Join the new world

On December 20th 2009 I came coughing and spluttering into this eWorld. Keen as mustard, I scrambled around looking for things to click. Like most young players, after around an hour I realized that the game was actually not the game. Yes, there were little medals and things. Yes, there was an economy of sorts. But that was all fairly simplistic and clunky. So I did my daily chores, came back the next day and did some more and then decided it was a pile of junk and I was going to quit.

It was at this point I began to discover a whole game that was absolutely nothing to do with the things that I had been clicking. Newspapers and media were my first sojourn. I fumbled around and read stories of political skullduggery, stock markets, loan schemes and investment opportunities, huge global alliances, career opportunities, even in-game religions and demi-gods.

I joined a forum and the world came alive. Hundreds (literally) of people living out fantasies and completely alternative lives. Captains of Industry, publicists, politicians, mafia type investors, and trolls of every description...even a couple of those self-proclaimed in-game gods. These people were living out complete lives as an extension of this little browser game. Some people welcomed you with open arms, others looked down upon you with amazing arrogance.....living in a glorious fantasy world where they felt entitled to do so! It was fantastic. It was active. Post after post. Endless. There was so much happening it was hard to keep up. IRC was glorious. Multiple rooms, with hundreds (again, literally) of players discussing their latest business venture, political aspirations, foreign affairs, or just trolling and having fun. Real communities. Real connection. All because of this little browser game. It was electric. I recall weekends when the discussions were so lively that your screen would be scrolling at a ridiculous rate of knots. Page after page. The game community would be your focus, rather than the background activity whilst something else loaded.



I've played this game with many names, many personas, many styles. Like all things there have been ups and downs. I've even spent a few Euros in a moment or two of weakness and until quite recently I have enjoyed every moment.



Who knows when the decline really started. Players have always bemoaned the mechanics and the game changes. However the pace of the decline has increased exponentially in the last 8 months. Swathes of players leaving the game, multis (and not just one or two, but literally 10s or even 100s in some cases) taking control, IRC all but dying, forums filled with tumbleweed. The essence of this game. The community. The sense of being together. The lifeblood of it, is diminishing faster than I have ever seen before.



Is it finished? I hope not, but it's hard to see the catalyst that a depleted team in eRep HQ can use to spark life back into the place. Perhaps even old Plato's interest is waning as he gets all frothy mouthed over his new browser game adventure.

Many of us will probably stick this out until the servers are all switched off, but I fear the end is nigh. Why am I writing this? I suppose a sense of nostalgia when I saw another old fag hanging up his boots earlier this week...

What can we do? I like you have, literally, a hundred ideas. Maybe you can use the comments below to troll me, maybe you can use them to make positive suggestions about how you would energize the game if you had the chance.

Either way, I'm going to slip back into character and see if I can eek out one last gasp of enjoyment before the lights go out. A trolling we shall go......because its almost all that's left.

Yours,

Coltan Bonobos Puppet Master.