Player ID: 25104
Well, a chapter in the story of HR has ended and a new one has opened. And with this new chapter comes a new hope for the future of this game. If you're still here, then likely you love this game and its community as much as I do. I don't have to tell any of you the rough time it has had in the past. Often, many of us questioned why we were still here. So much so that many of us no longer are. Still, some of us have held on against reason, and even done what we could to try and keep this community alive and whole. I think I can speak for many when I say that hasn't been the least bit easy. During that time, a small light shone in the darkness. It was a hired staff member named Justin Towe.
Justin had no real power to make decisions in the game. Still, he always did his best for us, even going so far as to take notes of the things we players wanted but weren't getting. Tirelessly, he fixed our problems and the bugs and glitches in the game. He was seemingly always available too. Maybe not always, but at least as much as can be expected. He has always been there to assist and answer questions.
That said, we all fell in love with Justin in the same way we had all wanted to fall in love with the game. But we didn't fall in love with the game. We fell in love with what we hoped, wished, and knew it could be. And we held on hoping one day, despite everything we saw to the contrary, that it might be something close to what we had all hoped for, had all been promised, when this game was first launched on Kickstarter and then upon launch, but that it never became. Quite often, mumblings around the digital water coolers sounded like, "At least we got Justin." But, being a hired hand, in the big scheme of things, Justin's hands were always tied.
Cries of "Help us Justin Wan. You're our only hope!" rang through Messenger as we hoped against hope, watching as player after player, even die hards, were dying hard and abandoning ship. But those cries didn't fall on deaf ears. Somewhere, in the darkness of his notes, a plan was being hatched. Justin had heard us. He understood our angst and misery. And like a Greek hero of the digital world, he took up those cries for help and vowed to save the community he had so grown to love, OUR community! And he did so at great expense to himself. I cannot tell you how much it cost him to liberate us, but that liberation came at great cost and risk to Justin. But he did it anyway. He did it for this community he has grown to love. He did it for us.
That said, we all know we now have the champion for this game we all always wanted and this game always needed. Justin has always had our confidence, but was always chained and we knew it. Now, to all our delights, he is unchained. He bought the company! And in taking over, he has unchained us as well. It has been only 1 week and already he has hit the ground running, implementing small but valuable, long asked for improvements, with promises for more........ MUCH, MUCH more! And we all know we can trust him. Our new raid rewards structure already is a huge windfall for players that use it. The calendar of events is a simple but HUGE addition to the game when it comes to strategic planning for players. The daily updates log that tells us when and what has been added, subtracted, or altered is something I have seen in most every other game, and now here too. Little things like turning avatars around when they fight so they face each other. Even adding smaller deal packages like $25 and $50 deals for more budgeted players.
But here's the thing. Remember when I said Justin took a big financial risk on our behalf? He did that because he thinks we're worth it. I don't know about you, but I think he's worth it too. And if you feel like I do, then we need to come together as a community and take that very scary risk Justin made on our behalfs, and make it something very rewarding for him and us both. We all need to be getting out there and telling our old friends from SHC or that left HR to return and why. We need to start recruiting players from our other games. Those of us that used to spend a lot need to start getting familiar with pulling out our wallets again. With the new cheaper price tiers for mp, free and budgeted players might want to consider getting together $25 and $50 buy groups to take their games to the next level. Anything and everything each one of us can do to tell Justin "Thank you!" for taking that risk and believing in us, we should do. And I'm not talking about words. I'm talking about active efforts to grow and develop the game again. I know it's certainly nice to have Ben Roberts back in full action again, making avatar gear like no one else. You can expect the Mayor and I to be making promo and special occasion vids for the game, as well as potentially a promo digi-comic. There's lots of ways to help, with our wallets, our word of mouth, our talents and efforts. You name it. I don't know about you, but I'm the kind of excited about the future of this game again like I was when this game first launched. I certainly hope you are, because I'm asking you, let's help Justin help us, by doing everything we can to make this game all the great things we always believed it could be.
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