Cracker Retires

[Thunderfall]

cracker informed me a few days ago that he has decided to resign from the Civ3 GOTM administrator position, and I respect his decision. cracker administered the Civ3 GOTM for about a year. He brought a new vision to the GOTM and managed to make the already popular concept even more fun to play and experience. The number of submissions increased significantly, thanks to the hard work of cracker and the GOTM staff members.

While cracker will no longer be involved in further GOTM administrative activities, he is helping the GOTM team preparing the GOTM game for December to ensure a smooth transition.

On hehalf of the entire CFC staff, I would like to thank him for all the time and effort he spent making the GOTM a greater success and wish him best of luck.

I am pleased to announced ainwood as the new Civ3 GOTM administrator. ainwood has been heavily involved with the GOTM for a long time, and I am confident that he will do an excellent job.

Thanks for supporting and playing the GOTM!

 

[kryszcztov]

Well, is this the place to say thanks and stuff ?

So. Thanks a lot cracker ! I had been wanting to play GOTMs since the 1st one, in the days where I didn't have the required computer to play Civ, and so waited until GOTM 19 to play them. You helped me a lot trying to find out how I as a French player could play those great modded games. I owe you respect because it took some of your free time...

Well, I'm not surprised at all by this news. I had been expecting that for 2 weeks ; it started with an obscure answer by the man via PM... Before that I was thinking he would continue for a long time, but now I completely understand his kind of burnout. I'm myself somehow burnt out on GOTMs, but there's no way I took as much time as him for this event, of course.

It could be nice to hear from you, cracker, in some near future, so as to know what you're going to do, in terms of Civ, computer games, or other stuff. Will you browse this forum from time to time ? Will you play some games (GOTMs, SGs) ?

As for ainwood, congrats ! If you plan to set up regular (unmodded, except the map) C3C GOTMs next year, once the Big BugsTM are gone, then I'm all for it, and may come back to the competition when I have more time.

 

[zagnut]

Cracker, you deserve all of the accolades that I am sure you will get from subsequent posts on this thread. Your tireless efforts to make sure that we had interesting and challenging games to play is greatly appreciated and will be sorely missed.

My congratulations on a job extremely well done.

 

[MadScot]

Best wishes to cracker in whatever he does next; GOTM has benefitted hugely from his input and guidance over the last year.

You've a big set of shoes to fill, ainwood; stick some newspaper in the toes is my advice

 

[AlanH]

Many thanks for all those great games, Cracker, and for your staunch support for the Mac and Civ3 v1.29 playing communities. See, you've trained at least one of us not to say the "v" word!

I wish you the very best of luck in whatever you are planning to do with the rest of your life. I know you'll apply the same total dedication to it that you have demonstrated here. Please keep in touch and let us know what you are up to.

Congratulations, Ainwood. No doubt you'll still be wearing your old hat as you don your new one, so I hope juggling is included in your repertoire

 

[ainwood]

Thanks guys.

And to say that I have big shoes to fill, is about right - lets just hope I don't trip over them too much.

Cracker has done a great job, in attracting new players, including mac players, picking up the tournament players, and turning the GOTM from a site-wide-game to an experience. The next two games have been prepared by him, so you will all still be able to experience the quality of his efforts for a while yet.

I am looking forward to the challenge, especially working with the team to shape-out exactly what the future of the GOTM will look like, and how we can support conquests whilst still looking after the Mac community.

In this, I'd also like to welcome AlanH to the GOTM staff. He has already been doing quite a bit behind the scenes, and it seemed only natural to bring him in formally.

So, thanks again to cracker, and hopefully we'll see him back participating in the GOTM in the future.



And, you may also hve noticed tht Creepster has retired as well, which I believe was due to overwhelming work commitments. But hopefully we'll see him from time-to-time as well.

 

[Justus II]

I want to echo the many thanks to Cracker for all his work. In particular, the effort put into making a comparable GOTM between v1.29, Mac, and PTW, when it probably would have been easier to have seperate "divisions" was greatly appreciated. Also the imagination and research into creating the experiences of the historical civs, without duplicating their actual maps, etc, and showing the challenges they faced, was truly great. Best of luck, and hopefully you will get to finally "play" some of the games now, instead of all the work!

 

[dojoboy]

Enjoy retirement Cracker. Maybe now you can play a GOTM now and then.

 

[Skyfish]

Great news

Congrats to ainwood !

 

[Boyd]

cracker...

Sorry to hear that you are going.

As a Mac player I became involved in gotms over the last year and that was mainly due to the work of yourself and Brad. My play, understanding and enjoyment of the game has increased exponentially as a result of the the whole gotm process.

Thank you so very much for all that you have done, the patience that you displayed and your humour.

Ciao and bon voyage.

Ainwood, congrats and why am I not suprised that AlanH finally came on board officially. Kudos to you, Mac Addict.

 

[Yndy]

I don't have the words in English to express what I'm feeling right now. This came as a shock to me even if... Whatever, I hope you will still be around cracker and hope to hear from you.

Thank you again for the great job.

Originally posted by dojoboy
Enjoy retirement Cracker. Maybe now you can play a GOTM now and then.

cracker must play every GOTM from now on. I've been hoping to be able to compare my games to his for an year now.

ainwood, expect to receive mail from me, and I know you can do it.

 

[Qitai]

Just a simple Thanks to Cracker. You have done a great job.

 

[JimmyNeutron]

Wow! What a suprise. Good luck with whatever your plans are. I hope to see you in the GOTM spoilers. I have learned a lot from your post and websites. When my game crashed you were there with the techinal help also. All of your GOTM's have been a real challenge for me. Thanks..

 

[samildanach]

I'm sorry to hear that the GOTM Empire builder has retired - it is a dark day. I always wondered if Cracker was human - designing the games,play testing,keeping all the demanding GoTM players from eating each other and holding down a job with wife and kids at the same time. It now appears that he was human....but only a very little bit human, the rest is quite obviously machine. I hope cracker that you enjoy your well deserved oil change and tune up.

Congrats Ainwood! Although I don't know what you are about. From going through old posts I remember cracker posting a mission statement when he took over from Matrix. Any chance of you doing the same?

I am glad that you are now on the staff Alan, that is the one bit of sure fire good news and it suggests that Ainwood might know what he is doing. Hopefully all his decisions will be as good as this one.

 

[bradleyfeanor]

Thank you for all your hard work, Cracker. You provided hours of truly superb entertainment. I am not sure what you do for a living, but I hope it involves game design: you are far too good at it!

 

[King Of America]

Thanks for all the great games, cracker!

And all hail to the new GOTMaster!

 

[carlosMM]

cracker,

you know what I think of you, and you know I am pleased you are no longer a mod - but personal matters aside you did an excellent job on GOTM (though I persoanlly think fog and volcanons suck ) - thanx you very much indeed for all your troubles with GOTM! You helped make CFC a special place, and whatever I personally hold against you, the overall influence you had was certainly very positive.

 

[captain chaos]

I have only been playing since GOTM23 but it obvious how much of a contribution you have made to GOTM.

Thanks and good luck with your new projects.

 

[ltcoljt]

Shame that cracker couldn't have hung on to a role within the GOTM team. He brought so much to the table.

 

[MacBaldrick]

I must echo the mac community's thanks for all your work in enabling us the compete on even terms with the GOTM community.

Welcome ainwood - you have a reputation of excellence to maintain - but we all know a kiwi's "she'll be right" attitude with the help of a bit of No 8 will see you through. Unfortunately I'll miss cracker's swan song GOTM 26 as I will be in Godzone for the next 6 weeks but I will not read the spoilers and give it a go on my return.