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TWO YEARS AND TWENTY MILLION HITS PASSED
By Markos Giannopoulos
It's this time of the year again! We're celebrating our two years of existense, and it's time to look back at the year that passed, but also take a look at what's coming. THE YEAR BEHIND US From the side of what happened in our small world, it was almost as exciting as the first year. We had the (yes, not so important as those of Civ2:MGE, SMAC and CTP1) releases of Civ2:ToT and Alien Crossfire. But we also had the nearly break-up of Firaxis, with several and important members leaving(Brian Reynolds leading) to form Big Huge Games. And there was also the announcements of Dinosaurs and Call to Power 2. Above all, the genre remained alive, and we even have some really interesting stuff look for: a dinosaur game and the second part of the Firaxis-Activision "battle"(and on "earth" field this time!) And what were our doings with all these. Well, we started our second year by giving away 19 copies of ToT. We expanded our coverage with sections(Dinos, CTP2), sub-sections(SMAC-X, ToT) and forums(Civ2, AC, CTP for Mac, Alternative Civs, Freeciv) to cover all needs. We nearly created a tradition of posting first and exclusively really hot news(CTP2 announcement, Reynolds departure from Firaxis and the creation of BHG, and of course Sid Meyer's message to civers). We also started something unique for a civ site, AL&PD, a place where all sites and products related to civ are listed, reviewed and rated by actual civers. You embraced that move, with 550 ratings/reviews of 160 sites and products. Our files databases were also enhanced, with the ability to have ratings given (again) by people. Community projects like the Apolyton Pack and the Scenario Design Contest found our endorsment And of course, we made lots of changes in our design and usability. The front page and some of the sections were redesigned to give more space to content instead of graphics. All the news are organized in one searchable archive and we started making web and audio versions of our newsletter. Some of the sections are seachable as well, while the forums have be enanced with an uncounted numbers of small and big changes. But that's enough talking about the past... THE YEAR AHEAD OF US The third year of Apolyton will certainly include two big events: the release of Call to Power 2 and Dinosaurs. Both carry a question of their own. Activision on whether they need the civilization name to sell a civ game, and Firaxis(Sid especially) on whether there is actually a way to make a great game about evolving dinosaurs :) Civ3 is probably not something we will see in this year, but we're certainly going to hear and perhaps see about it. In next year's E3, Civ3 should be the big thing... As for Apolyton itself, we have lots of stuff in front of us. We got a few more sections to redesign, several hacks to install on the forums, a flood of information starting this fall on CTP2 and Dino... Dear God, this thing never stops.... :) Better not ro promise too much. Just wait and see :) THANKS The last year these people have worked to bring you a better site: Sven Muencheberg on the Civ2 DB, Ming on the forums along with MLeonard and Narck, Dustin Dunn on the Friends part of the newsletter, Thomas "Mentat" Mathison on the cgi-scripts, Steve Wilson(MacUser), Mark Hunter and OnePaul on the Civ2 Mac, CTP Mac and Alt.Civs parts of the site, and Thomas Breivik, Adam M and Tim Davis on various things around the site. Without their work Apolyton would be a lot less. Gamestats continued to be a great host, so much that even an hour with Apolyton not being accessible generates a flood of angry messages! :) Our thanks of course to all of you who visited and supported this site, everyone who keep making posts requesting or even demanding improvments and everyone who said we were wrong, cause that's how we find out where the balance is... ;) Finally, our big thanks for one more year to the companies behind the games we love. Their help and responsiveness have been a great factor to whatever we have achieved. AND WE KEEP ON CIVIN' !! I see that most of the people(either from the companies or "simple" visitors) are looking forward to Civ3 in their answers to our questions for this special feature. The dream of many years, Civilization 3, is not far away, and Apolyton plans to be there! Until next year... :) Next: THE MING PERSPECTIVE |
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