Generations Day
| Location | |
| Date(s) |
June 27, 2002 |
| Recurring? |
✘ |
| Coordinator(s) |
AWTeen major events committee |
Generations Day was a public event held in the world AWTeen on Thursday, June 27, 2002. While originally planned to reveal AWTeen's next Caretaker, the event eventually included several different announcements and demonstrations. Generations Day is noteworthy in Activeworlds' history for its effect on AWTeen, its unique presentation and organization, and the technologies unveiled that are still in use (as of 2008).
Background
On January 2, 2002, Activeworlds announced its 2002 price increase that raised citizenship prices from $19.95/year to $9.95/month, and eliminated tourists from its main universe. AWTeen, which catered to a low-income segment of the Activeworlds population, was especially hard hit by this announcement. Around the same time, Brant, Caretaker of AWTeen at the time, was considering scaling back his involvement in AWTeen to concentrate on bot programming.
The price increase announcement significantly lowered the morale of AWTeen's core. At first, the Core considered resigning and returning AWTeen to the control of Activeworlds, Inc.. In the end, however, an agreement was reached where the Core would take a "vacation" before deciding how to proceed in light of the announcement. During the interim, several of the Core determined that it was unlikely that AWTeen would ever regain the popularity it enjoyed before the announcement. Thus, when the vacation concluded in early March, Brant announced that he would resign from the Caretaker position the following summer.
Planning
Planning for Generations Day began in early April, even before the Caretaker selection process had begun. The AWTeen major events committee oversaw the initial planning, which included selecting a site for the event and determining what would be covered during it. The extensive planning process was intended to set a precedent, with the hope that AWTeen's future Caretakers would also honor the tradition of an announcement ceremony. It was also hoped that the event would create a culture for AWTeen, as well as a history with which visitors could identify.
The date of June 27 was chosen early in the process, but the original time of the ceremony was planned to be 11PM VRT, so that many citizens would be able to attend after work. Initial signs and advertisements called the event "Generations Night, " referring to its evening schedule. However, it was later decided to change the event time to the 1PM VRT, so that staff from Activeworlds would be able to attend and participate.
Robbie was the principal builder, and was responsible for the design of the event area. (find out location of event using JerMe's AWTeen Property Search) He designed the unique stage for the event using one of Beardo's skyboxes. The dawn on the stage was intended to symbolize the dawning of a new era for AWTeen.
Event Activities
Brant began setting up for the event four hours prior to its start time, at 9am VRT. Setup consisted of running last-minute bot tests, ensuring that there were no errors in the construction of the set, and reviewing last-minute details with the event's staff. An "all-hands" meeting was held at 11:30am VRT and served as a dress rehearsal; however, the identities of the future Caretakers were not announced at that time even to volunteers.
The coordinates to the Generations Day area were not announced prior to the day of the event, to surprise the public and to prevent interference by those not involved with constructing the area. At noon VRT, they were revealed, and the world's welcome point was changed to the Generations Day set.
Arrival and greeting
Eric was the principle greeter for Generations Day, and he was charged with talking to the crowd during the hour before the event began. Meanwhile, Brant and the remainder of the crew continued with last-minute preparations. Conversation during this one-hour period ranged from current events to a description of what was planned to occur during the remainder of the day.
Opening remarks from Mountain Myst
Then-Activeworlds, Inc. staff member Mountain Myst kicked off the ceremony by asking "is there food here?" With that, she thanked those in attendance, commenting that Generations Day was a great day in AWTeen's history. Mountain Myst spent most of her allotted time thanking Brant for his service to AWTeen. After a few rounds of thanks to Brant and to everyone around, Mountain Myst turned over the microphone, declaring "let the festivities begin!"
Brant followed Mountain Myst's introductory remarks with a brief explanation of the list of activities that would occur during the next hour and a half. He stated that there would be four major parts to the program:
He also thanked Lucrezia Borgia, who founded AWTeen in 1998.
Thor 2
The first version of Thor ran in AWTeen and simulated the weather through the use of backdrops. Backdrops quickly became obsolete as ActiveWorlds 3.2 was released, because that version introduced the concept of skyboxes. At that point, Thor was still advanced because it had so many different daylight and nighttime periods, but was obsolete because it used skyboxes.
Brant explained that the AWTeen Core had considered updating Thor to use skyboxes, but the Core was dissatisfied with NoMad1's work. At the time, Activeworlds was on a short development cycle, and version 3.4 was to include new weather features. Brant called upon Robbie, who had suggested an alternate solution.
Robbie's solution was Nox, a bot that used skyboxes with masks, so that only the clouds were visible. The effect was very similar to the effects available in 3.4. The crowd was stunned at the announcement, which garnered nearly universal approval. It was decided to enact the program, and Robbie turned the presentation back over to Brant, who moved onto the next part of the program, the object path update.
The object path update
The second part of Generations Day consisted of the AWTeen Core introducing the Activeworlds community to new objects that would become available in AWTeen. While new objects had been added on a regular basis for the previous two years, Allen Iversion spent a great deal of effort preparing objects that AWTeen builders used frequently, such as objects textured with "fall_g." Also included were objects created by renowned object makers such as Lady Murasaki.
Everyone was instructed to move to Georgia, where the objects were on display. However, Brant had previously made an error and Georgia was limited to 16 users, so that the world quickly became full. However, Mountain Myst increased the world's user limit, and Allen Iverson was able to demonstrate the new objects. While the demonstration was progressing, Eric continued making small talk. Brock, who was supposed to have been assisting with the event, showed up at this point, having overslept.
After ten minutes, the focus of the event returned to the Generations Day set in AWTeen, and Georgia was closed to prevent distraction until after the end of Generations Day.
Demeter
Demeter is a terrain editor that was developed for use in AWTeen, with the plan of enabling Demeter solely in AWTeen for the first year, and later releasing the editor to the general public thereafter. Demeter was started by Grimble, and finished by Brant prior to the ceremony.
Brant made a short speech about Demeter's capabilities. Demeter allows users to use objects to modify terrain in a world, thus replacing the default terrain interface as well as preventing builders from building terrain under others' property. After the introductory speech, he moved the crowd over to one of the hills surrounding the stage, and said "d:begin" to start editing terrain. He asked others not to use Demeter while this was happening so as not to interfere with the demonstration.
Brant thanked Robbie for creating the terrain.rwx object. He also described how changing the "description" field of the terrain.rwx object resulted in a corresponding change in terrain texture or rotation. He mentioned that Robbie had created 39 terrain textures. He demonstrated how the terrain.rwx objects could be "shown" or "hidden, " and finally asked Mountain Myst to count down from 10 to zero, at which point Demeter would be enabled. The countdown proceeded, and Demeter was enabled permanently thereafter.
Announcement of the Caretakers
Since the beginning of the ceremony, many citizens had been growing impatient to learn the identities of AWTeen's next Caretaker. After a two-minute break to prepare for the next segment, Brant began with a brief explanation of why he had decided to leave AWTeen. Playing dramatic music, he announced AWTeen's new Caretaker, saying the following:
Now, as to the next Caretaker, a great deal of thought went into the decision I'm about to announce. I should say first that there are a great many qualified people who would do an excellent job in this position. In fact, my biggest reservation about choosing anyone was that all the candidates were so well-liked that such a promotion would irreparably damage their reputations. The Caretaker, in the end, has to make the hard decisions, and thus someone who doesn't lose his or her cool is needed. In addition, sometimes decisions need to be made to stand up for something a person believes in even when the positive impact of that decision may not be immediately clear.
...
The person chosen for this prestigious position embodies all of these qualities and more. Working together with the Core, and the Activeworlds community at large, it is my sincere hope that this experienced leader will carry AWTeen into the future, continuing to defend its place as the best place in Activeworlds to visit. Thus, I have the pleasure to present to you, the leader who will guide AWTeen into its next generation... Chanty!
Text rolled by so rapidly that Brant could not get a word in for several minutes after the announcement. Robbie's fireworks display went off to celebrate the announcement. After people had quieted down, Brant stated that the proceedings weren't yet over, and hinted that he had created a new Vice Caretaker position. After some suspense, he announced that Poseidon would take the position.
The Era of the Community
Chanty and Poseidon were invited to speak immediately following the announcement. They called their time as Caretakers "The Era of the Community." Chanty spoke first, thanking Mountain Myst and Brant for their contributions to the world. Chanty planned to handle "mostly background work, " while Poseidon was to be the one who would be more focused on outside contact. Poseidon stated that he would be happy to listen to any compliments or complaints that AWTeen visitors might have as soon as their terms began.
Chanty also announced a new initiative to allow voting on important topics in the public news://andras.net/AW.AWTeen newsgroup. The two also expressed their desire for public access to the Core newsgroup (news://andras.net/AW.AWTeenCore).
Rick Noll's surprise
During the event, Rick Noll, Activeworlds CEO, showed up unannounced. He asked to speak and Brant granted his request, after Chanty and Poseidon had finished their remarks. E N Z O apologized for not having attended the entire event, because he had been working on a new build world. He described the new world, which was to include terrain, economy, and other features. He thanked the AWTeen community for improving the world, and turned the proceedings back to Brant.
Previously, Brant had mailed Mr. Noll a letter asking him to consider reenabling tourist access for the world. The letter asked him to attend Generations Day and observe the proceedings if he needed to be convinced why AWTeen was such a great community. The letter did not prompt a reply, so Brant assumed that Mr. Noll was not interested in the proposal.
However, during the event, Eric sent a whisper to Mr. Noll, asking the following:
"And [I] politely [request] that maybe you could consider the idea of allowing tourists back in here :)"
Even though Brant had warned Eric against making the request, it was granted by E N Z O. Brant called the event back to session and announced that E N Z O had enabled tourists in the world. Mauz was the first person to enter the world as a tourist since Activeworlds had disabled all tourists six months earlier.
Brant concluded the event by reminding people that Demeter was online and that Georgia was open. He wished everyone a good afternoon, and Generations Day came to a conclusion. Poseidon remained for a half hour after the event to chat with stragglers.
Community reception and legacy
Generations Day was the first of two major events held to introduce the community to AWTeen's next generation of leaders. The second event, Inauguration Day, was held a month later and commenced the terms of the next Caretakers.
Generations Day was generally well-received within the community, and broke AWTeen's all-time visitor record. The event added to AWTeen's prestige, as evidenced by the number of new visitors the world received in the following weeks and at Inauguration Day. Many, such as GC, still refer to Generations Day when discussing AWTeen policy during elections season.