postal is a TA writer /:^]
Here we go:
Apparently the purpose of this forum is for me to try to be like Abe.
To be like Abe. I抦 going to dwell on that for a few moments. Could I ever be like Abe? Abe, the single greatest writer TA has ever had. Perfect in his delivery, excellent command of the language, and a humorous prose that could leave the most humorless person rolling on the floor in unmanageable laughter. He did this all while using a language that isn抰 his first. Unbelievable really. I suppose when you go through his earlier works on this site you can see his confidence grow, and his style carried more authority as time went on.
In our little corner of the internet, Abe was king.
Abe could grant TA attention at a whim. He could disperse community wide fame at will. If Abe wanted to draw attention to something or someone, he had the ability, and people waited for it.
I don抰 know if many of you know it but it was a while ago when Mentel submitted his first and last game to TADRS, with a little note attached to it. The result was brilliance.
http://www.tadrs.tauniverse.com/index.php?showgame=t&go=all&id=1397 Before this review, no one even knew who Mentel was. Nobody cared that he was quickly learning the game and actually doing well. But after this it got people抯 attention. And when Mentel moved to Supreme Commander and was topping the ladder for a while, everyone was like, 揙h yeah, Mentel, he抯 a TA player.? Even in the most scathing of rebukes, Abe had bestowed his blessing.
So I think that if I try enough, maybe I can be a little like Abe.
So who is Postal anyways?
I started playing TA way back when I was a wee child. I thought the units were cool. I liked the explosions. Then I discovered Boneyards. I managed to play a mere 25 galactic war games or so before the site closed down. I was eating up these competitive games though. They were fun, and exciting. One mind against another.
Back then I wasn抰 Postal though. I had some other name, something lame. Then one day when I was picking a name for Tribes, which I played back then, I settled on the name of Postal Service. Clearly this was a creative name for me. Not only does it serve well as an email address, it also means that I can 揼o Postal?like those crazy postal workers. Good lord, I was creative.
So I went online with my super creative name and played games. Then I discovered that some schmuck who already had a band, had to go name his other band 揚ostal Service,?making it seem like I was just some self-serving fan-boy.
So I vanished into obscurity for about three years when I discovered Pheonix Worx. I started playing there again, and discovered that my old strategy of building two construction vehicles and trying to cover the map with just those two was failing me miserably. I reluctantly downloaded the recorder, and started watching games I lost. I joined FFAx back then, so I could get in on the big games hosted by David and Boldok on Pheonix Worx. That way I could play with the big guys. I had been playing 1v1 for a bit now so I felt like I was adequate.
So it went, until I found himself joining the army and being Shipped off to Korea. So there I sat, playing TA on Pheonixworx with Ozzies, cause we were suddenly in the same time zone.
Then I found myself shipped off to Iraq, where I could do little but watch TA recordings that I had. I gave the rest of my platoon the game, and we played a game, three of them versus me. I killed one by overrunning him with weasels, killed the other by overrunning him with fake commanders, and killed the final one with cans.
So no one really wanted to play me there. Plus we were busy blowing stuff up and getting shot and at and all of that jazz.
So when I returned to the United states in 2005, I went searching again for some Top level TA play. I fancied myself as being one of the better Core players. I discovered I was wrong when I discovered the MSN zone. I sucked hardcore.
So I played lots of 1v1 IGW games with Vapor. Hours upon countless hours. Until Finally I was winning 1v1 games. I was looking at TADRS at that point, and perusing the old games and wanting to have a game to upload that would break me into the TA realm. Get me some attention so people would want me to play in tournaments, and to be on their team and stuff. You know stuff that really matters.
I realized though that I was never going to be able to keep up with the best of them, especially since I stubbornly played Core. So then I devoted time into working on strategies. Weird strategies, things that I thought had never been tried before. And I finally got what I was looking for when I started my undefeated streak on 揟he Pass.?br/>
That抯 right, The pass: the single most boring TA map ever created. Two big hills, two small lands, and a crappy winding canyon between them. I beat all the top players who could be bothered to play that map, my most crowning victory being that I defeated Emac there with a solitary Fink.
So I uploaded a rematch of Diablo vs me there to TADRS, got it reviewed, and felt that I had made my TA history. Even though I eventually lost my undefeated streak on the map, I had changed the way a map was played. Sure the map is boring, but what did I care? I went on trying to find other maps that needed breaking.
So I still sucked at TA. I kept playing though, and now that enough people have quit, suddenly I抦 considered good. They give me my own board, and tell me to write stuff now in a vain attempt to fill the void left by an absent Abe.
I抳e looked back on games in 2006 or so to see if I actually have gotten better. Really everyone has. The game is still changing. This game is over a dozen years old, and its still changing.
So that抯 why I抦 still playing it, when I get the time. Although, I did just injure my back climbing, so I抦 sitting around right now after having taken my muscle relaxers, grinning stupidly as I review what I just wrote.
I抦 jealous, Abe told us what swe was in less than half a page. Then I go blabbering on and on and on?br/>
You know, I guess I抣l never be like Abe.