Taking a break

[wolf bite]

Taking a break

Seems as of late I have been putting a lot of time in around here, maybe a bit too much.

I think I will take a break. Leaves admin powers on the table ...


Wolf Bite

[Gen. Volkov]

OK wolfy, be back soon I hope. Have a good break away from RWL.

[Firetooth]

Have a nice holiday from all the spam of these forums. Be back soon like Volk said or I will overtake RWL, MWHAHAHA!

[kell]

ill probaly have to cut back too exams start monday 0study,.,.,.,.,., so ill have to limit it right down

[Shadow]

Come back soon wolf bite :)

[The Obliterator]

COME BACK SOON

[wolf bite]

Hummm, change that to a "good by" post.


Thanks for the friendships,
Wolf Bite

[Firetooth]

No prob, maybe you should...extend your break
*imagenes the spam causable if he can distract the admins some way away from the forums*

MWHAHAHAHA!....Did I say taht out loud? :-[
you've ruined another scheme firetooth ::)
Seriously now...COME BACK SOON![/color]

[Shadow]

Goodbye for now :P

[Wolf Snare]

A nice break is good every once in a while. No one panic, I don't think he will be gone too long    :wink:

enjoy your time off Wolf   :)

[Aqualis]

Bye, wolf bite. We'll miss you.

[Juska]

Have fun, we all know you'll be back in some ghostly form or another.  :wink:

[Gen. Volkov]

Oh dear, don't leave wolfy. All I'm willing to say is goodbye for now.

Firetooth... shut the heck up.

[Arguia Zsah]

Good bye? Don't leave us Wolf! =(

Have a good break... but come back!

[wolf bite]

After I posted my quick "good bye" post, a few of you have contacted me asking why, and how come such a simple post and not in the staff announcements. Let me try to clarify as much as I can.

First, I have not posted in the staff announcements because my powers to start a topic in that forum no longer exists, I have no staff powers. Hehe.

Although I have said goodbye officially, that is not saying that I may not lurk around here every now and then to see how everyone is doing and may even play a round at some time.  But compared to how much I was here, that is basically a good bye. 

Maybe the most important thing for you to know is that after almost 5 years here, my greatest enjoyment has been to see the growth and advancements in our members. Trust me that every time I saw people thinking about advanced schooling, their first jobs, or even their first car, the corners of my mouth could not help but having a proud grin.  You are all really great people!  I have been honored to have known you.

As to the rumors about why I am leaving, I can go into some of the reasons.  While working during the days on my computer, I switch back and forth the site and games constantly checking.  It is not an obsessions (although it feels like one), it is more to make sure that everything is satisfactory.  Only a few months ago we were having 3 accounts each day joining to spam us with porn or drugs, I felt a responsibility to protect you from such stuff and checked out their web sites and googled all their names and IPs (then had to antivirus my computer a few times a day).  Luckily I have most of the spamming bot sites now blocked.  Also I wanted to be available for help questions, both on the forum and in game.  Then there was all the IP and cookie checking of the games to make sure no one was cheating you guys.  Also I would log into almost every account every 2 days to check what they were doing, and reading all mail for inappropriate behavior.  Oh, and I was "Crap the Great" (Craby) both teaching people and sending aid to those in need and fresh out of protection.  In short, if you counted all the minutes here and there I was putting it, it would probably average about 2 hours a day of work.  And, because I knew everything that was going on, I could not have the fun of playing.

The staff has a policy of communication and a shared response as a united front in their statements.  I don't have any intent to contradict that, however I feel I can now give my opinions how the site has been progressing.  Please let's not change this topic to be about agreeing or disagreeing with my points, there are other places to have such discussions.

The forum and the community:
We have the BEST people in this community.  I really mean that.  Although they can fight in the games, you guys can put your disagreements aside and be friends in the forum or even the other game.  This really says a lot about the type of people this site draws.  I see people really caring about each other and even when we have someone young and a little annoying join, the treatment may seem a little harsh to the uneducated eye, but I see it as guiding big brothers steering them in the right direction.  So even the worst of what seems to be, is the best of people.  I could ramble endlessly on how great you all are, but I think you get my jest.

The Games:
When Retto left, the games were almost dismantled.  It was a lot of work that needed to be done.  I really had wished we could have brought in more programmers, however it seemed they all had bargaining demands, maybe with the growth of age and maturity, good people will make contributions.  I really need to take my hat off to Shael, she took on a monster!  Although programming is her major, she was forced to study in areas for our game and spent a lot of time. 

I am not going to hide that I have always felt the priorities have been off.  We have been spending more time trying to make the game more evenly playable, but not dealing with the bigger problems.  My opinion (not that of the staff) from having been on everyone's account numerous times is that we have made the game less playable.  I don't need to go into each aspect, but in general, rather than just turning off some aspects temporarily, we kept changing everything to try to keep all the aspects that were not working.  This has caused almost every account to need to play with the same strategy and in order to change your strategy even slightly; you need to revolt your race.  I feel it is unfair to the members to need to keep adjusting their playing style to what is currently working the best. 

Maybe my least happiest moments are that with the new people.  Don't' get me wrong, we have done a lot for them and I have seen a lot of good and great work by our members to make them welcome.  It is more that it seems most new people want to do things on their own and can't figure out what to do.  Remember that I see their mail, see their buildings, watch them play, and check how long they have been inactive.  We may have picked up to about 50 people in regular now, but what people don't see is that we almost constantly have about 10 people in protection and stay at about the same membership. Since they go inactive after 7 days, this means we gain about 10 people a week, and also loss 10 people a week.  Even those that stay around long enough to leave protection, lose interest quickly as they see the great diversity of the top ten and where they sit.  Without an advanced strategy these days, a simple beginning market strategy player can't raise even a few ranks.  Maybe they just don't understand yet the game, or maybe they randomly picked a race that does not work with what they are trying to do, but for whatever reasons, they leave.  Sure, what I as a member of the staff was promoting to you guys was that we were picking up membership to have a more fun game, but in reality I looked at it as a person that spent the time to check us out that wanted to become part of us, but they found they had put their energy in the wrong place.  I may seem a bit mushy, but I almost had a tear every time I saw some cute named person go inactive.

With all the above said, I don't want people to think I am upset or in any way against our site.  I love it and our people.  I just no longer want to be a part of many things that take my time to only be sad.

Although not related to my leaving, I can't really think of a better time to leave.  You, the people of our community, gave me so many votes for the value of what I have put in.  Thank you all for showing me that you return the respect as I have given it to you.


Wolf Bite