Ramblings about web-design as escapism.

Most modern websites subscribe to the current paradigm of web design that tends to blend into one homogeneous sludge of clean cookie-cutter corporate minimalism with the same vibrancy and personality of a bowl of day old porridge. When everything starts looking the same, you start longing for, what i feel, was an integral part of the Web 2.0 period of the Wild West era of the internet. Variety and personality, each website being its own ecosystem of experimentation and expression, and with it came such a sense of exploration, of discovery and that, if you went deep enough through any website you would keep finding more secrets and parts of it unknown to you before!

For a while i settled into that feeling being part of a romanticized nostalgia of days gone. Which, while still partly true, changed when i stumbled upon the Personal Web due to a rabbit hole that began with wondering if Worlds.com was still alive and left me on the shores of the front page of the Yesterweb ( RIP in REST ), resulting in a sleepless night of euphoric exploration and discovery, each website it's own contained world, linked through with portals in the form of buttons and webrings to other digital lands, each distinct and full of charisma and things to do, read and explore. From minimal "small web" advocates, Web 1.0 philosophies and under construction prototypes to intricately designed virtual palaces of colors and bravado situated right next to Geocities homages and parodies alike and each so full of life in their own way, that feeling of discovery i attributed to nostalgia and romanticism surfaced back clear as ever, and it was beautiful. I still treasure the memory of that night and chuckle at the irony of it happening at the tail end of the Yesterweb life-span before it was told to keep looking at the flowers.

I wish to argue then that that feeling of discovery and wonder is something that can be used to build your own internet space upon, something that when denizens want to explore and discover more of when they arrive. But also for yourself, turn it into the place you wish to escape to. I remember reading somewhere how one of the change in modern internet culture compared to that of our times was when the internet started being seen as more of a tool than an ecosystem, i agree with that sentiment wholeheartedly. And just with the wondrous ecosystems in nature, variety and uniqueness came, deserts, mountains, plains, oceans and in me personal case, an island.

By making your website a place you yourself would stay to explore and dedicate time of your existence in, you help make these digital ecosystems flourish. I hope to bring me website to be the realm i envision it to, and will keep at it to bring that vision to be, of wonder, discovery, nature and style.

Perhaps, as time goes by, someone else will also find a respite from the IRL in me far off island.

This Walrus Island entry is part of the Agora Road's Travelogue.

Those of us who stayed, those of us who remain; Recounts from TFC.

I often find myself thinking about the kinds of games i play compared to the modern games that people are often fonding over and talking about constantly. Having had nothing but potato PC after toaster PC and me last owned console being the Playstation 2, the current hot gaming trend was out of the question for the longest time until more resent indie titles with more tuber friendly specs.

So! We adapt as situations demands it, and ye follow for the next best thing when your device cant run Team Fortress 2. Which brings us to the quite specific example of Team Fortress Classic.

A Half-Life mod from 1999 that appeared in the scene alongside Counter Strike, Ricochet and Deathmatch. The game had a lot of similarities to it's more popular sequel; red versus blue, the same 9 classes, maps with mirrored bases with intelligence to capture, capture points to name a few.

It was a ditch effort in retrospective, who the bloody fuck would still be playing Team Fortress Classic? But, it was worth a shot for someone who was denied the spycrab hoovie extravaganza.

No surprise to anyone, once booting up the game I was met with a sea of empty servers and the ruins of long abandoned game modes. But it wasnt all, there were a few populated even full servers. Those who stayed, those who remain.

At first i did not think much of it, I was a kid who got what he wanted, a TF2 analog to play and enjoy. And enjoy i did, as it was and still is, pure clunky gold source chaos in its purest form. Rocket jumping, unbound bunny hopping from one point of the map to another in mere seconds, your body exploding from getting stabbed, your whole team getting infected by the enemy medic and dying of aids, and the ever so classic grenade mechanic that vanished when the jump to the sequel was made, of such variety from regular frag grenades to overpowered EMP, grenades that explodes into more grenades, others that rotates and shot nails and others that emanated hallucinatory spores! Pure, beautiful and delicious chaos accompanied with an equally chaotic in-game voice communication and chat. Some people might not like those things in their gaming experience, but I loved it from the mere second.

Now, with a small player base, roughly around the less than 100 active players. You start seeing the same faces, you start to recognize players, playstyles, voices, quirks, and they start to recognize you as time goes on and you keep coming back. Something that it feels lost in the world of quick matching and censored chat lobbies with thousands of active players. You don't get to make friends with all of them, but you talk, and you hear about the glory days when a game barely anyone has heard of nowadays used to be as big as Half-Life Deathmatch and Counter Strike in its heyday, tournaments, mods, forums, LAN parties. All but fond memories for those who got to live through them, making a big chunk of those who stayed, those who remained because of nostalgia, attachment, and also common enough for preference. TF2 is a whole different game feel despite being the direct sequel, classes play different and the overall feeling is another as TFC is more chaotic and fast passed, we always get a reminded during the holiday steam sales when there is a slight spike in new players that come into one of the only remaining servers expecting to play it like TF2 only to get obliterated to the never return, fun times! Yet between them sometimes, very rarely, some stay.

Originally i stayed out of necessity, after falling in love with the game, i stayed out of fondness and because of familiarity. As i said before, you get used to seeing the same people, you can feel their absence and it even impacts hard sometimes as it is always a reminder that we are playing on the eleventh hour of our games doomsday clock before it also becomes forever empty. Yet we remain, yet we stay, yet we play. It is nice to have an online place to return with people and faces you recognize, like a small-town bar where everyone knows your name even if you don't all get along.

I feel like that is something we can most relate or long in our hidden corners of the web as we do our best to separate from the mainstram net. I know most feel that way about the road of whose community project this blogpost is a part of.

We are the ones who stayed, we are the ones who remain.

This Walrus Island entry is part of the Agora Road's Travelogue.