Matrix Games Forums

The internet has been 'useful' since before 2000, but it was the www that made it fun and easy to use.

And Matrix Games has been around since juuuuust a bit before the www really got going (if I have my details correct).

It was slow in the beginning. They weren't what they are today, back in the beginning like 2000-2002.
It was a great time for Steel Panthers.

They had this notional subforum, and I personally hated it, and it, in the end, was seen as a bad idea, or at least one that wasn't working.

I LIKE the policy in place today. Keeps us focused on why we come here.
And I think it makes a difference.

With Slitherine Group, you get all the great wargaming dialogue and nothing that detracts from a good wargaming discussion. Pity about the spamming

I have been elsewhere online. And while some sites really try, and often have some awesome content, they always fail in one key area, they fail to keep it civil.
All the awesome content in the world isn't going to cut it with me personally if it comes at the price of being forced to deal with uncivil content.

I'm sure plenty of us here, have some views/opinions on some things, that would offend others.
I'm positive I have a few of those opinions.
But I'm happy that it isn't welcome here.

Occasionally I ponder "where else does everyone else here go other than here?" But the truth is, I'm not totally interested in knowing. I doubt it is better than here. I've ditched some very impressive places in the past. I ditched one this morning.

yep - the clear and complete ban on politics here is to be very much welcomed.

[Deleted by Admins]

Actually CERN released the WWW to the public domain in 1993 when there were 'only around 50 servers. By years end there were over 500'. First 'public' browsers were also introduced that year. By about 1996 'corporations realized a web presence was no longer optional'. I personally began using the web in late 1996 but had used BBSs since 1991. So contrary to what some would have you believe the WWW was the child of CERN (making CERN the true 'father and mother' of the internet). We owe the people at CERN a huge thank you. Or maybe curse them for it. [:D]

From Wiki:

The World Wide Web began as a CERN project named ENQUIRE, initiated by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 and Robert Cailliau in 1990. Berners-Lee and Cailliau were jointly honoured by the Association for Computing Machinery in 1995 for their contributions to the development of the World Wide Web.

Based on the concept of hypertext, the project was intended to facilitate the sharing of information between researchers. The first website was activated in 1991. On 30 April 1993, CERN announced that the World Wide Web would be free to anyone. A copy[22] of the original first webpage, created by Berners-Lee, is still published on the World Wide Web Consortium's website as a historical document.

Prior to the Web's development, CERN had pioneered the introduction of Internet technology, beginning in the early 1980s.

I remember the WWW being fairly reliable and extensive in the late 1990s. Of course websites have gotten much fancier since then and connections are much better than the old 56K.

I remember taking graduate statistics classes at University in 1993-1994 and using web servers for statistical calculations. Anyone else remember Mosaic? XTrek? [8D]

[Deleted by Admins]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

I remember taking graduate statistics classes at University in 1993-1994 and using web servers for statistical calculations. Anyone else remember Mosaic? XTrek? [8D]

pah, I can recall having to book time on the Uni mainframe to run stats/econometrics tests on the early versions of SPSS -(X?).

The real computing and physics students were really not happy to have us social scientists hanging around

My first exposure was with a Tandy TS-80 with an 8 baud modem it cost me $21 bucks a month to sign up to the BBS Genie and talk about the Europa board games, Fire in the East, Scorched Earth, The Urals, Western Desert and Fall of France. And then I got a Windows 3.11 machine and Netscape, ‘color’ ands” a 28.8 baud modem!

Oh the times have changed...

I remember Mosiac! I also remember the BBS' that were out there too. Let us not forget sites like CompuServe, Prodigy and AOL. Some of the first commercial sites.

As for forums, I enjoy Matrix/Slitherine very much. Surprisingly, since these forums are civil, I constantly discover new topics that peak my interest. Especially in the "What are you _______ to now" forums. The members here are very helpful and courteous too. These are just a couple of reasons that Matrix/Slitherine forums are my "go to" forums.

Forum wise only here and very occasionally Battlefront. I've had difficult times in general actually but also forum specific. Which ended up where here was the place I felt welcome and actually understood with regards to who I truly am. For that I thank the community as a whole who frequent this forum. No bullying or childish insults happen here and I have faith in the mods to stop that sort of thing and most of all be fair, no silly stuff like protected untouchables. Everyone be it old timer or newbie is treated fairly.

I hope AWNT is a popular non forum website😁😉

I was late to the computer game. My first system was an IBM PS1 in 1990. I bought that with inheritance funds when my dad's father passed. An entire computer set up in a box for a price I can't recall, but it was crazy and all I got was a 200 meg hard drive

It was mainly meant to give me a writing tool, as my health had recently told me "I could drop dead" with respects to running my business, and so I had decided to use professional writing instead. My first modem was a 14.4 Sportster Fax modem. Fine for submitting documents. I went to a 28.8 and then the awesome speed of a 56k. But there wasn't much reason to 'wander' the 'internet' at the time (my opinion). I spent a lot of time on ICQ chatting. And then eventually found Yahoo Messenger and it permitted a person a window so you could see your contact. I spent time on some questionable writing sites. I say 'questionable', because I was trying my hand at erotic fiction I suppose I was good at it, but, it just wasn't really my thing.

I didn't really experience much in the way of a dramatic 'shift' in the www experience until around 2000 though. I found Matrix Games early in 2000. And I spent way too much of my day talking about Steel Panthers. And between 2000 and 2005 I spent just about my whole day with wargaming sites when not rampantly downloading documentaries and movies thanks to the training and talents of a young local computer genius buddy. This was the time of torrents and the even better newsgroups, and the fledling services that mailed out movie dvd rentals foolishly permitting some to simply copy them, and send them back. I used something like 10 terra bytes of bandwidth a month But that was the world of 2005. With services like Netflix and technology like flash drive doodads that can hold massive somes of data as well as portable drives up to 4 TB common and cheap, I simply have no interest in burning a disk which just becomes useless eventually. I don't buy disks, because they are no better than a copied disk for permanence. I've lost count of how often a bought product failed on me.

I like how Matrix Games and Slitherine can sell me a product that is an easy quick download, which is complete and total and only protected by a serial for install that I can load on as many machines as I wish. I like that I can store the installer on any device I wish, and I usually immediately the moment the download completes, store it in up to 5 locations. I reward Matrix Games and Slitherine with my willingness to frequently buy the game full price. If I can't afford 80 bucks on day 1, chances are I can't afford 40 bucks a year or two later on sale eh. But I buy what I want. And frankly, I only balk at spending more than 100 bucks on anything game or otherwise. It's rare I will buy a board game, or a model or just about anything that's more than 100 bucks. I don't 'hate' Steam per se, but, I don't 'like' Steam either. True it permits faster easier installs of titles like Panzer Corps or Battle Academy which have numerous dlcs n stuff. But the program is intrusive, and not worth a damn offline. It's nice Slitherine Group generously offers free Steam keys for many of their games, but my serials are basically not getting used much. I tried to like the service, but I've discontinued using it.

Nothing is forever though.
I used to be 'everywhere' that is computer wargaming, and now, I'm here, just here, only here. Because only here is worth it. You sell me the products I like, and you guys matured away from the need to be a 'hang out' for the unruly. And forums, they tend to identify a person as being older than 40 Because even Facebook has become a means to saying you are not under 30. The only people over 30 using a cell phone for everything, are the rebellious older crowd as I see it. Most of my Facebook crowd, is not under 30. Well it's the need for typing as I see it. Good luck posting this message from a cellphone eh.

I like Facebook, mainly because it's people I want to talk to, my way, all the time my way, my rules, no one else gets to tell me who can be on my Facebook experience. I like the control. I'm here, because the site management, has mastered the art of maintaining discipline. I've enjoyed the content posted to Facebook, and I like the YouTube videos for the games.

Thanks guys

I associate with five (5) forums; Matrix Games, Slitherine, Shrapnel, The Depot, and Game Squad. 3 are for Steel Panthers, one is for ASL and Matrix covers the rest.

Read my signature and you'll see what forum I prefer

You can play games from Steam in offline mode by the way MrsWargamer.

I like Steam.

I didn't used to like Steam either until I used it. I have it on three computers and can play any of the games on any of the computers. But only one of my computers has all the games because I don't ever play all of them. And offline play is easy to do too. Now I can't figure out what it was I didn't like. [:D]

BTW, you can also back up any of your Steam games on your hard drive.

Yeah it seems those who have issues with Steam have never use it, those who don't do use it.

That's pretty typical, in that those that use something will tend to like it, eh? But I don't care if crack users like crack.

All I care about is the fact that our game developers need time, and lots of it, to work on our games. Steam takes away from that. That makes our community worse for the sake of lazy file managers and cheap bundles of mostly crap games. It's the dumbest ass thing I've ever seen.

ORIGINAL: wodin
Yeah it seems those who have issues with Steam have never use it, those who don't do use it.

Actually I've used it for the few games that I could not get other than on Steam.

I don't like Steam at all, mainly because of its absolutely horrible interface and that fact that I don't see that it adds anything at all to my gaming experience. Plus, the few indy developer games I've bought on Steam just sucked.

Surely Steam gives an outlet to small Indy developers be that good or bad for quality😉

As for it adding to games, well Steam workshop is great if a game has it.

Finally great sales!

I just don't see any problems with it at all