Gauntlet's Guide to The Megaman Community 

If you've hung around the older forums or read some of the stuff the veterans say, you'd know that there is a mass misconception that the Megaman community has changed from the time of old. I believe the sentiment was something like, "I don't like the way the community's changed. Everyone's gone and the new people suck. Everything's different. The community is only a pale rotting shadow of what it once was and it'll never be as good again."

Well, friends, I am one of the oldbies. I was around before the Mechanical Maniacs came about and I've seen what the "old" Megaman community was like, and you know what? Not much changed.

That's right, friends. Do not be deceived!

An old saying goes, "the more things change, the more they stay the same." The long-gone veterans remember fondly on times past, glorifying it into an idealized fantasy. Can you think of a time when EVERYONE talked to everyone else and NO ONE FOUGHT? I can't. Even in the days of Jason's MegamanXtreme forum people fought, newbies were chewed out, and there were grudges. Yes, grudges were held and people were banned! Banning HAPPENED.

And don't be fooled into thinking pages were much better than they are now. Sure some great ones were lost, but look at what we have today! Entire sites which cover to an obsessive amount ANY Megaman related material. If anything sites have gotten BETTER! Spriting has been elevated into an art form (in some people's eyes) and could beat the pants off anything in the old days. The bar has been raised on site quality as well. Used to be you could post RF images and assorted Pixelboy-gathered sprites and pass muster - not anymore.

However, I feel I must get back to the social aspect a bit. I see you asking, "What's up with the oldies, Gauntlet? Why do they lie to us so?" It's not lying. They simply do not remember things as they truly were. Try to remember shows you liked when you were seven. Seemed really great? Try watching it now. When things are past and gone, people remember them fondly and embellish them in their mind. Just like how old people talk about "the good old days" even though we really have much more opportunities and open-minded discussion NOW. Socially, things have not changed.

Maturity plays a big part in the equation. After two years NORMAL people are a little more mature than the past. Trust me when I say the "great X debate" gets more futile as you get older. Newbies are interested in debating the fact, but once you get older you don't care anymore. Newbies also tend to be around 15 and most oldbies leave when they hit college. There is one HUGE age gap there. Oldbies don't feel in-touch with newbies. They tend to be a bit more mature. What seemed fascinating as Hell when they were 17 (when they reached their popularity) seems just stupid now. Discovering the reality that you're more mature than the average MM community guy wouldn't exactly make them feel like they belong.

Moreover, the oldbies feel even MORE out of touch because their crowd has left. Things on the internet move very fast and if you leave for two years, you could become a social fossil (at least on the net). Oldbies come back to find that their crowd has left. Take Drizl (of Drizl's Stormcloud) for instance. I was around when he was around, but we didn't travel in the same circles so I don't know him very well. He had one very impressive site in the day, but he left and wasn't heard from for about two years. Recently he returned only to find things had "changed". Since he didn't know where any of his old crowd had gone to, I'm sure he felt pretty out of touch. He also (on his site) expressed dismay that no one came to visit his reopening.

However, what Driz failed to realize was that he had been gone for TWO YEARS! People stop checking your site after two years. Had he advertised his return better and perhaps tracked down forums where other oldbies migrated to, he could have had a shot of getting back in the public eye. I know for fact that Groovy and he are fondly remembered when oldbies talk of "the good old days" and yet he felt discouraged and left once more commenting on how things have "changed". Why? Socially, the same people are around and had people known he was coming back they would have came. The reason is that he no longer knew where to look. In his mind he was still popular and well known and therefore a return would make a quick following, but much of his crowd had left when he did - he needed to advertise. Get back in touch with the CURRENT community. Had he done so, he would have discovered things had truly not changed as much as it seemed. He also discovered that he no longer felt like maintaining a Megaman site, which gets back to the maturity deal. Fascinating as hell at 17, but now?

So, things have not changed and people who say they do are either misinformed or are fooling themselves.

So, as I try once again to get some sleep, I am Gauntlet and this has been Gauntlet's guides.