For those who don't know the site's history, here's a look back. Way back in September 1998 I realized that, as any truly misguided college student, I had way too much time on my hands and had to find something useful to do other than watching Billy Madison. I decided to start up a gaming website of some sort and, to keep a long story short, I somehow decided it would be a map review site for a then-unreleased game called Half-Life. Eventually I scraped together a design, uploaded everything to Geocities, and applied for hosting at Contaminated.Net (now known as PlanetHalf-Life). Luckily, the hosting manager saw it in his heart to set me up (I will never know quite why looking back on the original design), and the two radium sites followed in the months to come.

Prior to creating these two sites, I had no experience with graphics, HTML, web design, team management, published writing, reviewing, or web programming. Despite all that, within the site's first year we had managed to churn out over eight hundred reviews, serve millions upon millions of web pages, build an avid fanbase, and give the color green a new meaning.

I've invested more hours in these websites than you could ever imagine or that I will ever concede to. And I don't regret a single minute of it. This has been the greatest learning experience of my life in many ways, and I had never dreamed it would literally turn my life upsidedown. If you're thinking of starting a website, go for it... it can be a wild ride.

And what is so wonderful, you might ask, that would convince me to give all this up? Well, I now work for the mighty GameSpy Industries, managing our utility site endeavors such as FilePlanet and GameSpyder. I've committed a great deal of effort to making the radium sites highly usable and innovative. I'm now concentrating that effort and everything I've learned in the past two years to produce amazing new things at FilePlanet and GameSpyder, so keep an eye out for innovations to come!

Of course, there are many people who contributed to the radium site's success in one way or another. The first thanks fittingly goes to Joost Schuur, GameSpy's hosting manager, for taking a chance on my site. Thanks to all of the reviewers who have come and gone over the site's lifespan. Thanks to everyone at Gamedesign.Net who quite inadvertently made this site valid, and from whom I've learned a great deal about mapping and mappers (they are fierce creatures). Speaking of mappers, thanks to the hundreds of folks who sent in their maps - there's alot of talent out there. Thanks to the mysterious and elusive guys at Valve Software for their game, although I wonder if they really exist. I regret never actually having the opportunity to deal with them directly (Have they ever visited the site? Sadly, I will never know!). Thanks anyway.

The biggest thanks goes out to all of the fans and visitors of the radium sites! Thanks for stopping by the site, our forums, our playtests, and for fueling my efforts for the last two years. Even on my harsh rating scale, you guys have earned a perfect 100. I assure you, a better gaming community you will not find.

And so finally, with a lump in my throat and a familiar hazy blue-green glow reflecting in my eyes, I must post this final update to a site I am very proud of and will never forget.

-radium-

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