In Thorin's defense...

[Grand Fromage]

But how far I have come, to be referred to as elite. Grand Fromage is probably laughing without knowing why right about now.

Your noobery amuses us.

[Castano]

roll a PC GF, you just got spam email from me

besides you could get nuked any day now, what better way to die than playing ALFA

[fluffmonster]

Wait.. When did WW start hanging about here again?

[Ithildur]

WW, GF, and now Fluff... time to come out of the woodworks!

[Stormbring3r]

WW, GF, and now Fluff... time to come out of the woodworks!

[dergon darkhelm]

roll a PC GF,

And bring back that sig pic of Tariq Aziz denying the presence of Shadovar in Sundabar (it was my favorite )

[Wild Wombat]

WW, GF, and now Fluff... time to come out of the woodworks!

Hmm could Duck_One, Lead_feather and Ranger de Wood also be far off? God knows Alara never left ... just underwent a face lift.

I agree get back in the game. Like Jake Blues once said to the penguin "We're getting the band back together." (OK, no idea if it was Jake and if he was talking to the Penguin)

[Grand Fromage]

I have sadly picked up a life, an inconvenient timezone, and an inconveniently scheduled job in that inconvenient timezone. In some fantasy world where I could drop in with a reasonably leveled character and play occasionally I might swing it but I just don't have the free time to dedicate to starting all over again.

I haven't ruled it out but with all these hot Korean girls there's not a lot of motivation to play Dungeons and Dragons on the internet with you nerds.

I mean that in the nicest way.

[t-ice]

In some fantasy world where I could drop in with a reasonably leveled character and play occasionally I might swing it but I just don't have the free time to dedicate to starting all over again.

Which does bring up the question: Why do we demand our players must start with characters that are unreasonable and take dedication before they get to the good and fun parts? I might note we are also elsewhere concurrently wondering how to get people who come in to try out to stay...

[Thorin]

T-ice, more social/urban/ less adventuring oriented campaigns would solve this

[Heero]

Sometimes people just wanna adventure. You know, go on a romp thru the countryside.

[Ithildur]

WW, GF, and now Fluff... time to come out of the woodworks!

Hmm could Duck_One, Lead_feather and Ranger de Wood also be far off? God knows Alara never left ... just underwent a face lift.

I agree get back in the game. Like Jake Blues once said to the penguin "We're getting the band back together." (OK, no idea if it was Jake and if he was talking to the Penguin)

I have sadly picked up a life, an inconvenient timezone, and an inconveniently scheduled job in that inconvenient timezone. In some fantasy world where I could drop in with a reasonably leveled character and play occasionally I might swing it but I just don't have the free time to dedicate to starting all over again.

I haven't ruled it out but with all these hot Korean girls there's not a lot of motivation to play Dungeons and Dragons on the internet with you nerds.

Oh yeah?

Well, me and the Admins, we got an understanding.

We're on a mission from Castano.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 4YrCFz0Kfc

[Swift]

Up until the turn of the year, we were in an 8 month downwards trend. Now we are not. Is 2 PCs to blame? Probably not, or not in full. Statistics are hard, and we don't have a super clear picture of every variable (our charter doesn't allow us to put snoopware in your brains/houses/IM clients).

We aren't? Your own numbers clearly show that there are less unique, active players now than there were at the turn of the year.

Hours played is a meaningless number in isolation for supporting this argument. Less players playing more hours still means we have less players.That is not growing the community like people have been saying we need to do for the last 6 months. That is feel-good padding. Would it still be considered good if we dropped to 70 players playing 60 hours a month from 79 playing 50 (which was 84 playing 40). I do not think it would be.

Additionally, there were 22 people who signed the manifesto that was sent to admin, largely regarding the direction of ALFA and consisting almost entirely of 'veteren' players which succinctly laid out some of the issues that many veterans now have with ALFA. 22 of 79 does not seem like a vast minority to me. Classifying those players as a "vast minority" is exactly that kind of talk from an Admin like yourself that contributes to driving older members away and, I presume, would be one of the reasons some do not return. The attitude toward older community members and what they want from ALFA is increasingly the reason that I am so apathetic toward ALFA and why my enthusiasm has so rapidly waned in the time leading up to my current vacation.

If the Admin actually have any interest in luring those players back, finding a compromise between the old and the new is vital and not something to simply be ignored as the complaining of a few old hacks.

[Heero]

There was a manifesto? The fuck wasnt I included on this!?!?!!?

[Swift]

There was a manifesto? The f*sk wasnt I included on this!?!?!!?

Because you are a cynical old hack