10 Year Anniversary / Memories of New Element

Happy Birthday New Element

Members come, and members go, but one thing remains the same, New Element has been and will always be the #1 RCT fansite. 18th March 2012 sees New Element turn 10 years old and we feel that this is more than something to celebrate. So join us as we look back on the past 10 years by posting some memories of your own, whether they be from a decade ago or just a couple of months, we want to hear what NE means to you and what fond memories you have. Here's to the next 10 years...

What does NE mean to me? I love NE for the community it is and the amazing releases it churns out. Hopefully there will be another 10 years of NE - not likely, but just maybe...

What does NE mean to me? Well, it's a large part of my hobby, and therefore a part of my life.
Fond memories: H2H5, definately. So many great parks at such a high pace, working with others (although that didn't go too well in my case), the competitiveness, the discussions. So much activity! I also cherish the time when I was new here. Almost everything was new to me, the people and the parks. There were so many new parks to discover for me, people posting great pics and stuff. Masturbating over Watkins Woods. Fatha, Emergo, Blitz and Emergo were still active among others. And looking up to the NE Parkmaker status...

I still remember getting the e-mail from the NE staff saying that Hammerhead had won design and jumping up and down in excitement, and then all the crap the panelists got afterwards for being 'to soft'. ^^ H2H5 was amazing as well, it was so cool to me back then to get to work with some of the big names at the time and actually contribute to something. I can't wait to see what the next 10 years has in store.

Awww, sweet sweet memories, just brings a tear in to my eye. And I just can't help but laugh at my idiocy when I think about how I came to join the site lol.

I don't have many memories here, because I haven't been here all that long. But, I'd like to thank you all for helping me improve in this game. It's been a great experience and I can't wait for our future!

I think my fondest memory of NE was all the positive feedback on Mooreville, even if it didn't win a bronze. c:

In the four years I've been here, I've come to see NE as so many different things to me: a retreat, a place of relaxation, a theater, and even, at moments, a place of annoyance. It really is weird to be waxing rhapsodical about a video-game fansite, but the culture of NE, from 2002 to now, and hopefully for many years beyond, has been one that goes beyond a mere collection of people sharing an interest in an old video game; we're a collection of artists, patrons of an odd DeviantArt-type community of fledgling "artists," only using a much more specific medium with more specific goals. We lay ourselves out to bare all in front of a semi-anonymous crowd, and thus know even a little bit more about each other. Those of us who have experienced studio culture in any setting, whether it be through school or any design job, can see NE as an extension of a digital studio of sorts, as we consult, guide, critique, and build off of each other as we all create. While the memories of winning awards and accolades, or getting great feedback, may be great, it's the involvement in the community that will probably linger the longest, and the impact NE members, through their design philosophies, have had upon my own design philosophies, in RCT, in AutoCAD, and on the drawing board. Never forget that NE is first-and-foremost the #1 RCT Community on the web, and cherish the fact that we've been able to sustain this strong f an output and this supportive of a community after all these years.

And to another 10... *raises glass*

I still remember being devastated that Caesar's Legions didn't win Design. After releasing it on my own, I, a nobody--a newcomer who hadn't done anything to deserve recognition--received this comment from the one and only posix regarding my LL work:

"fantastic.
gwazi, i'm much impressed.

that you didn't get design is completely ridiculous.
even more ridiculous is the reasoning that the layout would need to be better.

...

don't let it get to you. this is one of the first rctll releases in years (serious here) that i will keep on my hd.
you have your own style. and that 7-8 years after the game was released and about 1 zillion parks have been made. and although you show certain influences, you still have originality in this thing.

furthermore, i can see a lot of effort and detail work of which i believe it wasn't always fun but maybe tiresome at times too that went into this. it shows you really cared for this thing. and i know how hard it is to finish a project once the hype when you start it is gone.

therefore, i like this thing so much.
i very much hope you will continue to play rctll!"

That comment alone has meant more to me than any accolade I have won or competition I have done well in. I have tried to stay true to posix's words throughout my RCT career, and, as proud as I am of my PT3 and H2H5 work, my two favorite works were both Design rejects. And I'm completely fine with that.

This is why the community here is so strong. This is why "legends" keep coming back, years after they quit the game. This is why, no matter how busy I am, I keep coming back to this site and try my best (even though I fail) to get back into the game. It's out of a desire to play, yes, but it's out of a desire to release my creativity and contribute to a community and a website that truly deserves it. I may not be the most remembered or respected member here, but I am completely content with simply being able to say, "I helped."

That is what NE means to me. LLLL and LLNE.

'Defender Of The Faith'


That's what I will always remember NE for.

'Defender Of The Faith'


That's what I will always remember NE for.

That's the way <3

Oh and that time we had an edit war in one of my posts

There are so many NE memories, so here are a few of my favorites.

I followed the site from the very beginning and joined in January 2004. Posted my first screens in the AD, which were basically a rip off of the work by artist, which didn't get me any good comments at all. Basically played the game every day after school and started to be an active part of RCTX, a small club run by BigFoot. Those days corkscrew and I started a lot of projects which never got finished.
Got to know posix and discussed the game and what makes a park with him in hours of chatting. The days of RCT philosophy or whatever people called it. Great days, even though in the end all those ideas of how to play the game made it almost impossible to build up to our standards.
Getting drafted by iris for H2H3 and being supposed to work together with Toon, which I admired at lot at that time. However, that never happened and instead WME and I made a park, for which he won Wooden Coaster of the Year. Qualifying for PT2 after a sending in submissions for about every qualification round and being part of the contest.
Getting drafted, again by iris, for H2H4 where I was supposed to work together with Toon again, which I admired a lot at that time. However, that never happened ... (wait, I somehow remember this.)
Instead I made a solo park in about 1,5 weeks, which gave our team the first win. Iris promised to give me a parkmaker spot, if I can win that week and so I became the last NE parkmaker choosen by iris. After that I took a break from the game and came back for H2H5, where I was a captain for the Flying Germans, which was a lot of fun. Whatsoever, during the finals real life took over for me and I was not able to help the team win the contest, which I still think we could have done. S.P.Q.R from Park Asterix won me Wooden Coaster of the Year. From then on I never really touched the game again, even though I wanted to defend my award, which never happened.

Great memories. Looking forward to the next decade.

To me NE is mostly a (more than) worthy alternative for RCT-Guide, something none of the other Dutch RCT communities could offer. Even though I am all but active at NE (postwise) I love skimming through parks regularly. It gives a very clear and complete overview of what kind of great things are going on in the world of rollercoaster tycoon, and how the game/styles develop. It's great to see hów much styles can differ per person, or even per community. Furthermore I love how not only the English/Americans are well-represented on this site, but rather all sorts of nationalities are present (with the Dutch seemingly quite overrepresented? ).

Without this site my hobby would've ended together with Guide, so without NE I'd have lost all interest in the whole game a long time ago.

This one time I downloaded a park from the site and it was pretty boss.

I've played RCT since it was released, but unfortunately I only discoverd the online community in the autumn of 2007. Some months after I became part of RCT-Guide I also joined NE, only to show my screens on another site as well. To be honest, at that moment I didn't like the other parks over here at all: I was just getting used to the typical Guide-style parkmaking, blindly admiring Sulakke's work as the best RCT possible, and the 'American' way of building with its larger dose of fantasy and colours, but less attention for realistic detail and atmosphere (generally not true, but that's how I remember it) just didn't appeal to me. The fact that LL parks were advertised and released seemed rather absurd to me at first. I still regret that I didn't take the effort to study NE's rich history, follow the releases and settle in the community back then. When RCT-Guide closed, I was forced to move to NE and luckily I started to appreciate and finally love the diversity (and superiority) of this site. I was pretty pissed off that Dimi's Superhero Island didn't get design, but on the other hand I could never have expected that people would love Värmland Park so much. Even though I loved RCT-Guide a lot (mostly for its off-topic part), NE has taught me so much more. As Ruben said it's because of NE I still play RCT, and as long as NE exists, I will continue playing.

Back in the day, I was a highly active member at Rct2.com. I remember people talking about how "scary" and "harsh" NewElement was. I lurked for a while until I finally mustered the courage to post some screenshots of my work. Needless to say I didn't fare so well. When I was younger I didn't understand why people were so harsh here, but now that I'm older I understand that it was only to make each other better.

I don't really play Rct2 anymore, but I still do my best to be active on the site. I just love how tight-knit this community is. Its kind of like that small town where everyone knows everybody and has lots of history both good and bad. I'm honored to be a part of it.

My 3 favorite memories from this site were probably after my first screen I ever posted, on page 1 of the dump-place, getting a positive comment from posix and just generally positive feedback overall, H2H5, and Micro Madness

Overall the site in general has been a great memory tho. Just thinking back on how young and different I was back when I first joined. I remember the way I treated the shitpile back in the day, I used to actually look up to people like catachresistant or whoever in some ways. Which I now realize is just absolutely hilarious. I don't think I've been on any website this long, including Facebook

It's sort of unfortunate that I've stopped playing the game as frequently as I used to. I think it just came down to how complicated the game has gotten with stuff like peeps being the standard, diagnol paths, custom supports and especially catwalks, and just things like that in general. Also the fact that RCT2 is a bitch on Windows Vista. Everytime I come back from a semester of school it seems that I fall behind drastically with the game,but regardless I still love to check on the site because of the great characters here and their crazily opinionated opinions. I plan on sticking around here for awhile and I hope everybody else does too

I can't believe I've been apart of NE for 5 years, let alone the years I lurked beforehand.

I remember always thinking that one day I would achieve the ultimate goal in RCT and get a spotlight. My fondest memory would have to be the PM from Posix and Gee asking me to become part of the site team, to me that is my 'Spotlight'.

Ever since becoming an admin I've cared more and more for the site and it's members. Whilst this has had an effect on my RCT playing and practically halted it for a while, it hasn't bothered me in the slightest because the thrill I got from building RCT I get from putting in the effort for the site.

Many members don't realise how much work goes into running NE, especially when it comes to sorting out Anniversary celebrations it does sometimes get to me that we can be loved or hated depending on where we are taking the site at a current time and or whether we provide the right answer to what members ask for, especially when people just don't know what plans we do have, but it is always great to hear how much people love the site and that the hard work pays off.

Long live New Element.

Long Live Louis! Talking of 5 years in 4 months it'll be 5 years since I started on JEP, with my initial plan to finish it in 5 months lol. Well that didn't happen.

JJ what's happening with JEP? Wouldn't mind some more guest spot action?