STAFF VIEW: DarkCloud
"Well, it's that time of the year again. Apolyton's Birthday! Happy Birthday Apolyton! It's a birthdate that I can't forget; because, in July 2000, one day before Apolyton's 3rd Birthday, I registered for Apolyton's forums... And because I'm a true sentimentalist/archivist, I always look at my profile to see my postcount... and in that viewing, inadvertently spy my registration date. So, leaving you with that -- Congrat's Apolyton! Thanks MarkG, thanks DanQ, thanks to all the posters who make Apolyton what it is!"
STAFF VIEW: Gramphos
"Another year has passed, and this time I hardly even noticed how fast everything has happened. About a month before the last birthday I was starting my military service, and it has taken most of the fifth Apolyton year. That made a big change in how and when I could visit Apolyton, and made my activity drop quite mush for the ten months I was in the army. [..] As for the future I reckon I'll stay active on Apolyton for many years to come".
STAFF VIEW: Ixnay
"It seems like it was only a short while ago that we were celebrating Apolyton's 4th birthday, while speculation about a new Civilization III expansion was running about and anticipation for Rise of Nations was growing. And in some ways, a year later things haven't changed all that much. A newly announced CivIII expansion means more speculation, and the release of RoN has led to another active community of Apolytoners".
STAFF VIEW: Locutus
"Even after 5 years, Apolyton is still expanding faster every year. The past year saw the release of three new games (RoN, MoO3 and GalCiv) and one expansion pack (PtW), which almost doubled the size of the forum community (from 21000 members a year ago to over 36000 now). [..] [I]t would seem that all sections of Apolyton are still going strong, which leads me to believe we'll be celebrating many more birthdays after this one".
STAFF VIEW: Ming
"For last year's Anniversary, my CivII piece was titled, "It was the worst of times… It was the best of times". CivIII was on a roll, and it was thought that CivIII PTW might be the deathblow for Civ II MP. How mistaken could I have been. The last year has brought some changes to the CivII Forums, but not as many as I might have guessed. [..] So another year has passed at Apolyton. I came to Apolyton to discuss CivII. And who would have guessed that 5 years later, many of us would still be doing just that".
STAFF VIEW: rah
"Back in the old days, my brother told me I had to check out a site about a game we had on our NES box. A CIV SITE. My heart started beating wildly. I had never really gone to a game site before. I was forced to come up with a login ID. I figured that it was not a big deal since the site probably wouldn't last long and I would move on to a new game quite quickly, so I just used my initials. I was as wrong about that as many other things in life. [..] I wished every game I played had such a great site dedicated to it".
STAFF VIEW: Solver
"It is now 5 years for Apolyton, the excellent site that keeps growing at a rate faster than ever. A year ago, I wished that we have 30 thousand members for our fifth anniversary, and I am really delighted to see that member count is nearing 37 thousand this year. There have been several new game releases since the last site anniversary, and all of them do present some interest. Play The World, expansion pack for CivIII, got released, but it failed to take the CivII MP veterans, yet there's quite a community of CivIII online players now. Master of Orion 3 and GalCiv also got released, with the latter generally getting better comments from the forumers, yet both games present some new things and can be refreshing".
