Three years in this game.

Day 1,652, 05:24 • Published in USA Canada • by Rigour6

To be honest, it feels like longer.

I've seen so much change, both here and out in RL, during that time.

There was the end of professions, the rise of real estate, the end of walls and defense systems, the tactical battle simulator, the arrival and departure of the training girls, and then the "great dumbing down".

In RL there was my walk of the Camino de Santiago de Compostella and the birth of my twin boys.

I went from activist and editor for a group of local players to sole survivor, from dedicated party member to non-partisan, from Justice on the Supreme Court of Canada to American citizen and traitor. And there was even that one-off term as the Canadian Congressman for Scotland, of all places, aye,

I've had to ask myself multiple times why every day I throw several minutes into clicking and several more into thinking about this virtual world, given its faults. Why, why, why am I still here?

The answer right now is stubborness. I have built some resources over my three years (despite having never paid for gold), and I know that things change here quite often. Maybe the next iteration will give me another chance to do so some good, to build community, to aid a fellow player, to use this simulation to express something greater and more noble, or to have a few laughs.

I am naturally an introvert. My friends here are few, but I know that I would miss them if I were not here.
I feel that in the flash of recognition even when I see them posting somewhere else.

A lot of the fire in me is gone these days.
I am a silverback marking time. I continue to observe that I am probably one of the erepublik's oldest players in terms of my rl age - probably in the top 2 or 3%.
This world may not truly be built for my generation.
What a long strange trip it has been.

I'm sticking around.
As is my tradition, anyone who posts on the birthday message gets a piece of cake.

My thanks to those fellow-travellers who make the journey worthwhile.
Here's to the year to come.


NE by NE, Volume 6, Number 6