A trip down memory lane...

[Nutter 15,155]

Took a little peek at WayBackMachine and got a little nostalgic, even though alot of stuff is missing

2 hours later, I realized I spent far too much time on this post, but it's ok.

 

 

2014-2015 | A TTT Server

Back then GarnetGaming was literally a fun project I began working on because I was caught up in my High School classes and got tiresome of staffing other people's communities for various reasons.

Initially, Garnet Gaming was a team of 3 admins GRINDING hardcore  to get 15-20 players on. On billing dates I believe I had to pay roughly $15 for 30 server slots, at which point young me was nearly crying and on the verge of begging his parents for an allowance

When you're in high school you'd just rather spend that money on video games, food, and dates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2015-2016 | Introduction of DarkRP

The TTT community continuously requested we expand into the DarkRP gamemode (at which point we would regularly hop onto existing servers anyways) and I was able to budget just enough to where I could allow myself to host two servers while saving up for my first year of college.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2016-2017| Introduction of MilitaryRP

Right from week 1, DarkRP was at the very top of the category, and everytime somebody would donate for any sort of item, I would immediately re-invest. This netted us a properly made website, access to public (paid) addons, and a dedicated server machine that didn't get DDoS'd nearly as much. At this point, I feel as though more and more people took this community for more than a hobbyist project, but instead, another run-of-the-mill DarkRP server hosted by a kid who still his mother's credit card.

Towards the end of the year a community by the name of UG shut down and I was begged to join the MilitaryRP category seeing as there were no stable servers left to join. I took the opportunity and purchased another dedicated server.

Super late in 2016 we were also asked to hop on the SCP Breach band-wagon which was one of the most popular gamemodes for awhile, needless to say, if I could go back, I would smack myself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2017-2018 | The Stagnant era

Much of the same, the community didn't grow much during this period because we were ALL too busy playing PUBG, Fortnite, and learning to deal with depression.

Looking through the images it also looks like during 2018 we had released PoliceRP, which did REALLY, winning the category over, that is until we suffered from continous DDoS attacks presumably from our competition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2018-2020 | Hold on boys.. daddy's going to get some cigarettes

During these two years alot of shit went downhill in my life and I think I was absent from the community for damn near 12 or 13 months out of the two years. This period netted us roughly 120 players at peak between both DarkRP and MilitaryRP with very rare updates. Prior to these pretty unfortunate life events taking place (which some may know, simultaneously included a death and a nasty break up), I had purchased 2 server machines to utilize for expansion into the game Rust. Needless to say they went entirely unused and cost a fortune to keep up, so 2018 was the only year where GarnetGaming declared a loss when filing for taxes . On and off we had discussions of whether or not it was time to shut down the community, and to be honest, I'm glad we ended up choosing against it.

 

 

 

 

 

2020-2021 | A comeback?

At the beginning of 2020 I made it clear on the forums that I intend on making a full return to the server and try to maintain my own mental health the best I can through balance. The community unfortunately had to see a string of some really personal posts from me, however there were always met with support.

Thankfully, this year I was able to  come across and recruit some solid people to assist me in running the community, such as Proggy, and all the servers across the board received more frequent and effective updates via the use of what we called "Update Sheets". A bi-monthly document that each server's managerial team is expected to post with ideas for new content.

Shortly after this, the COVID-19 pandemic began, shutting down US states in mid-March, when myself and most all the server's management teams came together and started really grinding out those updates and throwing around ideas. Within half a year into 2020, we had effectively gone from a community who peaked at 200 players for 4-5 years, to a community whos playerbase generally did not dip underneath 300 at any point of the night.

Moving into 2021 I just really hope we can finally break the 2,000 concurrent players milestone that has been making me upset for the past month

The most players online was on December 30th, 2020 1:10 AM EST with 1682/2863 players on our servers!

 

 

Thank you everybody who's stuck around for the ride, I get extremely excited when I come across the name of a player who's been around since 2014, which is incredibly rare, but we still have a few veteran players from the years 2016 and 2017.

PS

After reviewing some of these screenshots, I most definitely feel like re-formatting our forums like the old days to allow for some more misc forums, IE: Rant/Shitpost Central.

[PrisonNightmare 741]

Jesus christ the absolute nostalgia I felt looking at these images lmao. Thanks for sharing, definitely miss those times back when life was simpler and what not. 

 

And jesus christ some of those names on the "Members online now" section I haven't seen in a fucking while lmao

Edited December 30, 2020 by PrisonNightmare

[IAreGunner 252]

Seeing My name in a 2016 post dam miss some of these legends. This was Amazing. Thanks for taking time out of your night to do this..

 

Thanks for allowing me to stay for this long

Edited December 30, 2020 by OpTic Gunner

[vapr 231]

crazy far back gawdam

[AwesomeAidan0221 694]

10 hours ago, Garnet said:

After reviewing some of these screenshots, I most definitely feel like re-formatting our forums like the old days to allow for some more misc forums, IE: Rant/Shitpost Central.

If you do bring back shitpost central, bring back all the old posts too. That Mikel post is way too funny to be kept hidden.

[Ｄ Δ ＴＯＮＥＤＥ Δ ＤＤＵＣＫ 141]

Ah Police RP.... I remember that time, it was actually quite fun for the short time it lasted. Wish it would've lasted longer. 

[Dillan 750]

Ah prp driving cars and watching people wreck em

[Wasdin 128]

He said JK

[BERB_DERE_GOTE 15]

Been here since early 2017. Been through more than a few name changes, so I doubt anyone would recognize me. Long live CS_desert; That piece of shit.

1 minute ago, BERB_DERE_GOTE said:

Been here since early 2017. Been through more than a few name changes, so I doubt anyone would recognize me. Long live CS_desert; That piece of shit.

I don't plan on leaving any time soon either.