Hey, Rebecca & DE, remember 2014?

[Ced23Ric]

Oh boy.

8th of February 2014 was my last post here. After joining this venture when it was all just a mishmash of cleaned up assets from a declared DOA pitch, with a handful frames and just the Corpus Ship tileset (at 50% of the current tiles), I was here, user ID #1366. There were a few others, DE, and that was it. Closed Beta. Things were tiny and the game looked odd, but the very taste of potential kept me invested. From those humble beginnings, we grew - as a community, too. Rebecca asked me to become Warframe's first Community Moderator. Spearheaded the German translation team - I still have the badge ingame, too. Also joined a clan that went down in history and infamy as number one in all events they competed in. I remember visiting DE at their HQ and hanging out for half a day with Rebecca and other DE folks.

But times changed, and my mood grew sour. We fought, we *@##$ed, and the sparkly-eyed grass-roots player that was me had become a snide bittervet. Resigned my post as moderator. Ceased my work on the German translation team, too. I still have a warning point from that time when I went up against [DE]Megan and Letter13. Hasn't auto-expired, and I kinda like it there, to be fair. Not because I earned it, but because it's a reminder of what went down. Like a scar, if you want to be dramatic.

So, why tell you all this?

2014, when I left, I was MR15 and had played through the game twice over, done it all, broken records on Defense missions, and the only thing left in the game were the people I played with. But our toxicity boiled and brewed, and when things went down that are best left to the shroud of time, that all burst out and splashed over the rim of the barrel. I left. Many of "us" left. Our clan broke down. Well, not all of it - several stayed and kept the flag waving, albeit with mixed results. I for one moved on. At 1500h played, I was done. Zephyr had just come out and I hadn't even built her. Whatever.

We parted on solid, if somewhat tense terms, Reb.

Quote

Sad to see you go from the team, has been an honor sir Ced.
We shall continue to traverse the path of reading, writing, and attempting to fix things in times of need.
See you on the other side.

And I was gone shortly after.

...

Then November 2018 came.

Until a friend of mine poked me about this game, Warframe, they're playing. Rolling my eyes I moaned and *@##$ed, and... didn't clamp shut. Instead, I listened after my opening tirade. Fast forward a few days, and I reinstalled the client for the first time in 4.5 years - other games rise and fall twice over in that time, soon to be forgotten, but Warframe was still going strong. I logged back in to see my old loadout ready, in the last colors I had given it - nostalgia. Rhino, Soma, Twin Gremlins, all forma'd to Hek and back. Trusty Carrier floating over the shoulder, too, sporting Grineer Loyalty marks on each shoulder. Millions of Nanospores.

But many things had changed, too. I had an Orbiter now. There were quests now. The menu look spiffy - and much like a proposal we had filed in 2014. Systems we had lamented had changed for the better. Man, look at all these shiny things. I didn't know anything about anything, and I was a bundle of old, bad habits. Rhino-main, the ground-based life form. My world had been Zoren-coptering, none of this silly bullet-jumping. My world had been Stamina-limited Parcours, not the seamless, endless motion system that was in place now. Time to learn how to walk again.

Alright, alright, that's how that works. Okay, all my guns are modded like I like to poke my nose with screwdrivers. Alright, melee has stances now. Mhmm, mhmm, you can get this from alerts and/or regular activities now? What are fissure? Sanctuary? Who is the Cephalon Ordis, and why does he keep memeing on me? I was a blue-eyed, naive child in a land of absolute wonder again. Everything felt so chaotic and fresh, so wild, so diverse and alive. All these tilesets, these frames, these missions and places to visit. The plethora of information alone. The wiki! Open drop rates, transparency, all this information - wow! Sure, it's out of game, but damn. That is such a wellspring of information. Within moments, I had things researched that had taken hours before.

Color me impressed. 

Now, April 2019, roughly five months after my return, I am back at MR27, with multiple Umbral-builds, all frames, all guns, modular gear, archwings, bla bla bla, the whole lot. Played Arby's, all the quests, events since, and I am back at a level of understanding and engine competency I had when I left. Only 1.2 million points of Mastery more, with my armory quadrupled in size. Now, I am following the DevStreams again. A sensible chuckle followed the drama around the chat mods, more snickering followed the Riven Mafia reveal, and I realized: That was me four years ago. That level of bitterness, of adversity to the pretty things, while focusing on the negative. Now I'm a little bit more grown up, a little bit more relaxed. I can analyze and look at things in a vacuum, without being so emotionally invested.

We all make mistakes, right?

I was wrong when I *@##$ed at the top of my lungs and joined the hordes of doomsayers. You were right to stay the course. I was too impatient, and you were too small to cater to the growing restlessness of your veterans. But you are more mature now, too, DE. I heard you, I read you, when you talked about power creep. When you talked about your NPE being S#&$ because you chase the veteran. Your decisions to monetize unfavorably to keep players invested over the quick cashgrab. You've made strides in general character, in sincere dialog. I was at the front of calling you out on it, how you didn't talk with us, but just over us. And I am glad that changed. I am glad that you admit your mistakes and that you are so rapid about fixing them. About compensations, about pushing changes even if a vocal minority complains, and about not being afraid to do crazy things.

Like Auras adding capacity. What a change that was back in the day, eh? Or like abolishing Stamina, and reworking Parcours, so the loss of Zoren-'coptering became much less felt.

So, in closing...

... we had some rough history. But I am glad I still have this account with the ID #1366, and I am glad you kept my data for 4.5 years without deleting any of it. It felt good to come back. It feels good to look at your streams with rekindled hope and curiosity. I got my warning point because I chirped how I was beyond caring, beyond giving a carp, and dismissing your efforts as pitiful morsels, decrying any new addition as too little, too late. Turns out, that person from 4.5 years ago would be hard-pressed to support their position now. I kinda used my fame back in the day to rabblerouse, and looking back, and after holding moderator positions in other places since, I realized what a thorn in the side I must've been. 

You know I've never been one to blindly praise of enter drone-mode. DE did wrong, and I stand by much of what I called you out on when it was valid. Now? Now you addressed almost all of it. You're on top of your game - literally, figuratively. There's no one to rouse for me anymore, nor do I have that pull anymore. But I'm alright with being a faceless nobody nowadays. Sometimes, people comment on my CBT tag on the profile, or my MR27, or I get messages on where to get Excalibro Prime. That's about it. People forgot about me, and there are so many millions that have joined long after I left, they never knew me.

You've grown up. And you grew up nicely. But by your own admission - and that alone is a change for the better - you are far from perfect or done. And that shows me that it was me who didn't have the breath and stamina to stick around for those years I wasn't. I'm back now, and I feel like I chose a good time to return. It's a golden age in Warframe now, and I cannot wait to see Gas City 2.0, The New War and more.

Also, Wisp's butt, but you know everyone's waiting for that one. Adoring your role as the beacon of morale in those streams, it's well executed.

Kind regards,
Ced,
- ex community moderator
- ex translator

[(XBOX)Skippy575]

Welcome back, Tenno!

[EDM774]

What a rollercoaster of a story. A slow clap of appreciation and a tear shed from me. Great story and welcome back tenno!

Edited April 19, 2019 by EDM774

[Kerthis]

Welcome back 🙂

[Kylo.]

Good Story, wise words, welcome back.

[Extroah]

Welcome back 😄

[(NSW)Fiftycentis]

Welcome back, it's was a really good reading

[oscilloscopa]

What a story, you sir have not only gotten the great ability of reflecting yourself and whats around you but also great writing skills.

Welcome back.

[(PSN)I_I_Hope_I_I]

Welcome back 

But in all honesty, maybe leaving for this 4.5 years was actually what made you a better player and enjoy more the Warframe of now. A good % of Vets and Founder who have been playing for 3+ years till now are a bit like you stated you were 4.5 years ago before your brake, I think maybe this 4.5 year brake was what made you more passive to the game, you basically came back to Warframe as a new-born, whit tons of systems changed and reworked (whit lots more to come) and because of this you regain your spark for this hidden gem, but, if you had stayed, maybe this many amounts of changes wouldn't feel so big, because you would have experienced them 1 by 1 at launch, but by experiencing them all together and not at their launch 1 by 1, you were open to basically a completely different game, whit many problems still like the problem whit some Mods, GotLs (which will end if you haven't heard), and the so called Riven Mafia (Which I dont have much knowledge about since its not my type of topic), but problems that might be solved eventually, obviously there will always be drama like Excal P, Cross-Play, Delays, Content Drought and such, but this might be things that DE will eventually take care of the more the game grows, so I welcome you back and wish you a great stay, enjoy the game and watch it change, welcome to the community.

[Sergent-Qc]

Well said mate, well said ... Here you are at home.

[NoLazyShadow]

Welcome back. I hope you're ready for frustration and inner pain, because we have that one enemy that will drove you mad - The Wolf of Saturn Six, frames that need rework ASAP but everyone igone them(Valkyr) and many more problems. Still, the game is evolving(unlike my pc)

[[DE]Rebecca]

Welcome back, Ced.Welcome back. 

[Ced23Ric]

3 minutes ago, [DE]Rebecca said:

Welcome back, Ced.Welcome back. 

Your Twatter banner still summarizes my sentiments better than my wall of text, and I envy you for the beauty of its simplicity.
 

20 minutes ago, oscilloscopa said:

What a story, you sir have not only gotten the great ability of reflecting yourself and whats around you but also great writing skills.

I sure hope so, Steve and I talked about writing for Warframe way back when. Before all the (spoiler) of The War Within became a story, I even wrote some lore-tastic fanfiction myself. It's horribly outdated and out of sync with the game as a whole now, but... it's still there. "The Dust Settled" - Archived, of course. 

20 minutes ago, (PS4)Cephalon_Hope said:

Welcome back [...]

Oh, yeah, I kept tabs on events. It's sometimes neat and nice to be silent and watch. Listen to the shouting, see who cries along. I've done some research into several of the events, too, and rest assured, I know where not to tread and what not to poke. Back when I was still under DE banner, I wrote weekly reports on what the community wanted/talked about. :)

10 minutes ago, NoLazyShadow said:

Welcome back. I hope you're ready for frustration and inner pain, because we have that one enemy that will drove you mad - The Wolf of Saturn Six, frames that need rework ASAP but everyone igone them(Valkyr) and many more problems. Still, the game is evolving(unlike my pc)

Oh, I downed the wolfie three times now, and thanked him heartily for the three Fever Strikes, aka 30 Endo he gave me after slurping up all my ammo. What a Chad. As for ASAP: Eh. Everything in this game's development is a matter of priorities and resource management. Valkyr may not be exciting or meta-crowning at the moment, but she is in a better place than Voobin or Literally Whokong.

Edited April 18, 2019 by Ced23Ric

[(XBOX)Jouna1]

15 minutes ago, [DE]Rebecca said:

Welcome back, Ced.Welcome back. 

This right here is one of many reasons why I love Warframe!

[Palutenia]

Welcome back. Good to see veteran players coming back. Hope you will enjoy your time here.

[LascarCapable]

Hey man. Nice to see you back.

[skyfiredraco]

See... little things like this...

This is the sort of thing that people talk about when they talk about the WF community vs. so many other games.

The story. The rollercoaster. And then the simple response.

I'm barely a WF baby by some standards (600 hours on PC at MR19 and just fired up my ps4 account again... up to 60 hours at MR8 lmao) but i will always sing the praises of how the community of this game operates.

The newbie experience may be downright arcane... but i've never seen a group (as a whole) more willing (even eager) to take new players under their wings.

Many vets get disillusioned... but many others almost seem... content... and eager to see what DE is going to try next.

And then you have DE... actual game Devs and team leaders... who do everything from livestreams to forum posts regularly. Just to stay connected.

The game is better for it. The genre is better for it. The MEDIUM is better for it.

So yea... welcome back Sir Ced. I didn't know you, but with a story like that i'm glad you found your way back to the starchart 🙂

[0_The_F00l]

Wait... You are a Rhino main? Lame

 

 

 

Kidding he is still good... Enough.

[Ragingwasabi]

2 hours ago, Ced23Ric said:

 

damn that was a good story, sht had me invested

Edited April 18, 2019 by Ragingwasabi

[Cleesus]

Nice to see you back, it’s been a long time

[PhoenixFury]

I went in expecting a complaint thread, and I got a heartwarming story.

*claps* Well done, OP.  Welcome back.

[Kracken]

Let the demons of the past stay in the past. Welcome back Tenno.

[Sziklamester]

Welcome back tenno. Good to know that you came back long time ago I saw you in work on the forums and in chat aswell but I personally not know you. What is enough to know you are a founder, old time member like me and you skipped a large part of tediousness a while. Now time to get back to the grind. Tenno.

[Drasiel]

ah Ced23Ric you have not lost your flair for writing up a threadnaught. Glad to see you back.

[(XBOX)KiryuStark]

I am only mr8 with 127 hours in the game but this universe has me totally invested and I hope it never goes away. Reading this and realizing that not only do you have no fear of being dramatic (but even moreso that you dont have too) is inspiring. Everywhere I see people unable to have fun with things. It's like we can go watch movies that some other human made up in their head but when we write our own stories or get invested in a game like this we are seen as weirdos.

In some ways I identify with your story, but I never got into the game when it was first floating around. I tried it when it came to ps4 but wasnt too interested. It didnt have enough bang at the beginning to convince me it was anything more than another pay to win money pit. That all changed when I saw mesa prime. I didnt even know what game she was from but I knew I wanted to play it. Now, maybe 2 months in, I cant imagine a world without warframe. I'm actually glad I waited because now there is years of content I can soak up. Warframe is like the Smallville of video games. You pick it up on season 7 and man, you got a wild ride ahead.