I'm so going to miss this place.

Warning, sappy nostalgia ahead. The first of several goodbye posts.

Over the years I found myself spending more and more of my time on the forum here, this particular board, chatting about anything from movies to TV to anime to novels from science fiction to fantasy to zombies and everything in between. Oh and comics.

I hadn't had such a place to immerse myself in since I graduated from college back in the mid 1980s. I went to a college that was primarily science and engineering with a smattering of architects and hockey players. It was nerd/geek central. For instance, this is considered to be a clever school T-shirt.



Go Engineers! (Emulsify them! Emulsify them! Spread them into a thin film over the playing surface!)

Still you could find a spectrum of nerd/geekness from passable normal to what would be called a Sheldon today. I tended to echo locate others of my ilk by shouting NEE! loudly into the dorm hall and listen for the replies. I knew a girl two years below me who kept all her clothes in a footlocker because she used her closet to hold all the Science Fiction and graphic novels. She was an old old school Batman fan, hated the 60s TV show for ruining Batman. She also introduced me to Camelot 3000, A Distant Soil, Elf Quest and graphic novels in general. She also introduced me to Dune. There was another girl who was in my class that was a big Heinlein fan, I never read Heinlein before then. And another girl, this one from Hawaii, introduced me to Johnny Soko and his Flying Robot and some cartoon show called Starblazers. Other people introduced me to Doctor Who and Blake 7. I found still others that love Kaiju and Tokusatsu films of the 70s as much as I did. Gerry Anderson fans, Trekies, video gamers were all present in enough numbers to strike up a conversation at any time in any room full of people. Name that Star Trek episode in 5 seconds or less was a popular past time when it was projected on the big screen down at our student union. We only had the original series to worry about so it wasn't that hard. Yea, we were a school of serious geeks and nerds.

As I find myself getting older and older, I also find myself increasingly surrounded by people who are the polar opposite in likes and taste to those I knew in college. While I still keep in contact with a few college friends, it's not the same as seeing them daily 9 months out of the year. It's tough to talk about all the new stuff in an hour phone call every month or three. But here, here it felt like being back there again. A simpler time of AD&D and Starfleet Battles. Of Atari 800s, TI 99/4A, CoCos and Sinclares. Of Tempest, Battlezone and SubRock 3D.

If anyone knows of another place where I can go and chat about such an eclectic list of off topics please chime in. I know I going to go into withdrawal Saturday.

And for those who might have wondered where the quote in my sig, Tempus unum hominem manet, Time waits for one man, is from? It's from the 1962 Science Fiction novel and 1980 TV movie, The Girl, The Gold Watch and Everything. Sadly Google now points that phrase to my forum posts, well at least until Saturday morning my time.

You might try the gog.com forum. It's somewhat similar to here. Not quite, but if you squint hard enough, it might be an acceptable place.

I also frequent the TrueAchievements.com forum. Downside to there is you need to have an XBL gamertag to join.

Otherwise, ya, I don't think this place can truly be replicated. It's been a helluva 8 years though. That's almost a quarter of my life I've spent here...

I don't know of such a place but I truly hope you find one.

I doubt I will ever become the pinnacle of civility that I see you as but I promise to work on it for no other reason but the respect I have for you.

Be well, FX.

I have given serious thought to setting up a forum just like this one. Same conduct rules, no religion no politics, but like the old days of the CH/VC forums with games, comics, movies, tv, geek stuff. I love this little group we've had over the years. Some of the most fun I've had was watching Heroes and sifting through the pages of hilarious snark. (esp. Hickman! Hickman! Hickman!)

Yeah, for most of my time with this game, the Comic Culture forum was my home. I may have had disagreements with many of you -- and by 'you', I mean posters here, posters elsewhere, devs and passersby -- but it was a privilege to be included in your conversations.

Black Pebble asked me what your shirt meant - and I realized I went to the same university. Small world.

I'm going to miss it too.