2007.
The year that started it all.
To be honest, I was pretty late to the party (I joined mid-2012) and still, I managed to get the best out of it. I can't do that anymore today. Back then, all you needed to do was boot up the game and find a server, done. Nothing else.
Now? Well, now... now... now you've got something disgusting. I expect something like this from a group of non-caring assholes, but from Community Members? That's the worst part. When they took the rights to modify the game, I was very happy to know that not only the game was left to die, but it was getting a great update. If only I knew.
One day I wake up, I boot up the game, see the old menu, old things... must be a dream. I see the usual servers, and I decide to pick an empty one, to see if anyone would join. Even if noone was joining, I enjoyed every second of it: playing around with guns, exploring the map... all sorts of normal things. I could still remember the other players laughing and screaming in terror when zombies came for them, I could still see their playermodels wandering around.
One by one, fading away from my sights.
I lose grasp of time, I can't see anymore of them, their voices slowly disappear in an eco, only to not be heard of again. Most of them moved on, some never came back on Steam. And I still stand here, looking at these old walls, the textures that shaped my childhood on Steam. The textures that will never fade on my mind, the rounds that will never be forgotten. Now I merely observe emptiness, the halls that were filled with players during Christmas. None of this is here today. I wander around these maps, hoping that something will return to normality, to make me enjoy this game again. I decide to drop my weapons, walk back to spawn and get back to the team picking room. Looking at the game for one last time. Waving a silent farewell. May the new players enjoy this game as much as I did, because none of this will come back to life. Noone will come back. Nothing will come back.
A stranger I was...
...And a stranger I'll remain.