By the way, this doubles as my 10000th post.2006 was an eventful year. Whether it was mod promotions, forum openings, or just plain wackiness, there was always something going on in the wonderful world of AoKH/HG. But a year is a long time, right? So many of this year's stories have already been forgotten. So to refresh your guys' memories...
January 1: The New Year is kicked off with an "Old School" return, with some of the older forumers like AoC_DaVe and toolman coming back (with zyx joining in ), later to be succeeded in return by Wartz and Ornlu, and pretty much spamming up the place. Kevo's splash splash gets 600 posts in two days, leading to DaVe's opening of Splash Splash XX. Old signatures abound.January 8: In a massive repainting of AoKH, Dark_Aro decides to give several forum moderators promotions. Cherubs AK, Qaz, Gordon B, and SF are all made Angels, although poor (or lucky, depending on how you look at it) AoC_DaVe remains a Cherub.January 11: In a sad message to the AoKH design community, Kor announces that the once-mighty Woad Creations has been disbanded. A couple of days later, watchwood announces that Era Productions has been disbanded, as well.January 16: In news that shocks all of HG, the announcement is made that AoMH Seraph and former AoK scenario designer Shiva has died by drowning. From OD to SHH to RoNH, forumers offer their condolences to Shiva's family.February 3: The newest addition to HG is launched today. Battle for Middle Earth II Heaven starts up, in support of the RTS modeled from the world of Tolkien. LoTR fans everywhere rejoice.February 11: RTWH Seraph and former AOKH Seraph The Adder resigns from his post, once again joining the ranks of the regular forumers. zyxomma100 welcomes him back to the Light.February 14: AoK experiences a remake, with a handheld version being released for the Nintendo DS in the US on this day. The game, although considered good, isn't destined to become a classic. zyx opts not to buy a DS, and continues designing on the PC.February 26: Ken Wood, aka tonto_real and Phoenix_therealdeal dies on this day. A legendary forumer in the AoK community, this news is sadly received from Phoenix to HG, from DGDN to WFS, from TS to AIS. Remembered for his friendly attitude and everlasting impression, Ken is buried March 1 in Sierra Vista, Arizona.March 6: Showing off his poor Spanish skills, watchwood makes a failed attempt to assert his authority as AoKH president in the 21st installment of Splash Splash (Return of El Presidante).March 14: Due to an extended absence by AoKH/AoE3H Seraph Dark_Aro (which had caused the promotion of a few former AoKH forumers to the position of Cherub, like Stonewall and lukem), former AoKH mod Socvazius is brought in to temporarily fill the Seraph vacancy.March 24: My, but we flew by the past SS. CK comes through with the new installment of Splash Splash, with his attempt at a Return to Former Glory.April 1: Ako makes his first appearance at AoKH in forever, to everyone's (well) delight bringing back the Hello Kitty for an appearance at Age of Kitty Heaven.April 12: newIdea gets his turn at a Splash Splash, coming up with a pretty good theme. For SS 23, at least, we get to have Paint Wars.April 26: In perhaps the biggest news to hit the entire AoK community in years, it is announced that the MSN Gaming Zone, for almost 8 years the home of hundreds of thousands of Empires gamers, will be dropping support for all CD-ROM games, including AoK, by June 19.May 2: Splash Splash 24. zyx starts to realize that these things occur far more frequently in the year than he thought. TheTrebuchet comes through with his new thread, The Takeover.May 10: The 2006 SD Screenshot Competition comes to a close, with 32 designers submitting a total of 111 screenshots, giving judge the 100 of zyxomma 1 big headache.May 30: The old crew is back, as Simmy returns to GSD in a rehash of a DSoD thread. Morningthaw and bobpfef and Alyantis and many other oldies come back for at least one last post. And by oldies, I mean real oldies. Like, old.June 6: Mr. Olive makes the next SS, actually going far enough to make a decent header. However, the fad of having a crappy picture in the topic post remains in this thread, The Good Ol' Days.June 17: Agincourt gets its last infusion of blood in the Final AoKH Forum Party. Current forumers like nI, CC, Treb, and Thudunder make it, and a lot of familiar faces show up as well, like Simmy, Morningthaw, Slaghter, and Barka. Good times and nostalgia reign, as many people visit the MSN Zone for the final time.July 26: The announcement of the HG Expo in the AoKH SD forum! This planned annual event will feature designers from all the Heavens to come together and showcase their latest stuff and brag in general about their favorite game. No date is setup at the moment, but designers everywhere eagerly wait in anticipation.July 29: Another splash splash, this one with number 26. Colosseum gets to start this eventually short lived SS, called the Refugee Camp.July 31: Colosseum, being banned due to trolling actions, has his splash splash taken away. This makes it nav's turn to create a replacement thread. Foregoing all numbers in the topic post, he decides the theme that influences the screenplay and indeed the entire mood of the TC: Pirate Invasion.August 10: One of the events you always knew was going to happen yet could never believe when it happened. swp, the long time AoKH forumer and heavy proponent of the flush is promoted to Cherub, and turns slightly green. (Thanks SF.)August 21: Who else but Ingo Van Thiel makes his return to AoKH, with the playtesting starting on his newest project, When the Wheel Breaks. Ulio lovers everywhere flock to the thread, and playtesting positions are snapped up.September 8: Yet another Heaven is launched. Caesar IV Heaven joins the ranks of HG, becoming the third new Heaven of the year. The dragonfly decides ahead of time not to buy the game.September 20: With the pirate days ending, Thudunder gets his chance to shine. Splash Splash 28 is created, with the strange theme of Game Over.October 17: The expansion to the sequel of AoK is released. AoE3: Warchiefs is released today. zyx, too disgusted with the lack of scenario editor support in AoE3, refuses to even consider buying this game.October 31: Oh my God. A new theme for Halloween this year. Ako creates a Sesame Street theme, with the popular Town's Crier being renamed to The Bird's Nest. Mr. Rogers pictures replace the folder icon for threads, and the familar AOKH logo is replaced by Big Bird, Cookie Monster Elmo, Bert, Ernie, and Grover. What the hell.November 10: Due to unplanned delays and a restart of the school year, the HG Expo is postponed until the next summer.November 20: Wait a second. References to classic literature? Mr. Mediocre himself creates the next splash splash thread, or number 28. The theme? Brave New Thread. zyx gets sent to Iceland, as expected.December 9: Halo Wars Heaven is officially up and running, with its first news update provided by newly appointed AoKH forumer watchwood, who apparently also thinks he's some sort of president. This new RTS, in development by AoK's ES, is based on the Halo universe created by Bungie, but otherwise is a mystery as to gameplay.December 14: Luke Gevaerts comes out of hiding to announce the continuation of his unfinished project, Against Thee Wickedly. This project, which originally came out in the Blacksmith in 2003, was highly acclaimed and was highly awaiting the next installment.December 25: And it's Christmas at AoKH! The big news comes in SD, with Tsunami Studios releasing the beta of the "unofficial expansion" which will create many new units for scenario designers to use, while being unintrusive and fully compatible with vanilla AoK.December 26: The results are in for the 2006 AoKH Forumer of the Year voting! After a few days of waiting, we get a bunch of expected victories with forumers like Scud winning Most Active, and AK taking Best Mod. However, Basse wins Best Newbie and Most Improved, and in the end it's nI who comes in to steal the Forumer of the Year Award.January 1, 2007: This New Year starts out like the previous one, with a flurry of activity in order to get a new splash splash started. What's in store for this year?And if there's anything major I missed over the year, please tell me and I'll put it in.
zyxomma100-
Age of Kings Heaven forumer
Proudly thwarting Dark_Aro's evil plans since 2002
"There is nothing more sad than watching a teutonic knight chasing a petard."
[This message has been edited by zyxomma100 (edited 01-03-2007 @ 01:18 AM).]