IB missing... IB

Something happened on Thursday night which was kinda sad, although to those non-gamers reading this it will probably seem silly. Well anyway those that know me in person know that I play this game called Battlefield 1942 online, and have done so for a couple of years now. I remember when Ivan started playing it, I was in the middle of my Honours and didn't have time to sit down and play games like I used to, and when he said "You really need to look at this game" I shrugged it off as something else I wouldn't have time for with the attitude of "I'll get to it one day". When I actually sat down and watched him play it though, I was in awe. It wasn't just one of those regular first-person shooters, in this one you could jump in tanks, airplanes, you name it, and could be an engineer, or a medic, it seemed it could suit everyone. After seeing it I just had to give it a go.

And then one day Ivan thought he'd try and play it online. I remember the first map he went into, he didn't even get a single kill. So when he suggested I try it out online I was like, you have to be kidding me. I didn't want to make a fool of myself, and Ivan was better than me at every game so if he couldn't get a kill, I dreaded to think how badly I would do, and I had never played any game online before. But, I did it, and I shot one guy, and thus the addiction was born.

Soon Ivan and I were regular members of the GameArena community, and I met such lovely fellows as Paragon and Jantar, my first two online gaming friends. After a day or two of constant online playing I got asked to be in a clan called LT, and Ivan got asked to be in one called IB. And with that our clanning lives began. Towards the end of the first season in the competition, due to "artistic differences" I left LT and after a week or two flying solo, joined IB with Ivan. I felt like I already knew these guys, because they were Ivan's friends. Ivan also got another real life friend of ours, Pacer, to join in and play, and he joined IB too.

We are now at the end of Season 3, so after two seasons with IB, and seeing lots of people come and go over that time, what happened Thursday night was really upsetting. After a lot of the clan being on the brink and a few leadership changes, the clan disbanded. It's sad because, yes, we're all still part of the same community and will keep in touch in some way, but not playing alongside the same people just feels odd after all this time. Like, Snake would irritate me no end but I loved picking on him and calling him a silly old man. Meaty and I would disagree on so many things but I was the only one who had the "balls" to tell him when I thought he was wrong. Anzac was terrible for his chat spam in the middle of a war, hogging the radio to tell you things like "I have a plane chasing me" when we on the ground couldn't do much to help him, but in hindsight those random comments always made me laugh.

Now we have all gone separate ways. Ivan has joined a different clan to me, as have all the other people so far, and although my new clanmates seem great already, it will take some time to settle into that comfortable familiarity.

RIP IB!