TEN YEARS MAN!

The old saying of “Time flies when you’re having fun” is only partly true. Time ALWAYS flies. Case in point: Ten years ago this month Raptor Squad made it’s debut on the World Wide Web (or “Interwebs” as the crazy kids say these days).

Wow.

A whole decade has literally flown by and it’s hard to wrap one’s head around that fact. And in that time, so many things have happened, not just in our little corner of Lucas’ Universe, but in the real world as well. I won’t go into everything of course but it’s amazing to consider that when the site went up, 9/11 here in America had yet to happen, and the world was just a very different place. It’s amazing that many of the folks reading this right now may have barely been out of diapers.

It makes a Webmaster like me feel kinda old actually.

But! I’ve always been a believer that age is really just a number, and it’s how you live, how you feel and how you view the world around you that determines how young or old you really are. When you stop dreaming, stop trying and stop believing, that’s when you start feeling old, and to be honest, I’m not there yet, not by a long shot.

So! I know you’re asking yourself “Great, a decade is past, and now what?” Yeah, well me too, I’ve been asking myself that a lot.

In fact, as far back as four years ago, I sent out the following to our group members:

“I've decided that when the RS site reaches it's 10 year anniversary, I'm locking it down to (most) new stuff and it will exist as a shrine to our game and the good times.

Granted, this is still about 4 years off, but I think it’s a good end point.”

Well, four years have passed, and now I look back on those words and realize I have a decision to make:

End it, or keep moving forward?

And I realize, not to get too philosophical, but that exactly the question we all face as time moves on and we get older. And one has to ask an important question that makes the decision a lot easier:

“Did I accomplish everything I wanted to?”

In looking at the Raptor Squad site, pouring over the hundreds of pages of content and the decade’s worth of work, I realize that the answer is no. A strong “no” even, the kind that scares your dog.

There is still a story to be told here that’s far from over. There is still fiction to produce, still characters to be introduced, artwork waiting to burst forth from my hands and new features and content I’m itching to create for those diehards out there still using the D6 system.

Locking down the site and walking away from it would be like leaving a painting incomplete, or a story unfinished, and in a real way that’s exactly what it is.

I don’t know how long the site will continue, or how long real life will allow me to continue telling our story, but you can’t let that stop you. You have to put your nose down, move forward and keep doing what you love and what makes you happy for as long as you can.

Because in the end, that’s all that really matters. Happiness.

Because life is too short for anything less.

So, consider this a “Ten Year Preview” post. As I’ve decided April, all month long I’ll be adding to the site and dedicating all thirty days to bringing the community new content, new features and furthering the Raptor Squad story.

Thanks for letting me ramble, and though I’ll be saying it all throughout April in one fashion or another, thanks for hanging in there with us.

And what the hell, here’s to another decade!!!