Sometime in June of 1994 (the exact date is lost to the sands of time), the first live AOL Star Trek chat sims were held for the community that would later be known as “UFOP” and now “StarBase 118 PBEM RPG” – that’s ~9863 days or 27 years ago!
If you’re reading this post, you’re a member of a community that is older than Amazon (by just a few weeks!), Google (by more than three years), and even Star Trek: Voyager!
In that time, we’ve built a fascinating, rich, alternate history of Star Trek and touched the lives of thousands of people across the planet in a shared vision of a future society where no one goes hungry or unhoused and a human-led coalition is a beacon in the darkness. We’ve sat at the table with noted science fiction writers who helped us understand how to craft stories. We’ve run online simming conventions. We consistently produce fleetwide events that fascinate, delight, and reward our members.
All the while, we’ve leading the Star Trek simming community in self-assessment on the basis of diverse and inclusive environments, and have taken a strong stand in favor of representation for LGBTQ people and people of color in simming, and against the kinds of sexism that often pervade roleplaying games. We have a culture of experimentation, continuous improvement, and collegial conflict and conflict resolution that has sustained this lil’ game for decades.
