This last weekend was one of the best examples in the world that people can have real, concrete friendships based over the internet.  It is true that in many cases the anonymity offered by a keyboard and a network connection is an invitation to shed human decency; but it becomes increasingly clear to me that those people are the minority. Just as it’s easier to give attention to insults and neglect compliments, the scum of the internet are what we think of as the norm.

I’ve been a creature of the internet since I was relatively young.  Meeting people online is nothing new to me.  Neither is taking the online offline and actually hanging out.  At events I’ve attended as a Frag Doll it’s common to meet a new member of the community who lives in the area and came out to the event to say hello.  The difference this weekend was that there was no convention or party involved.  This was the East Coast Community LAN, an event organized and run by the community with the specific goal of taking all those great folks in the community, pulling them away from their keyboards, and shipping them to one location.  This event was about meeting those people we knew by handles like TheBadFish and Seductivpancake and putting faces to names.

I arrived well after most of the community members had arrived--some had already been in town two days.  It was immediately obvious to me that, in spite of this being the first time many of us had technically “met” there was no need for a “get to know you” session.  Jokes, mannerisms, social comfort all carried smoothly from the forums into life. We were already friends.  Those strangers who saw us would have guessed us all to be friends from childhood or something equally sappy.  They might also have guessed us all to be escaped crazies because, well, we’re all crazy and refer to each other by magical pretend names. But that’s beside the point.

One highlight of this weekend, besides the rad Guitar Hero 2, DDR, Wii Sports, Rainbow Six Vegas, Gears of War, Halo 2, Denny’s, and Jewish Mother (whew) was the Fraggys, and it deserves a bit more attention right about… now.

The Fraggys are the Frag Doll community awards, designed to recognize some (though sadly not all) of the fantastic people who make this community one worth being part of.  We devised a clever set of categories and invited the folks at the event to nominate other community members (present or not) for recognition.

Though we held a delightful awards ceremony with silk gloves, monacles, and top hats at the LAN, I wish to give our 2007 Fraggy Winners another round of applause.  Without further ado, allow me to announce our winners:

PS3 Fanboy/girl of the Year - Ninja Kn1ght
Xbox 360 Fanboy/girl of the Year - Millenium
Wii Fanboy/girl of the Year - Calyber
Most Likely to Spawncamp - MoePower/Seductivpancake (tie)
Sig Master - Phineas
Most Valuable Teammate - Loganissocool
Best Facedown - Stonelance/TheSWP (tie)
Best Couple - Mcmax3000/Loganissocool
Most Abuse of the English Language - Mmubaldi
Most likely to be in IRC - Eekers
Most Forum Posts - Magiz
Best Sig - Mr Nutty
Best Avatar - babycheeses
Most Likely to be online - Mcmax3000
Most Likely to Teamkill - BCA
Best Aim - Trip K Dragon
Thread Hijacker of the Year - Borfase
Most Likely to Marry His/Her Console - Slickrick
Best Game Host - Loganissocool

Thank you again to everyone for suffering speeding tickets, flight delays/cancellations, nasty weather, crazy hotel staff, and more to be at the LAN.  You guys mean a lot to me and the rest of the team.  It’s wonderful to have friends all over the country (and world), and it’s even better when we can take our friendships from forums, IRC, Xbox Live, and IM beyond the 1’s and 0’s of the internet into an offline event that feels as comfortable as a bathrobe and slippers.

Extra special thank you for this weekend go out to Expo, Binary, and ZeeEvil who broke their backs putting the LAN together. You guys rock!

- jinx

all i know is that im getting old