Between 1999 and 2002 this computer game was my life. It was a MMOTPS (Massive Multiplayer Online Third Person Shooter) It pitted 2 armies against each other with the objective to capture all of the flags for victory. You could travel on foot or in tanks and APC's (Armored Personnel Carriers). Also, there were different classes, Marine, Medic, Sargent (could "summon" people across the map to him), and others. The game looked like this:
I would run home from middle school grab a Coke, load Kazaa and play this game. I had friends online like LeadCatcher, who was a used car salesman in Salt Lake City, and Smackrock who eventually became a mod. I was in a squad and would fight squad battles and be in tournaments. I remember playing this game on Christmas day. Even after opening all my gifts all I wanted to do was play infantry. There are songs that to this day, when I hear them I think of listening to them while playing Infantry. During the summers I would put in like 30 hours a week. I was pretty good and all I wanted in life was to play Infantry.
And then one day the hammer fell. Sony bought the game in 2000 and in 2002 they announced that they were going to start charging like $7 a month to play the game. I would have gladly paid $7 a month, but it was the principal of paying for something I used to get for free that really wound my clock. Also, to a 14 year old $7 was a large chunk of allowance. So I gave it up and stopped playing it cold turkey. Occasionally I would think about it. What it was up to, if it had changed at all. If it was the same without me.
Seasoned changed, and changed again. I grew, as did the MMOTPS genre. Then last week I was browsing the Jupiter's moons in fiction Wikipedia page, when I saw a link to the computer game Infantry. I was like Peter Pevensie walking past the lamp post and knowing it as familiar but not sure why. I clicked and emotions came rushing back. I remembered the good times, and the better times. To my jubilation not only was it still alive it had just been announced that it would be made free again. Like a battered woman returning to the trailer park, I wondered if this was something I really wanted to endure possibly for another 3 years. But I also wondered if it had changed, would I even recognize it after all these years? Fuck It. I downloaded it. Waiting for it to download was like a Junkie waiting for his fix after being clean for 6 years. It was just like it used to be - in fact, nothing seemed to have changed - it was awesome (except that some dickwad had taken my handle Rusty78). Years of memories came back and I realized that I was once again terrible. But it was all the fun that it used to be. I guess the game is outdated now but to me it is timeless and I will rise again.
