How could a mouse game impact my life after more than 9 years? - I'm a weirdo I think

My first online game? How do you really expect me to remember the first online game I played in my large collection?

I do indeed remember it: Geometry Dash.

Nah, actually, Geometry Dash is a very recent game compared to dozens of games I've interacted with before. I think in this contest it will be a pandora's box that made me look back and notice the capacity that games have to generate a gigantic impact in your life.

My childhood was surrounded by video games, but on a not-so-healthy level. I mean, I was a pretty asocial kid, most kids just preferred to run around, come home tired, play a sport, I don't know, I just preferred to sit at a computer and I could spend all day sitting there on the computer distracting myself.

This was obviously not healthy, but hey, I was happy. I don't remember exactly what was the first interaction I had with an online video game, I could say a lot as I remember playing popular Facebook games like Social Empires or Ninja Saga at the time, but I also got to play Club Penguin.

But I certainly remember the game that was most important to me.

^{Transformice.com}

A fking mouse game.

Transformice was a mouse game that was quite simple, you only had to pick up the cheese and return to the burrow with the cheese on top. The only thing that varied in the quality of the players was the speed with which they completed the maps, memorizing them and also doing faster things like the wall jump if I remember correctly (it was a technique that consisted of climbing a wall and there were people who simply did it much faster than others).

My best moments playing online games are undoubtedly the moments when I played Transformice day and night, I always tried to play better and thus "impress" the rest of the players, but, I was just a kid and my skill with the keyboard (and also the precarious PC I used to play) prevented me from advancing.

And this is where I learned about the social factor of video games.

^{Just look at the beautiful Perceval with his favorite L4D2 character.}

I posted the image above because it has a lot to do with what I am about to write.

In Transformice I failed to thrive as a quality player, so it was funny because I started asking for help and becoming a typical player who just went into rooms to "talk". Yes, Transformice was divided into rooms and there was also a public chat for the entire room in general, so people would just come in and NOT have fun playing, they would do it by talking amongst themselves.

This obviously wasn't an easy enough change to assimilate since you don't play something and expect to have fun in any other way than playing it, but slowly my perspective on Transformice was changing and I became someone who only played to try to dress up and talk to others XD.

^{Basically this is what a Transformice room looked like}

After some time I noticed that the store was very limited, the updates were not so frequent and it was a bit more of the same, so I made a decision that has had an impact on my life to this day: I went to pirate servers.

The pirate servers were Transformices with a muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch smaller user base, but it was very easy to get familiar with all the people that came in. Other than that, also most of the items in the store were available and you could customize your mouse however you wanted, I think for my inner child, I tried to reflect myself in the mouse as I really felt I wanted to be :P

Maybe this story sounds like a life of a loser who just acted like a weirdo as a kid, but hey, it's not all that bad. Remember I told you that this decision to join pirate servers impacted my life to this day?

At first glance, you won't understand anything. Much less since the conversation is in Spanish, but, those people you see writing there nowadays are people I met thanks to Transformice. Friendships that I met thanks to the internet and that have been with me for more than 6 years, transcending completely everything that has to do with a simple game and now we even talk about our cats.

What do I mean by this? That thanks to Transformice nowadays I have been able to meet a lot of people that have contributed in some way to my life and I have had friendships that have transcended to things beyond the game and this is for everyone to understand.

Coincidentally I also invited a friend I met thanks to Transformice here at Hive, I guess many of you already know her: @emi.lia. People I've never seen off screen, but who have become unconditional friendships that are comparable and even better than friendships I've had in real life.

^Source

I got nostalgic and started watching videos of names I got to know earlier. It's great to see how time has passed and the way friendships can change and move beyond the game.

As a small reflection I want to say that never think that a game partner is only limited to that, in the world there are incredible people who can play Don't Starve together with you while at the same time they can also play Club Penguin at another time. Partners that can become friends that would last a lifetime together with you.

This is why I love Hive, this reminds me enormously of my childhood and makes me feel part of a new family again.

If HiveGC does not exist 10 years from now, I hope to remember you with as much joy as I am remembering my dearly friends.

Thank you very much for reading all this.