Ready Set Here I Am!

If you don't know, now you know lmao.

Anyways, how did you find Gamertag Nation? Did you come across it by chance or by referral? Maybe even a search engine? I'm really interested in hearing from active users who participate regularly. It's amazing to see the site come from its infancy to the mature application it is now. Despite social media on the internet, it's great to see independent development and user interaction that isn't just posting random garbage linkbacks and shares for ad revenue.

Let's hear it!!

Hey Anthony,

First I totally agree with so many bad websites around now that are just junked up with ads. That have to go, and I'm pretty sure the cpm's on that crap is not high enough to be sustainable. Looking at your sig, which seems to be the only thing that has anything about you in it, I noticed you linked to a FF site. So let me ask you this..

Do you consider Crystal Defenders a Final Fantasy game?

Not sure I should trust your opinion since you haven't even put any FF games on your gamertag! WTF, are you playing them on PS?

I cleaned out the Final Fantasy series ages ago during the initial PlayStation revolution. I've spent more than my fair share of time writing reviews and dishing about why I think FFVIII was the greatest title of all time. Not only that but I played entirely too much FFXI (about three years worth). So much you'd say I'd slacked on my commitments to a few websites that I owned, including Eric's original creation.

As far as Crystal Defenders, yes, unfortunately I would classify it as a poorly developed Final Fantasy spinoff. Mainly due to the characters, the abilities, skill trees, etc. The most negative thing I can say is it's a tower defense title. While it is a turn-based strategy, it lacks in many departments from storyline to the all-famous Square cinematic imagination that all fans fell in love with. While I understand marketing towards the mobile crowd as handheld technologies innovate, you'd think they would put the extra effort into sticking with what works rather than some poorly thought out design in an attempt to make a quick dollar. I'm looking forward to more handheld titles in the future but I must admit, I won't be holding my breath.

On a personal note, I'm a software engineer now. But I don't think that would have ever happened had Eric never brought me onboard his projects nearly thirteen years ago. It's crazy to see how far all of us original programmers went. It wasn't just us either, we had relationships with many other gaming community owners among the internet. Most of who are still pretty productive and successful. It's always a pleasure to stop in and say "Hey!" every now and then. Reminiscing is always good.

I actually don't recall what sent me over here in the first place... hmm. I've been very glad to be here since, and the folks here are mature and intelligent (most of the time) so it's a heck of a lot of fun.

As far as Crystal Defenders, yes, unfortunately I would classify it as a poorly developed Final Fantasy spinoff. Mainly due to the characters, the abilities, skill trees, etc. The most negative thing I can say is it's a tower defense title. While it is a turn-based strategy, it lacks in many departments from storyline to the all-famous Square cinematic imagination that all fans fell in love with. While I understand marketing towards the mobile crowd as handheld technologies innovate, you'd think they would put the extra effort into sticking with what works rather than some poorly thought out design in an attempt to make a quick dollar. I'm looking forward to more handheld titles in the future but I must admit, I won't be holding my breath.

Originally Posted by Anthony

I actually like Crystal Defenders, but I like the tower defense genre. I agree with you that the cinematics were what made FF7 one of the most beloved games of all time, especially since we just got CDs as a medium and the music was great. But personally I've always loved the RPGs and I think I actually like Wild ARMS better. I don't know where the FF games fell off, but 7 was it for me because I moved on from Playstation.

The real reason I asked, is because some people here who decide what games belong in certain game series do no believe it is a FF game and should be in there.

This is a very good question, I wasn't referred that I know. I think it was more of some one had mentioned it somewhere, in party chat or perhaps a thread. I'm always looking to get more advertisement of my gamer tag. This not being a narcissistic need but rather more of a security issue and I always love to see what sites can do in terms of tracking. Most importantly for me is community though. If the community isn't there or if you just have people who can't or won't get along because they refuse to set their egos aside and be civil about arguments or have generally snobbish attitudes especially when it comes to staff. Unhelpful or non existent staff who refuse to help or just don't care to help or dictators who are over power hungry and refuse to see any way but their own also turn me off. I do love an active community who is passionate about where they call home.

As for how we got here, are you looking at what works as in advertising? It sounds like you're prodding more for answers as to what works for drawing more customers perhaps? To say somewhere other than here?

Oh jeez... Lol

Drawing users away? Never. I don't compete with Eric. I never have. It's a hilarious thought though lol.

Wait, I'm so confused, tell us more about you...

Not really much to know lmao. I met Eric when we were teenagers through FFRepublic when it was at it's height of development in the early 2000s. I started working on bulletin board applications around the same period (OpenBB). I switched over to vBulletin due to it's enhanced architecture and template systems. Eric swayed me into working on the backend around the same time and we kind of hit it off. He's always been the quiet developer and me being the opinionated one, we managed to balance each other out. Around the same time, I started working with Chen Avinadav after he quit Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. (vBulletins original developer) and we started building Hivemail together. Chen basically took PHP and web development to a whole different level for me. After several months of learning, I put together one of the first turn-based RPG battle systems with a mutual friend of ours, Alex (FFDiscovery). Ultimately it fell through due to flawed mechanics and a short user base. I sold the site to yet another mutual friend of ours, Nicholas, when I was seventeen. Over the years we all managed to stay in touch and every now and then we reminiscence our youth experiences from this place we call the internet. We remember all the friends we had and the few that we lost over the years. Eric helped the lot of us, as many were going through some form of depression or another. The development kept our minds off the things that really held us back. I don't think some of us would have made it so far in the software industry had it not been for a quiet thirteen year old, his Rackshack dedicated server and a love for gathering a community of people around a common interest.

That's my story.

I was referred to GTN by B8TINGU. I truly love the way the site is tracking my progress.

So Anthony I like your participation so far, but I do have to ask what took you so long? lol. I really look forward to hearing more of your ideas and getting to know you.

Welcome aboard!

So Anthony I like your participation so far, but I do have to ask what took you so long? lol. I really look forward to hearing more of your ideas and getting to know you.

Originally Posted by B8TINGU

Thank you. I guess my initial lack of participation came from me only owning Sony hardware lol.

Blasphemy!!! just kidding...or am I? :P welcome to the place