It was in the beginning of 2009, most exactly in the beginning of February, that I gave my first attempt to SA:MP.
Until that day, I wasn't much of a "gamer". Never showed any interest in games, exceptions made to the FIFA and PES simulators and it had to be with friends.
Never paid much attention to the GTA world, never enjoyed it to be honest. All that "bang bang, get cash" thing was never my type.
I still have several friends who play on SA:MP servers. They seem not to get bored after more than 4 years of playing. Curious thing is, all they do is killing and buying houses/cars, etc.
I was lucky enough to have found this community. A server where dm'ing was punished. I was curious, I must say.
I gave it a shot, and to my own surprise, I enjoyed it! After a long time I enjoyed playing a game, all by myself. Had the opportunity to meet the most influential players right in the beginning, which worked clearly as a ladder, where only the sky would be the limit.
Things started to kick off, and I managed to get invited to the admin pos. in less than 2 months. I accepted it, but after one week, I had a whole new perspective of Argonath (something I won't even discuss here), which lead to my early resignation. Do I regret it? No. Not at all, considering that there were a few key players who were doing an excellent job.
I could on keeping to summarize my story in Argonath, but I don't think there's much to be told. After my first two months I must say I was going down, in terms of morality. Nothing to do with my real life. But some things got to bother me. I felt the community more like a real life circle, where you have your closest friends around you. Unfortunately, this led to my problem (hopefully, it is gone):
- Addiction.
I, generally, can keep control of myself. But I found an exception and that is Argonath. I used to spend more than 6 hours/day and it wasn't something I was proud of...but I wasn't doing anything to keep myself away from it.
Well, since ~April ('09) that I've been dragging myself ingame. Always trying to find some motivation on my closest mates, ingame, which managed to give me a little boost.
I can't say my gameplay hours went from 6 to 1. Probably they even got higher (10 hours/day, maybe).
This to reach my final chapter.
I found myself circled by wise and mature persons, people who you could play with, people who you could talk to... like real life, to be honest.
People like Frank Hawk or Mario Rinna were/are those type of persons. Once again, I was very lucky to have found them in the early beginning.
Although it may be considered a good thing, on my current perspective, it was what led me to a addiction. Meeting them almost everyday was a great way to show some respect. To say a thank you everyday.
Pasted this, today, and after ~2 months of a decreased activity (gradually, from 2 hours per day to 2 hours per week...) I am proud to say that I am able to control myself once again (although I won't dare to step inside again :P) and that resulted from several reasons, mainly from real life.
Isolating myself ingame was the first step, getting busy in real life was the second and final (surprisingly, that's just what it takes).
All this to end the final chapter. I am sure that I will no longer step inside SA:MP and I wouldn't like to leave without a few words. So, here they are.
I'd like to thank to everyone who joined me in my Argonath journey and wish you all the best.
If I want to be remembered? I don't know to be honest, but if I ever got to be remembered, may it be from being a:
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Simple ManThanks, folks. It was a pleasure.
I'll try my best to visit some mates here (not ingame, obviously :P), as I want to still keep a relationship with some of them.
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