Age of Empires (video game)
"Age of Empires" was a hit in the German market, where it debuted at #1 on 's sales rankings for the latter half of October 1997. After holding this position in the first half of November, it remained in Media Control's top 5 through the end of 1997. The following year, "Age of Empires" placed consistently in the top 3 through March, when it rose again to #1 in the last two weeks of the month. By the end of May, it had spent 28 consecutive weeks in Media Control's top rankings, with placements of fifth and eighth that month. "Age of Empires" proceeded to become the fourth-best-selling computer game in the German market during 1998's first nine months. It received a "Gold" award from the (VUD) in August, for sales of at least 100,000 units across Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Sales in the German market totaled 115,000 units by the end of September, and the VUD raised "Age of Empires" to "Platinum" status, for 200,000 sales, by November. At the 1999 Milia festival in Cannes, "Age of Empires" took home a "Gold" prize for revenues above €15 million in the European Union during 1998. It remained at 14th on Media Control's charts for the German region by January 1999, continuing a 60-week streak on the charts.
Empires of Eve
"Empires of Eve" was written by journalist Andrew Groen. Groen, who had written for "Wired" and "Ars Technica", wanted to write a book about parts of the video-game world which had been overlooked by other journalists. "Eve Online" was released around that time, and Groen began researching the game. The game met his criterion for uniqueness because of its focus on causation. Groen looked for past work about "Eve Online"; a 2003 forum post ("Death to Taggart, Death to Ragnar, Death to the memory of this treacherous night" by player Jade Constantine) caught his attention and inspired him to write the book. He spent two years in research, talking to over 70 players, examining forum posts and reading data related to the game. Groen had never played "Eve Online" before he wrote the book, and said that his idea for a book was not seriously considered; without "Empires of Eve", the game's history might have been lost. He began a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for the book in 2014.