Ever heard of Opa-Age?
Written by RalphNaderForPrez (3/23/03)
Updated by Catzgirl (5/22/04)
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Nice forum!
Not sure if you folks have heard of the legendary ezboard, Opa-Age, so please bear with me as I go into its history a bit.
The forum was founded by Teh-Kao-Yang, a computer science graduate of Berkeley University, who degenerated into an anti-social maniac as his career in the video game industry refused to spark. Here is a picture of him (yes, it’s real)
user posted image
Teh-Kao, or Opa as he likes to known as, is a long time lover of both videogames and the internet. Predictably, his enjoyment for both of these things combined, and for over ten years he has been reviewing and previewing the latest games. Here are a couple short examples:
QUOTE
Darius Twin: This 2 player shooter has great graphics and music but lousy gameplay.. It has a really bad progression of difficulty. The earlier levels are all pretty easy to beat, including the bosses. Then in the last level, BANG!, it seems like a thousand times harder. The enemies are not too
interesting and the ending is really lame. Somewhow I enjoyed the music a lot more than Actraiser's. I give it a 6.5.
QUOTE
Super Castlevania 4 : I am really annoyed by how many SNES games have the word "Super" in their names. This game was disappointing too. The graphics were ok, but not up to the SNES standard. The music was weird and some people may like it, but I didn't. The things your character can do with his whip were pretty neat. You can strike the whip in almost all directions, and you can use it as a rope to swing between platforms. I felt the levels were pretty uninteresting and too long. Maybe the game gets better in the latter
levels, but it just didn't hold my interest long enough for me to play that far. I give it a 6, from what I've seen.
I believe he attempted to create a website dedicated exclusively to this, but unfortunately nothing came of it.
He actually worked on a completed game. Doom Troopers. Maybe you have played the rom. I believe he had some Saturn and PSX projects that he worked on as well, but these were cancelled.
user posted image
Now Opa, despite his odd appearance and anti-social, defeatist attitude, is a very pleasant guy to be around. He may be a thirty-four year old virgin, and he may have his odd habits, such as refusing to sit on the toilet seat while defecating, or sucking his thumb:
user posted image
but you can’t help but to feel fond of him in an odd sort of way. Which is why it is sad to see his forum beginning to decay.
Opa-Age has long been the bane of the ezboard staff, the CEO of ezboard himself (demello) has descended onto the board to argue with and expel certain members (who predictably returned under numerous nicknames). Opa-Age is a forum that promotes complete freedom of speech. A very odd assortment of people post there:. wifebeaters, racists, rights-activists, homosexuals, schizophrenics, warmongers, conspiracy theorists, homophobes, goths, drunks, crackheads, rednecks, geniuses, sanctimonious vegetarians, obsessive stalkers, bubble dwellers, lesbians, nintendo street team members, etc… The list could stretch for several pages.
One might perceive it to be an unbalanced place, however both poles are occupied by equally insane people that don’t budge an inch in their fixed opinions, so things tend to level out in the long run.
Anyhow, by now you are likely asking why this forum has fallen on hard times. This relates directly to the nature of how it works. All over the internet are scattered carcasses of previous incarnations of Opa-Age, discarded before CSC ran out to avoid having to pay an exorbitant amount of money to keep it afloat. Instead a new forum is bought, and is posted on for the next three to six months. This has been going on for years.
Recently Opa decided that the forum was a curse on his life, and decided to flee it and attempt to further himself socially (this was after his Taiwanese mail-order bride refused to marry him after spending two weeks at his place [yes, a true incident]). Therefore he handed over the forum to a different poster and pretended to leave the internet (Of course he was lying. He was posting there the very next day, and has not yet stopped as of this very day).
In any case, the person he handed the reins over to was, to say the least, unfit for the job, and under his control the place began to degenerate. Long time members began to post less, and lesser known posters began making multiple names for themselves (‘joke characters’), spamming the board with lame threads. This decay culminated into ultimate destruction when the ezOP [Lonestar] handed control of the place over to an insane member [Lethargic Gamer] with over 100 global names for himself. This character edited and deleted posts, generally fucking around with everyone. He was soon out of power, but the damage was already done.
Another poster [Futami aka Cassidy] took this opportunity to create his own forum, and move to traffic to a place under his own control. And so the majority of the forum followed him to this new place. This was great for them, despite his insanity, and he promised to purchase CSC in the following days. He imagined this would cost him somewhere in the area of $30, and was then surprised when he saw he would be charged almost $130. Getting over 10,000 hits a day rocketed the price.
Everyone then moved back to the original forum, which is no longer under the control of irresponsible people, and IS paid for, but things are beginning to die. Opa-Age is starting to shrivel. The idea is beginning to fade. People are thinking of leaving.
[Update 5/22/04]
After much turmoil and power conflicts between the EzOps, the decision was made to move away from the overly priced EzBoards all together and to search for a stable host. Thus the forum reigns were handed over to a controversial poster with promises of a stable server; Mina, aka Saphirix. Mina has long been an Opa-Age staple with her arousing pic threads and abrasive attitude, but this new direction caused a split in the ranks and for a time there were two separate Opa-Age forums, one on EzBoard and one on a private server. However, with her stable and free server, expert network know-how and level-headed cast of Administrators and Moderators, Mina's Opa-Age soon assimilated all other Opa-Age incarnations to become one united Opa-Ages (with an s).
Under a new name and new url (Opa-Ages.com), the forum has flourished! With close to 100 members a day and growing, Opa-Ages has seemingly found a permanent home and enjoys the luxury of both a stable server and stable administration.
[End Update]
This is why you should post there! The forum is paid for. All it needs is new people. New personalities. New opinions. Anyone. The forum is not discriminating.
Go there.
Check it out.
It’s a classic place.
Post there.
You won’t be disappointed.
Just try it.
Be part of the new generation of members on the forum.
Perhaps even meet Opa himself. (Opa-Opa is his name)
Best of luck.
www.opa-ages.com
- RalphNaderForPrez