I wish I had the spiral flak jacket :/

I don't even know the name of my color scheme. It was just a slider with no text IIRC

I remember my early days well.

"Omigosh, I have a GUN?!"
"Whoa, zombies!"
"Wow, what's that hat he's wearing?"
"Ooh. Divine Avenger. That sounds powerful."

I joined on that very day, but had no idea about the hat, haha. I did see everyone on the rescue camp talk about it though so I figured it out soon enough.

I saw it promoted on Steam so I thought I'd give it a go. The fact that I was on a Mac at the time meant I had very limited game access on Steam, and so any game I could play on a Mac (while also being free) was an instant try in my book.

This one just carried on to be a great game that I fell in love with.

Mine is a long story just because it was often on, off, along with sadness so if you feel as though text is too large, feel free to ignore it:

I saw this game while browsing Youtube one day because of being subscribed to SEGA's videos. This was originally when the original launch trailer for the full game appeared so I had no idea about the beta. Upon asking a lot of my friends about it, I was greeted with an outstanding "it does not look like the game for me."

I signed up for the game just after its official launch so I was quite the oldbie back then; an official launch player but not a beta player. During this time came up quite a lot of fun upon starting: I was greeted with a mysterious world I knew nothing of along with something that one of my dreams is that Nick has achieved.

I loved the world so much but the problem ends up with being first impressions: Upon joining my first party in Tier 1 and reaching the sub-town, I was under the demand that I had to give him all my money otherwise return to Haven. As stated in another thread, this was back when soloing and leaving a party. As such, I sat there and waited as everyone left the party except for myself. Once I continued on, I never joined another party and quit because I didn't want to deal with "is this how every party is going to be?" along with the fact that Wolvers were quite deadly to a new-player alone. After various failings each day (I really did try as much as I could, but the game was obviously too hard to me without a gamepad) I eventually just gave up and never played again...

Then the winter achievements came by on Steam. One of the winter achievements just happened to be for a game I haven't touched in awhile: Spiral Knights. Upon going back I was greeted with some quite interesting changes one being the thing I still love: Snow! The game changed and after attempting the achievement and finally getting it while being stuck in Tier 2 because I had a Troika, I decided to head for the terminal to help a friend I know wanted the hat.

Upon reaching the terminal and getting his hat: He quit. But I figured that the game was actually enjoyable this time around. I told myself that I wanted to see what was at the end, I wanted to get better, and so on! I slowly started to progress on my own, getting slowly further and further to completion when I finally reached a boss depth: the Snarbolax. I was ecstatic upon reaching what appeared to be something I have never seen; a beautiful place that held something dark. As I prevailed the boss I got... well... really bad news that day upon earning that achievement: My grandmother had passed on. O Frabjous Day wasn't exactly O Frabjous for me.

Seeing as my grandmother passed, someone who I looked to be my mother made me quite upset, to the point that I had to take my mind off of her. It just happened that Spiral Knights was there but the mist energy became a problem. It was the first thing I ever bought in any MMO ever: An elevator pass. Was it bad that I used it to get my mind off of it? I don't know but I don't think I'd have been here if it wasn't because it would have either ended in two paths: I would have quit the game forever from that point and miss out on a lovely game or continue to erase my mind.

From that point on, I progressed and after awhile, I played Spiral Knights for the love of the game, not for the ease of a heart. I play now because Cradle is still a mysterious place for me and I want to see it expand more and more. So I guess I stay because of the game being fun for me and now having fun friends to be with through thick and thin.