Minor addendum

FIRST: If you haven't read the previous blog post, go read it here.

NEXT: Talis is setting up a new patcher and small installer so that you guys won't have to just use the torrents to distribute the client. Both will be up shortly and everyone who played on aRO will need to install them in order to play on Anthem. After that, I think a new full installer will be distributed over torrent only, and the small installer will get a torrent as well. If you don't have the old aRO client, you'll need to pick up a copy of kRO Sakray, which you can find in quite a few places. Like with old aRO patcher, you'll be able to do it without the full kRO client; all you'll need to play is Sakray and the new AnthemRO patcher.

A lot of you are curious about why I'm leaving. It should be fairly obvious that I'm in some kind of personal trouble, and really that's all I can say for now. It's pretty much been made impossible for me to continue running the server without putting myself at serious risk.

I think there's a pretty good chance I'll keep this blog going, although I'll probably make it into a general videogame sort of blog instead of specific to AnthemRO.

Hopefully the AnthemRO forums will be up soon, and you all can go back to "/ot."

The Future of AnimaRO

It's been a long time, guys.

Since mid-September, the webserver's been down and we haven't given you guys much of an explanation. Unfortunately, I really still can't give out the whole truth of what went on. The reality of it all is kind of harsh, and I wish there was another way I could do this.

The webserver is gone. The people responsible for its shutdown performed an OS reload on it and deleted both it and the backup files. Furthermore, due to outside pressure, establishing a temporary website of any kind could have resulted in very serious legal complications.

I've been apologizing since September about this, but I have to reiterate how sorry I am. I never wanted it to come to this.

The end result of all the things going on in my life right now is that AnimaRO is no longer able to exist. I simply am no longer able to keep things going, and changing hands would just cause someone else to get into trouble.

However, since the webserver was shut down, we've been making contingency plans. A team of former staff members and community leaders has agreed to take up the AnimaRO community as well as take the aRO game database so that you will keep your characters and items. Over the last couple months, we've run the game servers while they made everything ready so that you can seamlessly switch over between the two servers.

The new community home will be (as some of you have already guessed) www.anthemro.com. Likewise, the IRC channel will move to #anthemro. I'm not sure what will happen with TS at the moment, but I have the current one paid up until January, so that should be plenty of time for an alternative to get set up.

I realize how important this place is to many of you, and while I can't keep it alive, I can assure you that your new home will take good care of you. I've given a lot of guidance to them, and some of them are former staff as well. This means that most of the systems you've come to know and love, like automated donations, ad pennies, support tickets, and such will remain intact in the transition.

It is very important though that I reiterate that I will not be involved. Thus, do not send PayPal or snailmail payments to the old recipients as they will not go to the new site. I may stick around as a community member to make more informative posts about playing RO in general, though.

I am really sorry things didn't go smoothly with me at the helm. I know that Talis, Isuzu, and the rest of the new team will do a much better job in the lead than I likely did.

Thanks so much for sticking around. I love you guys, and every bit of support you gave over the last few years has been very appreciated.

See you all on the flip side, guys and gals.

Fraudulent "Truth" Sites

I realize it's been a long time since we updated (about a month) so I apologize for that.

I can't provide any more detailed information regarding aRO's current situation. I know it has been an extremely long time (months!) but my hand is somewhat forced right now. Please try to understand.

What I did want to cover though, was that sites are being posted with some extremely outrageous claims. I would like to quell all rumors that I was arrested by the party van or abducted by aliens or that I owe someone or another some outrageous sum of money.

I encourage you to take any rumors such as these that you may hear with a grain of salt. If I don't post any official word, chances are that whatever you heard is completely false.

Thanks for continuing to play. Your continued support is really appreciated in tough times.