Gazing at the spectrum of history and the evolution of Stunts and grog and love.

[BonzaiJoe]

I'm really bored at an irrelevant workshop, so I'm just gonna write a long post here about everything and nothing. It's been almost 14 years now. Wow! 14 years. Of course the last 8 of them have been a bit sleepy, but that's okay. I can't believe it's a racing game. It's not representative of me at all. I don't like cars. I spent some of my waking hours advocating the closure of streets in favour of transportation by bike or by foot. But Stunts is the lasting thing. It's the bridge from my childhood through my teenage years to my adulthood. The only other thing that's lasted is the music. And even that has changed much more. When I say Stunts, of course I mean the community, not the game. Even before I met you guys, it was a social thing. After school watching each other race and cheering each other on, or at home on countless afternoons with my friend, taking turns to beat each other's records or make spectacular crashes or keeping the car in the air for as long as possible. The green and black and blocky landscape of Stunts is a picture of a sense of community. Uncomplicated community (until the arrival of Argammon, CTG and Alain anyway) in the name of racing and laughing, which would later become "Stunts and grog", in the words of Alain il professore - a great guy who I regret expending so much hate on. Of course he spewed a lot himself too, but he was also both creative and mysteriously intelligent.
When the kids grew up only the true aficionados (me!) retained their love for the game, the community moved online and went international. And, of course, everyone else weird enough to keep nurturing their love for this strange racing game also turned out to be quirky, strong personalities. You made yourself characters on the forum and the races were not races of pipsqueaks but races of icons, like a Formula 1 starting grid with only the legends. Two pipsqueaks arrived without giving much of their personality: Ayrton and Renato Biker. They were the machines of the competition. The boring Vladimir Kramniks of Stunts. It spoke in the competition's favour that it had become prestigious enough for the machines to come and spend their bytes on it.
There have been three significant losses to the community: Krys Toff, Mingva and Alain. Argammon was always on/off and might return any minute. JTK is hopefully still almost here. He would be a bigger loss still. JTK: the godfather of the Stunts community. If we make a church, he would be the first saint. Saint Oliver of Kiel. Zak McKracken is too active and present to be a saint yet. He has kids. So does Usrin, and Krys Toff of course. But I can't think of anyone else. Maybe we are eccentrics or geeks after all. We sure look geeky on the 2005 WSM photograph. A photograph now from a distant past in which the community was still at a crescendo and not this long, beautiful outro. But 'Stunts and Grog' was a reality in 2004, 2005 and 2006, not just a dream. The beer bucket on my parents' sunny porch in Aarhus was a metaphor of the free happiness of the WSMs and the Stunts community. At least that's what it's been for me. The pains of a defeat or an annoying argument fade to nothing in comparison to all the excitement, curiosity and joy of racing with you guys. The only true cost has been hours. Hours spent racing on random tracks from StuntsLOL or Francestunts. I probably could have spent those better. Zak figured that one out. All my 1st places are not worth very much compared to the hours spent racing. But it was exciting and immersive. Some of you guys are addicted to the validation of winning, which is really a strange validation.
But ever since 2002, Stunts was life and life was Stunts. It was an Endless Paradise. Zak's Endless Paradise, which I destroyed by breaking into it and making it Our Endless Paradise. The blog. The adolescent musings. My Endless admiration for Zak. It was the other side of Stunts. It was not just a game. But it was also a game. It was good. Now it's 2014 and I'm trying to revive this symbiosis by writing this posts (but I'm being perfectly honest too when I say I'm writing this to pass the time during a boring presentation).
There were times when I wanted to be closer. The agony of meeting Duplode. It was bad enough with Zak in Hungary. We proved we were willing to travel to be together in the physical world, but the distance was still too big. Then Duplode enters the scene and the spiritual stratum of Cork's Crew. He's another kindred spirit in a far away land, his avatar right in my face but his corpus forever hidden. It was just like when I fell in with the fictional character of Amalia from The Castle. But we've all grown so old now! And I've learned to accept this reality. Words carry outlooks and alien outlooks are the most important thing if you want to grow. The community is real.
I only wish the forum consisted of more posts not by CTG. The forum is becoming a part of CTG's brain. Sometimes I feel like I'm CTG's ghost. Like we're all CTG's ghosts. But you can't have a community in one brain, try as you might. CTG will be the last person in the Stunts community. Nothing could make him leave. But of course I'll casually make a post here in 2031 after it's all over and 5 years after the last of a series of 473 final forum posts all made by CTG.

The presentation is ending, so in a minute I'll pack up my stuff and go home. For the sake of the legend, let's say I'm going to go out of the door of this depressing public building and be greeted by the cheer of a thousand fans. I'll stride purposefully along the red carpet, nod to Helen Wheels, put on my helmet and sit down in my Indy, parked on the street outside. Helen and I will hit our gas pedals and go to Joe's, where we'll hang out with Bernie and Skid and Alain il professore and pArAnO and Mark Nailwood. Then in the evening light, we'll all drive our cars (with our windows open) to the Stunts track and make spectacular jumps and loops well into the night. Bernie will crash, of course, and will have to be taken home in JTK's van.
Then I'll go to sleep and dream about how to re-take the record on Default.

[zaqrack]

I am touched.  (and eagerly waiting for CTG to come in and say this topic is gay  )

I am often told I am keeping my hand at too many things at the same time, trying to do too much. And I probably am. Hobbies come and go, sometimes return after a long hiatus (like LEGO)  sometimes friends come and go the same way.
What's music and Stunts for you, that's biking ans Stunts for me. I just can't live without them. I would not even dare to try.
And you are so damn right about this being a community thing. I was never into cars either. nor racing. Heck, I probably cannot even recall the champions of my "own" competition without a mistake. But its fun to see you have fun. To come to the forum to read, even if not writing at all.

I am 33 soon. Zakstunts is 14. 14!!! soon turning an adult. But 20 years with Stunts with my good friend in their basement (a dear friend I still have who also has two kids now but never plays Stunts.) Interestingly also 20 seriously into biking. Something must have happened back in 1994. We were trying so hard even a few years earlier to attract others to this community. This seems so laughable in retrospective. How did we believe it to be possible? We are in a different mind-state. We speak our own lingo. Even if we have not met in person, we know eachother too well. Anyone coming now (or a few years earlier) will just stare and not see the magic.

Changes come and go, right now the upcoming change is the company I work for falling apart to pieces. Not knowing yet how and exactly when, but moving again a continent away, leaving 4 years of my life behind. Returning to a more quiet and modest life. Probably. But it may change tomorrow. Everything changes. Others would perhaps worry. I find it funny and interesting.
I have my anchors in my life, so I have nothing to worry about. Stunts is one of them, meaning all of you here. And it makes me feel great.

[CTG]

The first part of the title was so promising ("Gazing at the spectrum of..."), but then... well... no chemistry.

waiting for CTG to come in and say this topic is gay

I would rather say it's a way too long "we are getting old" message.

[CTG]

Btw it should be published as an article at ZakStunts.

[BonzaiJoe]

I am 33 soon. Zakstunts is 14. 14!!! soon turning an adult. But 20 years with Stunts with my good friend in their basement (a dear friend I still have who also has two kids now but never plays Stunts.) Interestingly also 20 seriously into biking. Something must have happened back in 1994. We were trying so hard even a few years earlier to attract others to this community. This seems so laughable in retrospective. How did we believe it to be possible? We are in a different mind-state. We speak our own lingo. Even if we have not met in person, we know eachother too well. Anyone coming now (or a few years earlier) will just stare and not see the magic.

It's true.
Maybe we should come up with some new way of racing which is less committal and more social and action-intensive than competition racing. Live racing is great. Maybe we should do that more.

Changes come and go, right now the upcoming change is the company I work for falling apart to pieces. Not knowing yet how and exactly when, but moving again a continent away, leaving 4 years of my life behind. Returning to a more quiet and modest life. Probably. But it may change tomorrow. Everything changes. Others would perhaps worry. I find it funny and interesting.

So you haven't changed much :-) What's up with the company and your near future?

It's always funny when I have to explain Stunts to new relations. I take pains to make it sound like more than a bunch of geeks playing a computer game, cause it really is so much more than that.

[Chulk]

Touching post. And, as usual, this kind of post triggers some ambivalent feelings in me. A part of me likes to think I am an important part of this community and that I will be missed.
The other part yells at me from the back, telling me I joined too late to be an important part of it.
The truth is probably a middle point between those extremes, meaning I'll be remembered, even if only because of a single Zakstunts victory on a Corvette some years ago.

[CTG]

Touching post. And, as usual, this kind of post triggers some ambivalent feelings in me. A part of me likes to think I am an important part of this community and that I will be missed.
The other part yells at me from the back, telling me I joined too late to be an important part of it.
The truth is probably a middle point between those extremes, meaning I'll be remembered, even if only because of a single Zakstunts victory on a Corvette some years ago.

I don't think victories can make somebody an important member of the community - just think on Ayrton, the eternal outsider alien. In contrary, Krys Toff could never win a ZakStunts race and still, he's a legend. Not because of his racing skills, but his social activity, his jokes / songs /general attitude, his great competitions or just for being the horny Frenchman.

Arriving later than the "golden generation" is just a date, without real meaning. Duplode appeared even later than you and now look at his position in the community.

Actually, all the current pipsqueaks - including you - have a significant role in Stunts World. Some of us publish hot chick posts, create new cars, develop new stuff for the game, collect useless stats or post philosophical messages about Stunts history. We are what we are: puzzle pieces of a real community.

[BonzaiJoe]

Touching post. And, as usual, this kind of post triggers some ambivalent feelings in me. A part of me likes to think I am an important part of this community and that I will be missed.
The other part yells at me from the back, telling me I joined too late to be an important part of it.
The truth is probably a middle point between those extremes, meaning I'll be remembered, even if only because of a single Zakstunts victory on a Corvette some years ago.

I think you're definitely an important figure even though you missed the youth of the community. Same with Duplode, AbuRaf70 and Mark L. Rivers (whatever he was). You've engaged yourself in the world of Stunts and the forum and you have a lot of personality.

[alanrotoi]

Touching post. And, as usual, this kind of post triggers some ambivalent feelings in me. A part of me likes to think I am an important part of this community and that I will be missed.
The other part yells at me from the back, telling me I joined too late to be an important part of it.
The truth is probably a middle point between those extremes, meaning I'll be remembered, even if only because of a single Zakstunts victory on a Corvette some years ago.

The most important in this community is the present. The rest are memories and statistics.
I felt the same when I joined the community "I missed kalpen's, zakstunts 1st year and half of the second."

[dreadnaut]

I missed everything, but it's still fun to hang around

[BonzaiJoe]

Well, you're here now, making history that we'll be nostalgic about later :-)

[zaqrack]

Changes come and go, right now the upcoming change is the company I work for falling apart to pieces. Not knowing yet how and exactly when, but moving again a continent away, leaving 4 years of my life behind. Returning to a more quiet and modest life. Probably. But it may change tomorrow. Everything changes. Others would perhaps worry. I find it funny and interesting.

So you haven't changed much :-) What's up with the company and your near future?

New owners, my boss (and close friend) was fired. No overall strategy, no planning, no future. No fun anymore. I will stay for a while but not for long. Can't tell more at the moment, but changes are coming.

[Duplode]

We are what we are: puzzle pieces of a real community.

That's a very appropriate metaphor 

[CTG]

It isn't. However, the roles are quite well-defined:

Zak: "neutral" host
Duplode: scientific advisor
dstien: hacker king
Akoss Poo: the eternal dissatisfied
Biker: racing machine
CTG: the egoist troll with many crappy stats in the pocket
BJ: the wise outsider, also a Stunts God
Chulk: the South American Argammon, Google search engine, source of hot Russian chick photos
Rotoi: Mr. Antihumor
etc.

[Chulk]

Chulk: the South American Argammon, Google search engine, source of hot Russian chick photos

I get every reference but Argammon one. I don't know much about him, so I don't know what you mean. Care to explain?