HOW LONG WILL THIS GAME LAST? //by BarTek ======================================================================= INTRODUCTION The question is simple... when will we stop playing this game? There are many speculations what the future holds for us but nobody can be sure. Some say it will last for many years to come, others have allready stopped playing it long time ago. The game we all love playing has been around for many years, but only those serious players remained active while the rest moved on to the next game long time ago. ======================================================================= THE POPULAR TIMES First came Super Action Across around 1997. Like most games this grew in popularity and was played among people in school, at work and in home. At this point numerous things such as WR tables, totaltimes, level pages and other things envolved. This way of racing different level stages with a motorbike turned out to be a big succes yeah. Later year 2000 the following version was released under the name Elastomania. But it was never as ground bracking as the release with Across. However this time period (1997 - 2001) turned out to be the most poular timefor the game since it was also played by normal people. During this time most played it and moved on, but for each 100 person there was 1 who got addicted to it. ======================================================================= PEOPLE COMING AND PEOPLE GOING Many players from the past have quited at this point. However some are still alive and playing the game. Even though it was long time ago the game was popular it still recruits people to the comunity. But at this point its mainly the moposite and other sites near by that makes you heavely involved. But still we se new names appearing the elma scene even though the game should have died long time ago. Now there are more registrated players then 2 years ago, but there are probably even more people we dont know about, or those who prefer to be hidden. ======================================================================= FUTURE SCENARIOS The most important elma related site is and will always be moposite. If the sites dies then the comunity will more or less fade away, here is a number of possibles scenarios for the outcome in the future. 1. Lack of interest - It cant be fun to update same pages all the time. The webmasters of moposite are PeXi and Abula. In the start it was fun creating the site but after many years their enthusiasm has lost its glory. Just ask abula what next on the uppdate list and he will often show a sign of sarcastic boredom. 2. No money - The moposite is at this point dependent of there founds and sponsors. Content of the site is growing each day as players send in all their stuff. The constant expanding of web space needs more money to level out the balance. If the sponsors and donaters dissapear then so will the glory of what is moposite today. 3. Full automation - There is a possible solution if the updaters of moposite would retire. With php servers and databases its possible to program the site to uppdate itself. When you take a record you simply login to your account and uppload the rec and lev file to the site. The site checkes the files for varification and later writes your record to the table. It has been done allready by the way. 4. New updaters - The site has expanded so much it needs more people helping out with uppdates to keep the sections going. But these are only helping the real webmaster and have no acces to the whole moposite database. Perhaps the moposite will be given to some new lojal active players to keep it going after Abula and Pexi retires. 5. New moposite - The elma scene would probably die more or less if moposite would be shut down. But the other sites around would perhaps take on the responsibility and create a new official elma related contest site. Who knows really eh? Or just many smaller sites that provide the most important stuff. ======================================================================= SUMMARY However we twist and turn the speculations we cant be really sure. The game should have died long time ago but its still active as it was in the beggining. When you think about it most prefer playing elma rather then other current popular games. But just beacuse moposite provides the most important stuff for the game it doesnt have to mean it is completely dependent of the site. To think of it i must say that the game has outdone itself in its simplicity and content. Live long and prosper ok! ======================================================================= //BarTek The "Elma Artist"