Where are they now?

[Lizzie]

I guess I still exist tho no longer under this name anywhere else. Dunno how the hell I remembered my password.

[Lovecraftia]

Wow...

I'm,

Honestly shocked to see this much.
I took a huge break from this game and gaming as a whole to focus on other things, but coming back today and seeing so many people active is just shocking to me.

I want to say, though, that I do apologize for any necro I was doing on any threads and such, and other things like that. I love this game, and though many of you have moved on, I think everyone can agree this game is as timeless as Diamonds.

[Exethalion]

I think around the time it started getting quieter around here I was finishing up a masters degree in the UK, and then I moved to Germany, that was 8 years ago. Now I'm trying to finish a PhD. I'm in the process of becoming a German citizen too.

My memory is kind of blurry but I remember that this was a fun community to be in, it was probably the first real online presence I had. Looking at people's ship designs, watching seraph tear people apart for building penisbricks, all the crazy faction roleplay stuff everyone got into, chatting on irc... It got me to learn a lot about interacting with total strangers over the internet, brought together by a niche interest. I wouldn't dare look through my post history, I was probably a real edgy a**hole at times.

I don't game as much as I used to, I started and got burned out with several MMOs and other online games, nowadays I play random stuff from my childhood or anything else of interest.

If anyone wants to play something multiplayer or just wants to hang out, I'm on discord under Nilin#4061.

It's very nice to see some old familiar faces here, and some unfamiliar ones too. I value the time I spent here with you folks. Don't be a stranger, and stay safe and healthy in this f**ked up year.

[Bad Boy]

I was discussing BSF with a friend the other day and decided to see if the forums were still up. Was real surprised to see posts from 2020, so I dug out my login info and took a look. Came upon this thread and figured, better late than never!

But yeah, it's nice and nostalgic to see all these old names; somehow I don't remember the names of half the people I went to highschool with, but I remember a bunch of you (albeit not super well haha). This place was definitely a big part of my youth, it was my first forum and my first real set of interactions on the internet. I guess I joined when I was ~15 and now I'm fast approaching 30! I still remember being awestruck by the amazing stuff y'all made, and loving the community even with all its foibles.

As for my life, after finishing up high school I went across the country for university, flailed around at a chemistry degree for a while and then swapped to computer science. Thank goodness I did, I would have been screwed if I'd tried to stick it out in the sciences. I work as a programmer now, and generally enjoy the work. I'm also co-CEO of a medtech focused software contracting company, which sounds fancy but is really just a friend and I doing some occasional contract work. Most of my hobbies involve hanging out with a regular group of friends, in the last 2 or 3 years I've gotten into DND and Pathfinder with em. Aside from that, in what little extra free time I have I'm also leading a project to revitalize another old game from around BSF times, that some of you might remember, the Cortex Command Community Project.

[Doogie12]

<cough>join our discord<cough>

[ArcaneDude]

So I'm doing some worldbuilding for my first DnD campaign and remembered my old attempts at worldbuilding on this site. Thought I'd take a look back and then I find this thread and... man, that's a lotta memories. I know I'm way late and I wish I'd found this thread a year ago, but y'know what, why the hell not.

First off, hi to all the people I remember! Lizzie! Exethalion! Anna! Aralonia! Bunch of other folks I don't remember, because it's been slightly over 10 years since I made my last post to this site. Something strange happened to my memory of this place, or rather of myself: I remember myself being a lot younger when I was active but nope, I was 19 years old when I made my last post.

I'm glad to see that most people are doing okay, despite the struggle. For those of you in the process of going through College or Uni, good luck! It's a hell of a ride and you tend to come out the other side not just packed with a new understanding but also a different person, usually for the better. I know I sure did.

For Anna: holy crap, you transitioned! I'm happy for you, and I hope you're happy as well. I remember you not being in the best of places when I was around here, and I hope that's turned around for you. Also, figures you'd be the one most likely to still be kicking around

When I was active on this site, between 2008 and 2011, I was very much in the formative years of my personality. ADHD-induced social incompetence and a complete lack of ability in conflict resolution made my behaviour somewhat... difficult to some and got me rightfully kicked off the mod team. In my post history I can see my own struggle with having grand ideas and then never seeing things through to the end (yeah, the "Great War" was never gonna happen...), something I still have issues with. My social skills have vastly improved though (I think). It's shocking to see that my relationship with the woman who is now my fiancée started while I was still very active here: in my head, that relationship and my stint with BSF didn't overlap at all, but they did.

During my active years I was in my last years of what in Belgium is called 'middelbare school', comparable to Highschool. The next step for me was university. There I got my bachelors and masters degrees in History and the next year a Teachers Diploma. The job market for history teachers being what it is and wanting to go and live together with my SO, I decided to start looking for something more stable, and have ended up working in communications and as an Ombudsman for a regional company. Currently I'm working on getting a diploma as a professional mediator. Yes, me, with my famous "skills" in conflict resolution! Skills that have improved markedly, not in the least thanks to my SO (and some very thorough mediation courses). We own a small but lovely house, and I'm sitting in my freshly renovated office space, which I've done a job good at if I do say so myself.

Perhaps it's selfish to say, but I'm at least partially relieved that apologizing for past behaviour is a theme in this thread, and it's relieving to have a chance to say sorry as well. I do apologize for some of my past behaviour, not in the least for the shenanigans that got me kicked off the mod team, and undoubtedly a bunch of other stuff I don't remember. I know I had some issues but jesus fuckin' christ, 18-year old me was a fuckin' moron!

But, this was the first online forum I partook in. The name 'ArcaneDude' was the first thing that popped into my head when I was asked to type a username, and I'm still ArcaneDude everywhere online. This place was special, and seeing signs of life from all of you makes my day.

And yes, I will gladly join that discord, but now it's 11 o' clock, my fiancée's asleep and I should be as well. A lack of sleep really starts diggin' in when you reach fuckin' thirty, holy shit.