Just wanted to say how much Ironworks has had an impact on my life in so many ways. Just thinking back to this past November, when I first logged onto Ironworks. I had never "spoken" to anyone before on the Internet, no chat rooms, forums, etc., nothing.
Found myself in a dilemma of sorts while playing BGII, Firkraag was dusting the floor with my characters basically, and I decided to go out on a limb, do something I had never done before, and Registered on IWs, and posted a Question asking help and advice. I was a bit apprehensive at first, because I saw mainly males on the forum, and was worried about trolling and flaming from jerks because I was female. But...The next day, when I checked to see if I had any replies, I was astounded at how many I had. So many people from all over the world answered me, and advised me, and ultimately helped me get the job done!
Then, as time went by, it seemed we all wanted to get to know eachother a bit instead of always asking BGII questions. We all introduced ourselves, told eachother our real names, described what we looked like, said where we lived. Friends were made then, and our IWs Forum changed, and became not only a place to get BGII help, but a place for friends to get together
Funny, when I think back then, I remember a lot of us had no sigs, had no fonts or colors, nevertheless smileys (smileys LOL were a wonder we only hoped to aspire to learn LOL)
Then our Stealthy came up with an idea, and created a website wherein we could all put our photos, so we could actually see what we all looked like, further enhancing the closeness between us.
Then Stealthy provided some Sigs for everyone to choose from, and I snagged the "Kung Fu Gal", then more members started getting sigs, and it was so cool to see them all, as again, before there were very few people who had sigs back then (Memnoch of course had his back then, same one as he uses now, which I am so glad about
, Victonik had one, Ertai and Wah, Stealthy used to have some girly pic for his LOL). So it was a sig frenzy all of the sudden LOL, then Ziroc took IWs offline to upgrade it (brown board). Funny, so many of us did not have MSN back then, so except for e-mails, we were totally cut off from eachother.
Enter Brown Board - Bigger..Faster..Better
Well, how can I put this? It was INSANE! We came, we looked, we posted...oh yes, we POSTED. We posted until the cows came home, we got so bad we had to have guards hold us back for 30 seconds before posting again, we posted to 900 replies in one single thread of pure SPAM, thread was "locked" (first "locked" thread I had ever seen until then). We, though, by then, had gotten the excitement of the new Forum out of our systems, so slowly began to calm down LOL.
Then it was great, the Forum was rocking, new Members arriving, everything was thriving, then....CRASH. No Ironworks for a month. Some of us had rafts and drifted to Stealthy's Site Spam Central, and kept in touch there. Then some of us Stood Up, and Donated for the good of the Ironworks, to bring it back to life, "Ironworks Clerics" if you will
, and then IT RETURNED.
Now so many things have grown and changed here. So MANY new Members, many from Mithril Hall, and most of us "veterans" are still here as well
The thing that is the real kicker, is that we all eventually converged into Messenger services, MSN, AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, whatever.. And I don't know about yall reading this, but I have made many True friends here on the IW's, and to actually be able to Talk to them on MSN, hearing their voice, is just astounding to me. Technology is great, I can actually talk to a friend that I have conversed with for months on IWs, and hear their voice, with a headset (like I have) it is no different than a phone call, yet for FREE! And I can talk to anyone no matter which country, the connection is the same.
Dunno, just I would have never thought a few years ago that I would meet and have friends from all over the world, thanks to a Baldurs Gate II Website (aka, Ironworks)!! Sorry, feeling sentimental tonight I guess.
Thank you Dan, Ironworks is much more than a Game Site
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