Officially he is taking time to be with family and IRL stuff. RL before game life of course. I asked Tela about this before Halloween started. He told me he would be taking a break through the holidays. Tman deserves a break as well as Telamon does. After all they do spoil us and work hard to keep this amazing server flowing.
Chris is the only actual GM of the server. It has been like this for years. The last person who had GM powers abused it and was fired. The last person who had GM powers before that quit (but was also involved in stupid controversy). All in all, Chris has had admin level staff abuse powers and has been accused of letting admins abuse powers. Why would he ever trust or put himself in another situation where someone could cause any problems for the server? He shouldn't, and he probably will never do it again, and I don't blame him. With that said, the guy just had one of the most life altering milestones any human can experience. If the god damn shop opens up in January, February, or August.. what would it fucking matter? Go collect your coins and wait. Whether you buy a red colored dildo today or next month, it'll be there eventually... take a pill.
Shut up *Edit* I don't disagree that having a child is one of the greatest things on earth, and that family is ALWAYS first. I forgot that Telamon had that super sperm that causes instant 9month pregnancy in a matter of weeks. My point is, this is a VERY crucial time in this shards life. The holidays are when most people have plenty of time off to game, time to collect pixels and time to enjoy this wonderful world Chris created for us. I would have hoped this high participation point in time was thought of prior to last week, and should have been ready to "turn it on". I can't even imagine how many people logged on over the last month and said "damn, this place is dead, I am going to look for something else to play." . This is my favorite place, although I've tried the new one. The problem is, there is barely anyone here to interact with. I have always been in favor of increasing shards population and have suggested many ideas over the years because I truly believe he has something great, but times like these are when you lose not only new players, but your veteran base as well. Just look at the forums, multiple people jumping ship, new players asking "where is everyone?". Will it correct itself? sure, maybe over time. But I think we are at a good point now to start thinking outside the box and create new options to peak peoples interest and keep them here. We all just want something fun to play, WITH OTHER PEOPLE. If we wanted to play alone in a world and create new goals that requires no social interaction, we would all be playing Sims or something. There are a few people here that I feel would be a tremendous help if given a chance and the proper permissions. In the meantime, I am going to create a post in General discussion and tag this it in here in a few min.
Chris is working on the finishing touches to this year's festive events, please bear with him I am sure there will be a post outlining them at some point today
You could go create another one of your "polls" Or you could take a bit of your own advice. Frustration is high, there is no doubt about it. Telling people to shut up are antithetical to your great crusade to get this place back to high numbers. Nobody wants to play here alone. It's a mutually agreed upon sentiment, and you've beaten this horse with many different threads already. If being annoyingly critical of Chris is part of your grand scheme to get this place hopping again, it's just plain stupid. He knew nine months ago that he was going to have a baby, sure, that didn't magically give him nine months of free time. I believe you have kids. Did you and your significant other spend the nine months doing business as usual? Or, were you running around with more important things to prepare, like a nursery, baby proofing, shopping, baby classes, doctors appointments, parties, showers, etc, etc, etc... I'm bored too, and it sucks seeing my friends playing Outlands, and it's hard to resist playing over there. I have the ability to understand that this guy is doing it alone and I'm not gonna beat him up over it. If I get bored enough then I can show myself the door, right? Browbeating Chris and the server, and those empathetic to him, solves nothing. I want the server to succeed and I want Chris to have fun with his hobby of providing us with this server. Give the guy a break.
The ONLY reason there is ANY frustration is the lack of transparency and no communication. A post that simply says "I have some IRL stuff to tend to and Christmas stuff will be finished sometime early January..." would have cleared the air. Right now, imaginations are running wild, including my own. I admit, I probably and coming off like an asshole with some posts and realistic comments, but I am not the only one that feels this way. I truly want the best for UOR. I just don't like NOT knowing whats going on without hearing from the man himself.
"I admit, I probably and coming off like an asshole with some posts"... Maybe calm down with the free server service you're getting and the entitlement attitude you're expecting of a game studio. This server/service is a passion project and service of love that has been shown that Tela cares about the experience we get more than anything. Having a baby and RL stuff to deal with is something we as a player base should chill out about. At least that is my opinion.
Yeah you probably don’t care considering I’ve seen you 4 times in the last 3 years Ive played everyday
Most of us would accept it without problems if Chris has reasons to be inactive (I got twin girls myself some months ago, I certainly can understand). However, we have invested thousands of hours into his world and posting one sentence in Forums that explains his situation and why there is Staff inactivity can be expected. The lack of communication here is very frustrating and completely unnecessary. Every player on this Shard can at least expect one short official post. I assume Chris wants US to play HERE too and he wants HIS WORLD to SUCCEED too?!?
While wanting to stay out of the drama, I will admit that its annoying to not have any idea whether I care to hold on to the HC or not. Knowing what the Xmas rewards will be would be very helpful in that. After the the high level of communication and involvement during Halloween, the contrast created here with Christmas has been.... striking.