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"...does he remember the heat of the inferno? And the alien rage that caused it?"

2014 was a chaotic time for the small, out-of-the-way internet forum known as GameTalk, but not for the reasons you might think. On the subject of disastrous marketing moves by large game companies and journalism drama, there was relatively little discussion. GameTalk had a much more immediate issue at hand: there was something stressing the very fabric of the normally tight-knit community from within.

mariomguy was a skilled, knowledgeable and dedicated man. His interest in video games and the GameTalk forum was well noted for nearly a decade - archives of an earlier iteration of the forum under different administration shows mguy happily chatting about such topics as the Nintendo Gamecube. While firmly interested in Nintendo products, there was not much else notable about him during that time.

After the earlier iteration of GameTalk went down, there was a dead period in the life of the forum. After the site was resurrected under the banner of GTX0 and new administration, old users began finding the new site and returning to a place that felt like a kind of internet home for them. A renaissance of discussion came back into the forum, with more users returning every week. Among them was mariomguy - but something beyond the branding of the site had changed. mguy was now more dedicated, more persistent and more intriguing to talk to.

The stances he would take in various discussions were seen as less than reasonable by more than one of the other regular posters. The combination of the claustrophobic forum environment, the large personalities and a moderation team that could charitably be called more "casual" than normal combined to produce a temperamental environment, in which relatively small discussions could bloom into arguments hundreds of posts long. The Video Game News & Discussion subforum came under a cloud; for more than a year, many discussions there were under the oft-realized potential of becoming a wellspring of venomous exchanges. While it is certainly not strange for an internet forum to possess a certain percentage of arguments and vile retorts, what was quickly noticed by many frequenters of GameTalk was the fact that the largest and most regular of these intense displays of keyboard war were centered primarily around one poster.

mariomguy had become fanatical about Nintendo products. He had developed a huge, well-documented appreciation for many of the design and aesthetic choices made by Nintendo. His stances which he developed from this basis were often at odds with those of a significant number of other posters - many of whom were more than happy to share their views on and information about the various subjects. But despite all the dialogue that transpired, resolution would never come. Instead, a wall was built between mariomguy and a large part of the subforum; the tension was never released, only cranked tighter and tighter. At some points, the arguments about Nintendo vs. Sony and Microsoft, motion controls vs. analog controls, realistic vs. fantastical and many more subjects were addressed daily - with no significant forward progress. The VGN&D subforum had turned into a digital warzone, one in which a saga was forged. This is the mariomguy saga.

The beginning of the story is lost or, to be more precise, is jumbled beyond understanding. Early in 2014, an accident relating to post placement occurred and resulted in all thread responses from many subforums being placed into one thread, never to be restored or sorted out. Thus, we must pick up the saga in media res, with a strange and vehement incipit: "[t]he fact that a game that was more movie than game won so many awards for 'game design' awards is just sad". This ungrammatical and opinionated observation, made about the nearly universally-acclaimed The Last of Us, was uttered by our equally strange and vehement hero, mariomguy. It is with this spirit, though not this particular spark, that the fiery maelstrom that ravaged the VGN&D subforum for over a year was kindled.

Was it magic that he held us prisoner for so long, or merely the magnetism of his grandeur? Or will it simply remain a mystery, unconsidered for fear of rekindling the flames? mariomguy has passed out of our realm and whether he has turned to less stony shores, I cannot say. I can only hope that whatever home he has made his way to now, that it is only what he deserves - nothing more, nothing less.

That is nothing less than what we deserve.

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Recommended listening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPrd8FoClAA

The saga (format: Month Day, Year: "thread title by thread poster" link to archive):

March 21, 2014: "Games last year that had better GAMEPLAY than The Last of Us and actually deserved the award for best 'Game Design' by mariomguy" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730234434/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=86547

April 4, 2014: "hey mariom by Vandy" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730234156/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=86923

April 30, 2014: "I honestly don't know what I'm doing here. by mariomguy" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730233921/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=87736

May 6, 2014: "Games with notable cutscenes that are actually really good by mariomguy" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730232719/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=87942

May 11, 2014: "Critic Quote: 'I Hold Nintendo Games to a Lower Standard' by Dark Souls II" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730232029/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=88070

May 14, 2014: "So - the 3 Console Developers have had motion controls for a number of years now... by Dark Souls II" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730231442/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=88193

May 23, 2013: "Challenge in Games by mariomguy" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730225146/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=88462

May 25, 2014: "User Complaint: mariomguy by Pope Dullahan I" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730055217/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=88512

May 25, 2014: "User Complaint: Dark Souls II and Pope Dullahan by mariomguy" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730054338/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=88520

June 10, 2014: "Vandy by mariomguy" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730054106/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=89197

June 13, 2014: "@ Helius, mods, administrators, and all GT users by mariomguy" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730053828/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=89307

June 19, 2014: "My username banned by mariomguy" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730053540/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=89498

July 24, 2014: "Thread in 9/11 by Magnum Rage" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730053439/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=90494

August 9, 2014: "Still trying to play The Last of Us by Bugei Nights" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730202414/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=90840

August 20, 2014: "Shuhei Yoshida: Motion gaming is dead until Project Morpheus by Dark Souls II" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730201639/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=91132

August 23, 2014: "[MOVED] Nintendo doesn't just invent hardware for the heck of it by mariomguy" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730091149/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=91190

September 19, 2014: "Cracked Article: 4 Ways Gamers Still Suck At Dealing With Women by ShadowFox08" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730084859/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=91737

September 19, 2014: "@mariomguy by Jo Nathan" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730084150/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=91745

October 6, 2014: "Ubisoft: Assassin's Creed Unity Could Not Run on Wii U by Jo Nathan" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730082408/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=92213

November 11, 2014: "Miyamoto: What can games learn from film? Nothing. by Dark Souls II" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730074415/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=92958

November 11, 2014: "The destruction of an entire medium: why mimicking movies is bad for us in the long run by mariomguy" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730073754/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=92975

November 12, 2014: "user complaint: mariomguy by S.O.H." https://web.archive.org/web/20150730053224/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=92976

November 20, 2014: " 'The Changing Face of War Games: How last-gen shooters failed us at best and propagandised at worst.' by Arch" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730051100/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=93194

December 9, 2014: "So sick of Nintendo's stupidity when it comes to the Virtual Console by Blake" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730050545/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=93593

December 11, 2014: "Wii U's 1st party line up is looking very solid for 2015! by ShadowFox08" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730050316/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=93626

December 21, 2014: "mguy - 'the kind of person who is not interested in Nintendo games is obviously not interested in gaming that's fun' by [gg]" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730045947/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=93833

December 29, 2014: "AMD hints at new processor architecture for game console in 2016 by Dark Souls II" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730070649/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=93979

January 14, 2015: "Does anyone else feel incredibly overwhelmed with the games today? by ShadowFox08" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730051817/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=94386

January 17, 2015: "Everyone who has a problem with me for no reason needs to get over it NOW by mariomguy" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730051621/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=94470

March 27, 2015: "Zelda not expected to release in 2015, not showing at E3 by The Bandit" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730045836/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=96063

March 29, 2015: "Metroid. Let's talk about this by Nintendo 4ever" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730045711/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=96118

April 1, 2015: "@mariomguy by Jo Nathan" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730045534/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=96192

April 20, 2015: "Hitler comparison to prove a point is against the rules, but this **** is OK? by mariomguy" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730045302/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=96573

May 3, 2015: "How to make mguy look stupid: a step-by-step process that everyone must do by mariomguy" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730045133/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=96792

May 3, 2015: "Response to the thread below by mariomguy" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730045054/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=96793

May 5, 2015: "@Kyon by mariomguy" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730045009/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=96824

May 9, 2015: "Anyone play the Splatoon Global Testfire? by Gameboy86" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730062524/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=96899

May 11, 2015: "? by Speed Bike Pro" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730182721/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=96937

May 11, 2015: "Kyon deleting my replies in Dispute Resolution by mariomguy" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730182449/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=96939

May 11, 2015: "@mariomguy by Xhin" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730061633/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=96943

May 12, 2015: "@mariomguy concerning Pokemon and Layering in Gaming by Speed Bike Pro" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730061422/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=96957

May 14, 2015: "@mariomguy (whenever you return) by Xhin" https://web.archive.org/web/20150730044812/http://gtx0.com/view.php?post=96997

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This is not the complete saga. What has been linked here is the following:

1. Every relevant Complaints subforum/Dispute Resolution subforum thread

2. Every relevant VGN&D thread that had both over 100 posts and majorly featured mariomguy contribution