Ender "Eric" Maki is a retired simmer and Simming Prize Laureate. Active during the late 1990s and early 2000s, Maki created the SciWorld Online Convention and helped establish the Online Simulations Association (OSA). He later served as the President of the OSA. Maki was also the Vice President of the Simming League and Commanding Officer of the Federation Sim Fleet's (FSF) Delta Fleet.
Early Simming Career[]
Maki was introduced to simming in 1997 by a friend of his who served in Spacefleet Online's (SFOL) Teen Fleet. He attended SFOL's academy sim and was promoted by Lynx to become a member of the club.
In SFOL, Maki served on the USS Havana from 1997 to 1998, and the USS Hood from 1998 to 1999. On the Havana he learned the basics of simming and was mentored by LtCmdrJami. However, he rose slowly through the ranks in SFOL, having only reached Lieutenant Junior Grade after two years, and left the club.
Birth of the Online Simulations Association[]
In 1998, Maki joined the United Federation of Simming (UFS). Maki quickly rose through the ranks, started a newsletter for the club, and became a captain and trusted officer. The UFS was a midsized club with 8 sims and 60 members, but it's leader - Matt (UFS) - had big dreams to become a major simming power with Star Trek, Babylon 5, X-Files, Sliders, and other types of sims. To make this happen, the leadership of the UFS put Maki in charge of reaching out to other sim clubs and coordinating their merger into the USF.
Two clubs expressed interest in merging and over the course of July and August 1998 Maki worked with the principle leaders of the three clubs and orchestrated their merger to create a brand new club - the Online Simulations Association (OSA) - a name coined by Maki.
While Maki made the OSA possible, he was left out of the final meetings that cemented the mergers. He grew concerned that the mergers were proceeding too quickly and were not being fully executed, which Maki believed would lead to instability. He was soon proved right. During the fall of 1998, the OSA was plagued by infighting and teetered on the brink of civil war. Despite commanding two sims in the OSA - the USS Atlantis and Space Station Genesis, and publishing the clubs official newsletter - Subspace - Maki continued to be shut out of key decisions.
Concerned with his diminished role and the growing instability, Maki submitted his resignation in December 1998, but it was rejected and he was talked into staying.
SciWorld and the Simming League[]
After agreeing to stay with the Online Simulations Association, Maki was given the green light by the clubs leadership to organize a week of games, chats, and special events for the OSA in hopes of fostering a sense of community within the club. Maki and a fellow OSA host, Tashak, got to work.
In November 1998, Maki had been introduced to Chas Hammer, who than was President of the Simming League, and the two became fast friends. In January 1999, when Maki asked Chas if he would be interested in helping with the week long OSA convention, Chas was so enamored with the idea he threw the full support the Simming League behind it - even though the OSA was not a member of the Simming League.
The idea for the OSA wide convention soon morphed into the SciWorld Online Convention - open to all simmers on America Online. SciWorld 1999, held from March 18 to 22nd, was a huge success. Nine clubs sponsored it and hundreds of simmers attended the convention's sims, games, chats, workshops, and other events. It secured Maki's reputation in the simming community on America Online as a person who could get things done. AOL's Non-Affiliated Gaming Forum tried to copy SciWorld by attempting to run its own simming convention that summer, but was unable to make it happen. Maki would, along with Tashak and Chas Hammer, shared the 1999 Simming Prize for the creation of SciWorld.
Cooperation between the Online Simulations Association and the Simming League brought the OSA into the Simming League and propelled it forward as one of the League's most influential members. When Chas was reelected as the President of the Simming League on March 19, 1999, he named Maki as the Vice President.
Leading the OSA[]
Success with SciWorld and the League propelled Maki forward within the Online Simulations Association. At the end of March 1999, Calhoun, who was the President of the OSA's Primary Command Board left the club and took with him about 1/3 of the OSA to form a new club, the Interstellar Simming Confederation (ISC).
Instability grew within the OSA, and in June 1999 Maki was selected as its new head. He attempted to draft a constitution for the OSA, reorganize the command system to make it more democratic, tried to convince the ISC to return to the OSA, and worked to implement a 10-point plan to improve simming and community spirit within the OSA and strengthen relationships with major simming powers to further the OSA's position within the simming community. However, over the summer Pete Anders split from the OSA and took more members with him, and in frustration Maki steped down as the leader of the OSA at the end of July and handed control of the club over to Matt, the old leader of the United Federation of Simming (UFS).
Things did not improve, and Matt handed leadership of the club back to Maki in September. Maki was able to bring stability to the OSA during the fall, but realized the situation was untenable as there were too many fundamental divides within the club left over from the initial mergers. Unwilling to breakup the club, Maki instead merged it into the Federation Sim Fleet (FSF).
Federation Sim Fleet[]
In the Federation Sim Fleet, the OSA became FSF's Delta Fleet, and Maki served as the Fleet Commanding Officer. With the FSF's guidance and massive resources, Maki was able to stabilize Delta Fleet and it prospered within the FSF. Despite rumors to the contrary, Maki and Shuni, the leader of the Federation Sim Fleet, were not enemies, but they were not close, and after running Delta Fleet for a year, Maki resigned in February 2001.
Retirement[]
After leaving the Federation Sim Fleet, Maki retired from simming, although he remained involved with the Simming League and SciWorld. In August 2001, Maki made several posts on the Simming League message boards critical of the FSF. When they were deleted (which could only have been done by an AOL host), Maki filed charges claiming that Shuni (who was also an AOL host) deleted the posts. Although a trial was never held due to a lack of evidence, the case caused the Simming League to move its operations to an Internet message board under League control. The event also brought a wave of pro and anti FSF feelings to the surface that nearly split the League and resulted in the League rewriting its constitution.
In 2002, Maki attempted to create a new Online Simulations Association, but was unable to get it off of the ground. After the failure to relaunch the OSA, Maki retired fully from the simming community.