For the tl;dr: This is simply a thank you to the development team from a very old player.
Over a decade ago, sometime around 2002, with the “aid” and “direction” of my older brother (he had already begun his own amusing havoc on another thrilling Half-Life modification, “The Specialist”, under the alias Bruce Lee and yes, with that smiley face. I don’t think you could indirectly taunt people more without a smiley face at the end, simply killing people with kindness. I’d eventually be pulled into the ensuing chaos.), with this, I had been introduced to the world of modifications of Half-Life.
I never cared to put much thought into the depth or time it took to create one of these modifications, ill equipped with a naïve and jejune insight of game development that concluded with shallow sophistry as the distorted foundation. I had grasped some concepts that were relevant yet mostly superficial, such as a college student narrowly focused on their grade point average thinking as such, “What do I need to do to get an ‘A’ in this course? How many pages does this paper have to be? What do I have to do satisfy this professor?” and so on rather than directing attention to more realistic, critical questions – those being: to grow as an individual, “What does it mean to be educated? What do I need to do to become educated? What skills and abilities are necessary for me to function successfully at work and in everyday decision-making?”
I was that narrow-minded student in my youth. I only knew of the strange and beautiful world I beheld, yet dangerous too. It had everything you could have expected and more in a DBZ game: Teleporting, signature moves, variety of both good and evil characters, but most of all intense combat. The rush of adrenaline I could feel when finding someone as skillful as you could want and meeting face to face. The memories I can reflect on were only made possible by the developers. I was never really able to directly thank people that had brought out great modifications before and I see the ESF team and this maybe the only opportunity that I got. I see the challenge that presents itself and a decade later it must be tough but you’re in the home stretch. Some days you might feel like you're surrounded by a wall of bricks and every step forward is like falling in a pit. Sometimes all you can do is search within you, find your inner strength – knowing that you did succeed in creating an amazing game and that you really did have an impacted on people to give you that hope, that motivation, that drive to not give into any doubt but to achieve everything you ever wanted.
P.S. As you probably already realized I am NOT a motivational speaker, hah but I would at least like to say thank you.
Again though, in all sincerity, thank you.
Over a decade ago, sometime around 2002, with the “aid” and “direction” of my older brother (he had already begun his own amusing havoc on another thrilling Half-Life modification, “The Specialist”, under the alias Bruce Lee and yes, with that smiley face. I don’t think you could indirectly taunt people more without a smiley face at the end, simply killing people with kindness. I’d eventually be pulled into the ensuing chaos.), with this, I had been introduced to the world of modifications of Half-Life.
I never cared to put much thought into the depth or time it took to create one of these modifications, ill equipped with a naïve and jejune insight of game development that concluded with shallow sophistry as the distorted foundation. I had grasped some concepts that were relevant yet mostly superficial, such as a college student narrowly focused on their grade point average thinking as such, “What do I need to do to get an ‘A’ in this course? How many pages does this paper have to be? What do I have to do satisfy this professor?” and so on rather than directing attention to more realistic, critical questions – those being: to grow as an individual, “What does it mean to be educated? What do I need to do to become educated? What skills and abilities are necessary for me to function successfully at work and in everyday decision-making?”
I was that narrow-minded student in my youth. I only knew of the strange and beautiful world I beheld, yet dangerous too. It had everything you could have expected and more in a DBZ game: Teleporting, signature moves, variety of both good and evil characters, but most of all intense combat. The rush of adrenaline I could feel when finding someone as skillful as you could want and meeting face to face. The memories I can reflect on were only made possible by the developers. I was never really able to directly thank people that had brought out great modifications before and I see the ESF team and this maybe the only opportunity that I got. I see the challenge that presents itself and a decade later it must be tough but you’re in the home stretch. Some days you might feel like you're surrounded by a wall of bricks and every step forward is like falling in a pit. Sometimes all you can do is search within you, find your inner strength – knowing that you did succeed in creating an amazing game and that you really did have an impacted on people to give you that hope, that motivation, that drive to not give into any doubt but to achieve everything you ever wanted.
P.S. As you probably already realized I am NOT a motivational speaker, hah but I would at least like to say thank you.
Again though, in all sincerity, thank you.