GameStats (GS/GNN), later to be known as the GameStats News Network ( http://www.gamestats.com ), was founded on May 1, 1997 as a strictly 'ladder' or 'league'-type website where gamers could come to be ranked against one another. Shortly after its opening, it added gaming news and interviews to its line-up¹¹⁵. Not too long afterwards, GS began to host gaming fansites who in turn became affiliates of the network¹¹⁶. Growth in their number and popularity in part attributed to the eventual disbanding of the leagues¹¹⁷, and focus on the other aspects of the operation.

One of GS' increasing number of affiliate sites was Age of Empires Heaven (AoE Heaven), owned and operated by Michael 'The Archangel' McCart. AoE Heaven had the distinction of being not only the most consistently trafficked site on the network, but the first hosted site the network had taken on as well¹¹⁸. Before his involvement in the Age of Empires community, McCart had begun his online gaming involvement by comprehensively covering Civilization II as owner and operator of Civilization II Heaven. This was the same C2H that had at one point been hosted by Aim4Game, replaced by UCIVII following its departure, and shutdown some months earlier after an unsuccessful transition of ownership between McCart and a keen volunteer.

During his time as C2H's head, McCart and Quick had conversed on a number of inter-site relations matters. In the first half of 1998, McCart reconnected with Quick via e-mail after learning that he was in dire need of a new host for UCIVII¹¹⁹ to let him know of his new venture, the existence of GS and the services that if offered¹²⁰. Years later, Quick thinks back to what was going through his mind at the time:

I was exhausted with the constant hosting shuffling required to keep the site online, totalling five the site's one-and-a-half year lifespan, and was resigned to allowing fate's latest intervention to have the last word. My school and volunteer work was demanding increasing amounts of my time and energy and I had effectively run out of any to spare to other efforts including but not limited to UCIVII's lifeline that constantly required a jumpstart.¹²¹

McCart highly recommended that Quick apply for GS affiliation, a process which he helped Hoskin and the rest of the network senior staff refine during as well as after his own joining¹²². By August, 1997, the Ultimate Civilization II Site's file archive had surpassed the 100MB mark¹²³ and its monthly bandwidth usage was now in excess of 900MB¹²⁴. As had long been the fansite's norm, these numbers continued to climb in the immediate months following. In mid-November of that year, Quick capitalized on that reference and recommendation by contacting GS Founder and Chief Executive Officer John “IRex” Hoskin about hosting and affiliating The Ultimate Civilization II Site with the network owned and operated by WorldCHAT Internet Services ( http://www.worldchat.com ), an I.S.P. based in Burlington, Ontario.

FINDING SALVATION
After filling out GS' online affiliation application form, Quick waited expectantly for a response. He received one sooner than he had anticipated, and its prospects were promising. Hoskin himself wrote back to Quick with a few points of clarification and questions of his own. Within a few days¹²⁵, details were finalized and the arrangement was ready to be put into motion. The Ultimate Civilization II Site would leave the Aim4Game network, the second last affiliate to do so, and join the expanding GameStats News Network (GNN) effective immediately.

“I credit Hoskin for accepting… and taking a chance on myself and [UCIVII]”, Quick said during a 2002 interview. “Had it not been for [Hoskin and McCart's reference and encouragement], UCIVII would have died then and there and n[ever] heard [from] again -- at least, not under my [watch]”¹²⁶.

ENERGIES DIRECTED ELSEWHERE
Now hosted by and affiliated with a gaming network that is both financially and technically stable, Quick is able to enjoy the first couple of months of this arrangement 'serious worry-free', bolstered by the holiday season and forcibly maintained during the January high school examination period. The following month he at last resigns his position as Aim4Game Chief Administrator¹²⁸ officially, and it is not long after¹²⁹ this that he begins to direct his energies to the next serious matter concerning the future of UCIVII: the prolonged decline of Civilization II news, events, and works.

In April, 1998, UCIVII begins to noticeably stagnate¹³⁰ for the first time since Quick had taken over, and the first time because of a lack of new and revised content to infuse its coverage with. This realization causes him to first consider shutting down UCIVII completely after first finding another GNN affiliate site to work on¹³¹. Eventually, he favours letting UCIVII lay dormant as opposed to taking it offline. Four factors lead him to this plan of action. The first is wanting to keep what UCIVII already had to offer the online Civ community online, admitting later publicly that this was “as much for my own sanity as anything else”. Second, this is a decision which he had “complete control” over now that the site's “string of hosting crises had finally ended”. CivII's declining popularity comes in as reason number three. The fourth: he is looking to strike a deal similar to the one DelPrete had done with him nineteen months earlier. He seeks someone to hand over the day-to-day operations of UCIVII to while retaining the site's ownership. He is also open an equal ownership and operating partnership¹³², but would only consider entertaining one as a last resort¹³³.

Despite all of this reasoning and planning, Quick is not prepared to make his intentions public or approach specific individuals he believes would be well suited to the task. He does not even approach the GameStats administration, knowing not only that they have always been receptive to his ideas and concerns so far but also that their approval of his intention would be required first and foremost¹³⁴. He has decided on what he wants to do, but hesitates again and again to 'walk the talk'.

This hesitation will ultimately prove to be more beneficial than detrimental to UCIVII and Quick's future involvement in online gaming communities. A single electronic message sent to Quick in June of 1998 will not only dust off the digital cobwebs on UCIVII's offerings, but radically alter Quick's thinking and change the course that both he and UCIVII will take a short time later.

THE CATALYST
It is June 1998. John Heinecke is an employee of Activision Inc., one of the largest and well-known gaming developers and publishers in the world. His current assignment is Assistant Project Manager¹³⁵ on the company's Civilization: Call to Power project. Under license to use the Civilization name from series developer and publisher MicroPROSE, the team decides to make first contact with the two leading Civilization fansites on the Internet that they have identified. Heinecke is assigned this specific task. One of the two on the list is Quick's Ultimate Civilization II Site. Not only does the email inform Quick of the C:CtP project underway that is not yet public knowledge¹³⁶, it also lays out a significant proposition to its recipient.

“[Heinecke] asked if I would be interested in extending [my] site's coverage to include CtP”, Quick remembers years later. “I accepted, and [in no time] began covering more CtP news items than CivII. [This] definitely revitalized [UCIVII] and my interest in seeing it perhaps morph into a new stage of development”¹³⁷.

This revitalization of UCIVII causes Quick to stop and re-evaluate the site and its operation. At first, he only contemplates a name change to The Ultimate Civilization Site bringing Civilization, Civilization II, and Civilization: Call to Power coverage under one banner. Almost as quickly the UCIVII owner realizes that this will not help lessen or, perhaps more accurately, distribute the increasing workload¹³⁸. He decides to approach another webmaster and website owner in the online Civilization community about merging their two sites. Impressed with the quality and quantity of The First Greek Civilization 2 Site's (TFGC2S) coverage of CivII, and noting its newly begun coverage of C:CtP as well¹³⁹, Quick contacts TFGC2S owner and webmaster Markos Giannopoulos with his proposal¹⁴⁰.

Several email exchanges later, the foundations of Apolyton Civilization Site (ACS) are hammered out. UCIVII and TFGC2 cease to exist as separate entities.     [... Previous]   |   [Next ...]   |   [Endnotes]