note: This is The Column, a part of Apolyton where primarily Markos and Dan write whatever we want :). Well, not just the two of us. The Column is open to everyone. If you feel like writing submit your article to civ2@gamestats.com

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#46 DAY IN THE LIFE OF DANQ Dan gets what he deserves... his own dedicated column! :) #47 REBUTTAL: FROM BW, TO PCGAMER BlueWaldo has something to say about a particular group of reviewers. COLUMN ARCHIVE

In today's world it is a recognised fact that the success of a game can be to a large extent determined by the development of games sites on the internet about that game. Civilization II was probably one of the first games to reap the benefits of this promotion. The enormous range of scenarios available on the internet has continually given new life to what we must accept is now a very aged game.

But now that this advantage is available, to a certain extent, in many new games the success of a game can be determined by the development of whole communities. By communities I mean any place where ordinary games players get together as a result of their interest or love for a game. These communities include but are not limited to, message boards (like the forums here on Apolyton) and chat channels. These have helped to generate massive amounts of interest, suggestions and hype about games which we may have heard very little about (ala Civilization 3).

In fact this interest can also lead people to become so fanatical that many people will actually rush to the shops on the day or release without ever having read an actual review to get the game, so that they can experience what they have been collectively dreaming about for several months. This was indeed the case with Civilization: Call to Power, and this, what I like to call forum faith, was probably what lead it to sell so well initially in spite of what can best be described as mixed reviews.

So lets look at what is actually out there. In respect to chat channels I found several civilization chat channels on networks large and small. On Dalnet I found two channels, (#civ & #civ2) both of which were registered but I found to be rather unoccupied most of the time. Undernet only revealed one civilization channel, #civ2, which attrated slighly larger crowds than its dalnet brothers but was still a bit quiet to be classed as a thriving community. Then just when I thought that happenings on the big networks were rather small along came efnet. I found three channels, #Alphacentauri, #civ2 and #gameleague all of whom contained the same three bots. The latter 2 were generally otherwise empty but #alphacentauri seemed to regularly have a variety of different people calling in. Also tonight the channel was being used by SidGames to host an interview with Tim Train from Firaxis. I would also expect that #gameleague can get quite busy at times as it is by the CivLeague and may attract more people around the time of organised games. After further investigation I found out that all three channels were in fact with bots run by "Samr" the founder of the #alphacentauri channel. "Samr" revealed that the channel was set up last february and ran very much on a pop in basis, but that they would be arranging regular meeting times in the future.

Now here at Apolyton we previously used the server (and still do) irc.iol.ie. It is a lone server based in Dublin Ireland which we used because of its reliability and speed, especially in relation to european chatters who seemed to be able to enjoy lagless chat like their american cousins. We use the channels #civ and #smac for official chats, which in the past have been host to people such as Brian Reynolds and many members of the call to power team. We also run the channel #apolyton which is our general chat channel and tends to vary from being very quiet to being very busy. We are also starting to use a new channel on the dreamnet network, also #apolyton which has the advantage of being directly accessible from the Apolyton webpage. We are planning many developments in the chat field in the near future, including hopefully more interviews and also regular arranged chats to facilitate people getting together.

So what about the forums, of course apolyton has its own forums which have since they started been the host of thousands upon thousands of posts. Currently there are forums representing all of the major games in the civilization genre. But posts to these sections are all well and good, what really demonstrates the strong community that exists on these forums and elsewhere is the sheer massive amount of regular posting on the off-topic forum. The interest and enthusiasm in the forums is demonstrated when the people even wish to stay here to talk about other matters. This is even more reenforced when you see people being wished a happy birthday on the forums!

Of course other fourms exist as well. Firaxis operate their own official ones, which have been the site of many interesting titbits of information in the runup to the release of alpha-centauri. Also only 2 months ago did SidGames open the doors to its forums.

So as I finish off my ramble for the week let us just hope that the companies out there read this and consider how much the fans are becoming involved in the games these days, and let us also hope they will reward those fans for their love and dedication for their art.

The opinions expressed on this page do not necessarily reflect those of Apolyton CS or GameStats. They are just the personal opinions of the writer.