DarkMoonEnigma
Virtualsense Official
Staff member
Moderator
Community & Media Manager
Virtualsense Media Team
VCAT Team Member
It was my brother (Jamie JetBoyVanderbuilt - avatar name) who had been playing PE for about a month and said that I should check it out. I joined on April 2, 2005 which also happens to be his real life birthday. He stopped playing after a few years and went on to other things, but I just couldn't leave.
My journey over the years has been nothing short of amazing, with many unexpected experiences that took me in directions that evolved who I was then, into the virtual persona I am now. There are many people to thank, but I will name those who have truly given me opportunities to showcase what I love doing the most.
I began writing stories with pictures almost from the beginning of our crazy experiences, and as a result, it was in June of 2005 that I became the EU Picture Storyteller. I loved showcasing the creativity of players, but also took a little liberty with my writing to add a bit of humor and make them more fun. As soon as I can get to it, I will be adding many of these picture stories to our Entropia Archives section at the forum.
I think I was wearing a sombrero even before Ant ... we were destined to work together.
In September 2005 I was introduced to Neverdie by Pollus (thank you) and began working with him in preparation for his launch of the original Club Neverdie (CND) that is now known as FOMA. The launch took place on December 19, 2005. I continued to work with Neverdie with regard to event planning and moderating his forum. It was an incredible experience, and he opened some doors for me with regard to media contacts that helped coordinate the first CND Fashion Show that was filmed by a German TV producer to be a part of a pop culture program shown across Germany and France. The experiences working with Neverdie were special, and quite memorable, but I left to do other things in Feb 2007.
Photo of the original Club Neverdie center dome area 2005.
In 2010, I worked with staff at the EntropiaPlanets forum, and we created the EntropiaTimes magazine. We published 4 issues that were also made into real life issues at the time. They still have a prominent place on my coffee table in real life. I had the opportunity to write many articles and do interviews with Planet Partners and MindArk VIPs. It was an incredible labor of love, and the EP staff I worked with were amazing from concept to production to being pubilshed.
In June of 2011, I was very fortunate to be invited to join the Cyrene Writing Team as an official member of the Cyrene Team. They were still in development of the Cyrene Planet at the time and I spent a good deal of time working with Ed Robles III (Cyrene Developer) on building a Cyrene storyline presence from the original Cyrene storyline that Ed had written. We did it in the form of the Cyrene Covert Ops Series prior to the launch of the planet in order to reveal some sneak peeks at what the community could expect.
I was also working behind the scenes with Ed on developing Cyrene character chronicles, which we needed to do together to coordinate story arc. However, after a year, Ed's time became very limited and it looked like it would be a challenge to continue with our projects, and the Cyrene character chronicles were never published. I made the decision to leave the Cyrene Team, but both Ed and Kris (Dev Mgr) understood my reasons and we parted on very friendly terms. Kris and I work together today on the coordination of our Monria field trips to Cyrene because he always provides special activities.
After leaving the Cyrene Team, I wanted to continue with my media presence within Entropia Universe and showcase possibilities at the hand of a bit of creativity, so I created MindStarMedia (MSM) and MindStar Radio (MSR) to further engage the Entropia Universe community. Syer, who is now Dylan and working officially with the Arkadia Dev Team, was working with me to create a media presence to bring the Entropia experience more to life. His graphics skills, writing and overall crazy humor was a blessing. We spent many hours in sleep deprivation, but that's when the craziness kicked in and it was the most hilarious fun.
Here are some of the banners from articles I wrote for Calypso and MindArk:
I did a lot of article writing for Dave Dobson (Owner/Developer of Arkadia), and planned/hosted the launch party at Athena Spaceport the day before the launch of Arkadia.
Here are some of the banners from articles I wrote for Arkadia:
At the time I was running MindStarMedia, I also did an article on Cyrene that showcased what the then Janus City looked like ... I really miss it. It's been gone since they did their reconstruction.
I met Obie (Oberon Nighseer) on Jan 13, 2013 and we were inseparable. I continued the media presence with MindStarMedia until the beginning of October 2013. I then discontinued MindStarMedia and decided to take a semi-break for a while. I mostly logged in to have adventures with Obie.
Fast forward to November 2015 when a sombrero-wearing long-time EU friend decided he wanted to buy a Moon. On November 26, 2015, Ant (Eugenio Anhithe Wilde) became the proud Owner/Manager of Monria. He contacted me shortly thereafter and invited me to join the Monria Team. Part of my contract requirements was to create a Monrian Born avatar that would fit more with our Cthulhu-based Moon theme. We also agreed that using MindStar9 with her EU history would be too distracting and not work so well, so we asked MindArk to put her on ice in a cryogenic state freezing her ass off while I'm in this official role. She's going to have a very long sleep because I'm not going anywhere, but ... I enjoy wearing her purple underwear.
I guess you could say that the rest is history, and showcased all over this forum, but I would be remiss if I didn't share some thoughts and feelings ... just a bit. I couldn't say no to Ant, and he is the only reason I came back into Entropia Universe full-time. I didn't know at the time just what an incredible journey it would be for us as a team. His implicit trust in me encourages me and motivates me to do my best for Monria and our community. I am tremendously blessed to have the level of support I have from Ant, and know that no matter what, he has my back, the same as I have his.
We have like minds and have always been on the same page when it comes to Entropia Universe and especially when it comes to Monria. It's community first and foremost, and while our development is not as frequent, we have plenty in the pipeline that will continue to elevate the Monria experience. The evolution of our Moon community (or coMOONity as Shadow says), has been nothing less than a surprise to us. We wanted to build our community from the ground up and not take from other planets, but Monria has grown organically and we have quite the extended Moon family when it comes to friends and allies. We are deeply grateful for the support and continued contributions so many of you have made in an effort to service the needs of our community. Thank You
Monria is my forever home, and exactly where I want to be. I have never felt so connected to this universe as much as I do now, nor so supported and embraced by those who get me. I am humbled and appreciate you for being the wonderful individuals that you are, and for forgiving my intensity at times, but I think it's more out of being protective of Monria and its community than anything else. Besides, those who DO get me, know the type of humor that helps to diffuse the intensity at times. Ant and Obie are masters at this.
Managing community and wearing as many hats as I do can be overwhelming at times, but you guys help in SO many ways to make it easier. Our Community Initiative Programs (CIP) team leaders and members are nothing less than phenomenal. More people are joining the teams, and our Moon family is expanding.
I'm here for you guys first and foremost, except when Ant needs me to do some weird something or other
![Face with tongue :stuck_out_tongue: 😛](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/6.5/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png)
Thank you for everything, and for being the best community that we could ever hope for.
I am going to be adding a lot of photos in the next couple of posts that were taken from over the years so that you can have an idea of what it was like back in the day. The social environment was so electric then and the community was so vibrant and creative with their activities and getting people together for crazy times. Ant and I from the beginning have been on a mission to make that happen on Monria. I think we've done a decent job of it so far, but you guys are making it easy.
Enjoy the photo show ... I will get to it soon, I promise.
![purple heart :purpleheart :purpleheart](https://yoursmiles.org/tsmile/heart/t4588.gif)