In my early years in high school, I had a weekend and summer job that required me to stand for 8+ hours a day. One day I got home from work in hope of taking off my shoes and relaxing. Of course, it didn’t go the way I hoped…
My brother was playing a military game on my computer. He shared news about this gamer named SPARTANS on Mplayer. Of course, since he was using my computer he wanted me to play the game. I replied, “I am not interested in a game right now, I’m exhausted”. Being my younger brother, he continued to pester me, claiming he knew I would love it.
Finally after his persistence I sat down and asked him how to play. After showing me some of the basic methods on how to build a base in a single player game, he said, “Okay, now go play SPARTANS!” I said, “what?? I don’t even know what I am doing here and I don’t know that person either.”
I get into the game on Mplayer and my hands were shaking. I didn’t know what this guy was going to do, let alone how fast I could set up my base to defend it. I later found out that SPARTANS had a hard attitude to the guys but he was actually kind to me from day one. Even if he beat me in the first 2 minutes in the game, he asked for another game and told me he would teach me. SPARTANS was the first guy I met on Mplayer, and I’ll always appreciate his efforts in making me a better player.
The Command & Conquer Mplayer lobby that year was booming with C&C players. Everyone knew me as California Girl. All I had to do is say in the C&C Lobby, “Who wants to play a C&C game” and I would end up with just about 7-15 people available to play. I often would look for nicknames I was familiar with so I made a website with friends I had on Mplayer (CaliGirl Game News, now CaliGirl.net). It helped me remember who I played, where they were located, and their skill set.
One guy I recall who used to be uptight in the lobby, DkKnight. We had a fairly heated argument the first time we met because he paged me (Mplayer had instant private messages called “page” insertname) with some comments about a game I played him weeks ago. I told him I wasn’t the same person. We sorted out the problem and have been good friends with many fun C&C memories ever since.
Screenshot from another C&C Franchise
It was difficult to learn the game, but with the help of Spartans, Lovemaker, Davskee, Dkknight and Toshi I became a better C&C player. Lovemaker took the most of his time to teach me and wouldn’t stop teaching me the same technique until I got it right. Davskee is the one that polished my tactics in GDI. But Spartans was the one that taught me to have NO MERCY and to play NO HT, NO MEGA BUCKS or “Cali won’t play the games”.
Even after months playing the game I spent night after night staying up until 2am-5am just playing it At times I would only get 2-4 hours of sleep because I wouldn’t stop. People started to ask me if I was partying all night.
I have so many other memories, but for now, at least you get a glimpse of my first month playing the game.