, and how important these last 10 years have been. And I hope, I really truly sincerely hope that we'll have another 10 years. We're not going to have the time forever to frequent the chat and shoot the wind about games and silly things like that (we're all grownups now, and we'll have even less time 10 years from now!) but I'm never going to forget all of you, and the things you've done for me. And I ask that you do the same. Never forget ZV and what it's meant to you.
Here's to 10 years of Zero Virus. And here's to 10 more years. Thank you so much, everyone.
~NightmareMMZero
), got REALLY REALLY LONG(ahehehe that's what she said xD), and I feel like I've done 21 chapters . I will finish the comic up to chapter 16, and make chapter 17 animated as big bang for TER's final chapter, and as an intro for my next planned comic.
In all seriousness though he's another ZV lifer and I miss having him around, I wish he'd stop by more often. Sorrum is a cool guy too, whatever happened to his sorry ass? I always found him enjoyable (except when he'd text me at 8 in the morning.) Sorrum is underrated I feel, nobody really thinks to mention him when talking about cool guys on ZV but when he's actually around he's great. Vile also owns, Vile is a more timid kind of silly than we're used to around here but I find him to be really down to earth and cool when he does swing by and chat. Very approachable guy and also just generally interesting. Al, let's talk about Al. Al annoyed the hell out of me when he was new because he seemed to talk down to a lot of people on ZV, but after being swatted on the nose a few times he seems to have gotten the picture (though maybe some of us overracted back then.) Still though Al has been pretty consistent around here for awhile now and I think he's nice, and enjoy seeing the silly and awesome things he draws. He's another underrated but still valued member of our community. God there's so many people I could talk about; Bossman, Brimstone, Netto, MOX, Xzero, Shaunman, Alter, HZ, Ruin, Scarlet, Paragon, Smoke, Paranoidmage, Person, Rellik, Craft, Peytral, Emermarie, KO, Blackcat, Ne0, Chaos, Slayer, Nicktendonick, Elusis, Flame 13th, JY, and much more. Really the list just goes on and on and on and on, if I stop and talk about every single person around here I have fond memories of I really will be writing this forever. So some of you will have to forgive me for not acknowledging you personally. If you'd like me to write a paragraph dedicated to you just shoot me a PM and I can arrange that. 
(Moro is my ign for B2W2)
Chiken Nuggit 
