A quick look at my journey in the DWU:
Summer of 2005, I was 15 when I bought DW4 and was instantly engrossed by it. I found out about Gamespot a few months before and decided to check out DW4 on gamespot to look for cheats or whatever. That's when I stumbled upon the DWU. At the time, I've never joined a forum based site before, and the whole posting messages/creating topics was completely new to me. I decided to create an account with the hope of joining the DWU to talk to others about DW. Lord_Cal was the leader at the time, and accepted my arrival.
At first I didn't know what to do, I introduced myself, and that was about it. I spent pretty much all my time in the union lurking around. I noticed that many members (which I later learned where called "hijackers") roamed around the DWU and pretty much controlled it, no matter who the leader. As a lurker, I saw many other n00bs just get destroyed by the hijackers. The hijackers didn't care who the f*ck you were and answered to no one. The hijackers seemed pretty badass to me, and I was amused watching them bring terror and misforute to others. I knew to keep my distance from them and I only posted rarely during the reign of Lord_Cal, A-Low, and nobuggs. During this time, I spent time in other places on Gamespot to post around and get a better feel for the whole forum thing. Because I know if I started practicing in the DWU, there would be hijackers on my ass in an instant, and I wasn't ready for that yet.
I still spent most of my time lurking under A-Low and nobuggs, but when JeffSteel became emperor I came out of the shadows and posted more regularly. At this point in the union, a few of the hijackers had been banned, but many still remained. I kept my distance from them, but I also watched them closely and tried to understand and learn their ways. The DWU was a fun place at the time, it was extremely active and was actually one of the most active unions on all of Gamespot. After a while JeffSteel started to become inactive, the hijackers rebelled, and Taisho eventually stepped forward as new leader. Under Taisho's reign, I became more confident, posted more, and attempted for the first time some of the ways of the hijackers... but I never tried to become a full-blown hijacker because activity in the DWU was falling, and we needed all the recruits as possible to stay as a somewhat elite union. During these days, I took what I learned from the old days of the DWU and began hijacking our rival unions (namely the DWA and TDWU).
Everything was all going fine until Taisho snapped. The hijackers wanted Taisho out, and Taisho, normally a really cool guy, lost his temper one day, left the DWU for good and left the DWU in complete ruins. At this time when Taisho left, the DWU ceased to exist....
... until one day Waha creates the new DW union (the new DWU) and myself, along with CptJSparrow, SSKnight, and DWFreak start. Long story short, the new DWU failed. Back at the DWU, harden (the leader after Taisho) came back to pass leadership to Noahcycle, who, after a short stint gives up the union and leaves the DWU for good. And guess who he leaves the DWU to, when he left... that's right me... the one and only Buttman, the kid who freaking worshipped this union as a n00b under the days of LordCal/A-Low/nobuggs. I you asked me back in 2005, that I would one day become emporer, I would have laughed my ass off in your face. But it happened. The once n00b who had so much respect and dedication to the DWU actually became leader.
As leader of the DWU, it was absolutely pathetic to what it once had been back in the old days... but I fought my hardest to keep the union alive and bring in more recruits. I was not gonna let the DWU blow away into nothingness. A few old-timers returned to the union under my lead, and we began to get the wheels rolling again, ever so slightly. After a while of putting all the effort into the union as I could, I started to run low on gas. Being leader is no easy job. Life outside of Gamespot began calling out to me.
And as I learned from history, I knew it was my time to step down as leader before I became inactive. I gave leadership to harden, and that move was probably one of the best moves I made as a member of the DWU.
... Damn, its been a good ride.
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