LordArtimus said:
I remember reading a couple of his online mags as it were.. And he obviously excluded the name Nero alliance from his history. Which is not surprising. And I still have a hard copy of it too. That was atleast many years ago. When I first contacted this group. Glad I came back. All I know is there was alot of drama over the Nero name. And rereading the history refreshes my memory. :twisted:
Few of you know me, my involvement in NERO dates back to very early on, not quite the beginnings. It was Heidi who first recruited me into the ranks of the Monster Marshals back then, after a weekend of NPCing, when all the actual Monster Marshals had been up to 4:00am Saturday Night running the event finally crashed and by 9:00am on Sunday were still asleep, I took it upon myself to organize and get those NPC's who were awake back to work so the players who didnt stay up all night, werent bored all day long on Sunday.
At the time, I worked with Sean Griffin and many of the other Monster Marshals to formalize what a Monster Marshall should be, how they should be trained, qualifications, etc. Alot of the rules and regulations that govern that role were originally put to paper by us.
But to the point of my quote, and this message, is: I would not call anything Joe wrote as history, he didnt "omit" or "leave stuff out", he rewrote it, he made it up out of whole cloth to suit his needs. He very neatly cuts out one of the major points of the old days, is that it was a volunteer organization that many, many, different people put their hearts and minds into, to make it what it is today. Some of the monsters used in NERO and Alliance today, were originally thought up by myself and the people I mention above. The rules, regulations, guildlines, histories and all the other material were a creation of love and imagination by a group of people who enjoyed and had a great time entertaining their friends and family. That it grew beyond that is amazing and wonderful. That someone who had little or nothing to do with the creation could come along and try and stamp their "Corporate Seal" onto it in the name of profit, well, its not surprising but it is rather sad.
Joe can claim his pennies, and I hope he enjoys them, but the true spirit and heart of this game lives on in those who seek to put the real world on hold for a couple of days, forget about profit and loss, and just have a good time. I used to love putting on a costume after certain events and battles during the weekends and sitting in a corner of the tavern and just listening to the war stories told by the players. I never felt as good about myself as I did at the end of those weekends that went really well, when friends, and people I didnt even know, would be packing up, looking and exhausted and beat, but with a huge smile on their faces and tell me what a great time they had. That was the driving force for me. For all that time I held the Monster Master position for NERO, I never once played a PC. I always just enjoyed npcing and making sure the players (and the NPCs) had a good time. The name I post under in these forums, Max the Axe was an NPC created for the purpose of helping out low levels start out in the game, I used him to walk around the camp and gauge what was going on, how the event was flowing. He got the name from a huge silver boffer axe that Kenny Ames gave me.
Sorry if I ramble, but talking about those days, does bring back some memories. Back to the point: My advice to anyone who plays Alliance is to forget about Joe, forget about the lawsuit and everything else that has happenned, those things, really, go against the spirit of the game. Have fun, immerse yourself in the imaganation of your friends, and forget about life for awhile. The one thing you shouldn't forget, however, is on the way out of the camp at the end of a weekend, to stop and thank the people who ran the event, the Directors, the Monster Marshalls (and regular Marshalls), and especially the NPCs. Tell them what a great time you had, tell them a war story or two. When it comes down to it, its the real reason they do this stuff.
My Two Cents,
Max The Axe
aka Neil S.
