Here is some posts from the 'History of AFK Info'-thread from the hacked TinyPortal-forum:
lawdawg:
I will have to look up on Yahoo Groups to see when the clan actually got started I think Nov/Dec of 1999. To my knowledge I think I am the oldest active member. I joined in late November of 1999 I think, again I'll have to check Yahoo. AxKiller aka FTD (fen: FlushTestDummy) was a week or two older but he is temporarily inactive although I talked to him a few months ago and he may be back for AOM. There were about 5 to 7 other members before me but none have played with us in recent history (maybe Celtic Druid who was a Canadian). I think I actually joined AFK before the first ever AFK clan game was played but about 2 or 3 weeks after the actual start-up of the clan. Our first clan names was Real Rookies because we were all rookies and hated the poor atmoshpere on the Zone. Later the name was changed to A Federation of Kings - although there is a lot more to that - I will have to dig up the thread on this forum that gives the complete name history. The original founder and head-man was Axeman Jim. He left after about 6 months and Nirvana took over. In fact Axkiller actually changed his name in a game to Axkiller from Dreadnought or something like that as a joke against Axeman Jim and then the Axekiller name just stuck for a year. While Nirvana (from the UK) was in control, Celtic Druid and I volunteered to help him out and became moderators. There was probably more to it but I can't give you details till I look at the old messages. At some time Nirvana left and things got slow, I was kinda inactive so Carpe single-handedly took over the clan for a while. Since he needed to do a lot of admin stuff I gave him moderator powers. After a while we started adding a bunch of Euros and figured it would be good to have them represented in the moderator area, so we added SV and Gog as moderators. The best AFK player to my knowledge was AFK_Nirvana Soul who later joined Darq and CN? Other names from the past are Muad'ib, Six, TiredWolfe and others, I'll try to come up with a somewhat complete list of old names. I'll look through the old messages for names, events and comments. Should be pretty interesting. I even have an old icq message where I'm telling Anti how to connect to an AOC game using an IP address. lol At that time Anti was named Eaglemaster.
LordBob:
I joined in early January 2002. I had seen a post by Carpe on aokh looking for "mature" players to join AFK and even though I am not sure I meet that requirement I sent him an email asking a few questions. I liked his answers and decided to give it a try. I remember playing my first game, it was a big Sunday game and it lasted almost 2 hours. My wife asked me how it went and I said it was okay, but I wasn''t sure I would stick with the group because these guys seemed too intense! I mean come on, playing a game for 2 hours! I was used to zone games where when one team got ahead the other would just quit! These guys get kept playing and playing... Well, anyway I think Tick posted a game summary of that game and I responded to it, and others responded to my response. That is what got me hooked. I could talk about the game afterwards for ever! I got some friends to join - Sublime_King, Tom, ANC, Pale, Longbow ... even my brother but that is another story. Okay, it that too long LD? I could be rambling on...lol...
Swedish_Viking:
'I joined in Feb 2000. By then I was playing the occasional game on the Zone, and was browsing the various forums, reading about strats and game openings to help me survive the first 20 minutes in the Zone games.
I accidentally stumbled across an ad on AOKH(?), recruiting new members for a clan of mature players. I wrote a few lines about myself and my application got accepted.
Initially, most players, except Nirvana and perhaps one or two more, were US based, I played quite some games initially, felt very welcome in the cosy atmosphere of AFK, was quite early made moderator by Nirvana for some reason I can''t remember exaclty (I think Nirvana wanted someone to help him manage the Yahoo group), Nirvana left the clan and game times became late nights, way late for me and I felt kind of isolated as only EURo among a dozen of active US players. The clan went into decline, I took a 6 month break and went fishing instead.
I came back in late fall 2000 as TC were released and to my surprise the clan was still alive, there were some new EURO members, I was introduced to Goggy and his friends (real rookies by then) and did my best to learn them the basic principles.
Goggy did a great work in organizing Sunday games, Wed Euro games, Goggy was made moderator, I launched the ranking system (scale was 1-7 by summer 2001, now it stretches 1-12), we had a period where we also had a ladder "straight up" on Myleague that Lonewolf helped to set up, ladder died, Goggy and I created the handicap system and handicap league, now in decline. That's about it.
SonofSharkboy:
'I joined afk because Id become disillusioned with the aokcc forums, and stopped going there. This forum had alot of what Id looked for when Id joined aokcc. I cant remember my first afk game :/ Probably because Id been playing with some of you at the invite of Anti or spider and such prior to that. I do know that the games have always been fun despite my inconsistant ability making it hard to rank me. I also recall playing a ton with Swedish Viking way back when. My most memorable game was getting my butt kicked by Bob in the handicap tourney. I remember sitting there thinking...."Im giving THIS guy a HANDICAP!??!"
Ive always hated Yucatan. Damn it to Hell.'
Dagobert:
'I joined in February or March 2000, but I dont remember if it was under the name Dagobert or Bayetz. I was invited by Celtic Druid who read some of my posts on the AOKH forum. As my name on that forum was Bayetz (still is at MFO) my first name was probably Bayetz. I used Dagobert as a second name playing solo so this name made his way in IP games (I was Bayetz or Dagobert depending on the last name used on single play). It created some confusion at the beginning but it was more funny than anything else. For some reasons Dagobert finallly took over Bayetz, I have no idea why except that it was convenient as Dagobert was the name of some frankish kings in the 8th century, at the end of the so called Dark age.
I never played intensively with the clan, but I still played quite a number of games between March 2000 and September 2000. Then I had some serious problems with my internet connection and had to stop playing online for a while. (Carpe probably remembers my then frequent disconnections). I got busy with other occupations (say I was more serious for a while) and finally stayed out for a year and a half. I became active again last spring, although I have played WC3 more than AOK since my return. I plan to be a regular player of AOM for at least the next year and maybe more.
Not sure, but I think that I was the first to write a game report on the email for the rest of the clan to enjoy. It was my first game with AFK and I wanted to tell everybody how much I appreciated. It was a 2 vs 2 game, Celtic Druid was one of the other players, I dont remember the 2 others. The map creter lake was picked (no random) and it was a lot of fun fighting for a long time for this central island. Only remember that I had a lot of problems with the funny shapes of my base and of the bay that connected me with the central lake. It took a while to figure those shapes out. To make it short, I lost that game but still had a lot of fun.
end of original message
******************
I think that Feutz was my teamate in that game. (Donald something, nickname Feutz). I only have one name to remember... [b]added August 30th[/b]
By the way LD, this thread is a good idea
_____________________________________________________'
Carpe:
'I joined in early 2000. I dont remember the date and I have rejoined Yahoo with a different e-mail address, so the old date was lost. I was invited to play by Eagle. I dont remember how I found the group, or how I met Eagle. Must have been drinking that night. :D
I remember some past members. I played with Nirvana once. He got ticked off because the other team was triple teaming him and I was a rook and couldnt provide assistance. I never played with him again. He is friendly if he sees my posts in forums though. I remember the DeSalis family. She was Crayola and I cant remember his name. He used to quit games with no notice and no tribs. Got the other members mad. I remember a member called PC2000. He stopped playing shortly after I started. I remember Dokyo. He was an American living in Japan. Didnt play with him very often, but I remember him being a very good player.
Here are the dates members joined from Yahoo:
Eagle 12/11/99
Gog 9/6/00
Busby 7/19/01
Anti 9/4/00
A Noble Cause 5/9/02
BBB 11/4/00
Bob 2/8/02
Pale 4/27/02
Falcon 10/22/01
Gunter 9/5/01
Lionheart 5/2/01
Lonewolf 2/23/01
Boomboom 5/11/01
Ming 5/21/02
Mudbug 3/24/00
Nero 10/27/01
Lucha 12/20/01
Celtic Druid 11/22/99
General Fear 2/10/02
Scottie 6/14/01
Sheepy 4/9/01
SharkBoy 5/9/02
Steve 4/20/01
Hoggy 4/30/01
Tick 12/13/99
Spider 6/1/01
Sir Thomas 2/14/02
SV 2/24/00
Longbow 6/7/02
Vandal 4/27/01
VOTF 6/7/02
El 6/23/01
Lonestar 7/14/01
Carpe 2/7/00
Dbl - 6/27/00?
LD, Carpe, Andiri, Gog, BBB and Dbl have all rejoined under different e-mail addresses and lost their original join dates. I know Andiri is listed in a post on 11/29/99 making him one of the original members. I listed dates for Gog and BBB that I got from the mods log. FTD is also an original member but he has left Yahoo so there is no date for him. I have no records for: King, Dagobert, Jedi, Adrock. I can guess about the recent additions of: Fly, Gladiator, AOF, Squonk & Grok.'
PaleHorse:
'I was haplessly roaming the zone, finding a good game rare, and alot of adolescent nonsense the norm. I had been lurking/posting at Heaven Games for about a month. I had met Longbow, Bob and A Noble Cause. One day, good ol Bob contacted me. He said he thought, based on what he had read of my postings, that I might fit in at AFK. He sent me the application and I was accepted immediately by Carpe on 4/27/02.
I played a few 1v1s, but my first team Game was a 3v3, Clint, Spider and Myself, against Anti, Tick and BBB. Clint got disconnected, but Spider (with little help from me) managed to defeat all three lol.
Funny? I wish I knew how many times Bob has shown the GG only to fight on and win. The funniest thing that comes to mind was in a 2v2, SV and I vs. Anti and Grok. Anti and SV had been fighting all game, punch and counter punch, trying to consolidate the territory between them. Anti was starting to slowly push SV back, so SV called for assistance. Having Grok on the run, I sent 40 persians Palladins to see if I could shake things up. As soon as Anti saw them he said. "Pale, we dont need you down here!". Shortly afterwards, the AOK gods answered Antis wish and dropped my connection lol.'
Antiliberal:
I started out back in early 2000 playing online finally, first with work buddies then on the zone. Then joined a few zone clans (still in original aok days here, when zone rooms all said "no teuts") .
Finally got better at that point, played all sorts of peeps, but couldnt find a clan that actually had any organization worth a poop.
Played a bunch more zone games, finally went to heaven/mfo, and saw carpes ad for afk. Came here, read yahoo, saw that it looked organized, and signed up. Played a ton of 1v1s with axkiller (FTD). This was right around the time of the tc beta/tc being released.
Played in my first game, poor eagle was my ally, my name was eaglemaster, lol, vs axkiller and crayola. Johnnie axkiller did a KLEW type of deal on me, totally raped me, and eagle was saying "i just started to play again, just returned" about as often as bobpfef says "gg".
Went on to play many many 1v1s with axkiller, had some team games but found it tough due to my very young children and the early start time. I recall feutz always was my nearby enemy, always castle dropped me and rarely had success.
LD/tick were always my enemy, probably for at least a year that i never had those peeps as allies.
Gog was named alaric and was quite rookie.
All i did back then was raid. Raided the whole game, never massed armies, just raided incessantly.
I think i saw Bayetz in one game back then, and celt was playing often, but for some reason could never play with double at same time. Mudbug was mr fast castle, and we had a trio of guys from new orleans that played fairly often.
Man thinking back there is a lot of peeps who have come and gone. I recall playing in games nightly with people who i have no clue where they are now,, 7z, jake justice, leon_rc...
Whoops, looks novel length '
MPP_Elvira:
I really couldnt remember when i joined...i am kind of an aberration i think between all the old guys who have way more time here than me, and the newer "bob crowd" ;) who have been here for less time.
Anyhoo, I think it was deciding to go to lawschool that got me in here. I was studying fulltime for the LSAT, but just couldnt give up my aok, and I had heard FTD and Anti talking about how afk arranged games on a weekly time slot basis, it sounded right for my time constraints. Joined up, and have found this group to be much better than aokcc over time in terms of the quality of people here. That is thanks to vigilant moderating i think so thanks guys. (although i dont know how bob slipped through the cracks....or me for that matter...) anyway, thats it :D
My first afk game ever was a 3v3 with gog as my ally and carpe as my enemy, although i dont remember who else played that game :)'
Sheepy:
'Well. A bit of AFK history UK side….
Early last year Goggy, (who I know from a local tabletop Wargames club), told me that he had joined a Clan, for online gaming, the game in question being AOE.. I already knew that Hoggy had been playing this game for maybe 8 months (offline) and kept saying what great game this was. So I bought the game and together we joined the clan.
I also belong to a small golf society, and knew that a few of the members played computer games. We promoted the game and the clan to them, and in time the to “joined up”. These members being BoomBoom, Steve the Slayer, Lionheart and Vandal.
At the Wargames club, two others joined, these being Nero and Nogbad (he has now left to play FPS (DOD and 1942).
From a personal point of view, what is great about the Clan and the game(s) is that when we meet up we can discuss the recent games (boring the pants of anybody who will listen!)… It is a shame that the UK clan members stated have not improved to the degree that the Yankees have, but we still enjoy our games…
I just hope AOM lives up to it’s billing!, otherwise we will just carry on playing AOE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh'
GOG:
'I know when I joined it was some time before I could join in because my old PC just could not cope with the game, but once I upgraded (Feb 01 I think) I started to play quite a bit.
My first game was a 2v2. I think Eagle was my partner (although Im not certain) but I was facing SV. Well he just ran rings around me and I had to re-locate pretty damn quick but it was all over in about 30 minutes.
I had a few more games and soon realised that I needed to improve quickly. Luckily I had some great tips from several players including SV and Carpe so it was not long before I was managing to survive and even contribute in the odd game.
Once a few UK friends had joined I decided to try and get a regular Sunday Euro/USA game. This soon took off and continues to be a popular day/night for players on both sides of the pond.
This is a real great clan/club and I hope that it continues when AOM is out. Although at the moment I am not playing AOE very much, having lost my enthusiasm about two months ago. But I will be back. ;D'
AFK_Eagle:
'Back in the fall of 99, Id just graduated from college with honors and a degree in astrophysics, receiving my commission from the USAF. My active duty time began in July of that month, although the training course for my new duty assignment wouldnt begin until January of 00. So here I am, gone from rigorous study every night to waiting for 6 months before having to do anything...need I say I had some time on my hands? One of my friends from college days was also awaiting the same training, and he introduced me to the AoK game and the zone.
During those days, I spent on average 10 hours a day surfing and playing. Unfortunately, zone games were too short to really improve very much, especially with the repugnant atmosphere espoused by the majority of players there. So I spent most of my time in the forums, researching new tactics to improve my play. Some worked; most I didnt have time to experiment with before some 12 ranker worked me over something fierce.
However, I followed up a lead thrown on one forum by Celtic Druid, a name I remembered from the forum for being "cool" (I being a fan of magic and fantasy lit). This led me to the clan sometime in early-mid December, which proved to be perfect for me to actually improve my gameplay. Except for the times Nirvana decided to flush me or British tc-rush, or I hosted Axekillers knights in my defenseless town. But the rest of the time I was able to practice skills, and combined with my vast amounts of spare time I improved from a 2 rank to an 8 (by todays standards). Ironically, my closest friend and rival was Celt.
After a little bit I decided to return to the zone to see how my new gameskills would fare. I was now competitive in several games, but found the rudeness was too much. It just so happens on one such last-ditch occasion, I ran into Carpe by accident, when we got invited to a game room where all the others left before the game even got started. Carpe and I chatted a bit (mostly at the expense for the aforementioned game-bailers), and he actually showed decency and some intelligence. Since there was a clan game getting set up on icq at the time, I invited him along to fill the ranks, and the rest is history.
Since then, Ive had the priviledge of being the teammate of multiple peeps during their first clan games, sorry for not being a better teammate. During my military training my time online dropped sharply, and when I got reassigned from California to North Dakota, there was a several month gap wherein I didnt play at all. The release of the TC expansion interested me enough to return (Native Americans are also an interest of mine), although lack of playtime and practice showed dramatically in my reduced skill level. Just as I was beginning to regain my prior form, I started dating my future wife; unfortunately (for me) something had to give, and regular afk play lost out. Shes agreed to allow me to play on the comp a little bit each day, but my days of hours on end on the comp are past, so even though Ill play aom dont expect me to be as proficient as in aok.
The history of aneaglescout, better known as AFK_Eagle.'
Spider:
'I was in the K9 clan on the zone. K9 had a huge breakup and several members formed another group, SRW. I was torn between joining them or staying in K9. The SRW members I played with on a regular basis. Then, my zone files got all messed up. I could only log on and ip into games for like 6 months. Fuetz, whom was in both K9 and then SRW, invited me to a AFK game. I remember LD, and Carpe being it. Seemed like a good group. No zone bs of people dropping etc. After playing a few games with the group I applied for membership.
I have to say Fuetz was always quite amuzing to game with.
In hindsite, it was really funny how pissed he would get at the game. Cursing people out then resigning. Only to be seen for another marathon the following day. Yup, those were the days when he with the fastest castle drop would win. What a cheesey strat when you think of it. Mine a ton of stone in fuedal, send over 10 workers by a tc and goto town. Thats it - game over.
Funny thing is, if you tried that now, youd probally be in a world of hurt. What ever happened to fuetz and abusive jeff?
They seemed to of just disapeared with out saying a thing.'
AFK_Tick:
'Okay, Ill weigh in... heres the History of Tick.
I got AOE very near the end of its life cycle. I played it about 5 times on the zone and had fun. Then a friend came to visit and went to AOKH to see if AOK was out, with me behind him looking over his shoulder. I hadnt heard that a sequel was coming. AOK had in fact come out that week, so we went and bought it. He played a game on the zone and everything looked great. He left, and I started playing AOK and checking AOKH. My zone name was dozdog (my dog is named Dozer and he was in the room when the zone was rejecting my first 10 choices of names). My AOKH name was RochTick (Rochester Tick). The Tick name is a long story... and this is the thread for long stories!
I grew up in Alaska. The only thing you have to worry about while camping in Alaska is bears. There are no insects except mosquitos, no snakes... just bears. The first thing you learn is that you NEVER throw the bacon grease out near the tent, or the bears will come. I went to college in Oklahoma, and went camping for spring break. I asked what to watch out for, and people said ticks and chiggers. I was freaked out about ticks, because they burrow into you and can give you lymes disease. That just sounds like something out of an alien horror story to me (Wrath of Khan comes to mind). On the same trip, many memorable things happened, including someone throwing the bacon grease out near the tent and me going ballistic, then getting mocked horribly, since there are no bears or real predators in Oklahoma (I finally got them to admit that they didnt know if there were wolverines or badgers, and that one could mess you up, but that was just saving face). Anyway, we got back to school, and I was mocked for the next 3 years about ticks and wolverines. When I formed an indoor soccer team with the same friends, I called it the Ticks to make fun of myself. It was fun (our slogan was that we were small, white, and we sucked). The team lasted through college, and Ive been Ticks whenever Ive gotten to pick a team name since.
Okay, back to AOK. I saw a post by Axeman_Jim about forming a Real Rookies clan, which appealed to me since a lot of the posters early on were the early experts (basically, the future DaRq members). I joined, but played only a couple of games before New Years Day, then went to France for 3 weeks. I traveled to France a lot for a couple of months, and by the time I got back to playing, the clan was almost dead. Axeman_Jim left after a while, Muaddib stopped playing, Dokyo had schedule problems, and I got the impression that Nirvana slaughtered a few people so badly that they stopped showing up.
Anyway, the clan was close to dying multiple times, and each time someone stepped in to take over and improve things. Carpe and Gog are the biggest benefactors. Other than that first bit where I was traveling a lot and a few times when Ive had travel or conflicts, Ive never taken a break from AOK since it came out. Ive TC pushed (on accident, honestly), castle dropped (sorry gunter), gutter_rat flushed (I think 7Z quit because of a flush I did on him, but I might be flattering myself), done 20 knights in 21 minutes (in one of the best games weve ever had, where FTD tried to castle drop me, LD was uber-Koreans, and dbl played the strongest game I ever saw him play), won by wonder and relic, played almost every map (even BF - spider got mad and quit in that game, and I actually had EL reeling before Carpe bailed him out), been yelled at by teammates (Feutz and others), played hunt the vil...
I have never:
resigned early
yelled at a teammate (well, Ive done all caps to tell them to do something if they wouldnt respond, but never out of anger)
yelled at an enemy
had a perfect game
regretted joining AFK
forgotten Nirvana messing up the name (were A Fellowship of Kings)
Some memorable failures:
At least 4 message boards
Lones ladders
SWGB (sorry, I helped that die... game was just so ugly looking)
EE (never got it)
USA/Euro tournament (I really regret that)
I never beat Nirvana straight up
Some great things:
This board (best thing that ever happened to AFK)
Handicap ladder
Rating system
Weekly game schedules
Sunday game with Euros
Doing a couple of game reviews for new players
All the yacking weve done
Wonder games'
LordAOF:
'I joined in late June of this year. I had played in 1 or 2 AFK games before joining and a lot of my clan(Sublime) was already in AFK so I joined. Was welcomed with open arms, started a 5 now an 8 I learned a lot from the people in AFK they have allowed me to bring the high point of my game far beyond where I thought I could ever get.
Most memerable game: One of my first AFK games Me, LD and, someone else maybe Longbow vs Glad, busby, and someone else. I was Saracen and Was untouched for an hour, Busby was pushing back LD and my other teammates early flushes and with Glade was in their face. LD say "we need help herte now!" and zings the forwards of busby and glad. I respond by zinging the middle of Glads town witch was covered in mams camels and bommbard cannons. There were also chamls and seige rams running around almost to busbys place. LD responded " Oh, that looks good too".'
Nero:
'I actually Joined with the rest of the UK guys around the Farnborough UK area in April 01 - but due to PC problems (Loggin onto the Yahoo Group)I had to rejoin in 10/27/01.
I remember that before the UK guys joined - we had a little clan going of purley UK members - These included our best player "Spoon" and a few others I cant remember. I do recall that a website was also created with alot of our photos on it.
We had regularly scheduled games - Gog had somehow located AFK and suggested after a while that we all join.
Most Joined and our little UK clan disintegrated as we mixed in with AFK.
Gog has been the driving force on our side - and I recall being on the phone to him and Noggy, initially trying to figure out how to connect to a IP address.
Some of the other guys may be able to fill in the UK gaps a little more.
One little point of interest - Gog has written a Fantasy Novel (un published as yet), it is quite good as well. '