First of all, I must apologise. Apologise for taking so long to post something for myself, yet posting on the behalf of others still. This is something I had to think about. This is something I had to somewhat carefully weigh up, for it is a matter of importance. And for those that know me, you know I had this odd quirk of using music in things and my tastes are quite esoteric. So, throughout this post there will be some links to some music on Youtube that I find particularly appropriate for the situation as it may be.
First of all, where to start? Like many of us the news of City Of's impending demise came far, far too soon and seemed to be far, far too sudden. We'd all known it would come some day and I suspect that we'd all have rather had 6 months winding down, with the devs running 'Farewell' events so that City Of's legacy ended in glory and was a positive memory, rather than the whimper that will come when the servers are switched off for the final time in November.
And this hurts. This hurts far, far too much. Because no matter how I look at it? City Of became a sort of second home for me. The playerbase became a second family. Some of the best friends I have came from this game. And this game was the light at the end of the tunnel during the darkest moments of my life. The people I met on this game were there for me, on Ventrilo as my life fell apart. [b]Ara[b], Void and Sorah...for those moments you will forever have my thanks.
Though I know I have upset many with my moods, my erratic behaviour and my habit to lash out at those closest to me I am truly thankful for those who have stuck by me through thick and thin. Those who remain friends, despite odd periods of silence. The old guard who remembered what RP was like before the more recent periods of inactivity and had sought to bring it back in the past year. But now? Now it seems moot. Now it seems as though it was for nothing.
I have no doubt that this decision came from the upper echelons, beyond NCSoft's US branch and from the root of their Korean base. I have no doubt that City was always walking on glass since it failed to take off in the Eastern market where this sort of genre is nowhere near as popular or strong. But that doesn't help this enormous sense of loss. It doesn't help the feeling that the past seven or eight years were for nothing.
It doesn't help me realising that I only just managed to face my greatest problem and turn my life around in the past six months, again with the help of others on here - Ferret, Crux and Red-Fukn-Havok just to have it all die off in the next three months. It's not fair. It's not right.
But this is fate.
So I come to realise. Hope is not lost. This is no longer about struggling to survive. This is no longer about the plots that will go unfinished. I recently 'rebooted' the character I had become known for, to get away from the troubles of the past and restore the concept to what it once was. I decided to try a solo SG as a different sort of approach for RP and eventually to branch it out into the theme of Redemption. I had wanted to start getting in touch with several villain players and lost heroes, to see if they wanted in. To see if we could bring the old guard back in one way or the other.
This is about Defiance. This is about how we will make our memories in the three months we have. This is about bringing those plots forward, finishing them off, strengthening the bonds of friendship and surviving in spite of some corporation's plans to treat us as liquid assets to feed into other failing projects by taking from us the one thing we loved.
So I'm not going to just bow down and surrender. I'm not just going to lay down and die. I will continue. The Last Hunter will continue. And I hope to God other SGs do the same. We need to work together. We need to make these final days memorable because NCSoft sure as hell won't. We're not going to have the eventual six month wind down with a grand finale. Not made for us at least. But that is something we can do for ourselves. We can fight. And we can make those memories as a way of saying thank you to the developers who gave us this world to play in.
We have three months. And by God I'd love for this server to get its sense of community back and produce something marvellous. But as I've said with the Last Hunter...I can't do this on my own.
Only we can make this memory to last.
***
And afterwards...?
We will continue. I know that a lot of groups are discussing where they are going to go and what is going to happen next.
Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands!
First of all, I must apologise. Apologise for taking so long to post something for myself, yet posting on the behalf of others still. This is something I had to think about. This is something I had to somewhat carefully weigh up, for it is a matter of importance. And for those that know me, you know I had this odd quirk of using music in things and my tastes are quite esoteric. So, throughout this post there will be some links to some music on Youtube that I find particularly appropriate for the situation as it may be.
First of all, where to start? Like many of us the news of City Of's impending demise came far, far too soon and seemed to be far, far too sudden. We'd all known it would come some day and I suspect that we'd all have rather had 6 months winding down, with the devs running 'Farewell' events so that City Of's legacy ended in glory and was a positive memory, rather than the whimper that will come when the servers are switched off for the final time in November.
And this hurts. This hurts far, far too much. Because no matter how I look at it? City Of became a sort of second home for me. The playerbase became a second family. Some of the best friends I have came from this game. And this game was the light at the end of the tunnel during the darkest moments of my life. The people I met on this game were there for me, on Ventrilo as my life fell apart. [b]Ara[b], Void and Sorah...for those moments you will forever have my thanks.
Though I know I have upset many with my moods, my erratic behaviour and my habit to lash out at those closest to me I am truly thankful for those who have stuck by me through thick and thin. Those who remain friends, despite odd periods of silence. The old guard who remembered what RP was like before the more recent periods of inactivity and had sought to bring it back in the past year. But now? Now it seems moot. Now it seems as though it was for nothing.
I have no doubt that this decision came from the upper echelons, beyond NCSoft's US branch and from the root of their Korean base. I have no doubt that City was always walking on glass since it failed to take off in the Eastern market where this sort of genre is nowhere near as popular or strong. But that doesn't help this enormous sense of loss. It doesn't help the feeling that the past seven or eight years were for nothing.
It doesn't help me realising that I only just managed to face my greatest problem and turn my life around in the past six months, again with the help of others on here - Ferret, Crux and Red-Fukn-Havok just to have it all die off in the next three months. It's not fair. It's not right.
But this is fate.
So I come to realise. Hope is not lost. This is no longer about struggling to survive. This is no longer about the plots that will go unfinished. I recently 'rebooted' the character I had become known for, to get away from the troubles of the past and restore the concept to what it once was. I decided to try a solo SG as a different sort of approach for RP and eventually to branch it out into the theme of Redemption. I had wanted to start getting in touch with several villain players and lost heroes, to see if they wanted in. To see if we could bring the old guard back in one way or the other.
This is about Defiance. This is about how we will make our memories in the three months we have. This is about bringing those plots forward, finishing them off, strengthening the bonds of friendship and surviving in spite of some corporation's plans to treat us as liquid assets to feed into other failing projects by taking from us the one thing we loved.
So I'm not going to just bow down and surrender. I'm not just going to lay down and die. I will continue. The Last Hunter will continue. And I hope to God other SGs do the same. We need to work together. We need to make these final days memorable because NCSoft sure as hell won't. We're not going to have the eventual six month wind down with a grand finale. Not made for us at least. But that is something we can do for ourselves. We can fight. And we can make those memories as a way of saying thank you to the developers who gave us this world to play in.
We have three months. And by God I'd love for this server to get its sense of community back and produce something marvellous. But as I've said with the Last Hunter...I can't do this on my own.
Only we can make this memory to last.
***
And afterwards...?
We will continue. I know that a lot of groups are discussing where they are going to go and what is going to happen next.
Those who wish to keep in touch?
Skype: ahrimanomega
AIM: darkstarsabre
YIM: blackheart_chaos
Steam: ahrimanomega
Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands!