"Awwwww Yeaaaaaa!" Came blasting out of my speakers, followed by 5-6 people laughing hysterically. It was when I first heard Maddog's battlecry, and my gaming life would never be the same. I remember thinking What kind of accent is that even? all while trying not to spit soda from laughing so hard on my screen...
It had to be around 2009, because I remember playing in the office of my first ever house. I was thrilled that I had a room all to myself for my computer, and I can still remember the way the paint in the room looked when the only light was from the monitors.
I had been a member of Shacknews for a long time, but aside from meeting 2-3 shackers at El Tigre's final Shackmeet (That's a story for another day) I never really played any games with Shackers. I don't remember who invited me, but it definitely would have taken a response from someone in a post somewhere encouraging me to play to get me out of my resting state of shyness.
As the weeks went by, the games became more and more regular. The same group of 8-12 people were playing nearly every night. We'd run expert realism standard if we couldn't rally at least 8, but that was a lot more rare.
At first, it was very competitive, and this would ultimately turn Maddog off, but it attracted the likes of Intothefray, Symphony, Derge, Alphablu, Deceth, moonlady (whatever she was deciding to go by) Jimmy Legs, Lone swordsman, Warcrow Galadriel and so many more. I'd love to name all of us - but it is a very long list (I grouped my Steam friends by the game I played with them the most and I'm running out of time to finish this)
We even had a tournament, that I remember thinking, with how much I was playing this game that I'd be a bonefide stud in, and remember doing so very poorly. It was awesome!
The game started to get stale, but then mutators dropped and we suddenly started playing the game with full communication (where the infected and survivors could hear each other.) The hilarity was seemingly endless.
Strategy went out the window - we regulars didn't need it anymore anyway, as we had every choke and every dangerous spot memorized for every map. It really came down to execution. What replaced that strategy was endless trash talk and maniacal laughing at either a completly snuffed out infested attack or a complete facepwn of the survivors. It was all good natured and never really mean, but it was frustrating being on the receiving side of a roflstomp.
To this day, I still never laughed so hard playing a multiplayer game than I did in L4D2. I feel like we played it for at least 2 years, before it finally fizzled out for good. I tried to play it with friends again at a recent lan, but there was only 4 of us, and it really lacks the magic if you aren't running a full 4 on 4 versus game.
I know the Shack is an awesome place, but can get ugly from time to time. I know the community has done great things for people and I love that it is better than it is bad. For me, my favorite gaming time in my life was spent with those Shackers I named and the rest. So I raise my bottle of Pepsi to you all now and remember a time when I didn't have 3 kids, and could game from 8pm until 1am every day. I miss it, I miss the laughs, and I miss the L4D2 crew.
Please, if you have memories of this time, share them with a Shacker, who's struggling with a 4 month old who won't let her old man sleep more than 5 hours a night and misses greatly the time he had more freedom.
