History of TG: Past, Present, & Future

Evo<^|SiNz|^> · 03-11-2007, 11:02 AM

Today hundreds of players enjoy dozens of games here at Tactical Gamer. Being relatively new to TG myself, I was curious how the community got started and how gaming here has evolved. So I decided to ask the community's founding member Apophis a few questions about TG's roots.

Q: When was TG created?

A: Well. If I had to choose a birthday for the community, it would have to be July 9th, 2001. This was the day I wrote an RFC and posted it in the alt.games.half-life.counterstrike newsgroup declaring my disgust with the current status-quo when it came to teamwork and gaming. Prior to 2001, I had been running gaming servers since about 1996 under the name “Network 42”.

Q: Who was involved in its creation, and how many of the founding members are still around today?

A: There really wasn’t anyone else involved back in 2001 although we did quickly pick up some solid contributors to both the gaming servers and the overall community. Some of the folks that came in back in 2001 are still here today. Some of the names that come to mind are Cingular Duality, Tempus, Random Guy and GhostInTheShell. My apologies if I missed anyone. In January of 2003 we underwent a re-branding and switched from “Network 42” over to “Tactical Gamer”. The new name, logo and TG identity was created by Kunin, an old school Ghost Recon player with a knack, and career, in these sorts of things.

Q: People often say communities like this one are created based on need. What else was out there in terms of mature, tactical gaming communities when TG was formed?

A: There really wasn’t much out there along the lines of mature gaming communities that I was able to find. There certainly was a need for TG when it was created.

Q: What is the TG Primer and how it was created?

A: Describing the TG Primer is almost as tough as it was to write. I’ll make my best efforts at explaining it though. The TG Primer lays out the reasoning behind the creation of Tactical Gamer. TG is about a lot more than just team-oriented gaming. It’s about playing a team-oriented game with other responsible and respectful adults with a strong focus on teamwork, objectives, and fair-play while applying real-world strategy and tactics. I’m not a big fan of rules and I really dislike applying rules to good players as a mechanism for resolving issues with problem players. The Primer is my attempt at laying down my expectations for all players within the confines of the Tactical Gamer community.

As far as how I created the TG Primer. I wrote it in Microsoft Word and then copy & pasted it into the forums.

Q: What games was the community focused on when it was created?

A: Quake 2 LMCTF during the VERY early days.
Counter-Strike during the 2001 campaign.
Ghost Recon during the 2003 re-branding.

Q: How has the community handled the ever-changing popularity of certain games over time - has it lead to a fracturing of the community, or does the community galvanize around other games?

A: This is a problem we deal with on a rather frequent basis. New games are constantly coming out as well as mods for existing games. At the same time, players are getting tired of games they’ve played over and over. We’ve always had some level of attrition within the community when a game loses popularity, but we do our best at trying to support games as long as possible and to support the new games as they are released.

Q: How has the community adapted TG's style of gaming to the various games here. For example, the Battlefield series allows for a much different style of play than what's allowed by Armed Assault. What about games like World of Warcraft?

A: This is another tough answer. We try as best as possible to keep each game focused on adhering to the concepts in the primer. We don’t always succeed with that, but we keep trying. We’ve also learned quite a bit about the types of games we bring into the community. If a game doesn’t appear as though it will fit with the TG Primer without the use of a huge shoe-horn, we don’t support the game. Games such as Armed Assault are an obvious fit and are brought into the community quite rapidly. In terms of the MMO style games we support such as EVE Online and World of Warcraft, we still require that our members support the team, act maturely and respect their fellow players in the game. Games such as EVE and WoW do require a LOT of teamwork, contrary to popular belief.

Q: What games do you see here right now that hold the most promise for TG? What games on the horizon do you think could be a hit?

A: That’s simple. Armed Assault is gaining in popularity and holds a LOT of promise for TG. As far as games coming down the pipe, Quake Wars: Enemy Territory is one I’m looking forward to that could hold some potential. I’m not holding my breath for GRAW2, but we’ll see how that turns out. You can only shaft the PC player-base so many times before they finally turn their backs.

Q: TG continues to grow. What do you think have been the biggest factors to TG's growth over time?

A: Quality Game Officers, admin and community members. People come to TG and praise the community, the community is made up of its administration team and the community base. When people praise the TG community, they’re praising all of you.

Q: TG has a lot of in-house squads. When did these start popping up and what role do they play in the community?

A: They’ve been here since the beginning of TG! As more people started playing exclusively on our servers, we found that entire clans were migrating to TG. Since clan members tend to play together, some of our regulars decided it would be fun to make their own ad-hoc teams to compete in friendly in-house events. Some of those became more formalized than others and the in-house squads were born. As far as their role, in-house squads are excellent for attracting like-minded players within TG. They also provide a more tight-knit environment that gives the feeling of “family” when you play. As TG has grown, a lot of that family atmosphere has been shifted into the in-house squads.

Q: How much do you rely on members of the community stepping up to take a leadership role in certain games to keep them thriving here?

A: A TON. Any community really relies on the members of the community to keep it active and to keep up the forward momentum. We rely on the community to bring new games to our attention to hose, we rely on them to build the admin teams, we rely on them to provide the support to keep the servers online, and we rely on them to spread the word and to help grow TG!

Q: What is this community's biggest strength today? Its biggest weakness?

A: The biggest strength of our community is the collective knowledge and experience base comprised within. We have a lot of VERY bright people with all forms of life experience. There’s a lot of knowledge out there to be tapped and a lot of people who seem to bring the right knowledge to the table at the right time to keep us moving.

The biggest weakness of our community? Lack of control over the gaming industry to make them bend to our every need and desire.

Q: What do you hope to see happen with this community over the next couple of years? Do you have any specific goals?

A: Tactical Gamer has grown by leaps and bounds over the past two years. In fact, Tactical Gamer has grown more in the past 2 years than the entire rest of its life combined. It’s hard to say what will happen over the next two years, but I will say that Moore’s Law comes to mind in terms of overall growth. It’s very hard for me to nail down any specific goals. I’m in my mid 30’s, married, and have kids. I work a 40-50 hour work week to pay the bills and this whole TG thing is my hobby. Goals? To keep feeding the kids, making the wife happy, and keeping myself employed!

If I could swing it I would absolutely LOVE to just run TG for a living. If I could spend all my time focused on this community and get paid in the process. Well. Okay, so figuring out how to do that is my goal for the next couple of years.

Thanks, Apophis.

Drizzid · 03-11-2007, 11:25 AM

Nice interview Evo and thanks to Apophis for taking the time to answer the questions. Great information!

**blackmain** · 03-11-2007, 11:54 AM

Wow.... That was a great read.

**TG_Bubba** · 03-11-2007, 12:00 PM

Great job.

Jaykay · 03-11-2007, 12:13 PM

That sounds about right

micr0c0sm · 03-11-2007, 02:36 PM

Good interview, nice info.

**Wyzcrak** · 03-11-2007, 02:54 PM

Thanks for taking the time.

**Chewy** · 03-11-2007, 03:01 PM

Very informative! Thanks Apophis!

Acreo Aeneas · 03-11-2007, 05:50 PM

Nice, some good stuff to know.

**luna** · 03-11-2007, 07:55 PM

Nicely done! I even got a cameo appearance!

**Acid** · 03-11-2007, 08:10 PM

Great interview!

Drizzid · 03-11-2007, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by luna

Nicely done! I even got a cameo appearance!

Luna should be the next one to be interviewed. She should answer things about how she puts up with Apophis and TG all at the same time. Now that would be an interesting interview.

**Shiner** · 03-11-2007, 10:41 PM

Awesome. Definitely glad I found TG!

Wolfseven · 03-12-2007, 12:37 AM

greart read Appo, and con grats on the kid Luna.

Trooper · 03-12-2007, 12:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drizzid

Luna should be the next one to be interviewed. She should answer things about how she puts up with Apophis and TG all at the same time. Now that would be an interesting interview.

I actually wonderd that as well. And if she met him before all of TG/network 42 took off and if she knew what she was getting into.

03-11-2007, 11:02 AM	#1 (permalink)
Evo<^\|SiNz\|^> Join Date: May 2006 Location: Alexandria, VA Age: 27 Posts: 1,165	History of TG: Past, Present, & Future Today hundreds of players enjoy dozens of games here at Tactical Gamer. Being relatively new to TG myself, I was curious how the community got started and how gaming here has evolved. So I decided to ask the community's founding member Apophis a few questions about TG's roots. Q: When was TG created? A: Well. If I had to choose a birthday for the community, it would have to be July 9th, 2001. This was the day I wrote an RFC and posted it in the alt.games.half-life.counterstrike newsgroup declaring my disgust with the current status-quo when it came to teamwork and gaming. Prior to 2001, I had been running gaming servers since about 1996 under the name “Network 42”. Q: Who was involved in its creation, and how many of the founding members are still around today? A: There really wasn’t anyone else involved back in 2001 although we did quickly pick up some solid contributors to both the gaming servers and the overall community. Some of the folks that came in back in 2001 are still here today. Some of the names that come to mind are Cingular Duality, Tempus, Random Guy and GhostInTheShell. My apologies if I missed anyone. In January of 2003 we underwent a re-branding and switched from “Network 42” over to “Tactical Gamer”. The new name, logo and TG identity was created by Kunin, an old school Ghost Recon player with a knack, and career, in these sorts of things. Q: People often say communities like this one are created based on need. What else was out there in terms of mature, tactical gaming communities when TG was formed? A: There really wasn’t much out there along the lines of mature gaming communities that I was able to find. There certainly was a need for TG when it was created. Q: What is the TG Primer and how it was created? A: Describing the TG Primer is almost as tough as it was to write. I’ll make my best efforts at explaining it though. The TG Primer lays out the reasoning behind the creation of Tactical Gamer. TG is about a lot more than just team-oriented gaming. It’s about playing a team-oriented game with other responsible and respectful adults with a strong focus on teamwork, objectives, and fair-play while applying real-world strategy and tactics. I’m not a big fan of rules and I really dislike applying rules to good players as a mechanism for resolving issues with problem players. The Primer is my attempt at laying down my expectations for all players within the confines of the Tactical Gamer community. As far as how I created the TG Primer. I wrote it in Microsoft Word and then copy & pasted it into the forums. Q: What games was the community focused on when it was created? A: Quake 2 LMCTF during the VERY early days. Counter-Strike during the 2001 campaign. Ghost Recon during the 2003 re-branding. Q: How has the community handled the ever-changing popularity of certain games over time - has it lead to a fracturing of the community, or does the community galvanize around other games? A: This is a problem we deal with on a rather frequent basis. New games are constantly coming out as well as mods for existing games. At the same time, players are getting tired of games they’ve played over and over. We’ve always had some level of attrition within the community when a game loses popularity, but we do our best at trying to support games as long as possible and to support the new games as they are released. Q: How has the community adapted TG's style of gaming to the various games here. For example, the Battlefield series allows for a much different style of play than what's allowed by Armed Assault. What about games like World of Warcraft? A: This is another tough answer. We try as best as possible to keep each game focused on adhering to the concepts in the primer. We don’t always succeed with that, but we keep trying. We’ve also learned quite a bit about the types of games we bring into the community. If a game doesn’t appear as though it will fit with the TG Primer without the use of a huge shoe-horn, we don’t support the game. Games such as Armed Assault are an obvious fit and are brought into the community quite rapidly. In terms of the MMO style games we support such as EVE Online and World of Warcraft, we still require that our members support the team, act maturely and respect their fellow players in the game. Games such as EVE and WoW do require a LOT of teamwork, contrary to popular belief. Q: What games do you see here right now that hold the most promise for TG? What games on the horizon do you think could be a hit? A: That’s simple. Armed Assault is gaining in popularity and holds a LOT of promise for TG. As far as games coming down the pipe, Quake Wars: Enemy Territory is one I’m looking forward to that could hold some potential. I’m not holding my breath for GRAW2, but we’ll see how that turns out. You can only shaft the PC player-base so many times before they finally turn their backs. Q: TG continues to grow. What do you think have been the biggest factors to TG's growth over time? A: Quality Game Officers, admin and community members. People come to TG and praise the community, the community is made up of its administration team and the community base. When people praise the TG community, they’re praising all of you. Q: TG has a lot of in-house squads. When did these start popping up and what role do they play in the community? A: They’ve been here since the beginning of TG! As more people started playing exclusively on our servers, we found that entire clans were migrating to TG. Since clan members tend to play together, some of our regulars decided it would be fun to make their own ad-hoc teams to compete in friendly in-house events. Some of those became more formalized than others and the in-house squads were born. As far as their role, in-house squads are excellent for attracting like-minded players within TG. They also provide a more tight-knit environment that gives the feeling of “family” when you play. As TG has grown, a lot of that family atmosphere has been shifted into the in-house squads. Q: How much do you rely on members of the community stepping up to take a leadership role in certain games to keep them thriving here? A: A TON. Any community really relies on the members of the community to keep it active and to keep up the forward momentum. We rely on the community to bring new games to our attention to hose, we rely on them to build the admin teams, we rely on them to provide the support to keep the servers online, and we rely on them to spread the word and to help grow TG! Q: What is this community's biggest strength today? Its biggest weakness? A: The biggest strength of our community is the collective knowledge and experience base comprised within. We have a lot of VERY bright people with all forms of life experience. There’s a lot of knowledge out there to be tapped and a lot of people who seem to bring the right knowledge to the table at the right time to keep us moving. The biggest weakness of our community? Lack of control over the gaming industry to make them bend to our every need and desire. Q: What do you hope to see happen with this community over the next couple of years? Do you have any specific goals? A: Tactical Gamer has grown by leaps and bounds over the past two years. In fact, Tactical Gamer has grown more in the past 2 years than the entire rest of its life combined. It’s hard to say what will happen over the next two years, but I will say that Moore’s Law comes to mind in terms of overall growth. It’s very hard for me to nail down any specific goals. I’m in my mid 30’s, married, and have kids. I work a 40-50 hour work week to pay the bills and this whole TG thing is my hobby. Goals? To keep feeding the kids, making the wife happy, and keeping myself employed! If I could swing it I would absolutely LOVE to just run TG for a living. If I could spend all my time focused on this community and get paid in the process. Well. Okay, so figuring out how to do that is my goal for the next couple of years. Thanks, Apophis. __________________ "No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country." - Attributed to General George Patton, Jr.

03-11-2007, 11:25 AM	#2 (permalink)
Drizzid Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Glendale, AZ Age: 37 Posts: 2,958	Re: History of TG: Past, Present, & Future Nice interview Evo and thanks to Apophis for taking the time to answer the questions. Great information! __________________

03-11-2007, 11:54 AM	#3 (permalink)
blackmain Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Maimi, FL Posts: 412	Re: History of TG: Past, Present, & Future Wow.... That was a great read. __________________

03-11-2007, 12:00 PM	#4 (permalink)
TG_Bubba Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: In the cell next to Icky. Age: 54 Posts: 5,965	Re: History of TG: Past, Present, & Future Great job. __________________ Tactical Game Primer\|Call of Duty - Official Rules, Announcements & SOPs\|Have a problem? Need an admin? TG_Mateo: "Forget freedom, democracy, the blues, New York Pizza: our lasting contribution to human society is Bourbon." Sloppy Joe: "Don't play this game like you are on your own, because if you do... it might become a reality." kin3: "I'll try but I have the grandchildren all day today and if I'm not wiped out I'll play."

03-11-2007, 12:13 PM	#5 (permalink)
Jaykay Join Date: May 2003 Age: 43 Posts: 114	Re: History of TG: Past, Present, & Future That sounds about right __________________ Jaykay (FastBK) \|null\|

03-11-2007, 02:36 PM	#6 (permalink)
micr0c0sm Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 657	Re: History of TG: Past, Present, & Future Good interview, nice info.

03-11-2007, 02:54 PM	#7 (permalink)
Wyzcrak Join Date: May 2003 Location: Memphis, TN Posts: 14,139	Re: History of TG: Past, Present, & Future Thanks for taking the time. __________________ Steam Community? Add me. \| Join #tacticalgamer \| Search Results Legend \| New Posts Forum Filter \| Postbox Toggle \| Live Thread Review \| One Line Results \| Free Remote, Encrypted Backup Darkilla: In short, NS is pretty much really fast chess. With guns. Apophis: I haven't seen anyone say that SM's are better than non-SMs. Nordbomber: This is THE first server I've seen where either side can comeback from out of seemingly nowhere with the right teamwork. en4rcment: I have NEVER experienced the type of gameplay that I have found here. Nightly I am amazed at the personalities and gaming talent. Root: Welcome to TG. Feel free to punctuate your sentences correctly. Monkerz: Its gonna take all my skills to beat those boys off in the future.

03-11-2007, 03:01 PM	#8 (permalink)
Chewy Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Oak Creek, WI Age: 24 Posts: 1,567	Re: History of TG: Past, Present, & Future Very informative! Thanks Apophis! __________________ PM Chewy (Team Fortress 2 Admin) Chewy's Steam Profile

03-11-2007, 05:50 PM	#9 (permalink)
Acreo Aeneas Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: DePaul University (Chicago) Age: 22 Posts: 4,038	Re: History of TG: Past, Present, & Future Nice, some good stuff to know. __________________ Acreo_Aeneas Former 9th Member "People usually see me and ask if I speak Chinese. I respond by asking if they speak American." "Tomorrow's high-end tech today? Why bother, it'll be old when tomorrow arrives anyways."

03-11-2007, 07:55 PM	#10 (permalink)
luna Join Date: May 2003 Location: Rhode Island Age: 30 Posts: 4,135	Re: History of TG: Past, Present, & Future Nicely done! I even got a cameo appearance! __________________ Resurgent's New Motivational Motto: "Now train harder! Live inside your character! If it dies, YOU DIE! Focus!" Jesus had a soulstone.

03-11-2007, 08:10 PM	#11 (permalink)
Acid Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: MA Posts: 3,581	Re: History of TG: Past, Present, & Future Great interview! __________________

03-11-2007, 10:41 PM	#13 (permalink)
Shiner Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Dallas, TX Age: 30 Posts: 2,251	Re: History of TG: Past, Present, & Future Awesome. Definitely glad I found TG! __________________

03-12-2007, 12:37 AM	#14 (permalink)
Wolfseven Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 162	Re: History of TG: Past, Present, & Future greart read Appo, and con grats on the kid Luna.

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