Sad days for all

Reading the comments on Twitter over the last few days,although not entirely unexpected, has left me with an incredible amount of sadness. And not an insufficient amount of contempt for some people. What we have all held dear since the moment we signed up to OldnRubbish has slowly been eradicated. I have only been a member of O&R since February 2009, so I can only imagine that the decisions made by some O&R members over the last few days has been even harder than my own decision to leave. In those 16 months I posted as much as anyone on that site. 3500+ posts (not including the posts I deleted while keeping my various sections clean). I loved the place because everyone gamed on there to have a laugh, win a few games and find people who weren't in it to pamper their own KDRs at the expense of less experienced or skilled players

The trouble began in earnest when Modern Warfare 2 came out. Now, don't get me wrong, I am not blaming the breakdown within O&R on MW2. Just hear me out on my own theory. We have a huge COD following on O&R and a lot of those players are fecking good at it. That is great for the game as those players could help the lesser players to learn the game, pick up pointers and the like. The trouble, in my eyes, came from the sheer number of O&R players using the O&R clan tag. When you carry that tag, you will get noticed. When 60-70 players are running with it, it becomes a beacon. I know this from my time in MAG. We have a good group of players on there and I have, on many occasions, heard people compliment our group. "Great, we have O&R with us, these guys are good" and stuff like that. It is fantastic to hear. Not because we are good at the game, but because we are good as a collective. As a result I have had no end of people PM me after a game asking to join my clan. That happens with just a core group of about 16 of us. Multiply that by at least 5 and you get the sort of attraction people see for MW2/O&R

As a result I think a lot of people got attracted to O&R thinking it was an elite gaming clan, rather than a community set up for friendly gaming nights. This, in my opinion, lead to a lot of people signing up and not understanding the absolutely essential, fundamental ethos of O&R. I don't care that these people came in with a KDR of 23-1, that only helps the other O&R players when they go up against The Unwashed. What I do care about is the mentality of someone with a KDR of 23-1. Do they really understand what it is like to be old and rubbish? Save that bullshit for the official forums where you can also go insult someone's mother about how shit she is at giving head when you pick her up drunk from the local bar. That attitude doesn't belong in O&R. Or, if it does, I don't belong in O&R

It brought the whole "death squad" nonsense to the fore. Seriously, how on earth can anyone with the O&R ethics ingrained in their psyche think, even for 0.01875 seconds, that putting the best 6-8 O&R in a team together and ask other old and RUBBISH players to challenge them would help maintain the peace and good natured fun? Then there was the unbelievable instances where people were accusing fellow O&R members of cheating. I have never thought anyone I game with on O&R was a cheat, I have read too many posts from people who berate those who cross the line. To accuse one of your own of doing this to win a "friendly" competition is simply inexcusable. If I had been accused of this, the thread wouldn't have just been locked.....it would have resulted in an instant ban because I would have gone nuts. My integrity is so dear to me, and from what I can see of our members, dear to them. If I hadn't effectively been warned never to post on the MW2 section (sadly I did receive this warning) I would have said something to all those who were accusing/counter accusing because to question the honesty of one of our group means an accusatory finger is pointed at all of us.

After my warnings I lost a lot of the love for the site. Mainly because it was a fellow O&R member who reported me for my views on the game. To see so many other people losing that love is a terrible scene. I wouldn't give a flying fuck if it was the new members leaving under a cloud of disillusionment but unfortunately it is the valued older members who are jumping ship. They see they changes in the site. The newer members still think it is grand because all they compare our place to is the Other Place.

I am not going to miss the site while the site remains in its current rut. I am truly grateful for every single moment I spent gaming with the people on there. I loved every second of being in Dublin getting drunk with them. I loved meet everyone (briefly) at Alton Towers. I got to watch Arsenal a couple of times thanks to one member, got to join another at a Pearl Jam concert. All memories I will cherish. Thankfully most of the people who I game with are on my Twitter account and on my PS3 friends list. I can keep in touch, want to keep in touch. Providing this doesn't change I will still continue to be O&R. In Spirit if nothing else

I really hope the powers-that-be can turn things around at O&R. I won't be returning, and in the grand scheme of things I am a relatively new member so will not be missed as much as someone like Bert, ST6 or Duca/gixa. But there are people out there who will love the PS3 like us, who do not yet know they are oldnrubbish. It would be a terrible shame for those people to not have O&R to discover. I know if I had never found it I would probably have never played any of my games online