Staying Engaged - In Defense of the Gifs

[Grape 739]

I joined the VHL five years ago. So much has changed within that time that looking back, it feels like it was longer. It was a packed half decade, covering the latter half of my high school years and taking me pretty much completely through university. During that time, I’ve had varying degrees of activity. I was pretty much a pure clicker with my first player, skipping weeks here and there because I really didn’t like the manual claiming on the forum. While the forum changed to be a little more streamlined, my activity increased, becoming a consistent clicker to actually becoming active and contributing, and now with this player, doing my damndest to max earn each and every week, to some success. With the amount of time spent, either working on tasks and just being here in general, burnout does start to take place. Motivation begins to dwindle. The grind for high TPE players is especially grueling and demotivating. I mean hell, my player is in their 4th season and each week of work equates to two ratings boosts. It’s tough to stay dedicated to the grind without something there to keep things entertaining, without something to keep me coming back week after week, day after day, to not just pop in and do my tasks but to actually be a part of this community. I will say, @Spartan has done a damn good job of making the Moscow discord entertaining and engaging. I haven’t been as active in a discord like that one since probably the S60s Houston and Ottawa LRs, back in the beginning. The ability to jump in there and shitpost every now and again while also, at least attempting to, contribute to the team as an advisor and also just a player who cares about their build for once. Even still, I needed something just a bit more, one little cherry on top to keep me chugging along through the late claim slog.

What started as a passing comment during an “argument” by @twists soon became something so much more. Now, contrary to popular belief, I am not a weeb. I have not watched much anime and don’t know many shows. I simply find some things funny and attach myself to the few shows I’ve watched, and even some that I haven’t (like my forum pfp). That doesn’t mean that I’m a weeb, just that I’m probably autistic, although the test says I’m not but who knows these days. Nevertheless, that comment spiraled into something more, and Moscow for a moment was blessed with custom gifs relating to current happenings and discussions like the one below:

It fizzled out somewhat for a bit and it seemed like it was going to pass, with the only one being made and updated is the one above to remain accurate with the TPE gain. That changed pretty quickly when @badcolethetitan jumped on the trend and made some of his own, reigniting the gif spark within me, leading to new gifs to be created, and now they have leached from the Moscow LR into the VHL discord, blessing the sometimes stagnant channels with much-needed activity. Are they stupid? Yes. Repetitive? Also yes. Is it fun though? Definitely. Sure it can be annoying at times, however, it creates both entertainment and interaction within the channel. The most important thing it has done though, is get me involved. Going through the triple slog of late stage TPE claiming, searching and interviewing for jobs, and senior year classes would lead to the burnout of most hobbies, and I’ve dropped a couple due to real life stress, but I enjoy the VHL, and don’t want to just up and leave it, and so long as I can have this fun thing going on for me, I feel as if I can stick with it until my workload decreases, and I can contribute more.

(651 words)

[Spartan 4,531]

Who tf uses centered formatting for articles like this. Cringe, you are a weeb, and you're still going to Warsaw

[Grape 739]

2 minutes ago, Spartan said:

Who tf uses centered formatting for articles like this. Cringe, you are a weeb, and you're still going to Warsaw