Kitsuria Network

Kitsuria Network is a classic gaming community that focuses on retro games and abandonware. The site itself has gone through three name changes, as well as theme changes, up until late 2004, when Samui (its founder) named it "Kitsune Paradise". The name remained the same after that until late 2010, when it was changed to "Kitsuria Network".

The message board contains several minigames to keep the members occupied, including virtual pets and a battle system.

• Address: https://kitsuria.net/
• Founder: Samui
• Ran from/to: February 25, 2003 - present

History

Digital Dimension ( February 2003–September 2003 )

On February 25, 2003, Samui (then known as DigiAgent) opened a Digimon fansite named Digital Dimension. He originally had a friend of his from the Sonic community host the site until late April, when he moved it to his own computer. He was unable to keep it online 24/7 due to networking arrangements in his house. Forums were also opened, but there is no recollection of their content.

Over the course of the summer, Digital Dimension became more themed towards anime and gaming, and on September 12th, the site's name changed to "Sigma".

Sigma ( September 2003–December 2003 )

Along with Samui's online identity, the site's name had changed to "Sigma". This marked the first opening of a roleplaying section, which was used mainly for free-for-all battles. "Sigma" was called "The Multipurpose Server", as it had a number of services running, namely FTP, HTTP, IRC, Shoutcast, and Kaillera Netplay.

Like "Digital Dimension", "Sigma" was still unable to stay online 24/7. This problem was solved in late December, when Samui had received a wireless networking kit for Christmas.

Digital Gate ( December 2003–September 2004 )

On Christmas of 2003, Samui was finally able to keep his server online 24/7. In light of this change, he changed the site's name to "Digital Gate", and his identity changed back to "DigiAgent02". "Digital Gate" continued to be a gaming community. An attempt was made at a Digimon roleplaying board, but it was never finished. However, on the IRC channel, several roleplaying sessions involving Digimon were taking place that would eventually form the basis behind KitsuMUCK. In late Feburary 2004, Samui changed his name to "KitsuneNoYuki" or "YukiKitsunemon", the name of his main character.

Around May 2004, Samui added a forum called "Kitsune Discussion", and he made a new skin themed around kitsune which featured Vulpix and Ninetales. Soon afterwards, a Riven themed skin was added, along with five Myst discussion forums, one for each game in the series.

Digital Gate became more dedicated to roleplaying, the roleplaying forum seeing more activity than "Forum of Randomnity", a forum made just for the sole purpose of being random. Plans were made for creating a RPG system named "kRPG", which first saw the light in mid-October.

In late August, Samui decided that he wanted to change the domain to an actual domain. Originally, he was going to use "digitalgate.org", but that was already taken. Wanting to maintain the site's kitsune theme, he chose to change the name to "Kitsune Paradise", and opened it on September 18th.

Kitsune Paradise ( September 2004–November 2010 )

Samui opened Kitsune Paradise on September 18, 2004, which was his 18th birthday. The site went through a major overhaul from Digital Gate. The skin was changed to a dark blue forest theme, and used pictures of a fox drawn by a friend of his for its header. It was dedicated to classic gaming, roleplaying, and Kitsune.

In October, the forum software was upgraded to IPB 2.0. Also, Samui started work on a chat client designed specifically for roleplaying with multiple characters. It was named kRPG at the time. He released the first version on October 9th, and continued improving it over time.

On December 25th, the first anniversary of Digital Gate's opening, Samui changed the layout of the front page of the site. It no longer ran on IP Dynamic Lite, and was coded almost entirely by Samui himself. He designed it to show the status of three game servers he had running - kRPG, Charred Dirt, and Kailerra Netplay.

At some point in March 2005, the layout of the front page was changed again, and a set of new skins were made. Most of the set were the same theme, just different colors. Two of them were upgrades of previous skins that were on Digital Gate, namely "Kitsune 1" and "Kitsune 2".

Around July 2005, a new skin was made for the site. This one was similar to the original Kitsune Paradise theme in that it was dark blue. It took on more of a standard roleplaying theme. Later on that month, a forum called "Therianthropy Discussion" was added to the board, where members who were interested in that subject could make discussions about it. This was changed in early 2006 to "Spiritual Discussion".

In the beginning of September 2007, the decision was made to remove the spirituality discussion forum from the site. Kitsune Paradise continued to be a gaming and roleplaying community, allowing only casual discussions regarding Kitsune. In early 2008, Samui first installed Unreal RPG, quickly replacing it with Inferno RPG. It was updated with a newer version a year later.

In June 2009, Samui announced that the forum software will be changed to Simple Machines. It took a little over a month, the changeover officially occurring on July 8, 2009. As a result, MunjPets and Inferno RPG were sacrificed, as well as the shoutbox. The ALICE bot (Kyuukon) is no longer on the boards, but can still be seen on the IRC channel. The themes from the previous incarnations of Kitsune Paradise have been ported.

Samui has ported MunjPets to Simple Machines and is continuing to improve it, fixing the bugs and glitches that were in the original version. However, most of his efforts will be focused on his story Kitsurian Chronicles. Several projects were placed on hold as of November 2009 due to real life circumstances.

In August 2010, Samui announced that he was working on a new website that will be "an evolution of what we currently have". He made a poll for new names, and "Kitsuria Network" received the most votes. He stated the reason for the name change was to make the site seem less deceptive, so those looking for something purely kitsune won't arrive expecting content based on that. Also, the name "Kitsuria Network" would allow him to make the site focus on his story and the universe in which it takes place.

Kitsuria Network (November 2010–present)

After several delays caused by electrical problems, Samui launched Kitsuria Network on November 9, 2010. For the most part, the site itself remained the same, other than the name change. The forum software had been upgraded to the latest version of Simple Machines. The roleplay boards have been restructured, and a new board called "Advanced RP" was added. The board was made strictly for those experienced in roleplay, so they could run their plots without any problems caused by those who either have little experience or are there to cause trouble.

2011

I pretty much have done everything for this site, to make it what it is. Sure, it's not active, but I can't force it to be. Nor can I force people to find this place and stay. It has reached - and probably passed - its prime, and I should be happy for that.

2013

To commemorate its tenth anniversary, Samui relaunched Digital Dimension on February 25, 2013 as a separate section of Kitsuria Network. He intends to set up a virtual pet system similar to that on the community's main site, and to post chapters of his fan fiction as he writes them.

Toward the end of May 2013, Samui stated he was bringing the forums back to their roots as a gaming and everything else community. Part of the changes he had made was condensing the roleplaying section to a single forum, which was done in late October 2012. He added new sections for the game servers that he hosts, namely Terraria and Unreal Tournament.

External links

• Kitsuria Network