Ahoy. For those of you who don't know me, this should help a bit. And for those who do know me...well, this might be an interesting read.
I was first introduced to the RPGMaker series in mid-2000 by a friend, and after staying up the entire night at his house experimenting, I was hooked. I joined the internet communty in the summer of 2001, after spending about half a year or so lurking around various sites, doing my best to learn as much as I could. I joined a site called Dark Dominion. Some time passed, and I released a demo of my game Alnetak Moon, which was well-received and above the standards of the time. I also released an ABS minigame demo and a minigame styles after Space Invaders (called Face Invaders, using emoticons). Soon I was promoted to moderate the Game Projects forum, and then the RM2K/3 Help forum, and then the Literature forum. Finally I was promoted to a full staff member. Unfortunately the site died soon after as the administrator lost interest.
During this time, I began really joining other forums and posting elsewhere, including Gaming World, War of the Magi, and even Gaming Ground Zero, as well as countless smaller forums.
I had my own site, called iyCreations for some time after the fall of Dark Dominion. It was spriting-based, following one of my interests, and it got a large community. Many of them "refugees" from the old site. Eventually the old administrator of Dark Dominion regained interest in having a website and created a place called Dev Empire. I let iyCreations go down in order to support the Dev Empire member base, but the community had a hard time holding itself together. During my time there, I released the small demo of a Dance Dance Revolution type game, a dancing game programmed in RM2K3 with original graphics. Eventually, though, the community fell apart. And sick of the drama, I left for a time.
By then I had been a member of rmxp.net for a time, and it was during this time that I began posting more. I began using different names, trying to drop my Dev Empire/Dark Dominion roots. During this transitional time, I released a demo of my first RMXP game, Dreams of Nevendria and became a Moderator of RMXP.net's RMXP sections, during the same clump promotion of members. I think this the promotion of multiple members at once really began to mark that RMXP.net was accepting its role as one of the "big" sites.
I modded for some time, then offline reasons forced me to take a long break. I faded away from the scene, and was eventually demodded. I returned months later, finally having settled into the me that you today. By now I had a different outlook on the internet- one that is less focused on internet drama and accepts the fact that "it's just the internets" and nothing to get too serious about. This is very freeing- it lets me just say what needs to be said without worrying about garbage like forum politics. Sometimes I might even just stir up trouble to see how others react, but nothing ever seriously malicious. It's all just about fun and humor now. Things have been a lot easier for me in this time.
I've been banned from RMXP.net for continually being myself- giving harsh and very real criticism that many children couldn't take, making jokes that lots of children would get offended by, and criticizing the administration. It was that last bit that pushed me over the edge, so to speak, and led to the ban. Even though I am banned there, I am still in contact with that community, though, often popping up in their irc channel to idle or making a new account on the forums just to read the goings-on.
Now, I am primarily a member at Gaming World, and the owner/administrator here.
I'm Ecko, or "Eck" for short, if you want. I've got a good number of years of RPGMaker experience behind me, and I've mastered just about everything in the program. I consider myself a decent composer, illustrator and a very good writer. I admit that I'm often a mean-spirited and seemingly hateful dude, sometimes, and definitely an elitist. But hey- I guess it comes with being an oldbie around the English RPGMaker community. I do not believe in sugar-coating criticism; I'll often be harsh even to my friends because I think that you should tell someone if something is bad.
I consider RPGMaking a hobby, not a career path. That's why I use the program; it lets me tell stories and put my graphics to use, and I do it for fun. And yes, I use the legal version.
Cheers!
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