I started playing DDR back in 2002. DDR 4th Mix+ at Wright’s Barnyard in Lansing, IL (RIP). Who can forget classics like “Cat’s Eye” or “Wonda”?

Anyway, AIJ is 13 years old now. AIJ, or Aaron in Japan for those not in the know, is a site mostly where music game players come and post about topics of their intrest. Which is pretty much just dance games and Loli. I started posting there at around the time my friend Brandon (Dyme) started to post. He said that’s where all the good players were.

He was right. I guess I popped in at around the golden age when we could find good DDR machines all over the place. Everyone was playing. People were leveling up. We could really just hang and have a good time. Not to mention, I have friends for life in Lefty, Darkmage, and even that fag GTC. Not to mention SonGohanX and NicX who I should be seeing soon.

You could say that AIJ really changed my entire life. It really did.

The Bemanifest trip was the first real road trip I ever took without my family around. We drove 20 hours straight. GTC, Lefty, Darkmage and I… and we even picked up a Canadian along the way at a McDonalds at 2AM. Shit was crazy. But I learned a lot about myself and came back a person who stood a little bit taller. This led to a lot of fallout… but I wouldn’t change a thing about it. Without AIJ, I must likely wouldn’t have even gone and who knows how life would be now.

I also got a front row seat to the decline of the modern gamer. Back in my day, when we didn’t have the internet (gasp) we had to go over to friends houses on Saturdays to play games. We learned a lot about sportmanship, and really just life itself. All by just playing games with other people. There was compitition, but it rarely ever got unhealthy.

This is not the case I saw on AIJ.

Since it’s the internet, people are going to act rudely, a lot. The amount of competition and hypothetical dickswinging I can really just blame on the lack of actual social interaction. You couldn’t do this shit at the arcade back in my day. You’d get your ass kicked. But it’s just the world we live in now.

In case you all didn’t realize… this is where Dance Dance Revolution: The Warrior’s Path comes into play.

Darkmage mentioned it first. It’s “Internet: The Movie”. You have the users (Derek, Wolfen, Yvette) then you have trolls (SupTrashcan, Ryzen, Terminator). The trolls want nothing more than to put the users out of existence. Everything is taken seriously when it really shouldn’t… and people get butthurt over the smallest thing.

Then in Pump it Up: The Warrior’s path. Without spoiling much, we bring in the moderator. Who deals with the trolls in her own way. You’ll understand when you see it.

Back to AIJ, I really don’t post on there anymore because I like my IQ at 145 where it is. However, I can’t hate on it’s existence. He’s brought together a lot of good people and really helped make my life the way it is, for better or worse. I have to thank him so much for that.

Here’s to another year of not so great people on an otherwise very nice site.