Gravy Train
I was reading the Wikipedia entry for Gaia Online. (Needed a break from code.)
Wikipedia links to a online bulletin board post by Gaia Online’s founder, dated sometime back in 2004, which announced that Gaia would be moving towards a social gaming environment.
In 2001, a friend of mine who used the handle dolmant created an online, JRPG-inspired Web-based game called Crescent Island. He started out with a small staff, and attracted a small following.
I started working on Crescent Island sometime in 2002 or early 2003, working on UI and gradually working on the game backend.
The game had a strong following, or at least strong enough to inspire some fan works.
Crescent Island is now dead, as far as I can tell. I drifted off to other projects; I’m not sure what dolmant did, but I think he may have also lost interest.
We didn’t beat Gaia as far as existence goes — Gaia started in 2000 — but we were likely ahead of them on the social-gaming curve by at least a year. Perhaps even two.
Had we maintained Crescent Island, would we have also caught the gravy train — managed to benefit from the same network effect that feeds Gaia Online? Be all rich and famous in the new Web world? Sell our users out to corporations for cash?
Hard to say. But it’s an entertaining thought.