The good ol' days

[[GR]Left4Ana]

Hey everyone, Ana here! Hope everyone is still alive and well!

Don't know how much you guys remember me (or if any of you even do), but I remember this community very fondly.
I was thinking a couple of days ago about Area51 and how much it positively impacted my life and I wanted to leave a final message here. I'll try to make it short and sweet.
I was only around 11/12 years old when I started playing HL2:DM, so it's been almost 10 years (crazy, right?) and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone that made that place so special to me. I can assure you that through Area51 I learned how to make friends online, which I thought wasn't a real thing until that point. I spent so many hours there, especially after school, not caring for a single thing in the world, sometimes even talking more to my online friends than to my real life friends (I remember I would even at times spend holidays with you guys.) The fact that these servers are still on my mind means something, right?
Anyway, I want to further apologize if I've ever been mean to somebody (I was 12, I barely think now, I can't imagine how it was back then), but I also want to thank everyone who has taken good care of me and made me feel like normal person. I can't really remember any names sadly, except for, of course, Ant and Nick who were amazing admins and who I have a lot of respect for, especially for giving a 12 year old girl a chance to be an admin on a popular server.
As for me, I'm living a really good life right now. Sadly, I don't have much time for online gaming, or any gaming for that matter, but I will never forget the community that I practically grew up with.
Finally, thank you again Area51 for being there when I felt the shittiest to cheer me up, but also for keeping up with my bullshit <3 (I'm so so so so sorry for everyone that I tormented.)

Best regards,
Left4Ana

[ant_8490]

There have been a bunch of topics like this, and it is amazing to see how much these servers and this community meant to so many people. At HL2DM's peak, it was so much fun to join either the deathrun or cheat server and hang out with all the regular players, admins, and constant new players joining. I've played other games since with various friends on steam, but it definitely has not had the same large community feel that HL2DM had.

Anyway, I am glad you are doing well and hopefully everyone else from this community is also. I plan on keeping everything online as long as possible for those who still check in from time to time. Hopefully, we can have an event this holiday season at the end of the year.

[commander fury]

I remember you, Ana. We were the same age I think. Glad to hear you're alright, I wish you the best.
If you happen to be free at the end of this month we may have a special reunion on the deathrun server!

[speedvoltage]

Hellooooo!!!!!

[Ryan]

What a nice read.
A51 was a big developer for a lot of young'uns, myself included. Most of us are not the same people we used to be, but I like to think I'm better off for my experiences here. I'm still Steam friends with a few of the old SA's: Ant, Nick, Nico, Jack, Seba & Rusty - real shame we're not really playing the same games anymore though. Much thanks to both Ant & Nick for their patience with all of us, and for continuing to keep their servers and forums online.

[Brotherhood Of Nod]

It's been a long time. Would happily play on the build server since Garry's Mod was off the table for the time (no money on me and parents didn't trust Steam), although sometimes experienced toxic players now and then it was a good way to kill time and build. I was thinking about getting into scripting itself, just never got into it as much.

I still have about 3 quarters of the server on my friends still, including all those except Nico that Ryan mentioned. I don't know much about the S&D group, other than being scripters. They were the good ol' days for everything gaming.

Those days, school was absolute hell. Really the only way for me to distance from all that was the server, along with a few other games. Now that a lot of time has passed, it's sad that we aren't as active as we used to be but still have activity now and then from old to new players. Thanks for the good times, y'all.

[Snoap]

HL2DM was really a special game, and it's a shame that games have shifted greatly away from everything that made them so enjoyable. My greatest thanks to Nick, Ant, and everyone who played over the years. I hope and wish that you are doing well in life.

[[GR]Manlord TD]

We have a groupchat for reunion planning guys, add me on Steam add I'll drop you chads in https://steamcommunity.com/id/richmanlord/

[Dr.Killer]

hope you are all doing well