The Virtual Gang That Felt Like Home
Grand Theft Auto has been a part of my life in multiple ways. There were the games, of course. I borrowed the second installment of the series from a neighborhood friend, feeling very tough as a 12-ish-year-old playing adult-rated video games. Nothing more exciting than secretly doing things you're not allowed to do, obviously.
A few years later, more fun was had playing Vice City in the attic of another friend, taking turns playing five taxi missions each until we reached the achievement of fifty successful client deliveries. A proper way to spend rainy Saturday afternoons, if you’d ask me.
But the fondest memories go back to San Andreas. Not only because Rockstar delivered another masterpiece, but mostly because around then I got introduced to the biggest Dutch GTA-related forum. For the first time in my life, I met a group of people online who cared about exactly the same things as I did: playing video games, being especially interested in the GTA series, and helping others on their journeys through its storylines. At some point, I lost count of how many times I helped people who got stuck on a mission and came to “our” little community forum asking for help.
For quite some time, the GTA forum was the one thing on my mind throughout the day. I longed to get back to its online world while in class, on commutes, while at sports or during outside football sessions with friends. As soon as I got inside and my computer booted up, I fired up the browser to check how many new topics and posts I had missed and who I could assist with their challenges.
This small web community became a big part of my life. It was the place where my online, virtual gang resided. It made me take my first steps writing online for one of the forum's digital magazines. After a while, I even made it to moderator status for the general games section of the forum—something I was (and still am) quite proud of.
Never again has an online community felt like that, no matter how fun my current adventure into blogging and the small, indie web has been so far. It’s nostalgia that speaks here, of course, something that always brings in some extra bonus points. While the world may have evolved into one where such online communities appear less frequently, my time on the GTA forum is something I wish every kid could experience at least once.
If there one experience that I wish for every kid to have and that can spark a lifelong love for the web, it's this one.