I only just came back to invlove myself with mugen again recently.
I was right into it baxk in 2010 around the time you guys would have created this forum.
i remember pretty much everything and how it was then, but I want to see if you guys can help me fill in the gaps.

What did I miss?
What are the major changes in the community, what is popular now vs then?
What other milestone happenings in the community are worth mentioning?
Tell me all!

What did you miss?

Probably the biggest thing would be the release of the Mugen 1.1 Beta version 1 (Mugen 1.1b1) engine in 2013.
But even then i would not necessarily say that you have missed anything despite a large hiatus.
point being that there are still people that only use Mugen 1.0 and even Winmugen to this very day.
ANd there are also mugen fans from the last decade coming back to mugen and rediscovering it every day.
I guess that is the true beauty of mugen - you can simply pick it up and play it then put it down to resume any time without worrying about missing out on anything as there is always new content flourishing.

Also worth mentioning although this isnt the right section for it, there are several new open Mugen clone engines/2D fighting game engines in development hoping to one day replace mugen: one called Ikemen Go which is getting better daily and offers many new features mugen didnt have but it is still in delevlopment.

Vermilion Spy wrote:We have less of a gatekeeper situation where only a handful of mainstream Mugen forums represent the Mecha of Mugen or pose as authority figures.
Mugen communities, much like this one, now thrive in abundance autonomously and are self sufficient in terms of content and fanbase.

Definitely THIS. Mugen is far too big for one group of people to try control now. Ten times better than it used to be back then.

Vermilion Spy wrote:
And most of all there are an entire generation of younger Mugen fans that contrast the older fans in terms of interests and their approach to mugen.
Younger Mugen generation of users (i would say 25 and under) are more into Anime based Mugen content (JUS)
and less focused on Coin-op/Arcade classic Fighting game Mugen content like what you would have been more familiar with 10+ years ago.

I'm skimming alot in terms of addons, innovations, creation quality and preferences but im sure others will fill you in

Well put. That actually really makes sense and is so true.
I kind of already knew felt this was a thing but this is the first time i've actually seen anyone put it into words like this before.
Mugen was still young back then so everyone was similar ages I feel unlike now there is some people who even play mugen with their teenage children who dont even know who NeoGeo characters are or even most old Capcom franchise characters from the console and arcade 30 year olds and older

Lots of thing is changed.
Before I think is just Mugen and fighting game fan mostly is play mugen.
Now Mugen is is of interest to artist and designer user like me and my friends.
We are not original Mugen fan but are fan and student of design things so we want to use
design skill in mugen see what we can achieve and is good result.
Maybe you have only small number these type people on your mugen to choose from in those day

Wow, thanks guys for all of your informative feedback!
Alot of what you say definitely resonates with how i remember mugen being.
I guess i never thought about how much Mugen is kind of a mirror of what is going on in the fighting game community

ummm one of biggest changes maybe that there are more ghosters (silent members watching not posting) ^^

I think people got alot more shy to speak now compared to the older times maybe?
We actually was talking about thisa topic here if you are interested to know what i am yapping on about^^
https://www.newagemugen.com/t4566-alot-of-new-members-but-nobody-reposting-other-site-releaaes

where to begin?
I'm in a similar boat as you because I returned to the mugen community after a very long hiatus of almost a decade only to find a total fever dream of content far beyond what i was used to, and in a good way i mean.

The possibilities in mugen now with beautiful art and style are so much above what was possible in the old times