5000 days on Basil
I can't believe that I still visit this site weekly (even though there's not much activity anymore), and that Basil is still my browser homepage, a habit I began when I was only 13.
MapleStory sure has changed a lot - not for the better - and that has definitely contributed to Basil's lack of activity. However, I think it's more significant that the internet in general has changed so much since Basil's best years (2005-2012). Thanks to resources like Reddit and Discord, people with no programming or leadership experience can quickly and easily grow a community like we used to have here. In some ways this is a good thing, but I lament the loss of forums, and that everything online seems so centralized now; wasn't it more fun when the internet was seemingly only for nerdy types and actual gamers? Things are becoming more corporate by the day.
Anyway...I don't post very much these days, but I wanted to say how grateful I am that Basil was a part of my life, especially during my teenage years. I have a lot of fun, special memories from this site, such as using the auction system to get rare gear in pre-BB MS, browsing the scary stories threads in the Chat section late at night, or talking about our young people problems (which, looking back, weren't as bad as we thought at the time, haha) during the summer months when everybody had time off from work and school. Thank you, Mr. Basil, for all of the effort you put into building our community during Basil's heyday; Basilmarket meant and still means so much to so many people.
If you have your own special memories or funny stories from Basilmarket, I'd love to hear them. Otherwise, I hope your life is going well, and that you're not growing up too fast!
P.S. I started playing Maple on Friday May 13th, 2005, and continued playing until around September 2010, when potential was being introduced to GMS. I created my Basil account in October 2005, and stopped frequenting the site in mid-2012, when Basil began to change, and my interest in Maple was essentially gone. MapleStory (in its classic form) is still my favorite online game of all time.
Here, have a nostalgic BGM (my favorite Maple music) to get you in the mood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NoF8PHQJqQ
14 Comments • Newest first
@divine619: I used to love those threads where an artist would draw Basilers' characters. I never got my character drawn, but some of the people on Basil were so talented that it was enjoyable to see how creative they could be.
Duuude the freaking slime tree. I have 3925 days but I'm pretty sure it's way more than that since I deleted my account a few times back in the day. I come check basil and log into maple every once in a while even though it kinda just makes me feel lonely and sad those days are gone and I'll never find my friends again. But some of my best memories were being part of the artist community here. The Basil Brigade, arguing with everyone who said my drawing sucks, or getting bombarded with requests from n00bs lol.
For the first time in my life, I met somebody else in real life that knew what maplestory was, which prompted me to go on my account just now! It's a trip. I started playing Maplestory in 2005 when I was 5 years old, and would play for 6+ hours a day until about 2014. I want to say I made my basilmarket account around 2011. Growing up on the internet, I didn't really know how to interact with people in real life and I clung onto the personality trait of "awkward" and "random". My character names reflect that, and I smile to look back on this time in my life where I never thought I'd have a future outside of the internet. Needless to say, I do now. All of my friends were here, and on Maplestory, all of whom I still think about because they're well into adulthood. I'm among the youngest of those that have been around for years, I'm in my second year of college now. Hope life is chugging along, cheers and best of luck
I started playing maple when I was a freshman in highschool, around 2006/2007. and I joined basil early in my senior year, like fall '09ish. I stopped playing maplestory around 2010 but continued to stay on basil.
I think my most memorable moments on this site was a gray blob posting a link to an imgur album... that album being nudes of a well-known basiler. another moment that stood out was going on tinych@t with other basilers, even a mod jumped in at one point. and some dude flashed his thingy while a bunch of us were on tc.
being an adult is okay i guess.
@zigen: Wow, that's unbelievable that you met someone through Basil, at least in a sense.
I miss the meebo bar...I had so many good conversations with a lot of my old Basil friends using the IM feature.
i've been on basil since 2010 and have lots of cool memories. I used to make friends via the meebo bar, I did tinych@t groups with ~famous~ basilers, I was on profil3 briefly before mr.basil shut it down, I had a group of basil friends i'd skype with every evening one summer, and 5 years ago i joined the Music Room on cytube and met a basiler who lived in my town, we've been dating for the last 3 years so its neat. basil was a big part of my internet life and i dont visit anymore really but it has good memories for me.
r.i.p basilmarket.
Oh man I started playing in Oct/Nov 2007 and I don't remember when I found out about Basilmarket but I have a few precious memories here. Met some interesting people that I sadly lost contact with and if I remember right messages are saved for 30 days here which is the most frustrating part. I've caught someone writing me by sheer luck before but I don't remember this page much, I stop by every few months or so at best (I don't remember when I last was here) so for all I know someone might have tried to establish contact with me the only way they knew how before and I'll never know.
Also came a long way, met a wonderful man on MS and this year we celebrated 10 years of relationship. Moved to USA and married him. Crazy where life can lead you.
@p3pp3rf1sh: That's crazy lol. I always wanted to name one of my alts "Daisia" (with a capital "i" ), but apparently someone had taken that name. I looked the name up on the rankings at the time, and nothing came up, so I believe it was a noob account since those didn't appear on Nexon's rankings.
I first started to play maple story in November 2007 and I made an account here around the same time period. I made a lot of friends in those days but sadly, we never really exchanged contact info. I have memories of me playing this game late at night when I was in high school instead of doing hw. I came back to the game in December 2011 out of boredom and I enjoyed playing the pvp feature. when that got removed in spring 2012, I gradually stopped. it was relaxing playing the game after I arrived home from my night class. as for basil, I came and went and now im back for now.
I remember one time I was browsing through FM and found a guy named "pepperfish" in the some random guys's store and I wrote "you're the reason my name is p3pp3rf1sh u dam guy"
"wasn't it more fun when the internet was seemingly only for nerdy types and actual gamers?"
And this is why nerdy 'gamers' tend to be contrarian edgy alt-righters, they want their uniqueness back, but using the internet and playing video games is something everyone does nowadays, even the people they despise. They yearn for the days when they had their clubhouse and 'normies' didn't even know they existed let alone visit.
Yeah it sucks that things have changed so much. We're much more interconnected now, but that means that the old ways of communicating with each other are gone. Glad to see that you only have positive memories of this place. Wish you the best of luck in whatever you're doing in life!