Grand Theft Auto III Chain Game Lounge

[GTAKid667]

Chain Game Announcement!

As we head into the 25th December across the world, I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all members of the community a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Whether you celebrate or not, I hope that you all have a great next few weeks as we come towards the end of 2021.

A New Chain Game Lounge
As our community has continued to develop and expand in the last few years, we've been taking the time to review all aspects of the Chain Game in an effort to ensure that it is the best it can possibly be to serve the needs of the community while also being simpler to understand and be involved with. As detailed in previous announcements, some of the efforts we have made so far have included the simplification of our opening posts, reducing clutter and unnecessary sections, and rewriting rules so that they are easier to understand while not taking multiple sentences to explain.

One of the biggest changes to our community in recent years has been the launch of the Chain Game Discord Server which, along with the Steam Group and Twitter Page introduced around the same time, has worked to bring together the communities of the Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City and IV Chain Game in one shared space which has been used for discussion, receiving the latest updates on the games, and participating in group events. In addition to this, all three games are now ran by the same staff team, share the same base for the opening posts and rules, and are mostly played by the same players. The Chain Game has very much been working towards being one big community, as opposed to multiple smaller communities.

This has all led us to consider whether it continues to be necessary to have a Chain Game Lounge for each individual game when the communities have come together and with the increasing frequency of updates we share being applicable to multiple games. Having a separate place for each game fragments discussion, makes it harder for us as staff to share updates on events we run that do not strictly apply to a specific game, and leads to multiple quieter topics that will only increase as we'd be forced to create new Lounge topics for any new Chain Game we may launch in the future.

We have therefore decided that we are going to create a new Chain Game Lounge. This will be a single place that will benefit the community and the outside world in a way that the current topics are not able to provide. One of the immediate benefits will be having a place we can direct people to that informs them of what the Chain Game is and what rounds we are currently running, which is not information you can really receive in one place directly without having to do additional research. It would also provide us with somewhere we can keep a list of Frequently Asked Questions, so that members of the community and those wanting to join will be able to read through and keep in mind additional information that may be useful but not vital enough for the opening posts of the rounds.

Above all else though, the new Chain Game Lounge will continue to work exactly like the current Lounges do, as a place you can ask questions, share feedback, raise concerns, chat with other players, and receive updates on the community as a whole and the developments we are making behind the scenes. We feel that this decision will make it simpler for us all to know where to go when we need to ask a question or read about the latest updates, and we hope that you all agree and feel you'll still have a place to use in the way you've been using the existing Lounges.

As a result of this change, the Grand Theft Auto III Chain Game Lounge will close on the 31st December 2021. The new thread, "The Chain Game Lounge", will launch in the Classic GTA III section on the 1st January 2022.

As the Chain Games are split across multiple forums, we plan to have the Lounge in the forum of an active Chain Game at all times, with redirect links set up in other forums when there are multiple games. When a new announcement is posted, it will now also be mentioned in the form of a topic banner above any active round that is relevant to the posted announcement, and it will also continue to be mentioned in our Discord and Steam Groups.

If you have any questions about this change, you are welcome to leave a comment below or contact a member of the staff team. Note that this change does not affect the GTA San Andreas Chain Game Lounge, which is maintained by a different team. Thank you to the 16 people who responded after we asked for feedback earlier this month on the proposal to create a new Chain Game Lounge: Arsen Vitiuk, BroomstickFanatic, Bunneyko, ChumCrumpet, Chyea, cryptorelic, cuban gang member, DEALUX, Earthbound, Miles Edgeworth, MrMateczko, Mulyadi, resbas, Sidaredd, Th3MaN1 and TheBulaPsycho.

Closing Words
As we head into 2022, I am optimistic that next year will be a great one for the community with plenty of plans already in place to ensure that we all have a great time. It has been nice to see some new and returning players recently and I hope to see them stick around for many rounds to come. Thank you all for continuing to support and be a part of the Chain Game.
 

GTAKid667, Grand Theft Auto III Chain Game Chief

 

[GTAKid667]

Grand Theft Auto III Chain Game Lounge Complete!

After 11 years and 2 months, it's time to say goodbye to the Grand Theft Auto III Chain Game Lounge.

Used by 77 participants, the Lounge was the place for members of the community to discuss the game with each other, ask questions, raise concerns, and keep up to date with the latest news and updates from the Chain Game Staff. It was also a place for members of the wider GTAForums community to post if they were interested in the Chain Game and were thinking about joining in with the game themselves.

We're now closing the curtains for a final time as we prepare to move over to a brand new thread, a new Chain Game Lounge that unites the communities of three different Chain Games together in one place. It will serve the same purpose as this Lounge has for the last 11 years, while providing the opportunity to keep up to date with the development of the Chain Game outside of Grand Theft Auto III as we continue to expand our community further.

Thank you to all 77 participants who have used the Grand Theft Auto III Chain Game Lounge. I have always cared deeply about the Lounge and having a place to interact with the community outside of the rounds themselves, and I hope to see you all participate in the new Lounge in the years to come.

Of course, there is only one appropriate way to close a Chain Game thread and that is with statistics!

The Grand Theft Auto III Chain Game Lounge was created on 13th October 2010 and in total ran for 4097 days, 0 hours and 6 minutes - 5,899,686 minutes in total.

During that time we've had quite the range of discussions...
There was a mystery surrounding whether one of the regular players had died following a death hoax, Chief Arsen Vitiuk took inspiration from Donald Love and made a sudden disappearance during Round 8, Silent shared a few fixes he was working on for the game - I wonder what happened with those

A monumental moment for the game as we saw a changing of the guard when Arsen Vitiuk passed on the leadership, a temporary rename to "Idaho Appreciation Thread" to celebrate the greatest vehicle to exist in GTA, another to "MrMateczko Appreciation Thread" after the former Deputy Chief returned after over a year away. We've even celebrated birthdays and made them special ones to remember!

Further celebrations ensued with the launch of Round 50 and Round 100, both milestone events for the community. Miles Edgeworth brought joy to the Lounge with his special contribution to a discussion on art skills which we'll remember for years to come.

As the game has continued to develop, we saw regular streaming begin on Steam, the creation of a Discord Server and Steam Group, a Factions Event combining the long-standing rivalry of passionate vehicle fans with a Generated Vehicle Round, and an aplty named Divisions Event which certainly lived up to the name.

Yet despite the sheer craziness of some of our discussions, we've gained recognition from the outside world on two very special occasions - Once in January 2017 when Kirsty dedicated a GTAForums Spotlight Article on the community and the history of the game, and more recently when GamesRadar chose to write an article about our decade of experiences in Liberty City.

Breaking down the numbers
Between the 77 participants of the Lounge, a total of 1982 posts were made. GTAKid667 made the most contributions with 447 posts. The following are the 5 highest contributors to posts in the Lounge:

1. GTAKid667 - 447
2. Th3MaN1 - 208
3. DEALUX - 175
4. Arsen Vitiuk - 166
5. lol232 - 115

2013 was the most popular year of the Lounge when a total of 560 posts were made. The following are the 5 years where most posts were made:

1. 2013 - 560
2. 2015 - 451
3. 2014 - 260
4. 2012 - 245
5. 2017 - 239

Lets not forget about invalid posts! A total of 55 posts from 22 participants have been removed from the Lounge. Some people enjoyed posting so much they'd accidentally double post, while others enjoyed the more heated debates to the extent of not knowing when to save and quit the game.

The first non-staff poster to use the Lounge was twannie1997, and the final non-staff poster was Stahli.

Statistics Table
It has been a fun 11 years, and I look forward to plenty more fun in the new Chain Game Lounge. For the grand finale, here is the official table of statistics for the Grand Theft Auto III Chain Game Lounge:

 

Grand Theft Auto III Chain Game Lounge Statistics

Participant Name	Posts Made
0909090	3
123robot	17
98 in 1	17
Andreaz1	10
AndyGanteks	1
Arsen Vitiuk	166
Bartleby	4
cidamelo	5
Claude_Lib	1
crashoverride93	6
Dap300	2
DEALUX	175
Dingleman	4
Dr. John	8
DragonpokeZ	56
Filip	25
fireguy109	11
fooking	3
gnad1992	1
GoldenBlade	1
GTAGuy1995	20
GTAKid667	447
GTA_CAT	1
Gummy	2
H.I.M.	8
Harerama Chakraborty	8
Helegad	7
iguana	5
Jimmy	66
Johan	50
JurzeeDee	1
Kalvin	1
Kirsty	2
Lancerator	1
lastpackage	1
Leone Sentinel	2
Lethal Vaccine	29
lol232	115
magneto	2
Mak	2
Miles Edgeworth	38
Mitsuha	2
Mr JoeStalin	4
Mr.ClaudeFan	8
MrMateczko	99
newvbepczg	3
Nico	1
oakesypvfc	2
Paisan™	2
Parik	1
Pavle	2
perhapshere	9
Pyrrhic	7
Roham	2
Satourn	2
Sergiu	3
Shogun Pacino	1
Shoumaker	8
Sidaredd	8
Silent	39
Slamman	1
sombrA	4
Sorviknight	7
Stahli	4
stef_92	13
Szymonescu	2
Th3MaN1	208
thehambone	43
TheLostBiker	7
TJGM	1
ToniForelli	4
TropicThunder	1
TubewayArmy	54
twannie1997	1
UltraGizmo64	5
WildBrick142	89
zmudziak32	11
Total
77 Participants	1982 Posts Made

Grand Theft Auto III Chain Game Lounge Time

Wednesday 13th October 2010 at 15:54 UTC - Friday 31st December 2021 at 16:00 UTC

4097 days, 0 hours, 6 minutes - 5,899,686 minutes in total