HOW RIVIERA CHANGED MY LIFE, AND YOURS, AND YOURS, AND YOURS... Options

[Irysa]

IF I HADN'T EVER PLAYED RIVIERA, I'D NEVER HAVE FOUNDED MARI LINKING TO LACRIMACASTLE FOR THE EPILOGUE DISCS AND SOUNDTRACKS AND STUFF.

I'D NEVER HAVE JOINED THE IRC CHANNEL.

I'D NEVER HAVE GOTTEN STURM'D HARD AND GRADUATED FROM TOTAL FUCKING ANNOYING TWATFACE NOOB INTO TOTAL FUCKING ANOYING TWATFACE JERK.

I'D NEVER HAVE GOTTEN INTO ANATHEMA (AND A LOT OF OTHER COOL MUSIC)

I'D NEVER HAVE STARTED NETPLAYING FIGHTING GAMES, STARTING WITH IAMP AND MOVING INTO MELTY BLOOD WHICH TOOK UP A BIG PART OF MY LIFE (ESPECIALLY LATELY, I WON A TOURNAMENT LAST MONTH). AND SUBSEQUENTLY LIKE EVERYTHING EVER

I'D NEVER HAVE GOTTEN INTO VISUAL NOVELS (THANKS MELTY AND F/SN SIMUWATCH)

I'D NEVER HAVE READ BOOKS LIKE A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE

I'D NEVER HAVE FALLEN ASLEEP ON SKYPE PLAYING RISK ON A PAC-MAN MAP WITH SAUCE AND RHIA WITH MY UNBEATABLE CUPCAKE STRATEGY (FUCKING ALASKA HOLY SHIT)

I'D NOT HAVE MY CURRENT NAME FOR EVERYTHING EVER BECAUSE I'D NEVER HAVE SPAZZED ON MY KEYBOARD WHILE LISTENING TO 65DAYSOFSTATIC TO GET MY NAME OUT OF THE FIRST 5 LETTERS.


I'D NEVER HAVE EVENTUALLY MELLOWED OUT INTO THE GUY I AM RIGHT NOW

AT 20 YEARS OLD I CAN SAFELY SAY THAT RIVIERA WAS THE DEFINING GAME OF MY ADOLESCENCE



I LOVE ALL OF YOU, THANKS! AND THANKS TO STING FOR MAKING THIS GAME

[Rhiannon]

Without Riviera I never would have... wait, hold on, back up for a second. Without a Starm I never would have known Riviera existed, much less played it. And I certainly wouldn't have expected the internet to have a community worth going to that wasn't Pokeymanz related (by the way communities that branched from Pokemon communities stole my IRC and goodmusic virginity sorry).

Okay, now Riviera. Without Riviera I never would have gone to Riviera Online and talked about Pokemon with Vixen (exaggeration this didn't really happen, it was more like one post), then took over #Riviera back when we were on AccessIRC. Never would have argued for hours with val about how IT'S A CAT AND RAMSUS IS BETTER THAN EMERALDA. Never would have spent a half hour talking to teru trying to figure out what a fringe is. Never would have started using the word "jerk." Never would have argued enough with Rai to realize how ineffctual being a smug jerk is in making yourself look not-stupid.

I wouldn't be watching Humanity Has Declined. I probably never would have played Yggdra Union or Knights in the Nightmare and it's questionable whether or not I would have still gotten into playing Japan-only games (since YU was my first major experience with that, back when it wasn't English). Consequently probably never would have learned any Japanese beyond HAI, IIE, and SHIKASHI. And I certainly wouldn't have been able to read anything. Rai taught me katakana with Yugioh cards!

I never would have ended up spending hours "fixing" images for the site, which was a horribly tedious process that nobody should ever like but I loved doing it because it made me feel like I was really accomplishing something worthwhile. Everything I do for LCN does that to me and I still sometimes look at parts of the site (especially Riviera sections) and just think "I AM SO PROUD OF THIS" even though the only things I did were the ones anyone could do.

I never would have played through Kitten (all versions), YU (JapanPSP), Riviera (EnglishPSP), GU, or BU speedily multiple times in a row to gather ALLL THE INFORMATION and have those glorious conversations about them with people like Starm, Chef, Walrus, and Enzd. The random YU discussion thread or whatever is still one of my favourite threads on LCN.

Speaking of "JapanPSP" I never would have gotten a PSP, since I got one specifically for YU. So I would have played, um... Valkyrie Profile. That's it.

I never would have argued for a grand total of one week, four days, 23 minutes about various inane things with Asaph. I never would have laughed for hours years ago when the RiviGBA voices went up, or when RiviPSP reminded me that those existed so I listened to them again, and then last night/morning when I... listened to them again. It's that Isher death wail, man.

I never would have met Walrus, which means I would never have gotten into Tales really (only played ToS, ToA, part of ToP, and ToI otherwise, and didn't feel much of an urge to play others), any Sandlot games ever (and they're all awesome), and probably other stuff I can't remember. WHO WOULD I WATCH AOI YUUKI SHOWS WITH IF THERE WAS NO WALRUS. Also, ducks.

I'D NEVER HAVE FALLEN ASLEEP ON SKYPE PLAYING RISK ON A PAC-MAN MAP WITH SAUCE AND RHIA WITH MY UNBEATABLE CUPCAKE STRATEGY (FUCKING ALASKA HOLY SHIT)

ALSO THIS. PLUNK YOURSELF DOWN ON THE CUPCAKE. FIRE RED TAKES LEAF GREEN, METAL GEAR FALLS TO MELTY BLOOD (PROBABLY I DON'T ACTUALLY REMEMBER IF THERE WAS AN MB TERRITORY). They also emailed me telling me they missed me. Clearly this is a sign we should get back and play on Doodle Earth. And since Skype is kind of the subject, I never would have spoken to Chef's sister or heard Dusty sing a song of Krakenmas.

There was probably other stuff but I've already gone into more detail than everyone else and still managed to sound less meaningful, so there you go. THANK YOU RIVIERA.