Civ-Online celebrated its 1 year anniversary, and year of beta, on the first of last January. Of the many weeks leading up to the 1st of January 2007, the game took its very early and primitive steps towards the game you now see before you. At first, a one man team consisting of <i>BRUm</i> the initial creator and owner of the website (if you're a member of our forums, I'm sure you'll know me by now) placed the foundations of beta after being inspired by Sid Meier's offline Civilization series. However, it was not long before an eager player with the ability to learn fast wanted to help Co prosper. Therefore I thank <i>AmbientFox</i? for all the hard work and free time he put into learning the ropes and help Co in its infant stages.

After the initial growing stages, Co continued to greatly expand with the addition of the forums. Not only was this a great place to communicate with other players, but it gave the game an entirely new focal point with much more possibilities. The forums have seen such colourful times: Flame wars, debates, alliance propaganda, role-playing and general chatter. Without the moderators being so generous with their free time and effort with overseeing the forums and in-game matters, Co would not be the friendly, helpful and advanced place it is today. I sincerely thank the moderators, past and present, for everything and I hope to see you all enjoy moderating the new Era.

As the game and forum took a more serious role, and left the original ethic of a project, a new addition to the Co team changed everything, for the best. Enter <i>Predator</i>, a greatly enthusiastic, resourceful and friendly fellow programmer. Upon the acceptance within the team, huge changes were made. Co could now progress twice as fast and operate twice as efficiently. With great communication almost daily, not only were new features and fixes brought out frequently, but the final date and motivation given to the new Era that has fallen upon on us, was down to him. My greatest thanks go to my co-admin, programmer and business partner, Michael (aka Predator), of which this all couldn't have been done without.

Other special thanks go to Sam for the great Era II graphics and Mpchlets for the great security insights.