In this week's Tip.It Times, we let one player give his story of how he remembers our late friend, The Old Nite.
As I'm sure many of you have heard by now, recently RuneScape suffered the loss of a very well-known, and very well-liked person. This person was known to us as The Old Nite. This has hit many players emotionally, myself included. I'd like to start this off with the story of how I came to know The Old Nite, for the months that I did before his death.
I was a normal player, just like everyone else - raising my skills, trying to earn the almighty GP and just generally having a good time on RuneScape. I had many friends that would do anything at the drop of a hat to help me if I needed it, and I would do the same for them. I enjoyed many aspects of the game. One thing that I, like many others, liked doing was watching the battle between the top three players: Lilyuffie88, Zezima and The Old Nite. While I was raising various skills, I'd occasionally glance at the high scores and see who would be on top out the three. Almost always, Zezima had a pretty good lead on the number one spot, but I'd always see Lilyuffie and The Old Nite battling back and forth for #2.
Through the months I began to meet new people through some friends of mine. They were fun to talk to and were good people. I met one in particular on Skype (an online program that you talk with using your microphone, like TeamSpeak). One night, while I was talking with friends, one of them invited someone into the conversation that I had never met before. We'll call him Tom for the sake of his privacy. He seemed like a great guy and was good to talk to. We chatted for a while, had a good time. I talked while playing RuneScape, and it killed the boredom that I'm sure we all face when raising those skills. It wasn't until later that I found out that Tom was The Old Nite's son.
Now, being the person that I am, I of course was intrigued by this. I would talk to him regularly and we became good friends. Of course I would ask him a question every now and then about his father, and he would answer them the best he could without invading his father's privacy. It was soon after this that I did what I'm sure a lot of RuneScape players did: I added The Old Nite to my friends list.
Of course, he didn't have me added so he appeared offline, but I kept him added. I guess hoping that one day he would add me, I'm not really sure. I must admit that part of the reason I kept him added was because of his status on the game. Who wouldn't want to have a "famous", for lack of a better term, player on their list?
Well, one day, as I was chopping trees in Seers I noticed "The Old Nite has logged in". I didn't think much of it because usually when that happened it was quickly followed by "The Old Nite has logged out". So I continued doing what I was doing not giving it much of a second thought. It wasn't until a bit later that I noticed that he was still logged in.
So of course I did what I'm sure many do when they see a "famous" player log in. I said hello, and to my surprise he replied with a "Hi :)". I was star struck, if you will. A famous player was talking to me. I didn't want to do what I'm sure so many have done to him and spam him like crazy so I simply made small talk with things like "How are you?", etc until I had to log off for the night.
I logged back in the next day and he was logged in. What's this? He kept me added? I couldn't believe it. So eventually I worked up enough nerve to talk to him once more, and once more he replied. He was such a nice guy. He would always talk to me, no matter what he was doing. He'd be happy to make anything for me if I had the materials. You couldn't ask for a better friend, and a better player to the RuneScape community.
He even apologized to me when I asked him to make me a Amulet of Fury once. He told me to meet him in Falador but didn't show up for about 20 minutes. I told him that there was no need to apologize, as he was the one doing me the favor. He said that he was still sorry that he kept me waiting and promptly made me the Amulet of Fury.
From that moment on I knew that I had made friends with a great guy, and over the months we became better friends and talked a lot. Being the avid Castle Wars junkie that I am, I even tried to get him to play a game or two with me, but he kindly declined stating that he had never been and wasn't interesting in trying it, which I understand.
During his time on RuneScape he maxed out his character's skill total, that being 2079 at the time, the second player to ever do this, next to Zezima. A friend of mine told me that she and a few of The Old Nite's friends were holding a small party to congratulate him on maxing out his character.
We chatted in Draynor Village for a while, with his telling us how much we meant to him, and that he couldn't have done it without the support of his friends. After chatting in Draynor for a while, we moved onto the Dueling Arena for some fun Duels. We fooled around there for a bit before he said that he had to go and logged out.
Sadly that would be the last time that I would see him, as I was later informed of his passing. I was horrified by this news. I just couldn't believe it - such a great guy taken from this earth so soon. It just wasn't fair, it just wasn't right. I'm sure if I would have known that the day at the Dueling Arena was the last time I was going to speak with him, I would have told him what a great guy he was and how very lucky I was to know him, but I never got that chance. I truly hope that he knows just how much of a positive impact he made on this game.
I would now like to take this time to just add some quotes from a few friends on their thoughts on The Old Nite.
Axe Man Jack said, “The Old Nite was one that would never forget that we were his fellow gamers. He was a Legend but when anyone would say hi he would reply with a hello and would more often than not have a conversation with you if you were in the same spot as he was training the various skills.”
Mr Tiddles told me that “it wasn't what The Old Nite said that he remembers, it was always how he said it. He was a true gentleman.”
RuneScape has truly lost a Legend, one that will always be remembered as a great person, and a great addition to the RuneScape community, one that will truly be missed.
R.I.P The Old Nite. Heroes get remembered. But Legends never die. You were truly a RuneScape Legend.
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