A letter to EME, the players of AV, and the Tera community as a whole.

Hey everyone, I wanted to take a moment to write a letter to you all and tell a story about how Tera and it's community changed my life. (Yes it's cheesy, I know, but it's the truth, so hang in there please.)
I started playing Tera during the time shortly before it went F2P and besides a short stint in Aion, it was my first serious MMO. I was overwhelmed by my prospects with school at the time and was looking for somewhere to spend my free time blotting out the daily grind that consisted of co-workers and family members that I found intolerable. As you might have guessed I was hooked: I got sucked in and pretty much devoted my free time exclusively to being online and talking with my guildies. Not that this was bad mind you, as working in a soul sucking call center and attending classes I felt little investment in didn't exactly motivate me to spend extra time on campus. I ended up finding people who I was able to form a community with, and even if not everyone in guild was on the same page, we all had a common area to hang out and interact in. One in particular I spent a great deal of time chatting with and doing dailies and such with, which continued for a solid couple of years.
Around the introduction of +15 being introduced into the gearing progression, I started to become less involved, somewhat due to frustration with grinding for a week and watching everything disappear and my gear go back to +12, but also because my home and school life was rapidly deteriorating. My depression and contemplation of [filtered] became less a lingering thought and more of a serious plan, eventually leading to a decision that I would be better off not burdening others with my existence........but something kept me from following through with it immediately, and that was the promise the friend I had spend so much time with to come and visit me in Chicago. Amusingly at the time I thought it was be rather rude of me to have someone go through all the hassle of flying to another state, only to find their friend had become recently deceased. And so I postponed my plans and waiting for her visit instead. I didn't know it at the time, but I was about to meet my future wife.
I'll preface this by saying I had no romantic intentions- but what I found was, interestingly, the real life version of the person I'd come to trust and be so comfortable with over the last 2 years. The few days I spent with her truly changed my perspective on life, and caused me to reevaluate my ideas about having value to someone else. Suffice to say I'm leaving out alot of information of the time since then, but lets me honest, this is already a TL DR post.
Which brings me here- 2 years since I moved to the Seattle area and married about half that time, and not just her, but all of you are to thank: for giving me a community and group of friends that I'll remember and treasure far after Tera is a distant memory in everyone's minds. I know a lot of you miss what Tera was; I myself only play occasionally at this point. but I'll never forget.
Thank you everyone,
Fin
GM of Anime guild, Ascension Valley

To everyone who knew me, thank you for being part of my life. I'll keep in touch. And to everyone who didn't, just remember that even if Tera is just a game, everyone is a real person. Treasure your interactions with them.
P.S. sorry for rambling.

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