[tyrukian]

"Who is John Galt?"

I asked the shoutbox about what was going on with the grand reopening, but GMs and players alike didn't seem to know a thing. It's one of those questions that doesn't seem to have an answer. Last week, this thread thrilled the crap out of me. Shadowburn buzzed with excitement on what Arsenik had in store for the dedicated players of the high-rate server; everyone wondered what was in store for the loyal players of WaMMO. As one of those players, I've been sorely disappointed. The wait, over the week, turned from a brimming exhilaration to dubious pessimism.

What happened?

I hate to be a downer, but the whole "promising the sky" doesn't work for politicians and it shouldn't fly here on WaMMO, either. During this week, I've noticed less GM activity than in the past few weeks. I've seen no free giveaways, new vendors, or a slew of bug fixes. The server move helps us handle a bigger population at faster speeds, but disappointing players with false assurances is counterproductive to population growth.

The reopening hasn't been all bad: since Arsenik's first post, we've seen the fix of an extremely important bug- the recipe bug- and the beginning of the implementation of the (still dysfunctional) Sunwell quests and instances.

Unfortunately, Shadowburn still hasn't regained a lot of the functionality lost since the 2.4 patch. We're stuck with a combat log that works part-time. Instances that used to be easy to maneuver are now blocked by bugged doors that work once, trapping the raiders inside (or forcing them to use appear creatively). Entire important quest chains have disappeared: new players are unable to be recognized by Scryer or Aldor factions because Haggard War Veteran's script has gone missing. Even things that made WaMMO unique are missing, scratch cards are still MIA, and you'll be hard pressed to find a WaMMO token vendor. Some of these are core bugs that might not be fixable, but all of these mentioned were not issues in the pre 2.4 era.

Worst of all, during the time since we've patched to 2.4, player's bug reporting seems completely overlooked. Syn last acknowledged bug on the bug-tracker more than a month ago- is that page even checked anymore? The reopening promised bug fixes, but WaMMO still is far from being the "well oiled machine" alluded to in the thread.

I'm not angry about the bugs; I play on a private server, and I realize retail is impossible to emulate perfectly. Developing takes time, and as summer approaches I understand that many frequenters of WaMMO, admins and players alike, are going to be finding other things to do with their time. I appreciate that developers have lives outside of the computer, and this post is not meant to be ungrateful to these people. My problem is that the "grand reopening" seems to be a fabrication or a figment of someone's imagination. Arsenik set a specific timeframe for the rollout of these new features, and he failed to meet that deadline. Players haven't heard a peep since. Was it a reasonable deadline to set in the first place? This "grand reopening," for the veterans of WaMMO, resembles something more like a grand letdown.