View from The Outside
For those of you that don't know me, my name is EBFan2000. A long time ago, I used to be a big name on this site. I was the leading contributor of articles, an op in #earthbound, and even the articles staffer for a few months. Then, suddenly, I left the site. Honestly, I am not sure why I left. For some reason, I suddenly just lost the urge to come to this site. I think it was the combination of a lot of things. For one thing school was taking a lot more time than I thought it was. Also, I started to migrate to other websites and come to this site a lot less. Whatever the exact reason was, I disappeared from the EarthBound community. I stopped posting in the forums entirely, ceased going to #earthbound, and stopped writing articles.
I can honestly say that the last two years have been very odd for me. Since I first found this site back around 1999, I had always spent most of my free time frequenting Starmen.net and its surrounding community. When I left, I thought I had outgrown the site. For some reason, I felt like I did not need the site anymore and that it was time to move on. I believed, erroneously, that the community was slowly fading away and that it no longer merrited the amount of time that I spent here. With that, I left the site for what I thought was going to be forever. As time went on, however, the EarthBound community started calling to me. Not being around it left a small hole in my life that I just could not be replaced by other internet communities. Slowly, the community started to pull me back. I started to read posts in the forum again, though I did not post. I even visited #earthbound every once in awhile. I still, however, thought that I could stay away from Starmen.net for the most part. As the months went on, I just could not stay away any longer. With that, I returned to this site. I still do not spend as much time here as I used to, but I must admit, it feels good to be back.
There are a couple of things that I can really say inspired me to make a full return to the EarthBound community. The first one is EBFGP Summer '04. While I was gone from the community, I honestly did no play EarthBound once. It was not that I didn't like the game anymore, but more that I did not see any reason to play a game that I had played already so many times. When I saw that EBFGP '04 was starting, though, I said to myself, "Why not just play for a little?" So I started playing EarthBound once again, and I must say that I am so glad that I did. I had forgotten just what made the game so special. Once I played through the first GPP, I knew that I was going to have to finish it through. "Getting back in the game", as suggested by Starmen.net's motto turned out to be just what was needed to rekindle my spirit in the EarthBound community. I heartily recommend all of you that find their interest in the community to start playing EarthBound once again and try to remember just why you started coming to this site.
The other thing that was really important in my return was PK Call'n 2. While it is just one event in the many similar events in this site's history, it proved to me one thing. It showed to me that the EarthBound community is not dying like I had once thought before I left. If anything, the community is getting stronger. It may be more than eight years since the release of EarthBound, and although we have not received out much-desired sequel in that time, we are still brought together by one SNES game that we all love. We are all brought together by a desire for NOA to acknowledge our love of the game in some way by making a sequel or even by simply rereleasing the game. PK Call'n 2 helped remind me that this is what it is all about and that I had forgotten the true reason why the EarthBound community existed.
Now, I am back to the community that I had spent so much of my life being a part of. I once again visit #earthbound regularly and post in the forums. The hole that had been left by my disappearance has been filled. While I still don't plan to spend nearly as much time at Starmen.net as I used to, but I must say that it really feels good to be back. I hope that I can always be a part of this great community and that I can always come up with a good article to write every once in awhile.
For those of you that don't know me, my name is EBFan2000. A long time ago, I used to be a big name on this site. I was the leading contributor of articles, an op in #earthbound, and even the articles staffer for a few months. Then, suddenly, I left the site. Honestly, I am not sure why I left. For some reason, I suddenly just lost the urge to come to this site. I think it was the combination of a lot of things. For one thing school was taking a lot more time than I thought it was. Also, I started to migrate to other websites and come to this site a lot less. Whatever the exact reason was, I disappeared from the EarthBound community. I stopped posting in the forums entirely, ceased going to #earthbound, and stopped writing articles.
I can honestly say that the last two years have been very odd for me. Since I first found this site back around 1999, I had always spent most of my free time frequenting Starmen.net and its surrounding community. When I left, I thought I had outgrown the site. For some reason, I felt like I did not need the site anymore and that it was time to move on. I believed, erroneously, that the community was slowly fading away and that it no longer merrited the amount of time that I spent here. With that, I left the site for what I thought was going to be forever. As time went on, however, the EarthBound community started calling to me. Not being around it left a small hole in my life that I just could not be replaced by other internet communities. Slowly, the community started to pull me back. I started to read posts in the forum again, though I did not post. I even visited #earthbound every once in awhile. I still, however, thought that I could stay away from Starmen.net for the most part. As the months went on, I just could not stay away any longer. With that, I returned to this site. I still do not spend as much time here as I used to, but I must admit, it feels good to be back.
There are a couple of things that I can really say inspired me to make a full return to the EarthBound community. The first one is EBFGP Summer '04. While I was gone from the community, I honestly did no play EarthBound once. It was not that I didn't like the game anymore, but more that I did not see any reason to play a game that I had played already so many times. When I saw that EBFGP '04 was starting, though, I said to myself, "Why not just play for a little?" So I started playing EarthBound once again, and I must say that I am so glad that I did. I had forgotten just what made the game so special. Once I played through the first GPP, I knew that I was going to have to finish it through. "Getting back in the game", as suggested by Starmen.net's motto turned out to be just what was needed to rekindle my spirit in the EarthBound community. I heartily recommend all of you that find their interest in the community to start playing EarthBound once again and try to remember just why you started coming to this site.
The other thing that was really important in my return was PK Call'n 2. While it is just one event in the many similar events in this site's history, it proved to me one thing. It showed to me that the EarthBound community is not dying like I had once thought before I left. If anything, the community is getting stronger. It may be more than eight years since the release of EarthBound, and although we have not received out much-desired sequel in that time, we are still brought together by one SNES game that we all love. We are all brought together by a desire for NOA to acknowledge our love of the game in some way by making a sequel or even by simply rereleasing the game. PK Call'n 2 helped remind me that this is what it is all about and that I had forgotten the true reason why the EarthBound community existed.
Now, I am back to the community that I had spent so much of my life being a part of. I once again visit #earthbound regularly and post in the forums. The hole that had been left by my disappearance has been filled. While I still don't plan to spend nearly as much time at Starmen.net as I used to, but I must say that it really feels good to be back. I hope that I can always be a part of this great community and that I can always come up with a good article to write every once in awhile.
