So I have been here 5 years! How can this be, when TTG is 4 Years old?

This is a very basic story about building the site. Maybe one day I will write it all out, but it's too much for right now, so here is the story in fast forward.

The first year the site was mostly offline, running in XAMPP on my very old and half broken laptop. I had to keep it on charge all the time and keep the cable in a certain position to even use it. I did not have any money to buy a new computer so I made the most of what I had at the time. Like some, I never had a good home life, so I set out on my own with nothing more than my laptop and a bag of clothes. I was young but I knew if I worked hard I could get to where I wanted to go.

I finished High School and went to College. It took me some time to get on my feet, and I was often sleeping on friends' couches. While at College I worked a dead end job Monday to Friday, and worked at an Arcade on the weekends (I held the highscores for sega rally championship for sometime). It paid my rent on a place of my own, allowed me to save up and buy my first Xbox 360, and finally get the internet installed in my very small flat (apartment). This allowed me to work on what would become TTG.

Due to the lack of money, my friend (/AndroidDev) allowed me to host the site on his server, which allowed others to access it online. Around this time I was enjoying CoD4 and also became friends with Hippie, who, being his normal brutally honest self, told me the site looked ugly and refused to log in ever again. We laugh about it now, but at the time it bugged me so much I worked harder on the site while I was off work. Sometimes I would stay up too late and end up being late for work/college.

hippie did come back in the end and started to help. His input has been priceless.

Skipping ahead, I quit my jobs because we could see the future in the site. It started to grow well, but issues with loading speed and other errors kept coming up. I had been given advice and help from someone called Telli, so I contacted him and asked if he could fix a few things for me. I remember sending him an e-mail telling him the issues I was having, and wished him luck fixing them (keep in mind these problems had been bugging me for weeks). In almost a flash, he emailed back saying he had fixed them, and a handful of other things. I sat back in my chair swearing at my screen. From that point on, Telli has been with TTG and is a big part of the reason TTG has done so well.

I should also drop Casca in here. He has been around for the ups and downs. He has always given me the best advice, and has helped the site in anyway he could. This site has given me lots of things, but true friends like Casca are the things I am most thankful for. Oh and hippie, the evil guy who really is a nice guy (I never told you this).

Thanks to all the staff, past and present. Your input has helped shape the site.
Thanks to the haters. Without you, no one would be talking about us!
Thanks to all the members who visit every day, and to the lurkers who visit all the time but have not signed up yet!

We had a good CES and E3 2012 (Zilla's car may or may not have got hit with a tactical kayak)
We will be at E3 2013
We crossed one Million members.
We crossed one Billion pages visited.

Today TTG is now one of the biggest and most active Forums online.

It's a Roller coaster ride, and I can't wait for the next generation.

"Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well."

"Don't let haters bring you down. Let your haters become your motivators."

tl;dr If hippie gives you shit its worth it in the end.

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