Houndy and z02, thanks for the kind words! Really means a lot to me.
WARNING: A very long read.
You know, in the days when I first joined this forum, which was about a year ago, there was a lot of dynasty stories, way more than there are right now. Kenny's (badreligionau) was one of the first ones I read; it was at about page 9 or 10 when I first started commenting, but I read it front to back before doing so. He was an inspiration, his story motivated me to start my own dynasty story. Now, I didn't have many ideas at the time, all I wanted was to just start a story, with the goal of wanting to become a part of the NBA Live Dynasty Hall of Fame.
I started it, and probably one of the first criticisms I received was that I was winning way too much.
With the sometimes dim-witted CPU (they chuck up shots that they'll never make in a million years), it was hard not to. Yes, the sliders I had basically cancelled out some of the huge handicaps that the CPU has in Live 10, but even with that, it was still frustrating. My first reader was Andrew, and he's probably the only one (other than me, of course) who's read this story from front to back. Then, as I went on with games, and pages, more people started following, which gave me more motivation to keep this going. After the end of the first season, it was good to finally get to the playoffs. Cruising through there, I was once again criticized (by Martti. and Hyperize., probably others, not trying to single them out by the way, just two names that come to mind 
) about my winning ways. I'd guess in a somewhat joking manner, but as I explained, the CPU in Live 10 was dim-witted at times, leading to all of those wins.So after the first championship, I shook up the roster a bit, acquiring Ray Allen, one of my all-time favorite players. This motivated me to keep going for another season, or basically many more seasons to come. That and the fact that Kevin Martin was at the prime of his career. With an even deeper and arguably better team, I cruised through the regular season. Before the season started however, I moved up to Superstar, an unforgiving difficulty that, these days, I just can't bare to play anymore. I played about half the season on that difficulty, but there was one game that the CPU made three consecutive contested threes in about less than a minute, with their settings of "long range shooting" at a very low that they would usually make 33% of their three pointers. The CPU would also block all of my layups and dunks, while even if I timed my shot block to perfection on defense, my defender would jump the opposite way, and the CPU would completely ignore and avoid any contact in the paint, laying the ball in with no problems. With that, I announced the retirement of this story after the season's end, as I just couldn't take the cheating CPU's ways anymore. If it wasn't for that, I'd probably be well into my third season of the story.
So saying that, I'm sorry to all the readers who were enjoying the story, but I don't think I can put up with frustration like that; I'm a no nonsense/intolerant person in real life, and get frustrated very easily. That's why I admire Kenny and his ability to have his story going for 10 seasons or so and counting. Also, with an excellent game like NBA 2K11 coming out, that motivated me to start an association and abandon this.
Now back on the subject of the second season. I kept going, still running into many frustrating things, but I knew in my mind that with every game played, the less frustration I'd have to put up with. And after the regular season was over, I was proud and relieved. So then, I cruised through the playoffs, more so just to win the championship and get this over with. I still gave myself a challenge with the settings, but again, the CPU's willingess to just chuck up shots was the main cause of 16-1 in the playoffs for both seasons.
In the second season, I started doing stories/chapters. From what people have said, they were a success. From the Brad Halstead-Kevin Martin beef to Donte Greene's incident with the Salmon cousins (Salim-Damon Stoudamire), they were fun to write. Brad Halstead became the reader favorite for the most part.
I gave him his chance, he gave us something to impress, and given more playing time, I'm sure he could've been a double-digit scorer in the NBA. Since I couldn't go on for anymore seasons due to my frustration at the game, I wrote an epilogue, just so everyone can know how every player's career turned out.I'm glad to see it (the epilogue(s)) get a lot of praise. I got down to writing it at about the time the regular season was about to end. Both parts were pretty fun to write, as was the rest of the story. I had a lot of fun writing this story, and interacting with some great readers. If it wasn't for this story, NBA Live 10 would've been shelved a long time ago, probably gathering dust, more so than now. The good thing with playing that many games was that I got to hear Marv Albert's quality commentating, and it ultimately became something to pass the time.
So I just wanna say thank you to any and all who've read this, without any of you, I wouldn't be retiring this in a big rant like this.
It was tons of fun writing this, I hope everyone enjoyed this, and hope to see you all in my association story. This wouldn't be a good retirement post without some shoutouts, so here goes. I'll try to get everyone who read/commented here, and if I miss you, just let me know, and I'll add you.
Special thanks to:
Andrew: As I said earlier, you were my first reader, and was probably one of the only ones to read this front to back. You continue to be the best Admin, and continue to contribute a bunch to the success of the forum. I hope you can keep it up for many more years to come.
PS- also took your advice of "I'm taking my talents to the Sooner State" from what feels like a year ago. Clutch: I have not seen him in a long time, don't know if he'll ever visit the forum again to read this, but he was a great reader. Probably the biggest Yao Ming fan of all my readers, it had to be cool for him to see Yao get his championships. I hope to see him back in the forum sometime in the future.
Thierry: The only one who probably understood my two or three spanish jokes throughout the whole thread.
Still, you continue to surprise us all in how far you've gone with your Spurs story. Hope you can finish it and get it inducted into the Hall of Fame! Houndy: For being an enthusiastic reader. You can really tell it after he answered nearly half of the questions on the dynasty quiz. You were also always very well into the story, even volunteering to be the agent of that scrub Brad Halstead. I think every dynasty/association thread needs an enthusiastic reader, and this thread had one in Houndy. Keep that enthusiasm going in my association!
Wafterstick/Stress Fracture: For being a Rockets fan!
I think every story needs a reader that's a fan of the team, not just the writer himself. Stress Fracture filled that role perfectly. Here's to a turn around for the real life Rockets in the near future, and for them to move on from Yao and focus on the REAL superstar, KEVIN MARTIN!!!badreligionau: Forgetting to send you a shoutout would be a crime. You were the reason for this story basically, whether that's good or bad, lol. I hope you acquire that jumpshot in the near future, and keep on going strong with your dynasty story!
Lamrock: One of my favorite posters here. I always get a good laugh from reading his posts. We both share the pain of our favorite teams having their franchise player(s) suffering big injuries. R.I.P. Blazers. Not sure if you were a Brad Halstead fan or bandwagoner, but either way, we'll see about having him back in my association.
PS- Thanks again for the association advice you gave me! Martti.: For criticizing me about my winning ways.
Actually, for being a good supporter, and for being a Donte Greene fan. I'd like to see you finish your Bucks dynasty sometime in the near future, but for now, continue to pwn with the Heat. George7 and z02: You guys both give Houndy competition for enthusiastic readers, judging from all the comments/feedback from you guys.
All I wanna say is thanks for the enthusiasm! There have been good posters who have come and go like TheDee, Hyperize., Helios3D, lefisto, Keef, bret35, Wyze, and Bomb Diggity. Thanks to all of them.
There was also a noteworthy spambot, PSMILE, who basically copy/pasted stuff posted by others earlier in the thread in one post, which led to incoherence. The ones who check in or comment every now and then, like Phil89, Justine., Badger, King Dee, .PorkyJoker.06, J-Bark #95, mandich, and Radioman. The two latter ones being the most recent ones, but check in with consistency too. Major thanks to you guys too!
If I've left you out, it's either because you didn't comment enough, or because I've forgotten you. If I forgot to put you in, just let me know. But yes, I did go back and skim through all of the pages of the thead to make sure I didn't miss anyone.
All in all, it has been a very fun and positive experience to write this. All of you were great, quality readers, and I hope you keep being quality readers for my association.
With this making Hall of Fame, my mission has been accomplished, I am now taking my talents to the association section to focus on "that other one". So enough of this long rant, let's get to the closing words.Thank you to all who were a part of this, either commented or just read and followed. It was really, really fun to write this. I now officially close this and it's feels good to say: Houston, We Had A Dynasty.
