Why do all this?
I have actually been a fan of Game Theory for a really long time. I can remember subscribing on YouTube when the only theory was the original ChronoTrigger episode. You can really tell MatPat recorded that one in the closet. :) It was a lot different than now, but I loved it and watched avidly.
9 years ago I joined the Game Theory Subreddit as a Moderator. Originally I joined to help with CSS, but the Sub Owner was very busy. Someone needed to actively moderate though and I ended up spending *alot* more time on it than I anticipated. Fixing up the visuals of the Sub turned into fixing AutoMod. Then reworking the rules. Eventually handling most things.
Within a year or two links started popping up about Discord. I ignored it for about 6 months before trying to check Discord out. At that time most of the Discords for Game Theory were not incredibly safe. So I decided to make a Discord for the SubReddit.
The Discord stayed quite until Fortnite. Then it exploded over night. Some days 1k+ joins. Seemingly 4-6 people every second. It was one of the most hectic times of my life. It is still something I remember happily though, because the Discord really became a hub for so many people.
Now, years later, I have several people who are 18-24 rejoining the Discord server because of the retirement video. They happily recount how they met their current partners in that Discord during the Fornite rush. Some of them are still together and able to meet up! We were able to meet so many amazing people!
Then there was the GT ARG. We had over 14 thousand joins and had a maximum of 32 thousand members. Matpat actually put a link to the Discord in a video and on the website, so we became official official. What was most amazing was seeing content kids from the Discord I made get featured in videos. Seeing the Master Tracker show up in videos, and even the recent Stupendium video?! That makes me so incredibly happy! Not even that the server was featured, but watching the kids in the community and how excited they were.
Even beyond all of these experiences, this community has helped me personally grow. I found an incredibly supportive group of people, some of which I would even call family. People in this community helped me finally find the words to come out as being trans and start HRT. I don't know if I ever would have been able to do that without the support I found here. With that support I was able to start therapy too. Some of the therapy is definitely needed from running the Sub and Discord (/hj). My life has improved an incredible amount being able to understand myself better and having diagnosis's like Autism and Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) to explain my brain.
It has been an incredible time.
There have been a lot of ups and downs.
But I can't imagine what my life would be like without Game Theory.
I have met some of my best friends from this community.
I have had some of my dearest memories from this community.
I have been lucky enough to helps so many people, and watch so many kids grow up.
All of that is because of Game Theory, because of MatPat.
I want to take full advantage of the community I have helped build over the last decade.
To make one final mega goodbye and retirement card to see MatPat off.
