Champion
Member
- Aug 26, 2011
- 60
- 32
Intro:
I'm an old fart now with two kids (6 and 2 years old), and I still follow what's going on the community even though I don't actively play at all anymore. I used to be around back when this section was bustling with activity and innovation. The community was fantastic and full of optimistic genuine people for the most part. Communities were tight and complete with their own economies, community management, forums, radios and anything else that the fans and staff would come together as a community to make.
I used to own Ultima Hotel which was v21 and had about 800-1000 people online. I was only 17 and managed and developed a community of 800000+ users along with the staff team of 17 people includingheads of a news team, competitions team, community building and getting users online, moderators, and more. It was a well oiled machine until some drama came along and it became more work than it was worth and we closed our doors. There was always something going on, and our user base was so helpful and decent. Good vibes were all around and there were deep relationships friendship wise and maybe even a bit of puppy love.
This experience helped me in so many different areas of my life such as solid communication, management, customer service, and more.
My retro history:
After Ultima closed, I re-opened a hotel called "Prime Hotel", and it did alright for a while. It was never the same as Ultima though. It was a special group of people and there was lots of passion. It's hard to pin point what made everything click.
Maybe it was the version of V21 with all the games coded in, the neat furniture and the solid economy we had. Maybe it was the unique and innovative community events our community manager "RedBull" would plan for us. Maybe it was the people, and how our staff actively played and listened to it's user base. Anywho.
Retros were so creative then, and well run. Now they seem floppy and unreliable, or just toxic.. or maybe I'm just not a crazy teen all wound up in it and notice it more now that I'm older.
What I would if I could do now:
If given the chance at a stable V21 or so HTML5 client that could process everything for a server like Holograph, I would probably give it another run along with a custom GTA5 server for the fun of it. I would try to recreate that community, and see how it went. Hopefully it could have games like soccer, wobble squabble, kick wars, lido diving, battle ship/tic tac toe/card games, and more.
I would have a custom radio script for in game the retro and GTA5, so you could keep tabs on what's going on. A forum would be had, and a custom rare values script possibly like we used to have that actually calculated percentages based on the amount of furniture in circulation of the database (Made by Matt aka Jincos back in the day. Fantastic innovative developer he is).
A forum would be had for life related conversations, organization, and more.
Since it's HTML5, the images of the retro could possibly even be completely redeveloped to make a completely legal game. I attempted this with Jabbo.. did not end up having the time or creativity to make it work though.
Donations would be directly paid to server fees/developers for the time spent, and an hour log could possibly keep track of that for fairness even though it wouldn't be much, but given a fair share of what's available. Completely non-profit.
Competitions could be had with these games, maybe a solid community could be built again drawing crowds other than the toxic retro scene of today.
Possibly in a few years after I move with my family and technology is some what there in the retro world... I will have the time and the tools to make this happen.
A trip down memory lane:
Our old official Youtube Channel:
(run by thomas - A loyal user rewarded for his help with YouTube management)
More fan made videos:
Sincerely,
Old user on Habbo.ca: Talax
Old user on retros: Champion
I'm an old fart now with two kids (6 and 2 years old), and I still follow what's going on the community even though I don't actively play at all anymore. I used to be around back when this section was bustling with activity and innovation. The community was fantastic and full of optimistic genuine people for the most part. Communities were tight and complete with their own economies, community management, forums, radios and anything else that the fans and staff would come together as a community to make.
I used to own Ultima Hotel which was v21 and had about 800-1000 people online. I was only 17 and managed and developed a community of 800000+ users along with the staff team of 17 people includingheads of a news team, competitions team, community building and getting users online, moderators, and more. It was a well oiled machine until some drama came along and it became more work than it was worth and we closed our doors. There was always something going on, and our user base was so helpful and decent. Good vibes were all around and there were deep relationships friendship wise and maybe even a bit of puppy love.
This experience helped me in so many different areas of my life such as solid communication, management, customer service, and more.
My retro history:
After Ultima closed, I re-opened a hotel called "Prime Hotel", and it did alright for a while. It was never the same as Ultima though. It was a special group of people and there was lots of passion. It's hard to pin point what made everything click.
Maybe it was the version of V21 with all the games coded in, the neat furniture and the solid economy we had. Maybe it was the unique and innovative community events our community manager "RedBull" would plan for us. Maybe it was the people, and how our staff actively played and listened to it's user base. Anywho.
Retros were so creative then, and well run. Now they seem floppy and unreliable, or just toxic.. or maybe I'm just not a crazy teen all wound up in it and notice it more now that I'm older.
What I would if I could do now:
If given the chance at a stable V21 or so HTML5 client that could process everything for a server like Holograph, I would probably give it another run along with a custom GTA5 server for the fun of it. I would try to recreate that community, and see how it went. Hopefully it could have games like soccer, wobble squabble, kick wars, lido diving, battle ship/tic tac toe/card games, and more.
I would have a custom radio script for in game the retro and GTA5, so you could keep tabs on what's going on. A forum would be had, and a custom rare values script possibly like we used to have that actually calculated percentages based on the amount of furniture in circulation of the database (Made by Matt aka Jincos back in the day. Fantastic innovative developer he is).
A forum would be had for life related conversations, organization, and more.
Since it's HTML5, the images of the retro could possibly even be completely redeveloped to make a completely legal game. I attempted this with Jabbo.. did not end up having the time or creativity to make it work though.
Donations would be directly paid to server fees/developers for the time spent, and an hour log could possibly keep track of that for fairness even though it wouldn't be much, but given a fair share of what's available. Completely non-profit.
Competitions could be had with these games, maybe a solid community could be built again drawing crowds other than the toxic retro scene of today.
Possibly in a few years after I move with my family and technology is some what there in the retro world... I will have the time and the tools to make this happen.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Anyone have any thoughts?
Ideas?
Share your story?
_____________________________________________________________________________
How would you do it? What do you need for it to possibly happen?
Anyone have any thoughts?
Ideas?
Share your story?
_____________________________________________________________________________
How would you do it? What do you need for it to possibly happen?
A trip down memory lane:
Our old official Youtube Channel:
You must be registered for see links
(run by thomas - A loyal user rewarded for his help with YouTube management)
More fan made videos:
You must be registered for see links
Sincerely,
Old user on Habbo.ca: Talax
Old user on retros: Champion
Last edited:
i might open a hotel then.
