The saga started back in the summer of 1993. One of my best friends was recovering from an appendectomy, and I came to his house after he was out of the hospital. We really couldn't do much together, aside from playing computer games all day long. One game that he showed me was one that I had seen in magazines before, but for some reason, never thought of buying it; Quest For Glory 3. I remember my delight in finding that I had found elements of Adventure (ala King's Quest) and Fantasy role-playing games, as well as new, ingenious, independent elements! Immediately after I left my friend's house, I bought Quest For Glory 3 as well as the remade Quest For Glory 1. I can remember playing these games for hours on end, alone, and with my friend, enjoying every moment of it. Months later, Quest For Glory 4: Shadows of Darkness was released. I rushed to my closest software store, and immediately bought the game. I played it as passionately as I played the previous Quest For Glory games, only daunted by the bugs that would later force me to recreate my character. Heavily discouraged at not being able to play a game that I had waited for so long, I stopped playing and melancholy permeated the room. A whole year later, I saw the CD-ROM version, with such stars as John Rhys-Davies! I enjoyed his performance in Wing Commander 3, so I anxiously bought the game. I happily found that there were no bugs, and completed the game swiftly. One day later, I found Quest For Glory 2 at my local Price Club warehouse. This game proved to be very enjoyable, despite the parser interface and the EGA graphics. The Quest For Glory series truly found a place in my heart.

Chapter 2: Betrayal

June, 1995. I recently received my Associate Bachelor's degree in Arts (this author was sixteen years old at the time), and suddenly found that I had a lot of time on my hands until I would find a decent four year university. I signed on to America Online, and the first action I undertook was entering the Sierra Forum. It had been over a year since Quest For Glory 4 was released, and I was anxiously awaiting Quest For Glory 5. I typed my question and sent it to the message boards. The response I got rendered me nauseous. I stared at my computer screen in absolute horror as I saw the offending words, the Quest For Glory series was discontinued! I was shocked, as well as depressed, simultaneously. However, one should remember that some of the best ideas of mankind are incepted in the minds of the desperate and the fearful, when all seems lost.

Chapter 3: The Quest For Glory 5 Coalition; the Inception

I suddenly felt very helpless. How can one make their voice known to a behemoth, multi-million dollar company like Sierra On-Line? One day, as I was browsing at various greeting cards, an amusing one caught my eye. The caption read, "If you think one person cannot change the world, then you have never spent the night with a mosquito!". This phrase struck a spark, that would soon ignite a pillar of fire. I knew that I had to try to persuade Sierra On-Line to make Quest For Glory 5, even if they wouldn't hear me out in the conventional way. I started to think of what Sierra On-Line cared about more than anything else, and then try to make my voices heard through this outlet. Well, they wouldn't hear my voice as an anxious fan, so I came to one conclusion, Sierra On-Line cares about money, and money only. Another thought came to me, what if their revenue, their money, was not being reaped as well as it used to be? The thought in my mind was thus; if Sierra was losing revenue due to their fans boycotting, then they would be forced to listen to us. I returned to the Sierra boards and wrote my letter of intention; to show Sierra Online, and other fans, that if Sierra refused to make Quest For Glory 5, then we would all gather and boycott them. My response from fellow fans was amazing! Within a few days, I had ten members of this boycott group. Being insecure about leading a mass amount of people, I asked everyone in the group if they wanted to lead. Surprisingly, nobody wished to organize and lead this group. My mind filled with uncertainty and fear, and lastly, hope, I seized the reins of leadership. Next, we needed a name for ourselves, a name which would attract attention. I knew we would need to include the words 'Quest For Glory 5', but we needed one more word, to describe our struggle and what we were. I took a brake for a few days, and while relaxing, I heard stories about neighborhood groups in the urban areas with nothing better to do who spent their days demanding money from outsiders (note: this author is in no way slandering or belittling neighborhood groups. Many have been known to improve neighborhood conditions at an amazing rate. My information was only derived from a story, a rumor if you will). They called themselves "The Coalition". I personally liked the way the word sounded, so I decided to use it. We were now "The Quest For Glory 5 Coalition"! Within a week, we had thirty members, all intensely loyal to the cause. Now, new problems were forming. Apparently, the good people from the America Online Sierra On-Line boards did not appreciate people on their message boards damaging Sierra's public relations. By next week, all of our messages were deleted, their explanation for this travesty of justice and the First Amendment was that people were supposedly complaining about having to "wade through the boards" looking for their hints and avoiding our messages. This was obviously a lie, since almost all of the people who posted on the Quest For Glory message boards were members of the Quest For Glory 5 Coalition. The 'suggestion box' folder was also removed, within hours before I was going to post about Quest For Glory 5 (seeing it from their point of view, we were harming their sales, so this was justified, but on the other hand, we should not have been lied to like that). From then on, I privately sent each person who posted on the boards my personal Coalition letter. It explained why the Quest For Glory series is canceled and what we can do to change that. My responses ranged from intensely loyal members commending me to obscene messages or 'flames' which I needed to report to the online guide pagers once and a while. Through our many challenges and successes, we grew stronger as a people, and I grew stronger as a leader.

Chapter 4: The Coalition Rising

By the time the fall arrived, the Coalition had 50 members, each strong and loyal. It had occurred to me that leading this group would take quite a toll on me, I needed an assistant. The first Deputy of the Quest For Glory 5 Coalition was also one of the newest members who went by the name of 'Emrys'. He would always post messages to Sierra continually, each one more eyebrow raising than the last. His tenacity earned him a personal message from the Forum host. It said that they might make Quest For Glory 5 in 1999, that there was a possibility. However, the deputy was convinced that Sierra truly meant what they said at the time. I never heard from him again. My next deputy Troy Pederson was even more promising. He had a talent for writing long, eloquent letters and had great visions for the future of our cause. His first week as Deputy (though he was more like the Leader of the whole operation at the time), we gained 30 more members. We were very close to having 100 members! My morale renewed, I learned how to create a web page and advertised on various newsgroups. Many of our members were from the net, and soon afterwards, I ordered a free 10-hour account on CompuServe, and decided to start a chapter there. I appointed a deputy on CompuServe, Jake Sanders, and soon we had thirty members on CompuServe. Before I tell what happened next, I must tell you all an anecdote that I only told 3 people so far: December 22nd, 1995: I had just finished all my finals and decided to buy myself a Christmas present with some money I had saved up. What I really wanted was Wing Commander 4: The Price of Freedom. Unfortunately, it was not released yet. Another game caught my eye, Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within. I had been waiting so long for this game! It was from Sierra though, and buying it would be a violation of the boycott that I had founded. My own "beast within" tried to convince me to buy the Sierra game, as nobody would know if I bought the game. Finally, my conscious emerged as the victor, and I decided to buy "Shannara" instead. After I completed the game, I wrote a message on the gamer's boards lamenting over the death of a certain character (since many of you might not have played the game as of yet, I do not wish to spoil the plot by revealing the name, but those of you that completed the game, you know who I'm talking about). I received a response, explaining why the death had to be in the story, the reply was signed "Corey". I thought, "What a coincidence, same first name as Corey Cole ..." I looked at who sent me the message, and lo and behold, it was Corey Cole! My Morale rose to new heights, I was truly getting somewhere with the Coalition! After writing a series of letters, I found that although they weren't able to make Quest For Glory 5, they had some wonderful ideas for it. This window of the future encouraged me to double my efforts.

Chapter 5: The Great Climax

In the final weeks of the Coalition, our numbers had risen to nearly 200 people. Troy, through cleverness and cunning, apparently found Ken Williams' e-mail address while I found Mr. and Mrs. Cole's. Thus did the mass e-mail of Ken Williams began. Each member of the Coalition, and their friends and relatives with computers, wrote to Ken Williams telling them they wanted Quest For Glory 5 and why they think it would be successful. On March 4th, 1996, a day that shall be forever revered in the hearts of Quest For Glory fans, Ken Williams said Quest For Glory 5 shall be a reality in a little over a year from at the time of these memoirs. Fans, rejoice! Chapter 6: Journey's End Now that Quest For Glory Five is coming, the Coalition has done its job finally. I would like to thank all the many members of the Coalition, for each and every one of you who joined the Coalition are truly a Hero. I would especially like to thank Troy Pederson, for although it was I who founded this Coalition, it was he who continued what I began, with full vigor while I was fatigued from the months and months of boycotting, leading, and protesting. He deserves a lot of credit. For all the people in the world who have a dream, all who ponder of severing the many vines and branches in the dark foreboding jungles of Life's obstacles, this is a story that is living proof, that if you have a dream in this wonderful world, you don't need fame or fortune to accomplish them, all you need is the stoutness of heart, and eternal persistence through even the greatest of adversity.

Appendix A: Notable Coalition Alumni: Cie Siyavash Sharp, Coalition Founder and Leader (ordibehesht@digicron.com) Troy Pederson, Coalition Deputy/Acting Leader (Troy7897@AOL.COM) Note: Troy left AOL over a year ago. If you're out there, Troy, please e-mail me! :) Blake Everings, AKA Drako of Realm Fame A very active Coalition member, as well as a great companion to have on Realm :) Ravi Shah, one of the most active members of the Coalition (http://seas.ucla.edu/~ravi)

here is one of the buttons I first created when I started my page: