Where in the world has Cows been?

[cowsmanaut]

Greetings all. I've been deeply stuffed in my cave avoiding the world. Only coming out for work-related conversations.. mostly due to depression (not just covid related) and being buried in work. For much of covid I was doing my masters degree (all done.. yay!) helping with homeschooling our Daughter, and working two jobs. One teaching which many of you knew already, and the other was working for a game studio. Working on Old World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T20a_4yvJLQ

Working on so many things made me feel like I was still actively social while in reality, I was avoiding just about everything that wasn't an obligation. Most of the time assuming people just tolerated me, which made work and school conversations easier because I knew they had to talk to me so I wouldn't dread the silence between statement and response.

I'm trying to crawl out of the cave now that I'm only doing the one job and have more free time and extend myself socially. So I may post here from time to time.. not sure how big a leap I'll take. I've tried reaching out to one or two friends on Facebook too. Baby steps Not sure how many of you "Old guard" are still frequenting this place.. but hello again. I think I showed up once or twice here in the past 3+ years.. Which honestly is more than I talked to people I considered close friends in the last 3-4 years.. that's social anxiety for you..

[Ameena]

Hey, Moo Man . Yeah, some of us are still here. There's a Discord too now, if you weren't aware (if you use Discord). Can't believe next year I'll have been a member here for twenty years! :O

[ChristopheF]

Hey cows, welcome back!

[cowsmanaut]

Discord, yes I used it for one of my main software called "gaea" and I've used it for and UE4/5 VFX group. However, the VFX one is so active with so many people I wonder if I might just leave.. a few messages a day, sure, 80.. too much.

Twenty years.. yeah.. I think I hit the DM community around 1999 right when I was in school for 3D. Did some stuff for DM3 project which died out, but followed up with RTC and then DMJava. Found the community board which was later absorbed into this forum. So yeah.. has it been 20 years this forum has existed? wow..

Hi Christophe! Glad to see you're keeping the board alive

[Ameena]

Eighty messages a day is "too much"? Ouch, one of the Discords I'm in has a channel that can easily do a couple of hundred messages in an hour or two when it's really busy . Not that I really bother to read that channel anyway - too busy .
The DM Discord server very rarely has any messages or activity at all but sometimes there's some conversation. It was started by forum member ParuNexus from around these parts. Here's a link if you want to check it out - https://discord.gg/2T8CSCR

[cowsmanaut]

yeah, I went from speaking to almost no one to getting into discord and getting back into a space where I'm reading and responding to messages. So, small numbers are less intimidating I think .. 10-20 a day.. more my speed

I appreciate the fact that this forum is still getting new members so many years later. I personally recall finding the first forum amazing, considering how old DM already was at the time (ian's message board). So I can't imagine what it's like for those whos brain just recently, and quite randomly, though.. "hey rememeber that old late 80's game?" .. it's 35 years old. I mean.. it's not Pong old.. but still ancient by many standards

[alandale]

Hello! I still browse through here occasionally, maybe once every few months. I rarely post anything, but then I've never really done much of that.

Lately I've been learning Unity and Unreal and slowly creating a game. It's going to take me a few years though. Work and kids take up most of my time these days.

[Saumun]

So I can't imagine what it's like for those whos brain just recently, and quite randomly, though.. "hey rememeber that old late 80's game?" .. it's 35 years old. I mean.. it's not Pong old.. but still ancient by many standards

Though it wasn’t recently (it was thirteen years ago), that’s exactly how I found the forum back in 2009.
I was thinking about old games and thought about what a great game DM was, had a sniff around, and found the forum.

[cowsmanaut]

AlanDale! yeah I started using unity a few years back and Old World was all in Unity so I've done a shipped game in it. However, Unreal is my favorite. It's what I teach the students these days and have been doing so for the past several years as part of their training. Feel free to drop me an email if you want some help... I'll PM you.

Saumun, we still see people wander in from time to time.. I've had students who weren't even born when it was made see the repaints on my artstation and say "Hey! I think I know that game" and they do.. parents let them play it on their computer many years later.. likely one of these clones

It's amazing the life it has..

[Zyx]

Hello, just to say I still check silently from time to time what's going on here.

[cowsmanaut]

Ahh.. all of us lurkers..

[Ameena]

I still check in every day too .

[cowsmanaut]

I tend to forget for extended periods of time.. then log back in and respond when I remember. Though occasionally, when I make the effort to remember, I check in once a day at least.. if I know there might be some kind of response or comment. (and I have the time to do so.. which is usually between tasks.. lots of dorctors appts and projects.. school related content too... sigh)