What've you all done in the 7-10 year gap?

[Flygon]

Quite curious what everyone was up to! Nobody else made the thread, and the "Users that you miss" felt like an inappropriate place to discuss the topic.

I think I disappeared from MFGG around... early 2010? After the move to the new forum software. I felt like a lot of the community I was around for disappeared.
And my own social contacts shifted - mostly towards TASVideos, and a separate community. I had contacts on Ragnarok Online, particularly from a server that I remember Raie recommending - she never forgave herself for that, I know . Which contributed to me disappearing from MFGG, even after Yggdrasil Online shut down in late 2009.

I actually became a staff member for TASVideos - actually, around late 2009 for that, but it was 2010 when it was all under full swing. I became a Publisher. Whoo! Always wanted to be a staff member at a site.

I found the furry community around late 2009, which contributed to me disappearing from MFGG totally later - there are several MFGGers that were responsible for me investigating the community.
There's also some stupid s*** that I said to certain MFGGers that I wish I never said - they know who they are. I am so sorry.

I also managed to gain ownership of an unrelated site in mid-2010. Whoo! I always wanted to run a site. I won't elaborate what ended up happening here. But there is a lot of regret in it.
I mismanaged the place so badly for the next 9 years. I've finally shed my responsibility of that place. Whew.

I managed to enter my first relationship in very late 2009.

I think sometime around... 2012, my relationship with TASVideos went south. I probably shouldn't elaborate what happened. It wasn't pretty.
Still sour over that. Which is a shame.
The artform still interests me, but the community is absolutely toxic.
I confess that my tenure there was far from great, either. I did a lot of bad things. But I still stand by my opinion over the site.

I ended up joining a Ragnarok Online server around late 2011, called Ret-RO, and met some very lifelong friends there, and re-discovered some other friends that I never let go of since.

I started trying to get into actually drawing, but I never got very far. I never got good at drawing solo.
I worked with other artists, to produce colourizations of their works. I always felt rotten and dirty doing it, but a lot of people seemed enthused that I went to the effort to care about their art.

I ended up ending that first relationship around 2012-2014ish, and entering a new one. Learnt a lot about how people are, and what I wanted in life.

Tony Abbott got elected Australia's Prime Minister in 2013.
f*** Tony Abbott. He has set a precedent that I think is extremely toxic, and the aftershocks only continuing to intensify.
I probably shouldn't discuss politics too much. But I became more politically active as I grew older.

Met some more friends from various communities, particularly TCRF.

My interpersonal life slowed down a bit in the mid 10s - for personal and external reasons.
My family life became a dumpster fire.
I learnt some powerful lessons in managing interpersonal chemistry between people I knew - and that I can't solve every problem I see. I learnt that in some painfully difficult ways.
So, basically - I withdrew a lot. I mostly consolidated myself to a few small communities and people.
I do regret that I became such an isolated person.

After 2015ish, well...
My colourization output really died down - this is for a few reasons. I guess it's not worth discussing them. Part of it was burnout, a fair chunk of it was feeling working on colourizations was a terrible idea.
As a whole, I burnt out from a lot, lot of things.

I did end up beginning work on a video game project in 2016, in some extremely unlikely circumstances.
Of course - as many MFGGers will know, development hell ensued. It's still a coming thing, I promise!

2017, 2018, 2019... not much.

...


So, anyway! That's an extremely compressed summary of what I've been up to for the time that I disappeared!
I do wonder - what have you all been up to? I am most curious.

I know some of some people's stories, but certainly not all of it.
It's wild that my 3-4 years at MFGG affected me for an entire decade afterwards, however.

[Mario]

I've been here, there, and everywhere mostly

Proud member of the Shadow █████████████

Interested in web development? Check out Super Mario Web Development. Wahoo!

 

""We choose to go to the [Suggestions board] not because it's easy, but because it's hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win."
- John F. Kennedy"
- gothgirlgangblastermaster

[VinnyVideo]

Let's see! Since The Split...

I stayed active on MFGG and became a staff member in 2011. I was an admin from 2012 to early 2019, when I stepped down. With a full-time job and a less-than-easy commute, I really didn't have the time to be a full-fledged admin anymore.

I made a few different fangames and toyed with the idea of making indie games. I can't say any of them have become Internet sensations, but I hope that they put a smile on a few people's faces! I hope that my more ambitious indie projects will see the light of day... someday.

I've made small quantities of original music and "art". I've gotten marginally better at drawing, although there's lots of people who are more skilled than I am.

I started my own forum around the time of The Split. It never got super-active, but it still exists somehow. It's been fun to make really goofy skins and post stuff for a smaller, more intimate audience.

I wrote a few video game walkthroughs at GameFAQs back in the day, but not much nowadays. I still try to keep my older stuff up-to-date, though.

As for "real life" stuff, I earned my bachelor's degree and later my master's degree. It took some time, and there were some bumps along the way, but I think it was worth it in the end.

I had a few different jobs/internships in the education field - the kinds of jobs that are interesting and pleasant but don't pay much. About a year ago, I started a new developer job in a very different industry, and it's been an interesting ride.

I haven't had much success in the romance department, unfortunately. I finally got into an on-and-off relationship earlier this year, but we've returned to the "just friends but talking all the time" stage.

It's hard to squeeze a decade of life into a forum post, but I think these are the most notable things.

Course clear! You got a card.

[Yrr]

i disappeared from mfgg after the split because tbh the fangames werent the reason i stuck around in the first place lmao, and by the time the community was back it had changed and so had I

spent the intervening time trying to get into art and indie game dev and being on mw

joined some homestuck community thing that i still hang out in long after it dropped being at all homestuck affiliated

got into Team Fortress 2 mapping a few years back and that panned out pretty well for me, getting a map officially in the game last year
that community is probably my "Main" one rn, mw being a close second

managed to move into a house with friends from online recently and started transitioning which is pretty great (one year as of yesterday)

now im trying to figure out how to do things like art and game dev as a living while struggling with a lack of energy and motivation lmao

[Money]

I graduated high school and college with a degree in computer science and i realized i was trans and also became a leftist

[Medaforcer]

Graduated college, worked in animation for a short period (Tigtone if you've heard of it), did freelance illustration and design for awhile for some games like the now dead Icons Arena, and I'm starting full time at a big game studio as a concept artist in August as kind of a first big break for me! This last year has been my best year in a long time actually.

Not much interesting to say

[Fujiko]

Let's see... I joined MFGG in 2007, and I can't remember dates very well, but I think I stopped doing much with MFGG around 2012 or 2013? I stuck around for a long time, yeah, and attendance was flagging for sure, but I think it was one of those awful LGBT topics in particular that made me realise I had outgrown the community to the point where we had absolutely nothing in common anymore.

I have been in university since I think 2015 (yeah I suck with dates). It's definitely way better than high school. I studied abroad in Japan for a year and had an epiphany due to how easy it was to get a job there. It doesn't matter what I study if I can just step into anywhere and be hired there, so I decided to change my major and do what I like, with a double minor in history and visual arts.

I started taking medication and it's working well for me. I'm a lot less unstable, at least with regards to physical outbursts.

After I graduate I intend to work in Sendai (a city in the north of Japan) as a factory worker, hopefully in electronics manufacturing. I also want to get more involved in the underground art circles I explored. I feel strongly that I belong with those people, meeting people that give you that impression IRL is the best feeling imaginable.

LET'S MAKE A FANGAME

[Yoshin]

Lets see
-started a many projects that fell through
-came out as trans
-became homeless and jobless
-got with my wonderful boyfriend @Thunderbro
and here we are now
I lead an uneventful life

Lando Never Dies
pfp by Plasmi

[Thunderbro]

I actually don't remember exactly when I joined or when I quit being active, although I do know I left before the split even happened.

Since then though I went through high school and graduated, went to community college and graduated and transferred into a university, with only a single class left to go before I get my bachelors degree in software engineering. I also got a software development internship over the summer and it seems like they want to keep me on full time when it ends in a few weeks! Nothing set in stone, but things seem good! I also got my Black Belt in Karate back in 2012, and have had a few promotions since then, heck I was in class just this morning even.

I also lost all of my old game maker files in a HDD crash years back, so unfortunately finishing any of those old projects is no longer possible. Instead I have began work on a private server for a niche mmo called Mabinogi. It's a very small and fairly inactive server, but I've built up a small, but friendly community, and thats been a lot of fun, as has been learning lots more about programming and reverse engineering while working on this project. I guess another reason I left mfgg is because I got caught up in playing mmos (although this project came a number of years later, lol). I'm not too active in this community anymore, but I am active in several private server and mod related communities revolving around Mabinogi nowadays.

Also yes, as mentioned above I began dating @Baby Yoshi1000 (lol, aka Diantha) a number of months ago.

The power of teamwork will eventually pull us through

[Retriever II]

I never completely disappeared from MFGG but I've gone through a bunch of multi-month or year periods of not checking up on things here, since around 2011 or so.

2009 - 2011 I was in grad school getting my MS in Computer Science. Learned I'm definitely not cut out for academic or research work. I was still heavily involved in ClickTeam extension authoring. Pretty much wrapped up any work on that by 2011. My crown jewel of extensions, XLua, came back to my attention in 2019 when it was used extensively in the indie game Baba Is You (oh s*** I'm technically credited in a published game now). In 2011 I started my first software engineering job in document imaging.

Starting in 2011 I got very involved in Minecraft, and quickly moved onto developing third party tools for the game (most popular still being NBTExplorer), and then later modding on the Forge platform. I was very active modding for years, but tailed off pretty hard in 2018. My most popular mod, Storage Drawers, was ranked as high as #2 on Curse and included in hundreds of packs. I still want to go back and get some of that stuff updated for 1.14, and I feel a little bad that I haven't done so.

I started a new job in 2015 at a local startup doing cloud/IOT software for CNC manufacturing. I'm still there now, as a software engineering manager, leading the back-end development team.

In 2016 I bought a house and spent a year and a half renovating it with my dad. The end result is nice, but I think it was a really bad call to go down that route.

Also in 2016, I attended my first MAGFest with Phil and became hooked on that event. I've been going back since, and got involved as volunteer/staff at this past event. I also started cosplay when I attended in 2016, and got seriously involved in 2018 building a Scyther fursuit/fullsuit cosplay. This month I attended my first non-MAGFest con where I competed with that suit to win craftsmanship best in show, so that was a pretty neat achievement. I also make a bunch of pokemon hats and try to be involved with the MAGFest makerspace efforts.

[CuteYoshiGirl]

I mostly worked and took a few classes

Got tired of the same job, but did sign making for a little bit with the company

Went through (affordable) vocational programs
medical assisting and nursing assisting

Volunteered at a hospital for a year, worked in a doctor's office, nursing home, and finally landed a great job at a hospital with full benefits, 401k, pension, and great pay.

Starting a licensed vocational nursing program this fall and hopefully can start a nursing program afterwards.

Possibly get my masters later for practitioner nurse

And through all of that Jon has been by my side since 2011 🥰

[Toni]

My life has been pretty uneventful. In fact, I don't think much has changed in the years since I stopped being active on MFGG. Job's still pretty much the same. I still make sprites as a hobby. Actual game projects have been few and far between, but I have... plans. Plans that I lack the motivation to make a reality, but... well...

Hmm...

So yeah, not much has changed. I think that was as boring as a status update can get. Yay.

[Vert]

I'll just keep it limited to the last seven years. Time sure flies.

I moved out into a group home, graduated high school, dropped out of college twice, got a gf, funding got cut off by the city government so had to move out of group home into some guy's attic, got a job, guy went bankrupt and sold the house, had to move into a dump because nothing else was available, quit my job, and now I'm about to move out again and get a new job. Can't say my life's boring at least.

[ShadowMan]

I went off to college, and after exploring a career path in politics that was not for me, now I'm a librarian and digital archivist specializing in video collections and game preservation. I run a site called The Obscuritory where I write about unusual old games, and I'm an organizer at MAGFest, a video game event that RII mentioned above. This year, I organized a panel track about video game history, which was absolutely 🔥.

[Fourside Seven]

A lot of it was covered in my returning post, but

• I moved away from home the first time, to Suwanee, GA. When that failed, I moved back in with my family for another four years.
  
• I went through a bunch of jobs, most of them were contract work but I eventually got a part time job at Home Depot. They've since proven themselves to be dickheads.
  
• 2015, I moved away from home for the second time, all the way to Pittsburgh, PA. It's way different from Atlanta and if I'm being honest, the city is pretty insular but it's better than the south where everyone feels entitled to your business.
  
• 2016, I landed my first full time job at a company in Wheeling, WV. It's a 120-mile round trip commute daily and that's the part that can suck all the dongs. The company itself can be fucky at times, but I work for a good office and it helps that our boss will literally get on the phone and cuss out HR for us if any of us are even a dollar short on our paychecks.
  
• 2017, my dad passed away. To this day I have a vague idea of what did him in but I'm still not positive. I'm not on speaking terms with the part of my family that knows for sure. The only thing I got out of my dad's death was a newfound and very extreme dislike of my uncle (his immediate older brother) and his family.
  
• 2018 and onward has pretty much been business as usual, but I've been working on comic projects and I'm hoping that sometime relatively soon that I'll have an opportunity to finally debut one or more of them. My biggest one right now is a series called Electric Fencer, a complete overhaul of what many of you knew as RyuFox Legends from back in the day.
  

[Pea]

Followed a greater passion for video games, making new friends and joining new communities. Graduated with an associate's in CS. Dropped out of Engineering University after a year due to burnout and possibly other reasons. Also picked up DJing and played for various online music events, as well as an anime convention. Also been organizing my own events of the same vein. Stressful, but I feel that organizing things has been a natural skill of mine.

I've also been a bit more invested in the speedrunning community, attending Summer Games Done Quick in 2018 and this year. Made so many friends and had a blast every time. GDQ is a lot of fun.

All in that meanwhile, I've been working as a Quality Assurance tester for a 3rd party company. Been running at walls for many games by various contractors. Got my name in some well respected games, too!

Current goal is to get some project out there. I have some in mind that have been fleshed out for years now, I just need the opportunity to rise.

Steam Profile

[Fourside Seven]

A lot of it was covered in my returning post, but

• I moved away from home the first time, to Suwanee, GA. When that failed, I moved back in with my family for another four years.
  
• I went through a bunch of jobs, most of them were contract work but I eventually got a part time job at Home Depot. They've since proven themselves to be dickheads.
  
• 2015, I moved away from home for the second time, all the way to Pittsburgh, PA. It's way different from Atlanta and if I'm being honest, the city is pretty insular but it's better than the south where everyone feels entitled to your business.
  
• 2016, I landed my first full time job at a company in Wheeling, WV. It's a 120-mile round trip commute daily and that's the part that can suck all the dongs. The company itself can be fucky at times, but I work for a good office and it helps that our boss will literally get on the phone and cuss out HR for us if any of us are even a dollar short on our paychecks.
  
• 2017, my dad passed away. To this day I have a vague idea of what did him in but I'm still not positive. I'm not on speaking terms with the part of my family that knows for sure. The only thing I got out of my dad's death was a newfound and very extreme dislike of my uncle (his immediate older brother) and his family.
  
• 2018 and onward has pretty much been business as usual, but I've been working on comic projects and I'm hoping that sometime relatively soon that I'll have an opportunity to finally debut one or more of them. My biggest one right now is a series called Electric Fencer, a complete overhaul of what many of you knew as RyuFox Legends from back in the day.
  

Addendum: I also forgot to add, starting in 2016, I began helping our local gaming lounge, Looking for Group, with their activities at ReplayFX, Pittsburgh's premier gaming convention/festival. I'm typically helping in the LAN area as well as selling things like pins and T-shirts as well as telling people about LFG, but they get us in for free so really it's just an opportunity to play wall-to-wall video games, arcades, and pinball machines for 12 hours straight for 4 days straight. If any of you are in or near the Ohio Valley in the next week or so, consider checking us out at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. We're on our fourth year and we're only getting bigger.

[DJ Yoshiman]

Not that much.

I got a daughter.

Oh yeah, and for those of you guys older and remember Chris Hedgie, he was my brother. He passed away 2 years ago in September.

[GeneralGuy]

Not that much.

I got a daughter.

Oh yeah, and for those of you guys older and remember Chris Hedgie, he was my brother. He passed away 2 years ago in September.

I saw the topic about it on the old phpBB forums recently. I'm deeply sorry for your loss Yoshiman. Rest in peace, Chris.

[Kirby's Adventure]

I joined the forums