[ajohnymous]

Hello Roegan and good morning, at least, it’s morning where I am.

This video game and the community surrounding it that you’ve helped create spans across an astounding number of cultures, countries, and time zones. It’s the focal point for complete strangers with nothing in common but an old, strange game to come together and work towards something bigger than the sum of their parts. The game itself forces people to work together, more so than most online RPG’s, yet despite the necessity, I’ve seen people go above and beyond their own gains and forge genuine, lasting connections with other players. In the world we live in today, I find that positively incredible. It’s these qualities of Project 1999 that I believe are why the long-term community exists, new players are drawn to it, and thus, stands as the server’s most important aspect. While I was thinking on this, I couldn’t help but wonder what you think is most important about our community.

I wonder because I simply don’t know. I’m not sure that anyone does. You clearly care about the Project just by how much time and effort you put into it, but why? What’s your motivation? From what I’ve seen the past six months, it appears your primary goal is to create the most pure Classic Experience possible with seemingly zealous blindness. And that concerns me.

The most recent teasing of the full blackout spell book is a good example. While, yes, this is exactly how the game functioned in 1999, no reasonable video game player would want this in place. Staring at a spell book icon waiting for mana to regenerate while anxiously wondering if a mob is about to kill you is not fun. It is classic, though. Having an obsolete, awful dial up connection with a phone jack and frequent, random disconnects is not fun. It is classic, though. At what point do you balance archaic mechanics with people actually having fun and enjoying the video game?

You have seen it once with the recent pet window change. The amount of backlash and outcry from the community was enough to actually reverse that decision. I have to ask, how did you not anticipate that? Was it because ”there wasn't particularly a discussion internally regarding the sudden removal of these items that people had gotten used to over so many years” ? Was there no feedback gathered from the staff or community? Are similar decisions for Green being made right now? Is the raid scene on Blue about to be hit by another short-sighted change like the rooted dragons?

Don’t mistake my concern for anything but that. I love this community, it’s gotten me through some hard times over the years, and my motivations for writing this are solely for its benefit. Regardless of how this is received, I hope this letter imparts upon you a heavy request: do what you think is best for the community. You’ve done incredible work here and I look forward to how the next year shakes out.

With love and appreciation,
A member of the Project 1999 community