A few pieces of the people who largely influenced the veteran culture behind Face of Mankind, BUILT.
based comment: R.I.P M8 GUNBA (DIED IN FLOOD WATERS ) WE ALL RESPECTED YOU WE WILL MISS YA PEACE
So much of our playstyle, the way we talked to eachother, the way the community still talks to eachother is because of Built. Most of the good fighters in the game emulated their customs, and broke out of strict roleplaying styles as the game got older. While it may have been the death knell for roleplaying as the previous generations of players knew it in FoM, imo the "built culture" made the game a lot more fun
BUILT had a magnified effect on the entire community, and if most of them were still around would call me a spastic for pointing this out like a fucking nerd. And thats part of the culture that made it so great. They took nothing that seriously other than being a good fighter and it made for a lot of entertainment. consider:
ferin/roids/gunba/Anthony Kenta/evilbeefmarine/tornadium(?)/jakefolkoff were all built iirc among lots more im forgetting
also amusing that the whining about Built and how it affected "RP" in the game continues in to the present day. Most of the old time RP'ers made the game fucking boring. Conflict is what face of mankind was really about, and RP that went beyond that was cool, but people went over the top with out of conflict RP and thought that
that style of RP was the end all be all of RP. It attracted a very certain type of combat-averse player which by the time Built showed up, had populated the game. To this day people like them still cry about it. Built was only around for a short time in FoM, but it had a huge effect on the community that you can still see today.
The built culture permanently transformed the community and made the more combat-apt players less RP constrained. Most of us became friends (if we weren't already) because of shared values of how the game should be. The heavy out of combat RP players did not agree, and it made for two sides of the community, at least when I was deep in to the forums of mankind. Back then I could pretty accurately name out most of the "friend groups" that existed in the community and I knew who was a fighter and who wasn't, who was an RP lord and who was a shitposter etc.
having a girlfriend is way better though
If BUILT was a song, it would be Guns and Pork
I still miss Anthony Kenta's forum signature.