It didn’t feel right leaving without a proper exit interview. So for those who are interested in reading, I thought it would be cool to do this proper and give you guys some shout outs as well as a little gaming history.

Before going any further, I want to thank the lfire and railwarz community. You guys are awesome, and a super huge shout out to Worm.

My History

My Uncle introduced me to computer gaming when I was pretty young. I can still remember playing Leisure Suit Larry on his PC when I visited him in Nashville. Then came games like Wolfenstein and Doom. My brother and I would visit him frequently when he moved to our area in New Orleans, just so we could stay up late and play on his PC. A couple of you may already know this, but he is the bastard that got me hooked on using mouse1 for +forward and mouse2 for +attack. Insane I know, but I still use that configuration to this day.

The time came when my parents bought us our own PC and we were beyond addicted. I started out playing Quake2 on Heat.net. This was the prime gaming time of my life. Heat.net may have had some bugs, but man was the setup perfect for what you wanted in a Quake2 gaming community. Sign in to the Quake2 CTF lobby and you are presented with a large screen full of different user created “rooms” (servers), the right panel was a massive list of the people in the lobby, and the bottom was a chat bar. The user list to the right would be filled with various player names and clan tags, BBH, HA, CD, KOR just to name a few. Want to practice with your clan? Create a new room labeled “HA Practice” and lock it whenever your members have arrived. Want to challenge another clan to a scrim? Simply call them out in the lobby and create a new room labeled “HA vs CD”. (loved this matchup). There was truly nothing better. There were no voice apps or social media. Each player was defined by the mystique of his name and the way he presented himself/herself to others. I was HAxDocJosh for a very long time and consider HA the true clan I belong to. A big thanks to Inky45, BiGGa, WiGGa and the rest of the guys for all the good times.

Heat.net shut down after a few years and we migrated to MPlayer which was never the same. Gamespy was then my home. It did not have the community feel of Heat.net but we sure as hell played a lot of games. I began playing a lot of ra2 and moved on to a ton of ra3 with the ]isa[ clan with members like Arjabad, Haro and Fecker/IFailedEbonics. It was a really talented group of guys who were always having a good time.

Then I was off to college where my PC gaming days were done for the time being. I moved back home around 2010 and decided to load up Quake2 on my mac just to check it out for old times sake. The community still seemed quite active. I was able to hop on and find games pretty regularly. I was playing a good bit on the acme servers, but was not a part of the community in any way. I may have also gone by a different alias. I continued to churn out frags and then it was time to get married. I moved in with my in laws while my house was being built and put aside my gaming once again.

Fast forward to 2012 and I am married and in my new house. One night I am smoking the reef (shouts to reefer) and I decide to see about playing some Quake once again. There you guys are, running around maps, shooting and talking shit like nothing changed. Hooked again. I’ve been playing with you guys since and like to think of myself as a part of the community as well as a friend to a number of you. We’ve had some really great nights of gaming for hours on end. I hope to have left somewhat of a mark on this game in a positive way, and want to thank you guys for the great times.

Here’s my attempt at shouting out the most recent members of the ACME community that I’ve shared some time with:

Reefer – good friend, great laughs. Thanks for the stories! Those late nights were always a blast.

Bluefish – super kind, great friend. When I think of the good times we had together I think of late nights with you, reefer, greenz and angry (when he’s not angry).

greenz – my bro! I could always tell when you smoked one too many and would take advantage.

Angry – Same as the crew above. Also, somehow we always seemed to fall into some random 1v1’s. They were always good games.

Alp – I think you were one of the first people to bring me in whenever i started playing again. Thanks for being welcoming. Solid rail, when you’re not -beer5.

worm & greider – can’t thank you guys enough for everything. You’ve been great hosts.

beaver – super q2 and rwz marketing animal. Thanks for bringing people back.

cleaner – I think you could tell me my mother was murdered and I’d still laugh.

yoda – my offense buddy.

h0ps – super talent. made me realize when I was starting to play lazy. I remember many times watching you and stan play a 1v1 on caco and then hopping onto ra2.

KiD – great rwz talent. Felt good having you on my side.

zerocool – super nice guy

housefly – you are my bud even though I still think you are a robot with no emotions

smfj – lil paps checking in. I was there when you won that 1v1 on caco.

target – You were another that welcomed me back into the community. Thanks for setting up the PUG matches. They lasted a while and were a blast.

retrer – ret you deserve some kudos you stuck around even when you weren’t picked and you were always down to play without bitching.

fors – We didn’t play together too much but for the longest time I got you and
yoda’s voices confused.

bones – BAWNS, always cool to chat in vent and you were there for those pugs willing to help out wherever, thanks.

godspeed – What’s railwarz without the Godspeed persona and hooking?

bacacho / berraco – wtf? Still to this day I get confused between you two. Cool guy(s).

superb – New Orleans bud and clanmate, thanks for the good games and skins

patriot – Another great talent. Always had fun playing with you, ggz.

rust – ggz, we played a lot of pugs together.

underlord – no ego, nice dude, always told me hey.

Like I said on shoutbox, you can find me on steam or battle.net as DocJosh. Cheers guys.

originally posted on AcmeCTF forum: http://www.acmectf.com/forum/index.php/topic,4577.0.html

UPDATE – DocJosh has been streaming Quake Champions on his youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnmjXr9cov5lJuL9dHCvkvg

what up docta!