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[[Image:Visit-aug07-9.jpg| | [[Image:Visit-aug07-9.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Lunching at Flagship Studios, August 2007.]]I began working on this website in the summer of 1998 (yes, that long ago) when my interest in Diablo I and Hellfire brought me to Elly's old D1/HF site, long before she'd secured the diabloii.net domain name. That site was very basic and just hosted on an extension of a gaming cafe she ran, but it was the only decent online source of Hellfire information, and when I started sending in emails with comments and corrections, Elly was always quick to reply and update the info. It wasn't too much longer before Blizzard North announced that they were working on Diablo II, and as I read the pre-game info and saw the early cinematics, I grew more and more interested in the title. | ||
In those early days of the Internet, there weren't a lot of fansites and there was very little pre-game hype or fan activity for even the biggest titles. When Elly started putting together a fansite for Diablo II, and she asked me to help out on it, I wondered what we'd find to write about, with the game so far from release. (Imagine if we'd known the title would be delayed 18 months?) Needless to say, we managed to find quite a bit, gained a considerable online audience, and came to the attention of the D2 team, who invited myself, Elly, and our third early writer, Gaile Gray, to [http://www.diabloii.net/features/visit/index.shtml visit their offices] in San Francisco in December of 1999, as Diablo II moved towards the beta testing phase. We were the first and only fansite so honored, and I was fortunate enough to be invited back several more times (including a chance to advance test the long-awaited v1.09 patch in 2003) before the founders left (to form [http://www.flagshipstudios.com Flagship Studios]) and the company folded. | In those early days of the Internet, there weren't a lot of fansites and there was very little pre-game hype or fan activity for even the biggest titles. When Elly started putting together a fansite for Diablo II, and she asked me to help out on it, I wondered what we'd find to write about, with the game so far from release. (Imagine if we'd known the title would be delayed 18 months?) Needless to say, we managed to find quite a bit, gained a considerable online audience, and came to the attention of the D2 team, who invited myself, Elly, and our third early writer, Gaile Gray, to [http://www.diabloii.net/features/visit/index.shtml visit their offices] in San Francisco in December of 1999, as Diablo II moved towards the beta testing phase. We were the first and only fansite so honored, and I was fortunate enough to be invited back several more times (including a chance to advance test the long-awaited v1.09 patch in 2003) before the founders left (to form [http://www.flagshipstudios.com Flagship Studios]) and the company folded. | ||