Because I was a cool kid

The Beast Wars video game is not well regarded as a good game. That's fair, as it's not a good game. However, it's a bad game I couldn't get enough of. I've got both the PC and PS version of the game. That's right, I bought both. Why? Well, I'm crazy obviously, but also, I had a great time with it. You see, I mainly played the PS version for the single player mode as I never found a good way to play it on the PC. I've never been a big fan of mouse and keyboard controls, and never found a controller I was totally happy with. But the PS version was by default designed for a standard controller, so I was able to enjoy it more that way, and I did enjoy playing it for all it's faults.

The PC version is the main reason we're here right now. Because I got it first and played it most, despite my earlier complaints about the controls. Why? Because I'm crazy obviously, but also, I had a great time with it. You see, it had a online mode that was a lot of fun. Sure, it was the standard fair death match. But that wasn't what was fun. While I'm sure it could be played online other ways, the intended and main way was through the MSN gaming site at the time that it was designed for. What made that so special? Well, each game had it's channels on the MSN gaming site at the time with several hubs for folks to gather and play. Each hub was basically a chat room until folks would go in to play the game. I spent hours, weeks, months, in those chat hubs.

Those chat hubs for a time were great places for fans to interact that was just fun. Usually free of the fandom drama and gate keepers that were in the usual haunts, the hubs were just a good place to talk Transformers. It eventually fizzled out, but for a time, it was great. I still remember it and some of those old excite/yahoo chat rooms during that time as my favorite places together with other Transformers fans and just enjoy the hobby with others. I guess it's an awkward way to gather, but back in those times talking Transformers was always an extra turn around your elbow on the way to your booty. Avoiding the nonsense made it well worth it though.