Hi, everyone. It’s story time.
For the last couple days, I’ve spent my free time alternating between trying to make Homeworld LAN work over Hamachi and playing Skirmish vs. CPU games when it inevitably doesn’t work. I’m pretty sure the problem has something to do with my use of OpenVPN (on both machines) or Windows Vista (on my desktop), but I digress.
Today at work, a friend asked what kind of video game I’d build if I had a huge budget, and I answered “Homeworld 3”. I knew there were some rumors about the game’s development (something to do with THQ acquiring the rights to the Homeworld name) but I wasn’t sure if there had been any other news, so I checked Wikipedia for answers. While browsing the main Homeworld article, one section in particular caught my eye for two reasons. First, it mentioned players successfully using Hamachi for Homeworld (along with this GameRanger thing), and secondly, it said SF and HG are active clans.
I figured this article must be way out of date (seriously, who plays Homeworld anymore?) so I clicked the Soban Force link and it dumped me here, at a forum. At first glance, I saw posts by names unfamiliar to me, and from several years past. Figures???the site must never have been taken down, I thought. Then I saw a post from July 29, 2011. Wait, that’s a few days ago! What in space…
You guys are still around. Incredible! I thought to myself, I ought to register and say hi! I used to play with these guys, and it looks like a shocking number of them are still around (or at least have posted in the last few years). Names like Malone, Deaths, Zero, Pit Viper, Zulu, Splitstar, Drew, and Volans reminded me of fun times in War of the Ring. (I think I’ve even seen that last name lurking around the Akora system in EVE-Online.) I clicked “Register” and tapped in my details, only to see a little red warning telling me that my chosen username had already been taken.
“Hah, of course,” I thought to myself. “The name comes from the game franchise, after all. I can’t be the first one to have used it.”
Then a horrible thought entered my head.
I switched tabs, clicked the Members link, and clicked the link for all names starting with “H”. I found the user that was blocking my registration, clicked for its profile, and… oh no. Oh, no. Oh no, no, no no no.
I was, of course, already registered. I hadn’t been online in some eight years, but it was unmistakable: that Hiigaran is me.
A look through the posts of 2003-era Me was dark, horrifying and all-too-revealing of… what? My age at the time? Some kind of post-stress retardation? I’m not sure, and I’ll just be thankful now that it didn’t result in my being medicated. Still, I can’t shake the uneasy feeling that my memory really isn’t as good as it should be. Why did I like exclamation points so much? Who is Misty, and why did I hit on her like a fixed pup humping a rubber chicken? What sort of weapon of terror is a “huggle” and why were my chosen targets Pit Viper and Splitstar, people I remember as gamer friends but never as victims of Mengele-inspired experimentation? Why is my forum title “Sexiest Beast Ever”? Isn’t that illegal in most states, on about six different levels?
I thought about logging into my account again, hoping that my password habits hadn’t changed too much, but I was stopped by the idea that I was unwelcome???or rather, that in a darker, younger time, I was deemed unwelcome, quite rightly so. I got over that after cringing through more reading material, and tried to log in, but I couldn’t remember my password and the MSN.com e-mail account I used at the time has long been impounded in favor of “Live”.
So, here I am. For those who never knew me then, and for those who did and therefore most certainly don’t know me now, here’s a little about myself.
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I’m an avid fan of Homeworld, a game which has inspired every online pseudonym I’ve used since 2000. I’m known in other games by such recognizable names as Majiir Paktu or Mevath Sjet, and other obscure ones like Koraal, Caal Kadiir, Kaark, Skaal Fa and Neerin Ina’ri. In Homeworld, I played as Hiigaran, flying under the banners of SF and XENO in that order. I played all three games and liked them all. (Obligatory “Cataclysm SUX”, but to be honest, I enjoyed playing it. Multiplayer was awful, that’s all.)
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I’m currently working as a software engineer outside of Boston. I’ll be there for another month, at which point I’m moving to California. I’ll work at my company’s office there, which is a reasonable distance from my girlfriend.
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Once I moved somewhere with cable sometime in 2004, I started playing Halo online and became involved with the modding community. I ran a successful clan there, and after two or three years became disinterested with the game and its failing community. I wasted six months playing Halo 2 on Xbox Live while my laptop ran my mining barge in EVE-Online. That’s where I’ve spent most of my gaming hours for the last six years; I played very actively for the first three or four, playing less-than-insignificant roles in the rise and fall of large alliances, and generally having a blast. When I want some more casual gaming, I play Team Fortress 2, Bad Company 2, or Minecraft.
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I drive a manual-transmission 2000 Toyota Echo with 232,000 miles on it, and I’m proud of how well this piece of shit has aged. I’m in the market for a Mustang in the next year or two (or when this thing finally keels over).
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I do not, and probably won’t ever qualify for membership with OMO. I am nineteen years old, twenty next February. Back-dating those old posts gives me at least one excuse.
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I run a small web services company with a few friends. It’s a hobby sort of thing, but we do offer paid services and it helps reduce our net costs, even if it doesn’t kill them entirely. Currently we provide VPN, web hosting, TeamSpeak 3 and Minecraft.
All that said… Hi, again. I remember quite a few of you. I’m sure some of you remember the old me, but I doubt I’ll live up to that history.
Now, I have just one question: Is Drew still on satellite? My mother got that shit at home, and man, it’s terrible.
Hiigaran
It’s nice of you to drop by and reflect on the past. Those were the good olde days when the HW lobbies were bustling with people and I could stay up half the night playing during the week and still find a way to go to work every morning. I’m gonna have to go read the Wiikipedia thing. 
get your ass to GR and kick my ass!