the known and the unkown

I am sure there is much stuff you didn’t know about me. My history in JK2 is longer than you think. Only my 1.04 story isn’t that long.

I play mp since 2003. But it was the normal unpatched version. I cannot really remember the first name I was playing with. It could have been Nermd, which has its origins in another game. However, back all those years, I didn’t know to speak English well. But the German community was huge. So another player, I wish I could remember his name, was helping me when I was bleeding newb. Told me how the game runs. It was quite different from now. A lot more purity and skills, but as well abusing of bugs… But not in the extend of how it is today in 1.04.

So he made a clan and because I was thankful I became his first member. The clan was called HL. Hackerslive. Which sucked, but I didn’t care about the name. As the community was so big, we had in 3 days some members. I can remember two of them. I can’t remember how the name was of the first at the beginning, but he changed it somewhen to Takeshi later on. The other was Nici. My best friend in the game I had at all, I trusted her completely.

There the real history began. So we ran that clan, but we had no own server. So we just met at the many German servers existing at the time. And there was a clan back there, the biggest German-only clan ever existed I guess, with over 40 active members at its best time back then. It was called SoC. Sithlords of Coruscant. Their dead internet site still existed when I joined ATS. It was very big, and I was bad informed. But there were a group in that clan, which liked to lame a lot. Which wasn’t called laming back then, and if it was, I can’t remember. Laming is something I heard first short before I left jk2 for the first time. So there were a bunch of SoC players which were hunting other players. And they were laggers and all so on. Because of those I considered SoC as a bad clan. And as those lamers called a certain -=]SoC[=-Scorpion their leader. I didn’t know that he wasn’t the leader of SoC.

Well, now comes the first lesson I learned… not only in jk2, but for my whole life. (er… long story, why that time was so important for my life… short version: I was an athlete in real life… but I got a heavy illness, so I had to stop. Before, my life was only full of sports, where I didn’t learn anything for life. I was bullied in school, so I didn’t care there anything. So jk2 was my life. Luckily my life changed then xD) Well I had an argue with the leader of HL. A bad one. I was very angry, I said bad things and I finally left. But I took the half of the clan with me. Over all my best friend Nici. The thing is: in a calm minute, the HL leader sent me an email. And I figured out, it was a big misunderstanding. I can’t tell now, what it was exactly, I only know it was a nonsense in the end. I felt very bad and sorry. And I apologized, and we got good friends again.

But I already started my own clan: }>RoJ<{ Revolution of Jedi. I was comfortable with it, so I didn’t came back. But I learned, that decisions I take, while I am affected with a hard feeling, can be wrong, I learned that things can be prevented but not made undone when they already are over. So I learned to solve my conflicts talking before acting. I learned to listen to the positive sides first and then to take the negative in consideration and take my decision after everybody is sure to have everything said, that he felt that he needed to say it. And this helped me for my life.

But the story goes on. So I ran my own clan. Another German one. I made a website. I made an alliance with HL. My clan grew and so on. It was for a long time a winning story. I changed my name to TheForce (and at the beginnings of duels I said: “May I be with you” ^^) HL went trough a revolution as well, new website and new setup, new clan map (a really kewl one). HL was now a name itself. HL wasn’t longer hackerslive, it was only HL. We made a clan fight. One of the one things I can remember like it was yesterday. We fought duels, first to 20. RoJ won 20-15. Then we made FFA to 100, RoJ lost 100-60. Then we made a NF-FFA. HL won 100-95. I guess, though we lost, it was the happiest day I had in jk2 ever. I never had so much fun.

So, but my mind drove me further. I was attracted to SoC. They seemed so powerful to me, and all SoC I knew were pros. And they recruitment system were quite hard. So I visited their server often. Many of them were acting very arrogant. I once went undercover to them. And I tried to get recruited. And they were kind of impressed and said ok. But I denied and I was never sawn again under that name. But I wanted to have my influence then. One day this Scorpion was on. He was very much like Boss. Ticking me off. But another admin came. called ThomasAT. They argued hard. Very hard. Scorpion got kicked. I was kind of confused, so I talked with ThomasAT. And I found out my view on SoC was wrong. They were a quite normal clan. Honor was the key. Not respect, but Honor. It was more self-directed than it is today.

I was just the witness of the division of SoC and its rebirth. Scorpion left SoC and ran his own clan called SaF… constant lamers and laggers. Claiming to be the best players of jk2.
Well as I was the friend of ThomasAT now, and as I always was on their server, I was included into their meetings on rebuilding their clan and helped them as good as I could. I first met the real leader and founder of SoC: LordMaTT. He was over 30 back then xD and he was kewl. We became quite good friends. But he didn’t play that much. So ThomasAT became the administrator of SoC. SoC added an age limit in their clan, so only ppl 16+ could join then. So LordMaTT asked me how old I would be… I said, I’m 12. He was like “no way. Well… for you we would make an exception. You act very mature for your age, and there is no reason to exclude you.” So I became a honorific member of SoC.

One of the proudest days in my jk2 history. I learned that, doesn’t matter how old I am or what the circumstances are, with a good heart and a good mind, you can overcome those who think they are better, only because they are older, longer in practice, higher in rank or whatever. It made me kind of arrogant though, but it taught me that I can defeat anybody, that I can get my way, that I can achieve anything, that facts in the end overcome the prejudices. You only have to be sure and convinced on what you do, and open your mind.
ThomasAT and me, we founded a coalition for clans. It was called IB: Imperialer Bund (=something like Imperial Coalition), and it was a fun time, my clan was in, HL, SoC and few others.

So… these were the brightest days of my jk2 career. Now comes the way down. For a long time I didn’t saw Nici, and I couldn’t reach her. But finally one of my members sent me a screenshot. She joined SaF. I was shocked. That destroyed my childish trust I produced to all my friends. Now I only do trust other ppl as far as I can go, as long as I can make a step back, and distance me from someone. In German language there is a word, that you can “steal horses” with someone, which means that this person is someone you would share anything with, with whom you have an adventurous and perfect friendship. Since then I never had a friend I would steal horses with, though had and have really good friends .

Well. HL shrank. They were slowly leaving jk2 and going over to CSS. They gave HL a new significance: Holy Lamers. This was the first time I heard lamer in my life. I had to look in my e-dictionary xD

Few days later, my CD broke, which wasn’t such a big problem at first, because I had a CD-image, which I used most of time anyway. So I was dumb enough to not make a new copy. But not a week later, as my pc was making a reconfiguration, to get some space again, because it was quite old, there was an electrical power outage. All my data were gone. Completely. I had only an old chip back from before I had jk2.

Another week later, my clan was dead. The members wouldn’t revive it, they just went their ways. Never seen again. I had some chats with ThomasAT and LordMaTT and the HL ppl. But HL finally disappeared to css, and we had nothing to talk about anymore.
IB was dying, no reason to exist anymore.

Slowly I lost jk2 out of my mind. I discovered new hobbies in my life. I had only 2 hobbies to that date: sports… and jk2. I had many stuff to do, which I missed in my life.
My marks in school instantly became better… which finally led me to a 1,2 in my school leaving diploma. 1,0 is best xD. So I could study whatever I wanted.

................................................................

End of school was the time, when I remembered jk2, where I learned many things. I was grabbed by nostalgia. And I finally bought this game somewhere again. Cheap xD so the cd wasn’t completely ok obviously. Some problems with sp game loading and saving. Mp didn’t work. So loaded the newest patch. 1.04

And there I was. It was an overwhelming feeling to see again that bespin. To know that you are playing this game again. I was only kind of shocked how many empty servers there are. I figured out that there were quite a lot changes in gameplay. PP didn’t exist anymore (a fight, where you only push and pull (= PP) and saber, which was getting someone fall down and backstab him, very funny xD) but FF, something I had to learn completely new. And in normal duels, ppl were using blue and yellow styles. Back in 2003/04 blue and yellow were used only by no0bs… bloody no0bs. And obviously it is totally normal now. I see that its ok, but I feel like a no0b using blue or yellow. No-one uses red dfa anymore, red dfa sucks. Back in 1.0 every ONLY dfa’d because you could aim it even after starting the move… so you had always to aim your opponent, and when he came near to you… BOON, the dfa still hit him xD

On my third day, tired of all the empty servers, I joined the ats server. I was stunned from the teles and the new map. And from the emotes. I was overwhelmed with new info. The one who helped me and informed me was someone called ]=ATS=[~GodGrowMore. Showing me how emotes work. Introducing me to ff. That’s why I joined the server more frequently.

Well, a shock for me was, when I found out the existence of scripts. I was constantly kicked by someone from all angles, even when I was fallen down. After a little bit of asking around I found out how popular cheating is. Searching for a server where scripting is prohibited. It lead me back to ]=ATS=[ server.

Well, I sucked at ff… and there was someone offering me help: Ak-47. he is the reason why my gk, is how it is. Something I will always be thankful for.
Some other ppl I got to know, who I had a lot of fun with. Dudeman made me laugh a lot. I had fun with Blackwolf. Both before they were recruits, before I was.
I was considering me as a very good dueller. But someone called skambak pwned me. Skambak is the reason I worked so hard on my normal duels.
And many more players I met changing my way in this game and clan. Guardian luke, ouning in ctf. Bacara became a good friend, I could talk to him and he was often online. Blueninja was the one allowing me to wear the tag.
Well most important was surely kernow. He pushed me to make a questionnaire. He told me how to join, and he was kind of my best friend, my “heyho” friend XD.
Hektor became a good friend of mine, sebbat, Ajunta Pall, Peace, who I met before he recruited, solidsnake and more, who I don’t mention, but who definitely have to be in this list.
But I have to mention vort, who is still ma masta. He taught me pk and st.
And I have to mention nickdeclaw. One of the 2 persons I know who always make a dot at the end of in game messages. And he pwned me. Hard.

................................................................

But as you maybe recognized. This was just one half of the story. If this were all, ats would still be what it was 9 months ago.

I met someone called *Maximus* he was cool, I felt a little strange when he was telling me that my English sucks, I should speak Spanish… but I guess he was joking.
Someone other was Outcast. I knew he was the leader. So I listened to him. And he talked to me. His aims were good. A cheat free server. A calm lamer free server. A insult free server. But I could see from some statements, like “I control nearly all of jk2” that I had to watch him. That’s what I did.
There was another one: Kyle Katarn. I can make it short on this guy: he ticked me off from the first second. His immature, hitty and illogical behaviour was just too distracting.

................................................................

Well, the rest is recent history, and I guess you can read it in the clan history.
I can only give you the flavour of how I experienced it.

I was suspicious from the first day on. I had two deep discussions with kernow about propaganda and tyranny, even before zof was created.
But I was confident to support and help outcast. But I figured out that this wasn’t what he wanted, he wanted blind followers and nodders. Any help, any constructive critic was considered as an attack. Every new thought, which wasn’t from outcast himself, was an attempt to destroy the order of ats.

And according to these things, he was acting. He wasn’t about conflict solving. He was only about ignoring them, or ban everyone who could have his own mind, maybe creating a conflict in any way, may it be a helpful one, or an unhelpful one.
But still I was confident to help and support him as I could. As far as I could I talked with him about bans or other things. Idk if he considered anything I said, but at least he was listening back then. I guess we appreciated each other. But he only saw in me a climbing newcomer. And I feared him.

................................................................

Then came the fateful day as he left jk2. I saw the possibility to make a new start. To lift ats up even further. I appreciated outcast really for what he created, but I knew as long as he was here, he wouldn’t be able to let it be changed in any way. So it was our possibility to even improve the best jk2 clan. Giving it the chance to develop, to give it more freedom, to give it more balance, to give it more comprehension.

Unfortunately Outcast came back. He shut his eyes towards the improvements we were making. He finally only was caring about maintaining his power. I was just as disappointed of him, as he probably was about me.
I had my reasons. And selfishness was none of them. I only wanted the best for the clan. Something I couldn’t find anymore at outcasts place.

................................................................

Yes, my history in ATS may seem short. But my history in jk2 is long. And it’s repeating all over again. Still the result is different. This ends in a triumph, all the possibilities are open, the overwhelming majority of the decisions we took, were good ones. But the part I played in the occurings wouldn’t have been like this, if I didn’t experience what I experienced. If you read this all, you can obviously find out where I had my influence on the happenings, which have its roots in my early jk2 story.

Now we are called SoL. I don’t know if I have to say anything about the last 6 months. As I started writing this text, we still were called ATS. I feel forced to write something as well about these last 6 months, about this clan, which differs from the old ATS, and my role in it. There is enough been said about the transition. What we got then, was an incomparable project: a democratic clan with 30+ members in JK2. I was overwhelmed by the trust I got from there. Only 3 months part of ATS I get forum administrator of a clan, later on called SoL. In time I became even Server administrator and a Council member. I worked a lot. But we created a lot. And that made it worth all the work. We had a lot of constructive discussions, but as well destructive argues. Sometimes one turned into the other. All in all it was a very calm time, in relation to what I know from this game, and now I am curious about the next 6 months, we have things to be proud of, and things we still have to improve.



Thank you for reading.