How did you get here? Why did you stay?

[Clint]

I joined this place to fulfill my need to attract a cult following. In order to do so, I had to present a specific "I don't care" kind of attitude. In my first few weeks here, I decided to be an annoying jackass, and started an argument which ended with the forum rules being updated to be more specific. Then for a while I was annoying, and then I got banned.

I'm awesome, so I managed to argue my way out of my ban, getting it overturned, and then the forum rules were updated again, which is why harassment on TFF is now punishable by death.

So essentially, since my time here, twice I was the catalyst for getting the rules changed and updated. I'm here because this forum is my creation. I manipulated everything to be the way it is by being a cunning, clever jackass.

I come back every now and then to check on my creation, and to see how all of my loyal followers are doing.

Or I joined because I was bored, and I come back because I occasionally feel the need to play the part of the narcissistic sociopathic character I created in 2008... Nah, that can't be it.

[Calvan]

It's been so long since i've been around i'm unsure if this qualifies as a necro.

My cousin, Ulteka Mako join the forums some time ago. but has sinse dropped off the face of the internet in favor of the thug life.

Anyhow. Enter Calvan.
I joined at his behest. and have since been an on again off again member of the community.

I can't say i've really "Stayed" per say. but i've made a fair few friends here. that have kept me at least poping my head in from time to time to see whats going on.

[Kurt Zisa]

I remember just wanting to talk Final Fantasy. At the time (16 years old) my brothers were to young to understand rpg's and my highschool friends were more into GTA and Call of Duty. I lurked around a couple of other FF forums and signed up to KHInsider, or whatever it's called, but after about two weeks I decided this place was better overall and have stuck with it since.

There's something about this place that seems to avoid the worst that the internet has to offer. We don't have the spammers, or the trolls or the raging fanboys (well we do but the ones we have are a great deal more intelligent than the rest). After reading through pages of negative comments and bullshit on sites like memebase and every other message board, it's nice to be able to come here and actually have an actual conversation with decent people. I think TFF's members are the reason I've stayed.

I'll have been here for 3 years next week, over that time I've met lots of cool people (sadly I don't talk to you all as much as I should do) and you've all helped me broaden my horizons in loads of different ways... mainly with gaming though . I can't wait to see where this place will be in another 3 years from now.

[che]

I came here when I got home internet. It was like 13 or 14. I had seen TFF before on a school computer, and decided to visit again. It was going through some changes as Fuzz was revamping it. For some reason, I contacted him asking him something. I can't remember what. I ended up being on-board to update the TFF news for Squaresoft, but mostly FF games. I had just played FF7, a year behind when it was released. It was my first FF game, and I was hooked.

I found all sorts of communities where peopled gathered to talk about these games. TFF was the first one I saw, and I liked the colors. They were light blue and white. Reminded me of a Moogle for some reason. Then there was FF Shrine, it was dark purple/blue, Eyes on FF, really dark purple with light blue text I think (or hyperlinks were light blue?). FF Online was insanely popular because of the name I think, but very elitist. Black background with gold text. FF Alpha was brown/gold with bright gold links and white text. It looked metallic. I remember seeing TFF as the most friendly, and uplifting.

I became a member of the forums and FFVIII had come out. I wasn't really a fan at the time as it wasn't as cool to 15 year old angsty me as FFVII was. But we still had discussions come up and it was cool to see that people were talking about the same thing I was experiencing. The feedback+gameplay was absolutely enthralling to me. Then FFIX came out. I knew this would be my FF. I reported all the news before it was released, in JP and in North America and Europe. Everything seemed so...Fantastical! When it came out, I bought the game, had the strategy guide, had become moderator of the Final Fantasy IX forums, and actively helped any and everyone who had anything to ask about the game in the forums. I'm also pretty sure this is when Andromeda joined. Andromeda was so knowledgeable, and I was jealous. Because I I wanted to be the sole person that gave all the answers. As a 16 year old, or so, it was very important to me. It was great.

I became mod shortly after, simply because I posted so frequently and often and helped out in any way I could. Soon after, I realized I was too young to have all the power I had on the forums. I remember editing a color layout one night and another admin being logged in doing the same. We were messing each other's color schemes up so badly, and with a dial-up connection it was horrible. People complained, etc. I felt like it was too much. So I stepped down.

Somewhere in this timeline there was a TFF Chat on the website. A little code had you chatting with online TFF members while browsing the site. This became insanely cool to me, because you could chat instantly instead of waiting for a reply. Eventually AIM was there, and MSN messenger. We took our chats to that, as the TFF chat didn't have a log in and it's own interface like this did. I met tons of people, and got to know them somewhat-personally. StarSoldier, Whitney, Edgar-Figaro, Ranma (who was a member of the old TFF, slightly older generation than I was), etc. I'd invite everyone to a TFF chatroom named TFF. We advertised it, etc and it would usually have 20~ish people in it.

I took some break for a while, got a girlfriend who cheated on me, became angsty, hated everything. Typical teenager. Looking back I guess I was kinda Squall-ish. I wasn't pleasant. And I thought I was cool. I began trolling the shit out of posts here, instead of being helpful. I got many warnings, etc and somehow I made it out. Though being a troll, I still had feelings for the site that starting it all for me. I still cared and still offered my help and advice to moderators/admins here who asked. I wasn't such a butt on a messenger, as it was really me, but I wanted people to know I meant business when I posted.

I grew out of that. I started wising up, learning how the world works. Helping people was way cooler than trying to sabotage stuff. I gave much advice to new moderators from my own experience. It was truthful and genuine, despite how I'd acted in the past. They were very thankful and I continued to get asked for my input on situations. I wasn't running the show, but I was still giving advice on how to make TFF better. It was always in my interest to do so. I wanted this place to own the **** out of FF Online. FF Online was huge, and general, and had elitist mods. I remember DH, Dark Horse, who used to write news for them. It must have been so much harder for him, because the people that came to TFF were humble, while the people who went to FF Online were looking for help, or saw the popularity and just wanted attention. I'm so glad TFF rarely has that. We've always had a great, tight community here. Willing to accept new people, help them in their games, talk about cool ass shit that happens and FMVs! Play other games, etc. And when a new FF game is released, everyone comes together and has their opinions and shares the experience. And you seem to have a glimpse of the people you're talking to. You know why they would like the cutscene or particular part of the game they're enjoying and talking about atm. And that's what TFF has that some other places don't. It's like I'm stuck here because I know everyone, but I'm not stuck. I could just as easily go talk about FF games to another place, but TFF people are my people!

Who knows what the future holds, but I'll probably be around for a while. I grow with this site.

[Boxman]

Came here just to talk Final Fantasy mostly. Searched for FF forums on google and this was one of the first listings so I picked it at random. Did the same for Metal Gear Solid but unfortunately that has been a huge waste of time - near everyone there is in denial about their ego. It's almost the same at Wrong Planet which is sad because it's one of the few forums centered around autism, but then I've sort of lost interest in discussing that side of myself anyway. Eliquiy(I think that's what it was called) was nice but I didn't like being part of a gated community that were also kind of full of themselves.

Thankfully it seems many of the people here are mature from the discussions I've read so I'll probably stick around. The only other place I frequent is IGN and a lot of it is kind of dead.