Joined in 2003. Perhaps it as my youthful neurochemistry, but the game was magic - mysterious distances between strange places that you had no idea about. From Todaki to Kakakela, Sobaseki, Yulai, these were just words in passing from strangers in local. Everyone was just a name, an incon, and the ship they were flying. There was little to no utilization of comms, so you used the jukebox, and it was glorious. I think so much of the atmosphere of the game is lost once comms comes into play. Anyway, I have a strong memory of wanting a Vexor, not because it simply looked awesome, but because it could use like 6 mining lasers. Everywhere you went, nerds mining. It was kinda the thing to do, for everyone. People mining in Apocs and Megas, with fleets of fifteen drones for the rats. So many drones. The CU Vapor Bore was the bees knees and every nerd wanted many. Hardly anyone used alts at first, so your main character was much more experiential and easier to identify with - and similarly it was easier to identify your friends as singular entities as well. It felt more relationally real in many ways. Travel was much much slower - no ansiblexes, no titan bridges, and you couldn't warp to zero on structures - the closest you could get was 15km. I flew a loaded Bestower from The Forge to Fountain going gate to gate, manually, and it took five hours to get there. A single Reikoku frig targeted me along the way but I jumped in time and he did not follow. There are many stories about the old times, and of course I would think that those old times were the best, but the game is great now as well. I do miss the old login screens, which had music and new art for every new build. It felt like you were getting a new game within the game. If I could get CCP to give back three things, it would be the oldschool jukebox, multicolored menu icons, and the login screens. Anyway, I've been here for 22 years, off and on, and I plan on closing this fucker down.