General

My lengthy Ultimate Nostalgic/Reminiscent Experience

WARNING: THIS IS GOING TO BE VERY LONG (almost 2 pages single-spaced on Microsoft Word) so please do not waste time saying TLDR or something like that. You have been warned both here and in the title.

Today as I was lying in bed trying to go to sleep I began to think. I thought a lot, about what life is like now, what it was like before, and then I thought about an all time favorite game of mine, Team Fortress 2. One of the most fun games I have ever played, it was the key to my happiness as a 12 year old. Little did I know, getting The Orange Box for Christmas led to the blossoming of who I am today.
Just a mere 4 years ago my fascination began. After trying the first 4 games in The Orange Box, TF2 was the last one left. Once I started I never stopped. My early days spent as a scrub, learning tips and tricks and how to play, getting my butt handed to me left and right until I began to progress. My skill level was constantly growing, becoming adept at using all 9 of the classes I single-handedly won my team games. All of this winning soon came to a halt. After playing a few matches, I joined a game against a few people with the clan tag MEDIC_. Surely enough, the 4 of them stopped my streak of domination. I held my own but I couldn't quite compete because they had numbers on me. After a few rounds I messaged MEDIC_Hidden8 asking why he had MEDIC_ in front of his name. Hidden8 took me under his wing and said I was allowed into the clan if I wanted to join. I became known as MEDIC_KooL-AiD.
I learned many things from being in the MEDIC clan, I learned how games could get more competitive than they already were, I learned how to work as a team to reach a common goal, I learned to communicate with others, I learned what clan matches were, I learned how to strategize, to predict people's behavior, I learned what it felt like to bond with other people, I learned what it's like to overcome difficulties, and most importantly, that I didn't have to be a star, I had a team to back me up. The MEDIC clan became my first group of friends. As a 13 year old this meant the world to me.
The MEDIC clan disbanded in a few months because of the lack of support for PS3 gamers, many members moved on to the PC version. Activity within the clan slowly dwindled to almost nothing. Because of this, I left the MEDIC clan. I became clanless again. Searching for a new clan I searched match after match hoping to be discovered. I met anhsirk_hero while messing around one day, I saw the clan tag NBK and decided to show off my skill. I was accepted into the NBK clan, after many changes I became known NBK_TaLonTeD. NBK was a better clan skill wise than MEDIC was, I wasn't good enough to play and attacking role in the clan yet so I learned support classes. This taught me that I don't need to be the main man to make a difference. Being tutored by the likes of anhsirk, PsyCHo_PeTeY and more, my skill developed even more. I felt much stronger, more powerful. I was much better than I was when I first started. I felt cheated in the NBK clan, not playing in many matches, and playing a support role when I felt just as good, if not better than some of the attackers. I left the NBK clan and when clanless again. By this time I had been introduced to clan sites, I knew most of the community. We were a super tight bunch and there were few if any hard feelings directed towards anyone.
I stayed clanless for a few months, keeping contact with all of my buddies that still played I still enjoyed myself. My next clan was started by a close in game friend of mine. SvR. SvR didn't last long and the few that survived went on to VpR. VpR became the first clan I helped create and maintain. I helped recruit, form battle plans, defensive positions, class distributions etc. for this new clan. I felt important, I finally meant something. I stayed with VpR until we disbanded. After VpR disbanded I came in contact with bowdown2this. He was trying to rebuild the famous clan known as RVB so I decided to help. I shared some of my experience and RVB became my home. The community at this point in time was declining and it didn't seem like it would ever be recovered. Clan matches still went on, a few big names survived, but not enough to keep the game going.
As TF2 on the PS3 reached its death, I spent my time in multiple clans, learned many different things from those clans, and matured a whole heck of a lot within 2 years of my life. I became friends with adults at age 12. Learned to talk to them at age 12, I got along with the community better than I did most of my friends. With the death of TF2 came a little bit of death in me. I became depressed, I couldn't communicate well with kids my age, and all my friends were slowly disappearing because the game that held us together became dead. I lost communication with everyone.
Now as I look back on this time, I realized how much I changed over such a short period of time, and at such a young age. Many say I have "robbed" myself of a childhood because I have spent the last 4 years of my life thinking like an adult and not a kid. But I disagree, I prepared myself, I am ready for whatever challenges come my way. This has forever changed my life and I will never have an experience quite like it ever again. This game has taught me things like how to adapt, how to take charge when needed, and step back when needed, I learned to give people credit where credit is due, I learned how to form strategies, I learned to talk and communicate with other, I learned how to set goals and reach them, I learned how to have serious competitions that are fun. These are just a few of the many things this game has taught me. To anyone that says video games are bad, I say nay. This one has changed my life in a positive way.

To all that have read my story all the way through I say thanks, I felt the need to share this story with someone, so why not Basil. I can't sleep anyway... and for all of you that have had nostalgic/reminiscent/life-changing moments in your life talk about them below. It's fun to see how people are changed and molded by the experience they have had.
PS: Any PS3 TF2'ers that use Basil PM me, it'd be cool to see if we know each other/other common names.