Happy Birthday, Maggots!

October 11, 2008 12:38 PM

A year ago today, one man had a vision that would bring together dozens of MeFites towards the heartwarming common goal of blowing the hell out of each other in Team Fortress 2.

Subsequent ad hoc MeTa posts eventually led MeFi luminary stavrosthewonderchicken to throw up a simple forum for everyone to use as a point of contact - and the MeFight Club was born.

Since then, the loose-knit "clan" has grown and matured: adding a public server to the mix, the organization of an elite contingent of competitive players, a webcomic shoutout, meetups, baked good exchanges, in-house tournaments, and ten-years worth of enjoyment crammed into the last 365 days.

Now, with a current membership of almost 350, the group remains the nicest, coolest, and most fun people who have ever assembled to play games together.

The only requirements for membership are a MetaFilter account, good sportsmanship, and a high tolerance for silliness.

Team Fortress 2 isn't your thing? Well, we also have been known to hunt each other down like dogs, repel alien invasions, cause chaos in the streets of Liberty City, and even occasionally live like Rock Stars.

posted by absalom to MetaFilter-related at 12:38 PM (46 comments total)

Wait, I forgot something:

ROTATOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo!
posted by absalom at 12:41 PM on October 11, 2008

Thanks hair doctor! For giving us a great servant! To be gay on!
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:48 PM on October 11, 2008 [1 favorite]

Ahh yeah, that is a great server you guys got going. Even when we're getting rolled and spawn-camped it's still fun.
posted by hellojed at 1:29 PM on October 11, 2008

What the fuck's a rotato?
posted by Pronoiac at 1:34 PM on October 11, 2008

All praise The Lords of Rotato! May their beer be forever cold!
posted by flibbertigibbet at 1:50 PM on October 11, 2008

Aw yay.

I wish I could recall what the website looked like back when we first started. It sure has changed a lot.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 1:55 PM on October 11, 2008

This seems a good a place as any to mention this:

After the devastation of Hurricane Gustav, I got a wonderful email from the Red Cross saying that a very generous donation had been made in my name by the MeFight Club. I am still overwhelmed by the generosity of your gift and the love that I felt from it. I carry around that card I got from the Red Cross to remind myself that friendship sees no borders.

Thank you, Fighting MetaFiltarians.
posted by ColdChef at 2:00 PM on October 11, 2008 [19 favorites]

I just had my first fake baby, and I fake named her Rotato!

YAY!!

ROTATO 4EVER!
posted by tittergrrl at 3:08 PM on October 11, 2008 [2 favorites]

The Rotato spirit embiggens us all!

Happy Birthday, MeFightClub! Thanks to Doc and Stav (why he ever went by "elcraptastico" in the beginning, I'll never know. Everyone called him Stav anyway!) for getting us started, and to Chundo for adding the pubbie, where we mingle with the un-MeFied masses.
posted by gemmy at 3:28 PM on October 11, 2008

. . . and even added a couple of five dollars to Matt's pocket!
posted by absalom at 3:34 PM on October 11, 2008

Long live the fighters!
posted by D_I at 3:51 PM on October 11, 2008 [1 favorite]

Happy Birthday!
posted by flatluigi at 4:11 PM on October 11, 2008 [1 favorite]

Cool! Signing up now. I've had The Orange Box since it came out and still haven't played a minute of Team Fortress 2. One day! I am, however intrigued by this...how you say...Rock Band.

Also, not that anyone reads these things anyway, but I feel like I should point out that the Terms of Service link that appears during forum registration throws up a PHP error.
posted by danb at 5:47 PM on October 11, 2008

I feel like I should point out that the Terms of Service link that appears during forum registration throws up a PHP error.

Yeah, I know. Somebody pointed that out a couple of months back, I think, and I pretty much immediately forgot to fix it, because I am nothing if not slack when it comes to basic maintenance.

But then, slack and rotato are just flipsides of the same [MeFi] coin.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:31 PM on October 11, 2008

Wow, yeah I remember all that. Things have come quite a ways since then, always a blast for sure; thanks to all who make it possible and make it fun. I'm still trying to rearrange things so's I can play more, though.
posted by First Post at 8:57 PM on October 11, 2008

It's really too bad Fallout 3 isn't going to have any multiplayer. :(
posted by booticon at 9:28 PM on October 11, 2008

I'm sure we'll be playing it, though, and talking about it at Mefight Club, so feel free to drop by and make an account and start a thread about it! I think the other upcoming Big Game that we'll be all over is Left4Dead, the co-op zombie game from Valve due out next month. Champing at the bit for that one...
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:35 PM on October 11, 2008

hmmmmmmm i might join in again....... whats the password again ? do we even need one ?
posted by sgt.serenity at 10:05 PM on October 11, 2008

I called Stav 'crappy' or 'crap' for a while at first. It was a meta-tactic to distract him from gameplay. Didn't really work, but he WOULD make funny noises.
Steam's last update corked my TF2 engine, and I miss it like crazy. It's good to take a break now and then but I miss getting killed by you guys.
I personally cannot wait for Left for Dead to come out. Specifically because of the group.

HUGS!
posted by Busithoth at 11:03 PM on October 11, 2008

Go back to Massachusetts!
posted by xorry at 9:49 AM on October 12, 2008

sgt.serenity, the pass is on HerrDoktor's profile - the first link in the post.

We had an AWESOME birthday bash on the server last night. There was singing, and a motley crew of people virtually killing eachother throughout the night. GGs all.
posted by gemmy at 10:27 AM on October 12, 2008

What the fuck's a rotato?

A Rotato is a comically ineffective 'as-seen-on-TV' contraption for peeling potatoes.
posted by cgomez at 12:54 PM on October 12, 2008

What the fuck's a rotato?

A Rotato is a comically ineffective 'as-seen-on-TV' contraption for peeling potatoes.
BZZT WRONG TRY AGAIN
OK GONOPE WRONG AGAIN
posted by herrdoktor at 3:23 PM on October 12, 2008

Who's the Metafilter Steam Community's 300th member? This guy.
posted by The Man from Lardfork at 4:28 PM on October 12, 2008

LEFT 4 DEAD
LEFT 4 DEAD

Soon, I will be rejoining you all.
posted by Ryvar at 4:35 PM on October 12, 2008

cgomez: It was less a question than a craven ploy for favorites. Read the webcomic shoutout from the post.
posted by Pronoiac at 5:26 PM on October 12, 2008

Hey, a year ago today, I joined MeFi! To be gay on!
posted by not_on_display at 8:11 PM on October 12, 2008

LEFT 4 DEAD
LEFT 4 DEAD

Soon, I will be rejoining you all.

Indeed.

And I am sitting here literally quivering with anticipation at the prospect of playing LittleBigPlanet in a couple of weeks. Quivering like a small dog who knows it's soon time for walkies.
posted by Ritchie at 3:40 AM on October 13, 2008

I'm not sure where this Team Fortress 2 is, but I'm totally up for blowing the hell out of each other.
posted by mattoxic at 4:56 AM on October 13, 2008

So... ok, maybe I've been doing it wrong for this past year, but all this killing...

We're supposed to be doing it in video games?

Seriously, you guys are going to need to be a lot clearer about this kind of thing in the future. It's these little confusions that lead to all sorts of difficult to explain misunderstandings.

Now I have to go, I've got some... cleaning to do.
posted by quin at 8:24 AM on October 13, 2008

@quin: I wouldn't worry about cleanup as long as you've stuck to the protocol and KEPT IT IN THE WOODS.

@mattoxic: you can buy Team Fortress 2 from Valve online and you can get to know the Mefighters at the Mefightclub forum.

@mefighters old and new: Happy Birthday!
posted by assoctw at 10:38 AM on October 13, 2008

happy birthday, all!
posted by xbonesgt at 12:07 PM on October 13, 2008

You are all bleeders!
I played once, but then I heard a female voice, coming from a player, and I got scared and left
posted by dirty lies at 1:20 PM on October 13, 2008 [2 favorites]

Ah yes! Mefightclub! I can't believe it's been a year already. I've totally gone lurk and haven't even played TF2 for like 6 months...ugh, much too long. My step-son is still on there a lot, so I like to pretend he's keeping my spot warm.

Hmm...I wonder if I can find time this week to help give y'all some easy kills...
posted by gofargogo at 4:23 PM on October 13, 2008

We're supposed to be doing it in video games?

I've often wished that some of the more annoying MeFi posters would actually turn up on the server, in order to be dominated by crit rockets and stuff. Good therapy for everybody.

But no, it's mostly just the nice people in there :)
posted by First Post at 4:57 PM on October 13, 2008

From the Amazon reviews of the Rotato:

I gave the rotato two stars because it generally does a good job peeling a potato but is on the dangerous side. Yes it saves time, but if you need to take one of the blades off ... you could easily hurt yourself. I got cut three times. In addition I put a potato on the rotato today and the blade popped out while I was doing this and ripped part of my fingernail off. ... If anybody buys this make sure your kids stay away from it or only use it with close parental supervision.

Mefightclub: you could hurt yourself - use only with close parental supervision
posted by exogenous at 7:27 PM on October 13, 2008

That is fantastic, exo.
posted by absalom at 7:38 PM on October 13, 2008

I don't recognize a lot of these usernames.

Time to start spychecking!!!

*WHOOSH*
posted by Cyrano at 7:57 PM on October 13, 2008 [2 favorites]

Gah, I want to shoot 'em up too, but haven't tried TF2. Anyone got a spare guest pass?
posted by Xere at 10:25 PM on October 13, 2008

Take it to the dark grey.
posted by Phred182 at 11:57 PM on October 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

Gah, I want to shoot 'em up too, but haven't tried TF2. Anyone got a spare guest pass?

I said in a recent AskMe thread that people should come to Mefight Club and we'd line up a TF2 guest pass for 'em, but it turns out that the guest passes I thought lasted forever are time limited, so there probably aren't any going at the moment.

But TF2 (or better, the whole Orange Box) is the absolute best FPS investment you could make, I think. I think TF2 alone is like $20 at the moment on Steam, and I guarantee you'll get way more than 20 bux of value out of it if you're interested in the genre at all. Even if you're not. Watch a few of the Meet The... (Engineer/Heavy/Soldier/Scout...) videos on Youtube or whatever if you're wavering, to get a feel for the 60's comedy mayhem vibe of the game. It is big fun, especially with us swell folks who play it a little obsessively on our (4 count'em 4 as of today) servers.

[/Valve shill]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 2:55 AM on October 14, 2008

I don't recognize a lot of these usernames.

I go by "Royski" for TF2 after I realized my MeFi handle wasn't doing me any favors: "Spy behind you, exo.. exa.. ah.." SHANK!
posted by exogenous at 5:25 AM on October 14, 2008 [1 favorite]

Are any of you fine fellows [and fellowesses] playing assault cube?

Or am I stuck letting strangers kill me?
[you know, strangers who aren't strangers I already know]
posted by Acari at 7:30 AM on October 14, 2008

FOUR? There's a secret server that I don't know about? What the hell! I thought I was part of the cabal!
posted by absalom at 10:01 AM on October 14, 2008

The Pubbie, The Privie, the (temporary) one-on-one Tourney Server, and the New One.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:04 PM on October 14, 2008

and the left4dead one...
posted by Busithoth at 11:02 AM on November 7, 2008