A Eulogy for Xenolegacy, a somewhat pretentious ramble
NOTE: Usernames has been changed or altered in order to protect the online identity of specific users.
Unfortunately, the forum Xenolegacy has been inactive for the last week or so. It wasn't supposed to go down until January, but I am guessing, due to the lack of visitors, the death of the forum was pushed forward. It's been on my mind a lot lately, but it wasn't until now that I decided to write something about the forum that helped change my life. With this, I write a memorial, a eulogy for Xenolegacy.
Of course, I haven't been around for XL's (as we call it) entire life span. The forum was founded before 2005 by several amazing Administrators. Of course, the focus of the forum was over the Xenosaga series (comprised of several Playstation 2 games, a spin-off cell phone game, an anime, etc.). It was a place where like-minded fans could get together and discuss every nook and cranny of the games while also developing new friendships. The XL admins also kept everyone informed about upcoming information on the series along with providing imagery, be it fan art or official, for the forum goers to browse. From Xenosaga: The Animation to posting information about Xenosaga's links to Xenogears (spiritual predecessor to Xenosaga), Xenolegacy was a paradise for Xenosaga fans.
I joined roughly in late 2005, when I was around sixteen. I had some experience with forums before joining XL, but nothing as close and personal. I had been on the official message boards for Baten Kaitos and Tales of Symphonia, but I never, say, made any friends there. I would mostly stay in the background and read any updates any other forum members found. I was also briefly on IGN's message boards, but I didn't care much for its atmosphere.
Before I joined Xenolegacy, I mostly kept an eye on their main page, which constantly got updated with new information about recently announced Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra. Sure, I went around and spied on other message boards for the latest news (since mainstream websites like IGN didn't really give a damn about Xenosaga) at such forums as gameFAQs.com. I couldn't really discuss Xensaga in the real world because everyone I knew, from friends to my brother, despised it (mostly because of how I constantly talked about it). One day, out of curiosity, I joined the forum. The community was very kind and helpful when I joined. I still somewhat stayed in the background, but I was rather impressed by the insight people had on the various themes of the series, the connections to Nietzsche's writing, connections to psychology, and religious references scattered throughout the Xenosaga games.
One quiet day, after noticing the button on the bottom of the page for several days, I decided to enter XL's chatbox to destroy my boredom and satisfy my curiosity. The chatbox was a small grayish box that was like a miniature chat room. Several members of the forum were inside it at once, discussing miscellaneous things or even RPing (role playing). My ninja skills of fading into the background proved futile here, as the chatbox announced my arrival as soon as I entered. I had entered while a battle was taking place against the evil and sinister chatbox monster (Note: we often referred to the chatbox as a monster because how often it lagged and kicked people out, or, as we called it, when the chatbox monster ate people). I was quickly enlisted to fight the creature. After this event, I returned to the chatbox frequently, breaking out of my shell slowly. Even with my dial-up connection, I stayed in the chatbox for hours without end during my summer breaks. Through the chatbox I was able to meet a lot of new people and make a lot of new friends as well.
While my personality in the real world stayed mostly the same, I became more outgoing and talkative online, which may have been because of Xenolegacy. I remember the first time I learned various internet and text lingo (such as "lol", "brb", and so on) was through my discussions with my first friend on XL, which I have long lost contact with, unfortunately. And then I came into acquaintance with a crazy group of friends called Yata, Rei, and Haseo (not exactly their real usernames, as we went by various nicknames throughout the years). I always enjoyed the dynamic between the four of us, Yata always teasing Rei in some way while Haseo brought down the iron fist. I also ran into other interesting characters throughout the years on XL, such as The Summoner of Tacos, a random and hilarious individual who constantly spoke of toast and the number 69; Distortion of Reality, a strongly opinionated but overall awesome bad ass person; MattHatter, a quirky individual who is among the most knowledgeable of the Xenosaga universe and funny to boot; ZenoPlay, a very caring person on the board who would always try to keep our spirits up even when she was feeling down herself; Leha, a really kind person who masks herself with a craziness you can't help but love; Yarghedy, a real troll that I summoned to XL from the real world to clear up a petty argument, but, as trolls can do, stretched it out but, nonetheless, made the thread more interesting; and many others that I may have forgotten to mention (sorry!).
Of course, I was not loved all around on XL. Hardly. I think, with opening up more to the cyber world, I began to show more of my jerk-like, idiotic, and overall selfish behaviors. I upset a few individuals, some of which never spoke to me again because of my poorly chosen words. I really do apologize for my horrible behavior, but I can never make it up to them. Also, I didn't always have a level head when entering an argument on XL, leading me to make matters much worse than they were. I'm sorry my true self is such a selfish, idiotic bastard.
XL survived countless waves of spambots, advertising anything from pornography to...well...I can only remember the pornbots. XL survived flame wars galore, from whether or not the relationship between Jr. and MOMO should be classified as pedophilia to whether or not Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseit von Gut und Bose being a bad game is a fact or opinion (gosh, that one was messy!). XL even survived when Xenosaga Episode III's database, which contained every single plot element of the game, was leaked before its release. XL even survived long after the Xenosaga series came to an end in 2006, though our numbers slowly dwindled to a handful a few years later.
From all the things I've learned through Xenolegacy, I will always remember the community. Beyond just talking about Xenosaga, we would also have various contests and events. I really enjoyed the signature contests, even if I wasn't/I'm not the greatest with graphic programs. And the lead up to Xenosaga Episode III's release was made epic by the admins posting a different fan art picture on the main site each day in order to countdown for the game. And just by discussing the series, our hobbies, and whatever came to mind really got me close to the people on the forum, almost like a second family.
However, Xenolegacy is gone now. The main site's xenolegacy.net domain has been taken over by a World of Warcraft group (seriously, type in "xenolegacy.net" and see the atrocity that pops up). Most of its members have either moved on with their lives or moved to the new, but also awesome, Godsibb Xenosaga community. The forum itself, as I mentioned in the beginning, can no longer be accessed. Where ever everyone may be at, I only wish them the best of luck in their endeavors. Thank you for giving me such great memories. Our relationships may not be as strong as they used to be, which I blame myself for not trying to keep in touch, but I will always remember you guys for the fun times. And though XL is gone, our bonds will never die.
RIP Xenolegacy
2005-2010