Nick
Community Engagement & Mapping Team Representative
- Joined
- May 31, 2013
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- 3,194
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The Power Of A Community
Hello everyone, my name is Nick, more formally known as KitMencha. It’s been a year since my arrival as a staff member here and I felt that it is customary for me to write this thread. This thread is not only my one year post, it is also my MCGamer story of how I went from being another tribute to being the first Hong Kong staff member, and being the second ever Sr. Staff member from the AS region. This is a long read but hopefully it is worthwhile. I will also be mentioning a group of individuals who have really impacted me and my journey here, I may not be able to mention everyone, so I apologize in advance. Also, before I begin there will be talks about my past and how MCGamer has help change me in a positive manner which includes sensitive topics including my history of self harm as well as suicide attempts, these sections will be marked red for your discretion. Another note before I begin, to the staff members who thought I was resigning when I posted a link to this in the Slack chat, I’m sorry for scaring/getting people’s hopes up(I sure hope it’s not the latter of the two).
Background Info
I was born and raised on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. I had moved to Hong Kong in 2008 because of the fact that my father had a job here and we lived back in Australia. We felt that it was a hassle only getting to see our dad 4 times a year for 2 weeks at a time when he would be able to come visit us, so eventually my parents decided that we can’t keep living like this.
My dad has a major in hospitality and currently owns two nightclubs in the heart of Hong Kong’s nightlife, Lan Kwai Fong. Moving to Hong Kong was one of the hardest things I have had to go through in my life. I hated Hong Kong. It is completely different to Australia. I hated the fact that I had to leave all my friends behind and have to start fresh. I didn’t know anyone except for my parents and siblings. I hated the fact that I had to go to a local Chinese primary(elementary) school without having any prior knowledge of Chinese or Chinese culture. I was an outsider. I got bullied because I couldn’t speak the language, didn’t know inside jokes that they knew. I would get punished by teachers for pranks that the locals would pull on me. I would be forced to stand for an entire day, got books thrown at me, staplers thrown at me. The worst thing was though, I had no one to back me up.
I eventually stood up for myself and called the teacher out for yelling at me for something I didn’t do. Immediately I was Mr. Popular. Everyone wanted to be friends with me because no one had the guts to go against the teacher. Eventually I graduated primary school and moved on to high school and that’s when the pain ends right?
Nope. High school is high school no matter where you’re from. Whatever reputation you gained in primary school doesn’t mean anything anymore. You’re back to square one. I was one of the smaller one’s when entering high school so I got made fun of my height, people would make fun of my name and switch out a letter in my first name to make it something that could be taken inappropriately and called me that. Except they didn’t just exchange it for Nick, they exchanged it for Nicholas which made it even worse. Because if you know me, you know I have a massive problem with people calling me Nicholas. So I was bullied for 3 years and eventually I showed people something that they didn’t know I could do, hardly anyone could do it. So, during Sports Day, I signed up for long jump. So I ran up to the sand pit, took the biggest leap I could, and I did a front flip. I may have gotten in trouble, but boy it was worth it.
Although the bullying wasn’t as frequent, it was still happening there and then. I was eventually diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder. I ended up being suicidal for for a whole 2 years, even till this date I still have occasional thoughts of the sort. I’m not going to make this any more of a sob story so I’ll explain as to why I gave this background info. Ever since joining MCGamer, my anxiety attacks have been at an all time low. My last one was about 4 months ago and it was in relation to something that wasn’t really that important. The amount of support, aside from all the times we make fun of each other, I get from the staff and community here is phenomenal. This community, besides for a few irrelevant trouble makers here and there, has made me feel more welcome than my real life. More friends here bought me birthday presents than my real friends, and that’s saying something. My point here is that, whenever you are feeling down, always remember that there are people for you. Whether they are your real life friends, people in this community, or someone you have never met in your life, someone cares.
Here we go…
April 2012
My introduction to Minecraft was my friend IRL, a few months prior to April 2012, who had built a massive boat on the ledge of a cliff face and I remember my initial comment on the game was “Wow, those graphics are horrible. It’s so pixelated”. He then had my try out the game and I instantly fell in love with it. I played it for months and come my 14th birthday on the 18th April 2012, I begged my mum to get me Minecraft and she promised to get it for me and she finally got around lending me her credit card on the 23rd and I bought the account KitMencha. KitMencha is actually an anagram of my real name Nick Mehta(Although I mention my name here please don’t say it in game).
K I T M E N C H A
N I C K M E H T A
I immediately I went searching for servers and I saw a bunch of videos titled ‘Minecraft Hunger Games’ and gave the server IP in the description and so I tried it out immediately and directly connected to one of the 10 servers MCSG was operating and I played my first game on the only map, The Survival Games. I quickly fell in love with the servers and played it daily. I played for hours on end and met a few people in game and Skype teamed with them. Slowly the server began growing. New servers. More players. SG2 came out. Everything was going great and that’s when you thought, this couldn’t get any better! But that’s when they introduced the first community map, Breeze Island by Static_Nightmare. I loved it and as much as people dislike it, I love it till this day because I have been with that map since the beginning.
Eventually they continued to add map after map and I do remember two maps that I loved so much that were removed a while ago and some of you may remember them, Asia Games and Hungry Hills. These were two of my favourite maps, sadly not many people enjoyed them.
Months and months went by and more and more maps were added. We eventually ended up having a spawn built by FyreUK and boy do I miss that! Throughout the months to come nothing really interesting happened on my end until the 1st June 2013. This is the day I wanted to become staff.
June 1st 2013
On this day, I found out what a staff member was. I was in a game on Treacherous Heights and that’s when I first saw a staff member. My friend and I were playing on that map and I had died, due to my PvP skills or lack there of. I was spectating my friend and that’s when I saw someone with a salmon name. It was Captain Dak . I asked him how he got that rank and he explained that he was a Moderator. I began asking him more and more questions and that’s when I asked him how to apply. He explained that I was to send in an application on the forums, something I knew completely nothing about. The only thing about MCGamer’s site that I knew of was the live game page in which I would constantly refresh to try get into a game in lobby. So I signed up and sent in an application. Roughly two weeks later I was declined, oh boy trust me, my application was horrible.
I then rewrote the application and sent in a second one. This time my application made it into pending but shortly afterwards was declined. At that point I had lost all motivation in applying for staff here. But something deep down inside said give it one last shot. So I sat down and wrote my application throughout the span of 1 week and finally posted in my last application.
A month and a half went by, but I didn’t want to pester any Sr. Staff member about it because I was afraid that they were going to hate me forever if I did. So I waited a few more days and I looked around the forums to where in the FAQs it stated that I could message a Sr. Staff member about my application two weeks after the posting of it, if it hadn’t already been replied to. So that’s when I messaged Le0 and she said that she would push it forward to the front of the queue so it could be reviewed faster. I got the message from Le0 and went to bed. As soon as I woke up, I went to check the forums to see if there were any new alerts from anything on the forums and that’s when I saw: slasherxteme replied to the thread ‘Interview - KitMencha’s Moderator Application’. I looked into it and saw that it made it into pending and about 40 mins after making it into pending, it then got accepted for interview. I freaked out. I told my entire family even though they had no clue what I was on about. I took a shower, got dressed and sat down in the waiting room, little did I know that I was to not have my interview until 5 days later.
28th September 2013
Interview day. After a few days of waiting in the interview room, my interview had come. Now I wanted to make the most out of my interview so I kept track of details. My interview was actually pretty cool. It started at exactly 11:00AM, ended at exactly 11:38AM and I received my rank at exactly 12:00PM. It was quite frankly one of the happiest days of my life(855) and will be a day I will never forget. A shoutout to the following interviewers that lead to me becoming a staff member here: Cam (Interview leader), Bowser52000 , Bicentennial_Man , Tacoface1234 , Toast , KellieBreanne , and slasherxtreme .
I met loads of friends who have stuck with me through thick and thin. Lots of them have now left the community or been banned, but I’m not going to go into that. The important thing is, for the first time after a long time, I felt wanted and I felt that I had accomplished something.
13th July 2014
For the longest time I had been told by a vast majority of the staff team, ‘You are definitely going to get Sr. Mod’, but I didn’t want to believe it but eventually thought I would due to the overwhelming amount of players & staff saying that I should. Numerous of trial groups were chosen and I was upset when I wasn’t in them, not because I didn't get Sr. Mod but because people brought my hopes up. Before I go on, dear community members, please do me a massive favour and if ever you want to thank a staff member for their work, never say ‘You should get a promotion’ or anything of the sort. It can really hurt them. As for mods, if you are working hard for the promotion, don’t. I’m a hypocrite in saying that but trust me. Work for the community, not for the promotion.
Back on topic, 13th July is the day when I got offered Trial Sr. Mod. It was around 4:15 a.m (AU staff have a hard time with meetings) when I got pulled up to the Waiting Room underneath The Board Room (Admin Meeting Room). Shortly afterwards I was the first out of the three of us (Krypton360, Frazzli185 and myself) to be moved up and that’s when I was offered Trial. The most that I remember, besides me freaking out, was that Dave tried to troll me but didn’t end up doing so well and he basically said “I know what you did and you’re in trouble” but this was after Col. Star accidentally slipt in the Mod chat on slack (the staff’s communication medium) that there will be trials and, so I pretty much knew when I got dragged up that I was one of them.
I was ecstatic that I had gotten trial and so I proceeded with the mod meeting, the staff Q&A, got trained and went to work with no sleep. As soon as I got home I got news that was both amazing, but horrible at the same time. I arrived home to my mum telling me that we were going on a trip to Gold Coast, Australia. It had been 3 years since I was last home and was extremely excited. But I was to leave 1 week before the end of my trial. That worried me so much because I would be going to visit my grandma in Australia who has breast cancer, and I wanted to spend time with her, but at the same time, do the work needed for my trial. Fortunately, the admins understood my situation and I proceeded with my trial in which I passed on the 9th August.
1 Year On
My first year as a staff member has almost come to an end and I am happy to say that it has been one amazing year. I have met so many new friends that I consider family now, friends who have stuck with me through thick and thin no matter what the situation. I will be giving a general special thank you to individuals who have stuck with me and who had never, or minimally, doubted me. These people are people who have stuck with me through thick and thin. Do bare in mind that I can’t write something for everyone but people who have made an influence know exactly who you are, even if you aren’t mentioned.
So a special thank you goes out to:
ChadTheDJ - Thank you for being a leader and not a boss who demands for tons of work to be done. You work with us and I appreciate that dearly. You work so hard juggling through IRL work and here and I commend you for doing that. Thank you for being there for when I need to bring up issues and for the $50 steam code haha.
Col_StaR - Where do I start? You are always concerned about the well being of the network and I highly appreciate that, especially for your efforts in handling the AU community. You are so professional when you want to be, and a down to earth guy when we’re just chatting. I thank you so much for allowing to rant to you and for giving me great advice.
Dave - Dave. I’ve always considered you an older brother of mine. Although we have had our rough times here and there, you do look out for me. Although we always call each other names and insult each other all the time and that you tease me with a certain someone, you still mean a lot to me.
AlpakaWhacker - Jamieeeee, you are my favourite Scotsman and a really great person. You are always willing to help whenever you can and you make sure that things get done and never ask for anything in return.
LadyOfLove - I love you for everything you have done for me, you are the one person whom no matter what have supported me and been by my side. You are my go-to person for everything because I can always trust that you will have the answers to my questions. You stuck up for me and helped me become a Sr. Mod when others weren’t too sure about me, you fought for me and I am eternally grateful. Don’t let anyone discourage you for what you do, because the work you do is phenomenal, and I’m pretty sure others will agree with me. All in all, thank you so much for your support.
ChandelleMC - CHANDELLEEEEEEE! Thank you for being there for me when I have nervous breakdowns and feel like resigning, if it weren’t for you I don’t think I’d be here tbha17. 90% of the things we say to each other are consists of “SAME OMG” or “Yum, Adam Levine”. You have helped me in more ways than one and I hate you for the ship name but, you know happy accident huh?
Bowser52000 - Bennyynyjyhjbybhjb! My timezone buddy! I have always looked up to you since I was a mod back this time last year. Thank you for your help up to now!
RelentlessForce - My son. I love you so much for being such an incredible son and I hope you like what I packed you for lunch.
Ghotiyz - We go a long way. Although you have been away for ages and we have had our disagreements, I still consider you my best guy friend in MCGamer. I really miss speaking to you and I hope real life is treating you well.
TotalDramaTony - Boo! Ilysm. Thank you for your ratchetness, you always make me laugh whenever I’m down and I am extremely grateful for your caringness towards myself.
MKFarrell - Mslay! You are so fun to be around and your laugh is the cutest thing besides me.
Kelsey7978 - My creeper is better.
PeriLH_ - Bffl! <3
Ava - You are an amazing dev and such a funny guy. You are such a great person to hang around with and you always manage to know how to make someone laugh with your links to stupid photos xD.
Rusty - Rustin! Thank you for all of your support with everything, you are such a great friend and I'm sorry we didn't get to meet in August, hopefully we can make up for that someday in the near future
.Special shoutouts go to:
Frazzli185
xstephaniemmx
MoLoToV
Sean
Sp3ctrum_Visionz
JimmerHD
Cubes
KellieBreanne
soggypickle
Zacharoutio
Sheldor
Froggytv
DracoHD
Razzledgirl
(I may add some more along the way, it is quite late)
So as mentioned in the title, feel free to ask me anything appropriate here (anything else should be asked here) and I'll be sure to answer it. Thank you all for an amazing year, let's make two!
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