So... How did you guys cast TNM?

[Dark Reality]

I see Jonas regularly posts here, and I've seen Trestkon. And I see Master_Kale is a moderator. Are King Kashue, Despot, Scara B. King, Evil Invasion, and all the others members as well, or are their names taken from somewhere else? I'd think the real-life Scara would be quite a character if he's anything like the WC boss.

[Kee715]

They are all users from the Planet Deus Ex forums, hence PDX Forum City, Forum Planet, and Gamespy.

Now I was not active online back when PDX was active, but back in '06 I found the site and looked through the old articles and whatnot, and I have since learned that PDX is (From what I have seen) mostly dead and is just sitting there because Got Ghand (And the old forums topics and whatnot) are worth someone's time.

Now I am horrible at remembering most things that are not (metaphorically) burned into my memory, and I am certain Jonas and Treskton can explain it all for you, but there is the basic answer to your question.

[Dark Reality]

I guess that's why it takes place in 2004 or 2005, and not 2009, then.

I posted on the PDX board a time or two, since I'd had a FilePlanet account, but they're super paranoid about account sharing over there, and tend to delete accounts that aren't active for so many days, or if you access it from more than one computer. It seemed like I found a use for FilePlanet once a year, and each time I'd have to register a new account because the old one wasn't any good anymore. If PDX is no longer active, it's no wonder why. Being told you can no longer access a message board, whether it's because you were banned or your account was purged (which amounts to the same thing - you have to make a new account to post), kind of discourages returning.

[Jonas]

Not everybody from TNM were part of the old PDX community, and by 2004 most of the main characters from TNM had already left the forums.

AFAIK it's also no longer possible to go back through the old PDX archives to read up on the threads that inspired TNM's world (the Llama and Goat threads, Raving's Weapon Shop, Luminous Research, etc.) because GameSpy nuked the archives when they upgraded to the new forum system a few years ago.

To answer the topic: Trestkon just made a thread asking who wanted to be in the mod, and anybody who put their hand up was given a part. Later, we just grabbed people we knew whenever we needed a new character (like Midas or Kevo), or we implemented characters specifically as an homage to a certain person (for example Steve Tack or our four main composers in the Partyzone).

[Dark Reality]

That's sad, man, and I mean it. My wife and I met on a message board that's now closed (the official board for the band Disturbed) and there's so much history, so many memories - inside jokes, for example, we'll tell them for years but eventually forget where they came from, and there's no hard copy, either. At the time, though, my wife moved around a lot, computer to computer, so she actually printed out a lot of IM and forum conversations. She's got this book, it's kinda creepy, because you open it up, and you're looking at a forum - sort of. People talking, a lot of random stuff amidst a conversation that meant something at some point. TNM is like an inside joke for y'all, and, as you say, the history's been nuked, and folks like me can just wonder what you mean by goats and llamas, and only understand it in the context of the game. Funny how stuff like that works. And especially ironic because you'd think plain text would be so simple to back up. One of the forum platforms, I think Invision, has an option to print or archive a topic; the option opens a print-friendly version, and then the software can package it up for you as a Word document, maybe PDF, plain text, etc. But nobody ever uses it; some of the most important stuff doesn't seem important until, well, you know you don't miss something until it's gone.

Or the hour of the day's just inspiring undue poetic license, I dunno...

[chris the cynic]

well, you know you don't miss something until it's gone.

Isn't that kind of self evident to the point of not needing to be said? Though if we are going to say such things, I'd take it a step further: you can't miss something until it's gone.

We didn't miss the archives until they were gone because we were using them right up until the end. Also, there was never any indication there would be an end. Not one fucking thing they said implied that they'd be killing off the archives for the hell of it.

They told us about the "upgrade" well in advance, but conveniently left out various important details.

There were quite a few things I would have backed up had I had known it would be necessary, though I didn't even know about the Goat and Llama threads. Hell, there are quite a few things I would have backed up if I had known that there was even a slim possibility it would be necessary.

[Jonas]

The Internet Archive can't even help because it never stored the threads themselves, but it did store a random selection of forum indexes:

This is the oldest archived page. Notice the Llama mention near the bottom:
http://web.archive.org/web/200107111106 ... p?fid=2285

Luminous's High-Tech Labs thread near the bottom, referenced a couple of times in TNM:
http://web.archive.org/web/200206290357 ... p?fid=2285

That's all the TNM-relevance I've managed to dig out.

[chris the cynic]

By the way, some threads were saved:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www ... =2285&tid=*

That will list every thread saved in the off topic section.

Unless you count the names of people I've not seen anything TNM related.

[chris the cynic]

There are very few threads from the right period. The Lama thread is topic 242886, there are a total of three archived threads that are six digits starting with 2. There are no archived threads that are six digits starting with 1 or 3.

There are two one that are six digits starting with 4 Sol's and the seond page of Goat Templae; Open For Worship And Melk(tm).

On the other hand, Luminous's High-Tech Lab is topic 579518, there are several archived threads that are six digits starting with 5. Check out the first one:
http://web.archive.org/web/200203092001 ... tid=501313

[Added:]Raving's weapon shop pages 16, 18, and 20:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.forump ... tid=534814*

[Added:]TNM, do I get to participate?

Luminous's High-Tech Lab Page 5 Page 6 Page 79

Knowing that appropriate threads would be 6 digits seems to help.

[Jonas]

Hah! Nice detective work. Seeing "Trestkon's Plan" again almost brings a tear to my eye

[Hassat Hunter]

Never really participated on PDX (only 20 posts or so) because I came after the demise. Only thread I made was about Red Greasels, who made an appearance in TNM (yay!), extremely likely unrelated to my thread though...

By that time it looked TNM was dead .

[Jonas]

The red greasels were inspired by Invisible War

[Hassat Hunter]

Way to crush my ego .

They were still awesome though, if not extremely tough.

[Dark Reality]

well, you know you don't miss something until it's gone.

Isn't that kind of self evident to the point of not needing to be said? Though if we are going to say such things, I'd take it a step further: you can't miss something until it's gone.

True, but don't blame me, blame, I don't know, the Hallmark employee who came up with it. Don't or can't, it still rings true. No, you want "self evident to the point of not needing to be said"? How about: "[What you're looking for] is always the last place you look." Recently, it seems, I've been hearing people add the addition: "Because why would you keep looking for it once you've found it?"

Anyway, definitely seeing a lot of familiar names and subjects in those archived topics. Cool stuff.