Greetings, everyone.
The email announcement about this was surprising, especially considering I haven't been following developments in this game for some time now.
WinchGate, if you wanted to shut the game down due to finances, I'm sure many would have understood. After all, almost all of us understand what it's like to go through hard times, and anyone who has played knows that Ryzom isn't exactly the most popular game on the Internet. Long-term players would have been sad, but you could have had a final send-off event to rival anything that ever happened thus far in the game.
Elias Tryton could have reactivated the rainbow network, appeared to the players, and revealed Jena for who she really is (and isn't), as well as revealing the relationship between the Karavan and the Homins and why Homins were brought there in the first place. There could even have been a real "dragon", retconned into the story as seismic instability from the initial terraforming experiment, erupting from the bowels of Atys and enveloping the whole planet before exploding in a brilliant light. As the light faded away, a lush, new, green planet could have been revealed, leaving the future open for another game.
Instead, you'll probably anger enough of the long-term (paying) customers so that they don't come back and have to end up shutting down anyway. Instead of a grand send-off, it is entirely possible that you fizzle into nothing. Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe you'll manage to squeak by. For the sake of those who love this game, I hope that's the case.
The email announcement about this was surprising, especially considering I haven't been following developments in this game for some time now.
WinchGate, if you wanted to shut the game down due to finances, I'm sure many would have understood. After all, almost all of us understand what it's like to go through hard times, and anyone who has played knows that Ryzom isn't exactly the most popular game on the Internet. Long-term players would have been sad, but you could have had a final send-off event to rival anything that ever happened thus far in the game.
Elias Tryton could have reactivated the rainbow network, appeared to the players, and revealed Jena for who she really is (and isn't), as well as revealing the relationship between the Karavan and the Homins and why Homins were brought there in the first place. There could even have been a real "dragon", retconned into the story as seismic instability from the initial terraforming experiment, erupting from the bowels of Atys and enveloping the whole planet before exploding in a brilliant light. As the light faded away, a lush, new, green planet could have been revealed, leaving the future open for another game.
Instead, you'll probably anger enough of the long-term (paying) customers so that they don't come back and have to end up shutting down anyway. Instead of a grand send-off, it is entirely possible that you fizzle into nothing. Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe you'll manage to squeak by. For the sake of those who love this game, I hope that's the case.