TribalWar
Encyclopedia
TribalWar, often abbreviated TW, is a general news
website
that originally focused on the game Starsiege: Tribes
, or Tribes, a team-based online
multiplayer first-person shooter
, and its subsequent sequel
and prequel
. TribalWar was created on December 5, 1999, by Anthony "Rayn" Maio, Jon "Ratorasniki" Naiman and Johnny "Imposter" Titus. The website has since propagated its news coverage to general subjects due to the financial failure of the most recent Tribes game, Tribes: Vengeance
, and presumed end to the Tribes franchise. The most popular feature of TribalWar's website is their message board, which uses a heavily modified version of vBulletin
. TW currently has the 17th highest number of posts of any video game forum and the 6th highest post/member ratio of any video game forum according to Big Boards. Over twelve million posts have been made on TW by its approximately 21,400 members. TribalWar has expanded to the point of almost excluding the game series it was formed around, although it still features specific forums dedicated to Tribes. In order to appeal to a more varied audience, they now feature non-gaming subforums.
who played on the Online Gaming League, or OGL, a game ladder
. At the time, the community interacted almost exclusively on OGL's message board, but soon grew tired of the strict moderation and a perceived high amount of censorship
.
matches between top tribes. TribalWar hosted the new broadcast "network", named TSN, or the Tribes SHOUTcast Network, which later became known as the Team Sportscast Network. TSN later separated from TribalWar and formed into a limited liability company
and expanded into games beyond Tribes. A bustling forum, demo hosting, a SHOUTcast network, and later hosting for top tribes as well as members of the community who created mods
, maps
, scripts
, and HUDs, or head-up display
s, helped TribalWar to become the central Tribes related site.
and its subsequent release in March 2001, marked a period in which TribalWar became the source of news for the Tribes franchise. Many employees of Dynamix
, the company which developed Tribes and Tribes 2, and Sierra Entertainment
, the company which published the entire Tribes series, joined TribalWar's forums - most notably Tribes 2's producer, Dave "QIX" Georgeson of Dynamix, and brand manager Alex "Marweas" Rodberg of Sierra. The staff at TW developed a script to alert them any time posts were made on the forum by Dynamix and Sierra employees and the content of these posts often found their way into news articles which were picked up by popular game news sites such as Blue's News, IGN
, Shacknews
, and FiringSquad. Although Tribes 2 was economically successful (selling over 400,000 copies), it suffered from a premature release and incomplete software patches. The game also came under criticism from TribalWar's community because of a perceived "slowing and dumbing down" of the game compared to Tribes 1. Dave Georgeson eventually ceased his posting on TW's forums due to the hostility directed towards him. Although Dynamix was shutdown a few months after Tribes 2's release, former development team members (GarageGames
) continued to support it and contribute on TribalWar.
In August 2002, Sierra hosted an event in Seattle, WA dubbed the "Tribes Council". Three Sierra representatives invited and met with 18 prominent members of the Tribes community, almost all either affiliated with and/or a member of TribalWar and its forums. The purpose was to discuss the major issues the community had with Tribes 2 and the future of the Tribes franchise. Sierra's increasing working relationship with TribalWar was met with criticism; Jerry Holkins
of the comic strip
site Penny Arcade
accused the publisher of pandering to the "whiner's choir" at TribalWar.
or T:V, a prequel to the first two Tribes games) in April 2003, TribalWar gained a role in the development of the game. The creator of a popular mod for Tribes and Tribes 2 and TribalWar contributor, Michael "Kinetic Poet" Johnston, was hired by the game's developer, Irrational Games
- one of his functions being a liaison
between the community and the developers. TW worked with Sierra's new parent company, Vivendi Universal, to host public competitions to create background music for promotional trailers for T:V as well as a skinning
contest ("A skin is the two-dimensional texture that is placed over a three-dimensional character model to give it a unique look in a videogame"). In 2004, two annual LAN parties for TribalWar members - TribesCON for west coast members and UVALAN for east coast members - were combined (held at the same time in Los Angeles, CA and Chantilly, VA) and the event was named Tribal Wars 2004. The event was used as a marketing push for T:V and the developers debuted a beta of the game for attendees to play. The event was covered by G4 (TV channel)
and a profile of the event was aired. (G4's coverage of Tribalwars 2004) The three armor types in the game were named after TW members ("Kinetic Poet"; "Natural", the most prominent tribes 1 player; and "Colosus", a TribalWar administrator).
Tribes: Vengeance was released in October 2004 and despite critically good reviews (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/tribesvengeance/index.html?q=tribes ) the game suffered from terrible sales (47,000 copies of T:V were sold after six months in comparison to the 210,000 copies of Tribes 1 and 400,000 copies of tribes 2) . There were a number of reasons for this: Poor marketing, a lack of support (only one patch was released), cheating, and competition from more heavily advertised and prominent games such as World of Warcraft
, Half-Life 2
, Doom 3
, and Halo 2
. In March 2005, a planned second patch that was to add anti-cheating software was officially dropped because it "was simply not economically viable" to run it through the quality analysis process. In a post on TW's forums, now former Sierra brand manager, Alex "Marweas" Rodberg, said, "VUG... [has] no plans for current support, let alone further TRIBES products... TribalWar will have nothing further to do with TRIBES except as a fan site helping them squeeze the last few nickels out of the franchise." T:V's failure left TribalWar in a bind as its namesake
no longer had a future.
Ever since the demise of the Tribes franchise following Tribes: Vengeance's failure, TribalWar has shifted its focus from a Tribes news site to a general news site and off-topic forum. TW has adopted a digg
style news format, meaning users are able to submit news and others can "bump" it.
News
News is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.- Etymology :...
website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
that originally focused on the game Starsiege: Tribes
Starsiege: Tribes
Starsiege: Tribes is a sci-fi first-person shooter video game. It is the first of the Tribes video game series and follows the story from Earthsiege and Starsiege. It was developed by Dynamix and published by the company now known as Sierra Entertainment in 1998.-History:A sequel, Tribes 2, was...
, or Tribes, a team-based online
ONLINE
ONLINE is a magazine for information systems first published in 1977. The publisher Online, Inc. was founded the year before. In May 2002, Information Today, Inc. acquired the assets of Online Inc....
multiplayer first-person shooter
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
, and its subsequent sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
and prequel
Prequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
. TribalWar was created on December 5, 1999, by Anthony "Rayn" Maio, Jon "Ratorasniki" Naiman and Johnny "Imposter" Titus. The website has since propagated its news coverage to general subjects due to the financial failure of the most recent Tribes game, Tribes: Vengeance
Tribes: Vengeance
Tribes: Vengeance is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game of the Tribes video game series. It was developed by Irrational Games and released by Sierra Entertainment in October 2004...
, and presumed end to the Tribes franchise. The most popular feature of TribalWar's website is their message board, which uses a heavily modified version of vBulletin
VBulletin
vBulletin is a proprietary Internet forum software produced by Jelsoft Enterprises and vBulletin Solutions, both subsidiaries of Internet Brands. It is written in PHP and uses a MySQL database server.-History:...
. TW currently has the 17th highest number of posts of any video game forum and the 6th highest post/member ratio of any video game forum according to Big Boards. Over twelve million posts have been made on TW by its approximately 21,400 members. TribalWar has expanded to the point of almost excluding the game series it was formed around, although it still features specific forums dedicated to Tribes. In order to appeal to a more varied audience, they now feature non-gaming subforums.
History of TribalWar
Tribalwar was originally conceived by Anthony "Rayn" Maio after the now defunct website "planet-tribes" lost its web host. He enlisted the help of two other members of the Tribes community, Jon "Ratorasniki" Naiman and Johnny "Imposter" Titus. Their plan was to develop a base for the members of the competitive Tribes communityCommunity
The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...
who played on the Online Gaming League, or OGL, a game ladder
Game ladder
A ladder tournament is a form of tournament for games and sports. It is an extended tournament, which can potentially go on indefinitely. In a ladder tournament, players are listed as if on the rungs of a ladder. The objective for a player is to reach the highest rung of the ladder...
. At the time, the community interacted almost exclusively on OGL's message board, but soon grew tired of the strict moderation and a perceived high amount of censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
.
Tribes 1
TW's forums were created by Naiman and provided an outlet for the disgruntled members of the OGL forums. Soon after the forum's conception, Maio created an automated system for website goers to upload and download demos, or in-game recordings, of OGL matches between the "tribes", the term for the teams formed to play the game competitively. Naiman along with his brother, "Beatstick", and a friend, "Wonderdog", picked up and promoted with great success the idea to SHOUTcastSHOUTcast
SHOUTcast is cross-platform proprietary software for streaming media over the Internet. The software, developed by Nullsoft , allows digital audio content, primarily in MP3 or HE-AAC format, to be broadcast to and from media player software, enabling the creation of Internet radio "stations"...
matches between top tribes. TribalWar hosted the new broadcast "network", named TSN, or the Tribes SHOUTcast Network, which later became known as the Team Sportscast Network. TSN later separated from TribalWar and formed into a limited liability company
Limited liability company
A limited liability company is a flexible form of enterprise that blends elements of partnership and corporate structures. It is a legal form of company that provides limited liability to its owners in the vast majority of United States jurisdictions...
and expanded into games beyond Tribes. A bustling forum, demo hosting, a SHOUTcast network, and later hosting for top tribes as well as members of the community who created mods
Mod (computer gaming)
Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...
, maps
Level (computer and video games)
A level, map, area, or world in a video game is the total space available to the player during the course of completing a discrete objective...
, scripts
Scripting language
A scripting language, script language, or extension language is a programming language that allows control of one or more applications. "Scripts" are distinct from the core code of the application, as they are usually written in a different language and are often created or at least modified by the...
, and HUDs, or head-up display
HUD (computer gaming)
In video gaming, the HUD is the method by which information is visually relayed to the player as part of a game's user interface...
s, helped TribalWar to become the central Tribes related site.
Tribes 2
The announcement of Tribes 2Tribes 2
-Legacy:On November 20, 2002, Sierra released an update for Tribes 2. This update contained two new game types, new maps and updates to address several issues. Sierra, which is now part of Vivendi SU, licensed the franchise to Irrational Games for a third installment; Tribes: Vengeance was...
and its subsequent release in March 2001, marked a period in which TribalWar became the source of news for the Tribes franchise. Many employees of Dynamix
Dynamix
Dynamix, Inc. was an American developer of computer games from 1984 to 2001, best known for their flight simulator, Red Baron, the Front Page Sports series, Betrayal at Krondor, and their online multiplayer game, Tribes.-History:...
, the company which developed Tribes and Tribes 2, and Sierra Entertainment
Sierra Entertainment
Sierra Entertainment Inc. was an American video-game developer and publisher founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems by Ken and Roberta Williams...
, the company which published the entire Tribes series, joined TribalWar's forums - most notably Tribes 2's producer, Dave "QIX" Georgeson of Dynamix, and brand manager Alex "Marweas" Rodberg of Sierra. The staff at TW developed a script to alert them any time posts were made on the forum by Dynamix and Sierra employees and the content of these posts often found their way into news articles which were picked up by popular game news sites such as Blue's News, IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
, Shacknews
Shacknews
Shacknews, commonly referred to as "The Shack", is a website offering news, features, editorial content, and forums relating to computer games and console games. Shacknews and its sister site, FileShack, are currently owned by GameFly...
, and FiringSquad. Although Tribes 2 was economically successful (selling over 400,000 copies), it suffered from a premature release and incomplete software patches. The game also came under criticism from TribalWar's community because of a perceived "slowing and dumbing down" of the game compared to Tribes 1. Dave Georgeson eventually ceased his posting on TW's forums due to the hostility directed towards him. Although Dynamix was shutdown a few months after Tribes 2's release, former development team members (GarageGames
GarageGames
GarageGames is located in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, where it was moved after being acquired by IAC in 2007. As the makers of Torque game development technology, they have provided cross-platform technology and tools since 2000...
) continued to support it and contribute on TribalWar.
In August 2002, Sierra hosted an event in Seattle, WA dubbed the "Tribes Council". Three Sierra representatives invited and met with 18 prominent members of the Tribes community, almost all either affiliated with and/or a member of TribalWar and its forums. The purpose was to discuss the major issues the community had with Tribes 2 and the future of the Tribes franchise. Sierra's increasing working relationship with TribalWar was met with criticism; Jerry Holkins
Jerry Holkins
Keith Gerald "Jerry" Holkins né Parkinson is the writer of the webcomic Penny Arcade and co-founder of Child's Play, a multimillion dollar charity that organizes toy drives for children's hospitals...
of the comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
site Penny Arcade
Penny Arcade (webcomic)
Penny Arcade is a webcomic focused on video games and video game culture, written by Jerry Holkins and illustrated by Mike Krahulik. The comic debuted in 1998 on the website loonygames.com. Since then, Holkins and Krahulik have established their own site, which is typically updated with a new comic...
accused the publisher of pandering to the "whiner's choir" at TribalWar.
Tribes: Vengeance
Following the announcement of a third Tribes title (Tribes: VengeanceTribes: Vengeance
Tribes: Vengeance is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game of the Tribes video game series. It was developed by Irrational Games and released by Sierra Entertainment in October 2004...
or T:V, a prequel to the first two Tribes games) in April 2003, TribalWar gained a role in the development of the game. The creator of a popular mod for Tribes and Tribes 2 and TribalWar contributor, Michael "Kinetic Poet" Johnston, was hired by the game's developer, Irrational Games
Irrational Games
Irrational Games is a video game developer founded in 1997 by three former employees of Looking Glass Studios: Ken Levine, Jonathan Chey, and Robert Fermier as Irrational Games...
- one of his functions being a liaison
Liaison job
Liaison jobs are jobs that "link" two or more specialties. For example, "systems analyst" jobs work with customers and management to understand and document their automation needs and then transfer such information to computer programmers, who turn the collected information into working software...
between the community and the developers. TW worked with Sierra's new parent company, Vivendi Universal, to host public competitions to create background music for promotional trailers for T:V as well as a skinning
Skinning
Skinning, a gerund from the verb to skin, commonly refers to the act of skin removal.The process is usually done with animals, mainly as preparation of the meat beneath and/or use for the fur...
contest ("A skin is the two-dimensional texture that is placed over a three-dimensional character model to give it a unique look in a videogame"). In 2004, two annual LAN parties for TribalWar members - TribesCON for west coast members and UVALAN for east coast members - were combined (held at the same time in Los Angeles, CA and Chantilly, VA) and the event was named Tribal Wars 2004. The event was used as a marketing push for T:V and the developers debuted a beta of the game for attendees to play. The event was covered by G4 (TV channel)
G4 (TV channel)
G4, also known as G4 TV, is an American cable- and satellite-television channel originally geared primarily toward young adult viewers, originally based on the world of video games...
and a profile of the event was aired. (G4's coverage of Tribalwars 2004) The three armor types in the game were named after TW members ("Kinetic Poet"; "Natural", the most prominent tribes 1 player; and "Colosus", a TribalWar administrator).
Tribes: Vengeance was released in October 2004 and despite critically good reviews (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/tribesvengeance/index.html?q=tribes ) the game suffered from terrible sales (47,000 copies of T:V were sold after six months in comparison to the 210,000 copies of Tribes 1 and 400,000 copies of tribes 2) . There were a number of reasons for this: Poor marketing, a lack of support (only one patch was released), cheating, and competition from more heavily advertised and prominent games such as World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
, Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2 , the sequel to Half-Life, is a first-person shooter video game and a signature title in the Half-Life series. It is singleplayer, story-driven, science fiction, and linear...
, Doom 3
Doom 3
Doom 3 is a science fiction horror video game developed by id Software and published by Activision. An example of the first-person shooter genre, Doom 3 was first released for Microsoft Windows on August 3, 2004. The game was later adapted for Linux, as well as being ported by Aspyr Media for Mac...
, and Halo 2
Halo 2
Halo 2 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie Studios. Released for the Xbox video game console on November 9, 2004, the game is the second installment in the Halo franchise and the sequel to 2001's critically acclaimed Halo: Combat Evolved...
. In March 2005, a planned second patch that was to add anti-cheating software was officially dropped because it "was simply not economically viable" to run it through the quality analysis process. In a post on TW's forums, now former Sierra brand manager, Alex "Marweas" Rodberg, said, "VUG... [has] no plans for current support, let alone further TRIBES products... TribalWar will have nothing further to do with TRIBES except as a fan site helping them squeeze the last few nickels out of the franchise." T:V's failure left TribalWar in a bind as its namesake
Namesake
Namesake is a term used to characterize a person, place, thing, quality, action, state, or idea that has the same, or a similar, name to another....
no longer had a future.
TribalWar: Present
Digg
Digg is a social news website. Prior to Digg v4, its cornerstone function consisted of letting people vote stories up or down, called digging and burying, respectively. Digg's popularity prompted the creation of copycat social networking sites with story submission and voting systems...
style news format, meaning users are able to submit news and others can "bump" it.