boksevik ☭

🗣️ Arda Güler: 'Do you remember Alex Hunter? Some of you are probably too young. But FIFA 17 had this mode called The Journey, and you played as this random kid named Alex. You started out as a nobody and tried to get signed by the big clubs. If you “made it,” they would show you going out of the tunnel next to stars like Cristiano Ronaldo.⁠ ⁠ It was more than a game for us. It was our actual dream, on the TV screen. We were so addicted. Every time I came home from my friends’ house, I begged my dad for a PS4.⁠ ⁠ “I’ll be so good! I’ll study so hard!”⁠ ⁠ One day when I came home from school, there was a package on the kitchen table. It was a PlayStation shaped box.⁠ ⁠ I went crazy.⁠ ⁠ I looked at him like, “Really?!”⁠ ⁠ He said, “Really.”⁠ ⁠ When I switched it on, there were lots of games on the PlayStation already. No disc required. It seemed almost too good to be true. I was like, Wait, I had to beg Dad for one game, and now he’s giving me 20?⁠ ⁠ I asked him, “Hey Dad, did you win the Lottery?”⁠ ⁠ He was like, “Actually …… I got a deal.”⁠ ⁠ I was like, “You mean at the store?”⁠ ⁠ He was like, “No, no, at the market …….”⁠ ⁠ Then I found out that my FIFA had no Journey mode. I couldn’t find Alex Hunter. Some of the names were weird. When I wanted to be Cristiano Ronaldo, I had to select this club called “MD White.”⁠ ⁠ I played like this for weeks. I had never tried any other football game except FIFA, so I honestly thought mine was just a different version. But then one day my friends came over to play, and they were like, “Arda ........ what is this?”⁠ ⁠ I said, “What do you mean? It’s FIFA.”⁠ ⁠ I said, “No, come on guys, this is the football game.”⁠ ⁠ They said, “Bro, where is Fenerbahçe? What are all these weird names?⁠ ⁠ Your dad got scammed.”⁠ ⁠ They were all cracking up. I was trying to laugh along with them, but I was actually so embarrassed.⁠ ⁠ But I didn’t care that I had the fake FIFA. I loved it anyway. I don’t need a real pitch or a real goal or a new PlayStation. Even if I have rocks for goalposts, I am happy.⁠ ⁠ That’s the Turkish mentality.'

I cannot put into words how happy, proud and fulfilled I am with how it all went! Yesterday was one of the craziest days of my life. I released the pack, and unlike earlier releases we had no big issues or problems. It was phenomenal. We had a 12 hour live stream (which crashed after 11 and a half hours) but we finished it off. 3.0 to me has been my "life project" at least so far. When I hear people say that 3.0 has literally felt like a release of a new game, I kind of question it, but seeing the response yesterday, the messages... I've not even been able to see them all, let alone reply. It's been tremendously wholesome and honestly, a refreshing piece of social media. The pack has now in total surpassed 500k downloads. HALF A MILLION DOWNLOADS! When I started this journey back 8 months ago, I never could foresee this happening. Maybe it's not time to get sentimental, or maybe it IS the time. But looking back, I might've had lymph cancer. Went under the knife and during recovery I managed to get started with Unity modding. It grew. Version 1.0 was a sick proof of concept. The channel grew to 3k subs. Twitter grew to 10k followers. Ousmane Dembéle was in my DM's. It was a wild ride, literally. From recovering, sleepless nights, trying to do what was right when suddenly the spotlight is bright. People calling you all sorts of big words you don't see in yourself... I struggled a lot with what I perceived to be "needless criticism" and the "Why are people reporting the same stuff 5 times?" It was all very new. Didn't really know how to deal with it. I became a bit frustrated, but managed to shoot past it. I probably moaned a lot more to my family about it than they deserved hahahaha! Then I bunkered down, worked on it some more. 18 hours per day. To unhealthy levels. Neglected people I care for... Not sure why... Just drive? I released version 2.0. To me it was massive, I felt like I was really close to my ceiling. I wasn't ha! 2.0 was at least stable, but had a host of issues. I ran into burnout issues just before 2.0... Took a break post 2.0 which made me reconsider certain things. At the end of the day I became a bit bitter... Not what I wanted to do. I hence temporarily halted content creation. After 2.4 I decided to go Patreon to filter the feedback from the feedback. It was frustrating for me when I believe mods should be free... But I needed to do it. The April Fools joke about retiring was very close to not being one. A few things in my life had just happened, and I wanted to see for myself what my own value was. It was planned as an April Fools, but could've gone the other way. It doesn't by the way, I am not retiring. 3.0 became a bit of a burden here or there. When you do the substitute bench for the 140th time you think a paint drying competition is more fun, but I pushed through it. Found out new things, and suddenly the ceiling for 3.0 had been so much higher than 2.0... What is 4.0 going to look like? I guess time will tell. For now... I'll celebrate what I have, and that is a phenomenal community we've built up together. TLDR; we cooking, pack was poopy, now it is better. Thank you to every one of you who's been part of this. Who's been a force in what we've been able to achieve. For allowing me to add value in my own way. From the bottom of my heart. Take care, Bassy