From when Iso first introduced me to online mafia on MtGS, I've always been here to design and then host games first and foremost, but I found myself enjoying playing as well, despite, to use one of my favourite quotes from Azrael, flailing "like a floppy new foal".
I've had a lot of good times here and have met many people whom I'm happy to call friends. Through this site, I was introduced to Mafia Society, now Mafia Colosseum, and through that community, many other communities, and more importantly, the love of my life.
I also have had some very negative memories on this site. As I mentioned in part in another thread, my history on this site before playing mafia was:
I was an irregular for a while, then eventually started paying attention to various eternal format decklists, particularly EDH, and Custom Set Creation. I was here for a couple years as a moderator of Debate and Vintage, looking to moderate Commander throughout the entire time I was in those positions. Moderation had some fun moments, but I was constantly being ridiculed, scapegoated, gaslit, and held to a double standard by other staff, particularly senior staff. I stepped down when I realized that it had gotten to be too much, in the middle of such a conversation with one of the admins. I dealt with serious depression throughout my time as a moderator, and while I was allowed to take a break from the site, the site staff atmosphere was still not a helpful one.
Looking back over the past few years, the site staff was a very standard toxic environment and I was suckered in. I still have some good friends from there, but the experience is one I mostly wish to bury.
Many elements of this site, even some in the mafia section, have brought back some of those memories now and then, usually for the worst.
But mafia has generally been a positive for me. However, forum mafia has declined on a lot of sites and MtGS is no exception. I still have a handful of games which I wish to run, mostly a couple of specialty games, one of which Iso had inspired me to design, but I don't feel that we have the playerbase to run them here any more. I don't feel the same passion for the game here any more, either from myself, or from many of the people I've seen here. I may run one or more of those specialty games on MU if we get the people for it. I may hand the designs off to people more interested in hosting.
In addition, my real life expectations and opportunities are amping up over the next year or so, and I will need to focus on that.
As such, I think it's as good a time as any to finally finish closing the book on the MtGSalvation chapter of my life. I will likely still be semi-active on MC for as long as that site exists, and the Throne of Lies Mafia Forum as well for some amount of time. Maybe some others. Maybe MU for a game or two.
I will also endeavour to finish this year's podcast and give that to Silver to post whenever and wherever it makes sense to do so. It is twice as long as previous years, and that exponentiates the time it takes to edit it.
For the time being, I can be reached on Discord at osieorb18#0126 or on sites on which I'm active with this username. In addition, osieorb18@gmail.com can reach me a bit more slowly. Some of you have other, more reliable contact info for me as well. I will be staying in the MtGSMafia Discord for some time, but I anticipate that within the next year or two, my presence on Discord will slow significantly. I've already divided the number of servers I'm in by a factor of three, to a total of 15.
I happen to be a Doctor Who fan, and I feel this is a great quote for these sorts of circumstances.
"Times change and so must I... We all change, when you think about it, we're all different people; all through our lives, and that's okay, that's good, you've gotta keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be. I will not forget one line of this, not one day, I swear. I will always remember..."
From when Iso first introduced me to online mafia on MtGS, I've always been here to design and then host games first and foremost, but I found myself enjoying playing as well, despite, to use one of my favourite quotes from Azrael, flailing "like a floppy new foal".
I've had a lot of good times here and have met many people whom I'm happy to call friends. Through this site, I was introduced to Mafia Society, now Mafia Colosseum, and through that community, many other communities, and more importantly, the love of my life.
I also have had some very negative memories on this site. As I mentioned in part in another thread, my history on this site before playing mafia was:
Looking back over the past few years, the site staff was a very standard toxic environment and I was suckered in. I still have some good friends from there, but the experience is one I mostly wish to bury.
Many elements of this site, even some in the mafia section, have brought back some of those memories now and then, usually for the worst.
But mafia has generally been a positive for me. However, forum mafia has declined on a lot of sites and MtGS is no exception. I still have a handful of games which I wish to run, mostly a couple of specialty games, one of which Iso had inspired me to design, but I don't feel that we have the playerbase to run them here any more. I don't feel the same passion for the game here any more, either from myself, or from many of the people I've seen here. I may run one or more of those specialty games on MU if we get the people for it. I may hand the designs off to people more interested in hosting.
In addition, my real life expectations and opportunities are amping up over the next year or so, and I will need to focus on that.
As such, I think it's as good a time as any to finally finish closing the book on the MtGSalvation chapter of my life. I will likely still be semi-active on MC for as long as that site exists, and the Throne of Lies Mafia Forum as well for some amount of time. Maybe some others. Maybe MU for a game or two.
I will also endeavour to finish this year's podcast and give that to Silver to post whenever and wherever it makes sense to do so. It is twice as long as previous years, and that exponentiates the time it takes to edit it.
For the time being, I can be reached on Discord at osieorb18#0126 or on sites on which I'm active with this username. In addition, osieorb18@gmail.com can reach me a bit more slowly. Some of you have other, more reliable contact info for me as well. I will be staying in the MtGSMafia Discord for some time, but I anticipate that within the next year or two, my presence on Discord will slow significantly. I've already divided the number of servers I'm in by a factor of three, to a total of 15.
I happen to be a Doctor Who fan, and I feel this is a great quote for these sorts of circumstances.
Thanks for the memories.
Lots of love,
Osie.