Posted by River Rat: “Ok the signup page for the Lotto is up and we are taking registrations. The first 60 people to signup will be guaranteed a spot on a team. The teams will be drawn randomly as close to a week ahead of time to allow them to get to know each other. Teams will consist of 5 players each and they can choose there own CEO.”

Go to Alien Base for more info.

“This is terrible news; it feels like the Challenger all over. Just as senseless, just as disturbing. These people risked their lives to better mankind, and it’s terrible that this could happen to such noble people. “

I found this quote. It’s perfect. This tragedy is particularly hard to swallow, given that a local hero, an alumni of our beloved local university, was on board. Shuttle commander Col. Rick Husband was a Fresno State grad.

I want to find out what you guys like besides TW. So I started a thread. Check it out. Boobies included.

Things have been going well for the new site. I’ve been fixing odd bugs here and there, and the user base is growing fairly rapidly. Since we have reopened, we’ve signed up 53 users. We are also starting to average 600+ hits a day.

That’s good. A far cry from the 2000+ users of the BBS, but I’m not complaining 😀

I’ll be adding some more goodness to this front page in the next few days. I really want to emphasize the calendar feature. Post to it, because it will be put to good use.

Last thing I wanted to mention today, is that if I bring back the BBS, the BBS will be altered to use accounts created here at this site. I plan to make a final decision on a BBS/TWGS system sometime in Feb.

I just spent some time reading up on the events of last year’s WTC. I have to wonder if it is worth having the game again, especially under its current rules (or lack thereof).

To be honest, it seems unreasonable to expect or believe that TW players will whither themselves down to just six remaining players who can claim victory. Either they don’t want to, or can’t.

So my options are…1) drop the tourney and start a new one w/rules 2) add rules to the WTC. Don’t tell me I should leave the game alone, as you (the players) have proven two years in a row you cannot deal with it.

Discuss

This is my final installment of the Trade Wars Gazette update. I wanted to cover a number of subjects before I bring down this website for good. First off, I’m happy to announce, as many of you already know, that Eleqtrizi’T has brought the Home Sector website back up online. It was only perhaps last year that he took down the BBS and handed over the website maintenance to Fuseblown. But Fuse himself ended up a little busy to take care of it, so it looked like the Home Sector was gonna die for good.

Then Easy E put out a comment page on his website where people could post their thoughts on what he should do with the Home Sector and based on those comments, he has brought the Home Sector back online. I’m very happy about this. Trade Wars was never the same without E and when he left, he also left a big void in the community no one has not been able to fill.

Say what you want about Hardcoded or Coastgames, two of the leading servers today, but no one could hold a candle to the Home Sector TWGS/Stardock BBS. Games like the Title Game along with his other trademark games like Massive, One Love, etc. were ultra competitive and classic battles. Eleq’s edits were out of ths world and I hope the return of the Home Sector website also is followed by the TWGS or BBS soon.

Another subject I wanted to cover is the U S O. This year, for the first time in U S O history, Bad Girl is no longer the moderator and that in itself is a good thing. She has made way too many mistakes in the past which had a major effect on the games. I’m not gonna get into that now, but I just want to say I have 100% confidence this year’s U S O should be one of the best tournaments of the year. Silver Dragon should do all right with it.

Next involves the passing of two members of the community in the past year. As many of you know, Jackal lost a valiant battle to cancer early last year and late last year, Kitty Moon AKA Rave AKA Lisa Wilson-Cutler died in a car accident. My thoughts and prayers go out to the familes of these two individuals. River Rat will run Jackal’s Lethal Lotto game at Alien Base and I trust he’ll do a fine job with it.

I also wanted to say this to each and everyone of you in the community: I wanted to let everyone know I have no beef whatsoever with anyone in the community. This includes Space Ghost, Kemper, Prestone, both Doctors, etc – all players that I have tangled with in the forums. Trade Wars is only a text based game that sometimes can get out of hand. Many people have lives that revolve around TW such as having a computer on 24/7 and running a bot to guard a home base and have an alarm go off to wake someone if he is being invaded. If you have to do that, then you know TW has control of your life. It should be the other way around. That’s the nice thing about Cherokee’s “I have a life” game where there is a 45 minute time limit. Unfortunateley, even I didn’t have time to play that one though I wanted to.

There’s been a lot of bitching lately that everyone needs to lighten up and realize it is only a fricking game, not something in real life to bitch about in the forums. Trade Wars is simply a game, nothing to get worked up over. I think all the fights is why a lot of members like BG, Guardian, Eleq, Cruncher, etc have left at one time or another. To sum it up, debates are nice in that conflicts can get resolved, but when you have turds like Res Judicata come in the forums and start crap, that’s another thing and we don’t need that.

Finally, this domain is going down for good very soon. I have until this fall to decide if I wanna let it go or renew it. Trade wars is addicting enough that I could very well bring the site back online later this year. Right now, I’m just not interested in Trade Wars to warrant maitaining the site though Eleq’s return did inspire me to write this final article and perhaps even tempt me to bring TW Gazette back online for good, but common sense won out and I decided to write this one final article.

Peace out – Timberwolf

Timberwolf posted some nice comments about myself and my past/present operations over at TW Gazette. Thanks for nice words, Timber.

I added a little more power to the links area. You can now select either telnet or http as url prefixes, and I eliminated the double https://https:// problems. Thanks to the reverend for helping out.

Side note, I approve the links to GREEN a few times a day. The site doesn’t do it automatically.

Just around a year ago the Stardock it did leave.
EleqTrizi’T took it down ..Leaving us to grieve.
The Man had,had enouph! so he took his BBS down!
And while many have tried..None have been worthy of his crown

Just recently oh lord the website followed suit..
The Home Sector was leaving the issue had taken root.
Ever the gentleman Eleqtrizi’T was there to inquire.
Should he take it down for good? Should he let it retire??
The comments that followed brought a tear to the Eye.
If you hadnt known better you’d think this “E” was a nice guy.
Our Comments it seems his decision did sway…
“And Bring back the BBS too”…was all i would say.
This game is Dying!! on the verge of being Dead.
But E can help save it..I dont care if he has a big head.
His server was a Legend and I’m not goona Stop!
Nope not until the BBS is brought back up!

He’s been flamed by the best of them..Hell he’s been flamed by me!
But he wears the flames like stripes this man EleqTrzi’t….
You can call him a dick head…I call him Easy E….
But when he brings back the BBS Mark that day in history.

Thanks to you EleQ for all you have done.
For even having the website and providing past fun.
Mistake me not for being ungrateful..
Forgive me for things in the past that seemed Hateful.
Bring back the BBS and the Title Game and Massive too
Bring back One Love…and The WTC dude.

Your Server EleQ was a Legend in time.
To not bring it back would be a crime.
The playground of the Gods is what you had created.
Agaisnt your rep…other TWGS servers are rated….
This here poem I dedicate to you,,
And if you bring back the bbs..I’ll write another one too…..

Space Ghost

The Home Sector website is back online. As is tradition with this website, everything has been rewritten, and everything has been redesigned.

I have recovered a ton of old articles and reposted them. Many of them will be missing images, but Fuseblown will help remedy a lot of that soon. It’s just good to see it all on the web again.

Check back often for more updates. There will be a lot of them in the coming weeks.