Game Players Network
| Game Players Network | |
|---|---|
| |
| Type | Community website |
| Publisher | Scott Gaeta |
| Card editor | Tim McKnight |
| SWCCG years | 2001–c. 2005 |
| URL | gameplayersnetwork.com |
Game Players Network (GPN) was a volunteer community site that, in the years around Decipher's loss of the Star Wars license, hosted Star Wars CCG decklists, tournament reports, strategy, interviews, and official Players Committee announcements. Decipher pointed remaining SWCCG support at GPN's news pages and PC forum after 31 December 2001.[1]
The live domain is gone. The working copy of the Star Wars desk is the Wayback capture of games.asp?gm=starwars (9 October 2004).[2]
What it was
Scott Gaeta described GPN as a place for "the most useful and up to date information" on favorite games, with volunteers contributing articles, reviews, and interviews. Members were asked to post decks, join discussion, and leave constructive reviews. The About page listed Gaeta as editor and publisher, Tim McKnight as card-game editor, and separate editors for RPG, miniatures, and board games.[3]
The Star Wars section sat under Card Games. Its left rail was:
- Decks — Standard, Theme/Fun, Scenario
- Tournament Reports
- Strategy Articles
- Discussion (forums)
- Features Archives
- News Archives
A member center, club/group locator, and a two-rule house policy (no bad language; no flaming) sat on every page.[2]
Official PC channel
When Decipher stopped publishing Star Wars CCG, Young Jedi, and Jedi Knights, the company's Star Wars home page told players that tournament, rules, and gameplay support now came from the volunteer Players Committee "through Game Players Network's news pages and the Player's Committee forum."[1]
Warren Holland's 25 January 2002 Players' Committee letter likewise noted GPN assistance with communications and prize shipping after 30 April 2002.[4] GPN's own news desk carried that handoff the same week: on 25 January 2002 Gaeta posted that Holland had named the six core Advocates and that GPN's offer to support the committee had been accepted.[5]
The former PC oval logo later printed in GPN's rulesupdate.pdf is the "GPN era" mark on History of the Players Committee.[6]
PC announcements and interviews
GPN was not only a fan board. The Features and News archives carried bylined PC copy and Advocate interviews. Dated items on the 2004 captures include:[7][5]
| Date | Item | By |
|---|---|---|
| 25 January 2002 | Players Committee members announced; GPN support accepted | Scott Gaeta |
| 4 February 2002 | PC Summit report (Norfolk, 2–3 February) | Michael Girard |
| 8 February 2002 | Road to Worlds details | Michael Girard |
| 11 February 2002 | DecipherCon Worlds purse announced as $10,000 | Michael Girard |
| 12 February 2002 | Virtual Set #1 targeted for 4 March | Michael Girard |
| 19 February 2002 | First virtual-card spoilers | Doug Taylor |
| 4 March 2002 | Virtual Card Set #1 released | Josh Radke / mobius013 |
| 19 April 2002 | Interview with Doug Taylor (Gameplay Design) | Duane Bruun |
| 29 April 2002 | Decipher's million-dollar product gift to the PC | (wire) |
| 14 May 2002 | Interview with Eric Olson (Gameplay Design) | Duane Bruun |
| 30 May 2002 | Virtual Card Set #2 | Players Committee |
| 28 June 2002 | Rules update 6.28.02 | Players Committee |
| 21 September 2002 | Virtual Card Set #3 | Players Committee |
| 15–17 October 2002 | Official PC rulings (Colo Claw Fish and related) | Greg Anderson / PC |
| 25 October 2002 | Andrew Howard named Tournament Advocate | PC |
| 5 November 2002 | Official PC site opens at swccgpc.com | beefcake |
| 13 November 2002 | Interview with Andrew Howard (Tournaments) | Duane Bruun |
| 6 December 2002 | Classic format winter contest | PC |
| 16 March 2004 | GAMA retailer summit: Decipher bringing the SWCCG mechanic back in a fall game | Tim McKnight |
The last row is the public hint of WARS TCG: McKnight reported from GAMA that Decipher was "bringing back the Star Wars CCG mechanic" in a game that fall, without naming a license.[5]
Other Features pieces on the same archive are player-facing rather than PC-official: Duane Bruun's language primer ("TLOSWCCG"), a Justin Pakes interview on Theed Palace, and Michael Raveling on deployment.[7]
Decklists
The deck desk was a rated, user-submitted catalog. The October 2004 home page listed a rolling "Top Decks in the Last 30 Days." Captures of `decks.asp?gm=starwars` show sixty-plus listing pages from late 2001 through 2005, with titles already using the era's slang (WYS, QMC, MKOS, TDIGWATT, Hidden Base, ISB Operations).[8] Categories split Standard, Theme/Fun, and Scenario. Each row had a date, title, short blurb, and author handle.
This wiki's championship lists are a later, more precise layer (printed GEMP titles). GPN is the early-PC public pile: thousands of community decks with comments, not Worlds sheets.
After GPN
By November 2002 the committee had its own site at swccgpc.com. GPN still carried PC news into 2004, then the trail thins. The PC later moved to starwarsccg.org (announced 10 June 2009).[9] gameplayersnetwork.com is preserved on the Wayback Machine; cite those captures rather than the dead live host.
See also
- History of the Players Committee
- Players Committee · Players Committee advocates
- Virtual Sets (2002-2009)
- WARS TCG
- Tournaments
- Decipher and the Star Wars CCG Lucasfilm license
Sources
- Star Wars home (Wayback, 9 October 2004)
- About GPN (Wayback, 11 October 2004)
- Features Archives (Wayback, 11 October 2004)
- News Archives (Wayback, 12 October 2004)
- Deck listing (Wayback, 27 March 2005)
- Decipher Star Wars home (Wayback, 11 January 2003)
- Players' Committee announcement (Wayback)
- GPN rulesupdate.pdf (Wayback, 12 February 2006)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Star Wars CCG, decipher.com (Wayback, 11 January 2003)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Star Wars home, gameplayersnetwork.com (Wayback, 9 October 2004)
- ↑ About GPN, gameplayersnetwork.com (Wayback, 11 October 2004)
- ↑ The Star Wars Players' Committee, decipher.com (Wayback, 11 June 2002)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 News Archives, gameplayersnetwork.com (Wayback, 12 October 2004)
- ↑ rulesupdate.pdf, gameplayersnetwork.com (Wayback, 12 February 2006)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Features Archives, gameplayersnetwork.com (Wayback, 11 October 2004)
- ↑ Star Wars Decks, gameplayersnetwork.com (Wayback, 27 March 2005)
- ↑ New Domain and Server, starwarsccg.org (Wayback, 6 July 2009)