Mine will be quite long lol.
Almost 10 years ago, I discovered the world of vehicle simulation games in the form of a trucksim called Hard Truck 2. Hard Truck 2 was one of the original trucksims, before Haulin, ETS 2, Rig & Roll, and other similar games. It had something like 8 vehicles, a simple map, low quality graphics, and the always irritating AI, some of which would try to steal your cargo. After playing it for some time, I began to grow tired of it because 1. the trucks I wanted to drive cost way more than I could afford with my in-game income, and 2. there was no way to get rid of the AI.
On top of that, I had an innate desire to edit the game in some way, although at the time I knew nothing about modding. I decided to try to modify the game, but again, I didn't have a clue of what I was doing or even where to start, but I did learn quickly that this Hard Truck 2 was essentially unmoddable. So I began to look elsewhere: I discovered a game called 18 Wheels of Steel, and soon joined what was likely my first forum, TruckModShop. I was impressed by how Haulin looked graphically and the quality of the trucks that were modded into the game, and I knew that I wanted to add Haulin to my simulator collection. But that never happened, and honestly, I'm glad it didn't.
Given my style of play and the fact that I rarely if ever spend large amounts of time even in FS driving around, I would have become bored quickly of Haulin. Plus, I would have been frustrated by the fact that as in FS, many of the high-quality mods are private or VIP. In addition, I would have had great difficulty modding the game since many of the modding tools for trucksims are payware and somewhat difficult to learn. So I never got Haulin, and I stopped playing Hard Truck 2.
Still, I knew that there were other games out there, as I had played flight sims in the past, and I wasn't done in my search for a new game. Little did I know that the game I wanted was actually found in a totally different genre of games, farming simulators. My first farming simulation game was given to me for a birthday present, years in the past. It was John Deere's Drive Green, the officially licensed farming game of the John Deere brand. Once again, I played this game for quite some time before realizing that there was something missing: I wanted to add to the game in some way, and Drive Green, like HT2, is unmoddable.
So I stopped playing Drive Green as well, and started searching further for a game that had features these previous two simulators didn't have. That's when I stumbled upon the Farming Simulator series. I think my interest in the then-current FS 2011 was sparked by the videos on a YouTube channel by the name of Matt I, a man I know today as bigcountry.
I know for a fact that I watched this video:
and I was deeply impressed by the fact that Farming Simulator had trucks, but trucks weren't the center of the game. Immediately, Farming Simulator 2011 shot to the top of my wishlist for games, but once again, I never got it. I downloaded the demo version of FS 2011 and played with it a bit, but there was something off about the daytime brightness, and I decided not to purchase it.
At this point, I have forgotten what happened between there and my first experiences with FS 2013, but I do remember joining AEM and FS-UK as well as the official Giants forum (seriouswork over there). In fact, I believe my first post on the Giants forum was a mod request for people to convert some Sketchup models to FS! How my perspective has changed today!
Anyways, when FS 2013 came out, I once again downloaded the demo and began playing with it, and for the first time in my gaming career, I began posting screenshots. I waited a bit to buy FS 2013, and finally, when the financial resources were available began making my decision to buy.
I want to take a moment to relate my decision making process for buying FS 2013 because I feel it is an amusing story. At this point, I realized that I had three options: Agrar Simulator, FS 2013, and FS 2011. I knew that FS 2011 had tons of existing mods, and I knew that FS 2013 had some mods as well, but Agrar Simulator had better graphics. Because Agrar Simulator was also unmoddable, that cut it out of my checklist, leaving FS 2011 and 2013 to battle for my dollars. I looked at the situation this way: FS 2011 had been in existence for some time by then, and it was nearing the end of its golden age of popularity. FS 2013, on the other hand, was a new game with great potential, but it lacked the mods that FS 2011 had.
So I decided to risk buying FS 2013 under the assumption that modders would create plenty of new stuff for the new game. That was a great decision! I purchased FS 2013 and immediately started downloading mods and using them in my game. My first map was likely Wendezeit DDR Final, a map that I still love for some reason. Now the thing was, I had been attempting to use mods in the FS 2013 demo version, but I soon realized that demos don't support mods lol. So with the full version of the game, I was finally able to download stuff, and I definitely started doing so.
One of my natural abilities in life is finding things in hard to find places, particularly on the internet. FS was no exception. Even from the start, I began looking overseas to my then primary mod source, LS-world.pl. I downloaded a bunch of mods from that site, both junk and quality creations, and began screenshoting like never before.
My first screenshots, like the mods I was using, were very low-quality.
On FS-UK, the first one I ever posted was this, a screenshot I wouldn't even take today:
Not only were my screenshots low quality, but as you can see from the 7 in the top corner, my FPS was in the tank. I was running my computer too hard, and producing very low-quality work. However, everyone has to start somewhere, and that was my start.
After some time, I began experimenting with photo editing, and well, my start on that was horrible as well.
Some edits didn't turn out that poorly, like this
But some were simply terrible:
Then I discovered the camera mod, and things began to look up.
I still wasn't very good at photo editing, but the quality of my screens significantly improved.
At the time, I believed it was necessary to put a large signature on every one of my pictures, so that's why you see in huge letters "seriousmods" on every one of my shots. I was steadily improving in many ways, but I still had a long ways to go.
As I began posting better quality screens, I began to draw attention, and the PMs and gallery comments that come with it. I soon was being hounded by link beggars, even though the stuff I had at the time was all public and all readily available on the web.
Looking back, I actually took some pretty decent shots in my early FS days, although my style and technique have greatly improved today.
Here's one decent one from the old days:
Even with my improvements, I still hadn't figured out photo editing, but still, on occasion I made an ok picture a really bad one.
At this time, I began experimenting with modding, and I once again, had a rough start. By this time in my story, you can tell that I have persistence as one of my life qualities!
My first model in Blender was an attempt at a van trailer:
Not a bad model for a map object, but horribly low quality for a mod.
On the screenshot front, I also improved even more as exemplified in this shot:
and this one
You may notice in the second screen that I also made a change of maps, from Wendezeit to Belgique Profonde. Later on, I was playing Mig Map, and loving it!
Not a bad shot considering how green I was in my screenshoting adventure.
I was also attempting to mod once again, this time with a grain trailer:
Not bad, but still I had room to improve.
Now during this whole time, unbeknownst to anyone other than me, I had been undergoing a small problem with my screenshots: I had no place online to store them. I first tried imgur, and quickly ran out of space. Then I tried photobucket, and of course today, I use Flickr. I was also taking way more screens back then than today, and that was a big reason for my lack of online storage space.
But anyways, I went back and forth from Wendezeit to several other maps until I discovered my favorite map of all time, Lviv Region.
I cannot explain how much I loved Lviv, and still love that map today.
I took some of my best screenshots ever on that map and had my longest savegame ever also, which lasted probably 5-10 hours before it broke unexpectedly and unexplainably.
Here are some examples from Lviv.
Lviv was where I hit my FS stride in screenshots, and I haven't looked back since. A short while later, I began discovering new brands of machines as well, and I quickly fell in love with the Fendt brand.
Back on Lviv, I continued farming and enjoying the game, and I progressed greatly in my screenshoting skills. You may also notice that my signatures became smaller and of a more artistic font. I finally was discovering that I didn't need to mar my screens to make them my own.
My modding continued to struggle, and I started messing around with Sketchup stuff as well.
It was at this time that I met grassman675, and we soon after started the SMW modding team. I also discovered Duke Farming at this moment in my FS career, and started playing with his stuff on a new map, Benz NW.
I liked Duke's stuff, and at one time thought he had actually made the models. Of course I was wrong, but still, this was the first time in my FS career that I had begun actively gameplay with American semi trucks.
Soon after, I started editing mods, starting with paint schemes.
I started a fake trucking company called North Cascadia, and started to paint all of my semis in blue and white livery.
By now, I had cemented my style of mods in what I still practice today: American style mods, European maps.
I also soon discovered what it for people to share other's private mods with this trailer:
I could go on and on detailing the many stories between there and now, but I'll only point out a few things.
1. SMW's first mod and Rafael's grand entrance into the FS modding world.
2. My second most popular photo in history by five-stars and SMW's second mod.
3. One of my first successful modding projects, a conversion of an 8345R mod from FS 2011 to FS 2013.
4. My first decent 3d part for a truck, the sunvisor on this Peterbilt 379.
5. My first custom truck and SMW's 3rd mod.
6. and finally, large scale farming gone extreme on Kazakhstan
Between that point and today, I have edited tons of mods and maps, taken some great shots, and made a lot of friends, and some enemies lol.
I don't want to overload this post with pictures, but I am very happy about some of the projects I have done in FS 2013.
Today, I am a totally different person from who I was back when I started playing this game. I have learned how to edit mods and scripts, how to model in Blender, and how to generally make stuff look pretty. If anyone were to ask me what I do best in FS, I would say "I make things look their best."
FS has been a greatly enriching experience for me, for many reasons, several of which are beyond the scope of the game itself. I have met a lot of great people who I would never have contacted in other ways; I have had opportunities to share my faith in Christ via PM and Steam message to friends in the community; I have interacted with people on the other side of the globe and developed great friendships with them; and I have learned that persistence is the key to success, whether that success be in FS screenshots or life in general.
I don't know what I would do for a hobby outside of FS: it is my primary hobby today, and I love everything that comes with it. Modeling, though tedious, allows me to express my artistic talents in 3d. Scripting allows me to see the inner workings of mods and what makes things do what they do. Screenshoting allows me to use my real life photography skills in a new and different way, and overall.
I know that I won't always play FS, and my time to stop may come sooner than I think. But while I still have the time to play and while I still have the desire to do so, I will continue doing so. FS has allowed me to develop new skills, to problem solve, and generally to be creative without the pressures of a work environment. I believe that I am often creative in general, but FS gives me an avenue to express that fully and frequently.
And even if for work or family reasons, my free time to play FS disappeared, I would likely still return to talk with the many great friends I have made, many of which are members of this community. OpenSourceFS is my hope for a better and more expanded modding community in America and beyond that can capture the feeling of the agricultural life like never before.
As a closing thought, I'd just like to thank each and every one of you who has contributed to my enjoyment of FS in some way, and a special thanks to those of you who have taken me as a friend. I think FS is the greatest game in history, and I will continue enjoying it, modding for it, and helping others develop skills in it for the foreseeable future.
Regards
SRSMDS
?. Then a few months later my dads laptop wouldn't work with games of any sort anymore. I was so mad. I then convinced him to put it on my papas PC of which he did. I would sit all day and play on it whenever I was there. 
