As expected, this is going to be a long post, but shorter than my last anniversary topic. (which passed 2,300 words, whereas this one is less than half as long) There will be no TL;DRs for cavemen and lazy people.
I also want to dedicate this topic to EliteTerm, who has very recently retired from Argonath, as well as my fellow Argonath players whose RL lives have changed vastly since they first joined this community. (i.e: first joined as a middle school / high school student, now a working class citizen)
For those who (still) do not know me, my name is
JDC. Admin staff member, events project leader, ARUN adviser, SA:MP Ideas critic, and one of the few remaining MTA:VC veterans.
IRL, I work as a billing consultant, study Computer Science in University, work on graphic design projects and sketched portraits, and am a huge fan of bacon and pizza. (yet manage to stay lean, much to my chagrin)
And with this topic, I celebrate 6 years on Argonath RPG.
Every year on my anniversary (this one's a little late, actually; I should have posted it last April 27), I talk about different things. On my
third anniversary, I introduced myself and my story. A year later on my
fourth, I expounded more about my past. Finally, last year's
fifth anniversary had me talking about what this community is to people.
This time, I will talk about how Argonath RPG connects them.
People come to Argonath in a variety of ways. The most common ones would be searching through GTA Multiplayer mods, seeing Argonath on the
Hosted (which was
Official back in the day, for those who remember) tab, and/or being referred here by a friend. You most probably joined the community in one of those three ways.
After joining, you see a myriad of player classes. You have police, suspects, firemen, drivers, rulebreakers, fellow new players, and others. On the chat, you see bored people, heated discussions, playful banter, and a lot of other things. You then ask for help, learn the basics of the server from older players, and make your first few friends. In the next week or few, you mostly join your first clan/group/mafia.
As time passes by, you eventually see how varied Argonath's players are. People from different demographics: country, culture, age,
et cetera. If you previously came from (and/or still play on) another RP server, you also notice the unique "flavor" of Argonath that makes it stand out from the rest. One of the most prominent being how Argonath welcomes new players with open arms, rather than spitting on them (like most other servers), which makes it easy for people to integrate into this community.
All of these people so different, yet brought together in a community that is a world of its own.To take it further, these players are also connected in a variety of ways. You have those who mingle with the entire community, those who usually stay with their own groups, those who combine both, as well as different approaches. All of these people brought together by one thing in common: the love of fun and/or gaming.
These connections also have other benefits. For instance, aside from increasing your knowledge of English, they allow you to learn about the cultures of others. While you can research on those cultures using internet resources, it's entirely different if you learn about them from friends who live in and experience those cultures first-hand.
One personal example for me: without Argonath, I would not have known from friends (beyond a distant, textbook-like way) about how Indians complain about their internet connections (coming the country with the slowest net in the ASEAN, I feel you), how a lot of Finns love vodka, how people in the UK complain about the rainy weather, how hot Swedish blondes are, among many others. (although it still perplexes me how Scandinavians can enjoy Surstromming, or why people even eat it, lol)
That connection exposes you to many different ways of how people perceive things, almost like how someone who widely travels across the world would see them. You get to experience the world in ways most of us would never be able to IRL.
Like many others who came here a long time ago, I somehow "grew up" in this community; I first joined Argonath before my secondary school, now I am a University student with a full-time employment. As the Philippines is a small country where nothing too much happens (aside from your daily nitty-gritty; bullshit politicians and attention-whored celebrities, with little to no "real" politics), Argonath allowed me to experience the world in a different way as I grew up.
Most importantly, it allowed me to meet friends "from another life". People with whom I was able to connect, even if I would never see 99.99% of them face-to-face IRL. Argonath creating friendships and connections by bridging the gap not only between distance, but also culture, is one reason why I contribute my best to preserving the charm of the playing experience that has made Argonath something memorable for thousands of players (with more than 18,000 having passed through Argonath's doors), and help get rid of those who seek to destroy / ruin that playing experience for future players.
At the end of the day, Argonath is not only about having an admin position, a prominent faction/group, skill at roleplay, or money and vehicles. All of those would be useless without being able to really connect with others.
As time passes by, even with the deteriorating overall general quality of roleplay (read: people who no longer rely on creativity and imagination, but instead on mechanized "rules" and "crutches") and common sense, as well as the rise of more shitters who bullshit the people who do their best to keep this community alive, I think of the connections in this community and all the good it has done for people.
That is why I never tired of admin work and helping others (after many years, when most burn out sooner, especially in case of the former), and that is what keeps me going in this community.
And in the end, I hope that connection is something that our future players will continue to experience and enjoy, too.
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