Posted on June 13th, 2012 by Ian Blackthorne
Fifteen years ago tomorrow, on a Saturday night at about 11:30 or so, the first Atlantis sim took place. I was seventeen years old.
In those days we simmed on AOL, and I was probably using a 14.4 or 33.6kbps modem that I’d crammed into a 486. In the summer of 1997, I’d been simming for only two years when I decided to start my own game in an offshoot group of the old official AOL-sponsored Spacefleet Online. SFOL used to be called Starfleet Online, but had to change its name due to copyright infringement. The offshoot group was called Continuum Online, led by Admiral Tigress. Before Atlantis, I was already XO of the USS Yeager in COL, playing Commander Ian Blackthorne. My CO was someone you all might know – Captain Gem Rhee. :)
In late August of that year, Gem decided to create the Celestial Prime Alliance, and I followed her several months later with the Atlantis. We remained in CPA until August 2005 when Gem, Earl Grey, and I all decided to step down from leadership of that group. Atlantis became independent and still thrives today. Earl Grey bears a special mention for saving the sim in September 1998, when I decided to call it quits and tried to end the Atlantis’s story as well. Thankfully, due to Grey’s efforts to keep the sim running, I failed and here we all are!
Since June 14, 1997, I’ve gone to college, moved to California, moved to New York City just in time for 9/11, moved back to California again, and ended up in Virginia. Throughout all of it, there’s always been Atlantis. Fifteen years ago I had just graduated high school, so Atlantis has literally been around my entire adult life. I never imagined when this all started that it would last even five years, much less fifteen, and still be fun at that!
Atlantis has been something that I could count on, almost every week, for a creative escape. We have games now with amazing graphics and unprecedented story-telling, but they still can’t paint as vivid a picture as our words conjure in our minds. At this point, I doubt they ever will.
Thank you all for the chance to keep having fun after fifteen years.
3 Comments
Douglas McKnight says: That WAS quite the retrospective! I still sometimes wonder at the fact that, taking this game together with Cervantes, I’ve been playing a character continuously since 2001. 11 freaking years, and you know, he’d be gone and all but forgotten by now if not for Atlantis. As is, every week I still sit back and remember that when I first made Doug, I was basically going for a straight laced, maybe somewhat wooden military man. Then, I realized that in or out of character, I like to talk…and here we are!
Damned if there haven’t been a few memories made along the way that have never quite left my head. Standing with Admiral Blackthorne in the transporter room, a bit of a third wheel to the overall dynamic perhaps, but all the same proud to be there while we gave Amythyst out final farewells. Going back further, my profound sense of confusion and bemusement when I watched half the bridge crew get up and leave as I saw the Sharks in action for the first time. Further forward, finding an excuse to play a villain who literally twirls his moustache! God, even Lost Harbor is kind of an old friend at this point, isn’t it?
It’s been cool. And hey, space is infinite, isn’t it? Ride’s not over yet. :)
Jorvan Tav says: I wish I had gotten started at the same time as T’Kirr. But for the short time I have been able to be a part of this, I have really enjoyed it.
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Thank you for posting this. You keep track of time so well! I’ve been with you for most of these years, and I have to say that it’s been a blast, and most of my adult life, too. It’s hard for me to imagine what it would be like without my weekly dose of Trek. =P
Here’s to Atlantis, may she sail many more boundless seas ahead of us.