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

[Raijinili]

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

[Raijinili]

I cannot even guess what my life would be like without Riviera, for it was what first led me onto the internet (this site, to be exact, which I am moved to still be able to call my home!)—a medium which was to shape whom I am become today. You could go further and say that Riviera was what gave birth to me; my personality was so dull, my interests so unrefined, and my circle of friends so barely existent, I would hesitate to call myself alive during the first fifteen years of my life—before Riviera!

Playing Riviera made me more proliferate in English, as did my conversations with all you guys here on the site and on IRC. This, in turn, opened the vastness of the anglophone internet to me, confronting me with people from all over the world. Some of them (and some from this very community!) have become my dearest and most trusted friends; others teachers, rivals. I learned so much—about the world, the people in it, and no less myself—from meeting and sharing experiences with them, from being given ideas and inspirations, and from having been taught so many lessons in life, arose what is today me.
None of them I would ever have met were it not for Riviera and LCN: All of my friends and many other people I only really got to know via IRC, a medium which LCN introduced me to.

Without Riviera, I would never have come here, I would never have met the people here, I would never have discovered the internet and its colourful inhabitants and infinity of information. I would not be able to write “I” here and now.

Thank you, Sting, and thank you, LCN; I love you. ♥

EDIT: I just realised that the thing through which I learned of Riviera's existence in the first place—what with it never having been released in Europe—was the Nintendo Official Magazine UK. I got one on a vacation in the Netherlands, in a large book store with many international magazines; finding it to be very interesting, and conductive to improving my English, I subscribed to it, and it features Riviera once in a preview and another time in an import review. It intrigued me somehow, so I imported it.
Thus, I should add: thank you, NOM UK authors! Too bad it has disappeared since, and been replaced by the boring Official Nintendo Magazine.

[Raijinili]

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.

[Raijinili]

Hrmity hrmity hrm...

Definitely probably wouldn't have ever played any other Sting game – I don't think I've heard anything about them except through information channels that opened up to me because of Riviera. My Japanese would not be near as good as it is now. My reverse engineering and coding skills would not be as good – hell, I may never have learned PHP or MySQL, or worked with some of the technologies I did.

I might not have gotten into Fate/Stay Night or the infinitely better Fate/Zero. Probably wouldn't have gotten into Jinrui. Might never have gotten into good stuff like 65dos, GY!BE and more. Would have missed out on great games like Radiata Stories and probably Valkyrie Profile.

Might seem like a stretch, but I probably wouldn't be married right now without LCN.
Speaking of that, I developed great relationships with a lot of really cool people. Many of those relationships I destroyed due to my youth and stubbornness, but I have no real regrets since I grew because of it.

LCN has definitely had a profound impact on my tastes, my relationships, my skills and personality.

[Raijinili]

Without Riviera I would never have downloaded mIRC and join the channel; which would mean I never would have scanned half of the Tome of Lost Souls and drawn KiTN Fanart (which I'm pretty sure there is no section for on the KiTN page).

Never would have simulwatched TTGL or KnK movies on #simulwatch with manlyasfuck Kokuto. Which means I never would have brought Box to #lcn. Never would have learned how to DCC (meaning I never would know how to download anime).

I would never simulplayed ToP with Rhia, Awlarus (which also would never have existed on Google), Sauce, Chef and miscellaneous other people.

I would never have played IRCpoker with Asaph and beat his straight with a straight. Nor would I ever have jong'd with Walrus, Chef and Sauce and 13 orphans.

Draw Sauce's Thing (and Charmander) would never have happened, neither would I play random other games like COSMIC BREAK or 1/2 a game of 100% orange juice. I would never have touhou'd (I think) or listen to touhou music.

Wouldn't be playing Melty with chrishawke, or Sauce, or Asaph (once).

Never would have made fun of Malice for her svencest and strange scanlating shenanigans. Never would have made 5 different banners for the banner contest which ended up being useless anyway.

NEVER EVER would have sung Krakenmas music (which I still have the recording of). Never would have drawn Tentaclaus (which Tsuki made 200% better).

Never would have gone to the 12th of JURAI and met Awlarus with Box and get lost in NYC for a while until we found Rai and Rasler.

Never would have killed the "Rate the signature" and "Rate the Avatar" above you threads. Would never have witnessed Enzd's necro spree. Never have read A Song of Ice and Fire, or listened to some of the music people sometimes remember to post in the "melody of the moment" thread ("dancedancedance" - 65daysofstatic). Never have gotten on IRC drunk apparently.

Never would have watch the Demon Green Mushroom charrenge in SM64.

ALSO I NEVER WOULD HAVE BECOME GOD FOR A LITTLE WHILE (ACCORDING TO RHIA).

[Raijinili]

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

UNLIKELY

[Raijinili]

I might not have gotten into Fate/Stay Night or the infinitely better Fate/Zero.

Oh right, I meant to mention something like this. But it was more about how we watched that one episode of Fate/stay Night together, at the same time, in the same room, on different computers. That was pretty, um, special.

DoubleCaster.

[Raijinili]

The impact Riviera has had on my life is too large for me to actually list everything. To keep it short I never would have met my best friends. "Met" is a strong word to use since I've only talked with everyone online but still. Everyone is awesome and even though some (very few people) did get on my nerves at times, overall I never hated anyone who came in to the chat regularly and the community was and still is nice even with the lower numbers.

Also, man, I never would have gotten the guts to do that thing which I can't say but it lets me play the majority of my video games today. And I probably wouldn't consider trying a Japanese game. Even though Rhia had to help me out a lot with the Japanese YUGBA, it was still an enjoyable experience and I've tackled quite a few unlocalized games, including BU and GU which were hella fun and may never come out here.

There's definitely more but I don't have time right now but basically, thank you Sting and thank you LCN.

[Raijinili]

Where would I be without Riviera? Well, I wouldn't have gone to prison, that's for sure, you jerks.

[Raijinili]

[20:10:19] <Raijinili> okay Riviera made PPA racist
[20:10:27] <Raijinili> you've convinced me

So it goes.