Liero community
From Liero Wiki
The Liero community is a common name for the group of people interested and involved in Liero and its representation on the world wide web. The Liero community can be counted as being formed in 2000 at the Wormhole Guestbook and the early LieroNet Forum. Its main characters have changed over the years but some have been involved all along. Ulvhockey, Tim Verweij, Greybrow, Gliptic are some of the most prominent figures that have been in the community since 2000 until today (2006).
The people of the community have sometimes met each other in what has become known as l33tm33ts.
The community was centered on the LieroNet forum, but now on the ComSer forum and the #liero IRC channel.
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The Polish community
Poland is a major stronghold for Liero. Perhaps to a more extensive amount of Windows 98-computers Liero 1.33 was a played game at a large scale much longer than in the other Liero-taken nations. The Polish community grew around Liga Liero and its forum, but also around smaller factions such as Vermis Templari. The Polish community alone is about the same size as the rest of the world put together. Some of the Polish people also joined the global community. In the early days it was Greybrow, Biernath_John and Durbik, and later also Patrys. More recently it is Jerrec and Guth just to mention a few that remain the outward face of the Liero population in Poland.
Liero community members
See the category People for more about this.
Timeline
The Liero community had ups and downs. This list shows when and why. The "eras" are not ment as static times with absolute shifts. Instead they drift into eachother and overlap, fade and exchange. For some people the pre-community era ended in the communitys 8th era, due to their detachment from the community. Some went through all the eras. Some skipped a few in between. It can be noted in the graph below that LieroX is included as a Liero clone, but its community and community activity is not.
Eras
1. Development era
As the title suggests, this is the time when Liero was in development and a crowd of interested took part in the original creation of Liero. Liero was originally published on the forums of the Mikrobitti computer magazine, and groups of people could directly communicate with the creator of Liero, Joosa, and bring in ideas and suggestions. None of the people from this era are known to have continued to the later eras of the community. (This era is estimated around 1998 until early parts of 1999)
2. Pre Community era
This phase is the time when the Liero community was gathering and forming from individuals to groups. This was 1999 and internet was a far less used media than it is in the era of Liero Wiki. Fewer people had their own internet connection and to have high speed or constant connection was almost unheard of. The pre community era was lived out on the Wormhole guestbook and the HellHole guestbook, and perhaps a few other less known guestbooks. Many of the people from this era would follow into the next one. The first Liero editing tools were created in this era, mostly by Johan Otterud and Tim Verweij. (This era is estimated around 1999 until middle of 2000)
3. Early Community era
This stage of time begins with the creation of the LieroNet forum in 2000. Slow, but steady, most people found their way to the LieroNet forums, leaving the guestbooks behind. This era was full of hope, expectations and dreams, but above all, growth and creativity. During this time most people that would later become the pillars of the community joined. Also it is in this era that the most famous Liero editors, LieroKit and LieroM8 were created. (This era is estimated around May 2000 until the end of that year)
4. Prime era
The prime era is the time where everything were as good as they would get in the community when regarding size, activity and love for the game. There were by now several Liero clans, plenty of well established Liero web sites with many downloads avaliable. The amount of people was as great as it would ever be and the forums were very active in all parts. It had become clear enough that there would be no official Liero sequel by now, so many clones and unofficial sequels began to develop. (This era is estimated around 2001 until 2002)
5. Cooldown era
The lack of finished sequels and an overload of expectations caused many people to lose hope at this time. Many abandoned the community and hard blows were struck as the LieroNet forum was lost when its host ceased. The forum returned, but due to the limbo time, many people never found their way to the new one, and some were lost. Now only those who had truly enjoyed the old forum and the community remained, and they were quite a few. During this time, a few unknown Liero clones began development. Among them was, then obscure Argentinian clone Gusanos.
6. A new hope era
Many had left, but those who had stayed would now see the first working Liero clones to appear. Wurmz! for example. However, the clones did not always meet the expectations of the fans, and the ability to play online was not at all satisfied. Some new members were gained, but many more left. During this time some more advanced Liero sites appear, such as ComSer. In fact most things that were created in this era should have been created in the early stage of the community. Now it was too late. Creation, but not completion of LOSP takes place here.
7. Fade out era
This period is when the broad mass has lost intrest in Liero. It goes hand in hand with the now almost dominating Windows XP which does not allow Liero to be played with sounds. Also further disasters to the LieroNet forums and new possibilities on the internet. Still no popular Liero clones avalible - we thought. Just when all hope seemed lost, two clones appeared seemingly out of nowhere. First Liero Xtreme and then Gusanos. Neither of them, especially not LieroX, would revive the Liero community, where only the firmest and most faithful fans remained. Most of the remaining Liero community members gather around LOSP and Gusanos, while most newcomers end up in the new LieroX community who had been growing paralell to the Liero community.
8. Xenovermic era
This era overlaps largely with the previous era, and becomes absolute only by the yearshift into 2006 when the new generation of Gusanos and the last official version of LieroX are released. The Liero community is no longer a community about Liero. It has become a community of people that once played Liero, and now simply honor it, but also some new fans who migrate from LieroX or rediscover their old Liero interests and join the Liero/Gusanos-community. At the same time, Liero by itself had a reawakening through the highly successful "Hyperm33t" which reawakened some of the Liero-playing spirit in many old-garde players.
This era is marked by uncertainty regarding the extremely small fanbase as well as hopefulness due to the success of Liero clone Gusanos and the seeming undying love for Liero shown by some. LOSP is no longer present in this era and LieroX is on slight decline, even though it is still by far greater than its older brother-community. Wurmz still has a small fanbase, especially in Poland. (This era is estimated around 2005 until the future unknown)
The LieroX community is and always was fully separate from the Liero community apart from random encounters.
This graph shows the trends of the Liero community. It is only a rough estimate but should give a good idea how it went. The downclimb of the clones line doesnt mean a demise but a natural selection where only the most fit clones endured. The numbering 1-8 refers to the numbers on the eras seen above.
The graph does not consider the Polish community, but focuses on the LieroNet/ComSer centered activities.
