While I wasn't exactly online during the actual anniversary, BattleMaster is now 11 years old.
What a ride it has been. Maybe some of you want to share a memory or two with me here. I know that a couple players have been around from the start or at least almost. For the others, follow me down memory lane:
SpellMaster had been my child for I'm not sure, maybe two years or so? When I had this crazy idea of not telling the background story, but actually creating it. Thus BattleMaster was born - a very simple tool to move armies around a map under player control to create the wars and breathe life into the realms that SpellMaster had in its background.
The original BM was incredibly simple. We didn't even have takeovers. Basically, you could create a character, recruit a unit and go fight.
It became popular. Soon, the East Island was too small and the first additional game world was opened, then the third, and so on. Frankly, I don't remember all the details and timelines, it's been too long. Some things are preserved on the Wiki, if you search for them. For example, the first April Fool's that is documented is from 2003, though I think I did one in 2002 as well.
For the 5th anniversary, I did a couple big things,
TradeMaster was launched as half serious and half joking (especially the name). I also wanted to do a "world map", but that didn't happen.
Then there are the sad times, too. There were a couple fights with players and dev team members. People who I enjoyed playing with leaving, accusations that I'd be cheating with my characters, crap like that.
And there were good times. OT has always been a ton of fun, even though it's not going anywere. I've been ruler of a couple realms and always enjoyed shaking up the power balance. Oh, Lasanar - those were the times. The first realm that was essentially ruled by its dukes. Well, officially at least... *grin* And, of course, I will never forget when the tiny Ubent forced Perdan into surrender. Can you imagine that today?
And then there came a time when BM became too tiresome and complex for me and I needed other places to put my ideas. So War Islands was born, as the polar opposite - entirely transparent and simple. And The Dream, and now Beyond the Blight.
And then the return to heavy coding, with moving the entire code to Doctrine now, and re-working a number of things along the way. I want to have less complexity and more emergence in the game, less mechanics and more possibilities. It will be a long road.
Also, I don't want to forget that 2011 was the first time that I met BattleMaster players in real life, if you don't count a few of my friends who played the game at one time or the other.
It's been an interesting 11 years. Here's to the next 11 and to everyone who'll still be here for the 20th anniversary.