That was a wild time. I came out of Compendium retirement to help out with all the malarkey going on plus the enormous site traffic. I remember being on the phone with a Square Enix lawyer at one point, trying to get them to understand our position, and realizing I was way out of my league.
It's funny how different people's memories of the past diverge from one another (that could be an interesting game idea...). I don't remember the "traitor in our ranks" angle at all. Like, at all, and I was one of the forum founders too. I just remember the adrenaline we all felt at the time, and the sense that we were doing something important. Attracting Squeenix's notice, even if that negative way, was a head rush. I had virtually no role in CE's development (other than being an occasional muse), but I was at the heart of the Chrono community then and I was super thrilled to see a fan game of some quality finally come to completion. Everyone talks about making one (myself included), but following through--and making it good--is a much taller order. For a long time I wasn't expecting the game to be all that good, and then it turned out to be pretty awesome. I was glad to see CE go underground after the C&D--we all knew it would continue in some capacity--and I don't really even mind the ripoffs and mods. After all, that's what Crimson Echoes itself is!
You know, a lot of folks point to that C&D as the reason that the fan base withered away afterwards. In hindsight, that wasn't true. This community was built around its core personalities and the incredible freedom of speech ZeaLitY allowed us. As folks were explaining in one of the other threads, life kinda took most of us in our separate directions, and a community really does live and die on the passions and quality of its true believers. PrincessNadia, you missed some great times! (Hah, I guess it's all still here in the forums, the text if not the zeitgeist.)
