I posted some thoughts about this topic here on our forum page, if you're curious about it.
But I wanted to spend a few minutes just talking about how amazing the overall experience has been. Like anything over the span of 15 years, there have been ups and downs, but in the end - I think it has been worth the effort. A lot of players have come and gone (and come back and left again, and sometimes they come back yet again) over the years. My youngest kid is a teenager - and younger than this game. My oldest has recently taken an interest in learning how to build.
A lot has happened to and with Kingdoms of the Lost over the last decade in a half.
I know earlier this year, I talked in one of my State of the MUD addresses about some of the challenges and considerations that go into 'keeping the lights on', but I have to say that the overall response has been encouraging, both in comments from players and also in just seeing people around more. I've certainly enjoyed it, and I am sure Gilly and Thalia have as well. I have on intention on letting things go any time soon, and I am looking forward to seeing how some of our future planned projects are received down the road.
In case you have not been on the MUD yet over the last few weeks, we do have a special 15 year anniversary modifier Thalia plugged in, and I've been giving things away and bonusing quite liberally - and intend to continue doing so with even greater frequency to close out the month. But with a game like this, a game that's seen kingdoms and religions come and go, big zones get added and changed, we all know that it's not just today, next week or even the next several upcoming months. It's about the living, breathing world we all help to create and sustain.
I am hopeful we will see some new players trickling in - if so, be kind, lend a hand and try to make them feel welcome. Players are what breathe life into the game that we have built over the years.
My parting thought will be to share the oldest possible link I can find for our site on the Wayback Machine - about a year or so after we first broke ground (we actually didn't pay for the kotl.org domain until the second year):
https://web.archive.org/web/20010804025048/http://kotl.org/index2.html
Oh, and for those who don't want to click on the link above, I'll share the very first image we ever used for said website. I suspect Gilly will get a kick out of seeing this.
Thank you all for your time and participation over the last fifteen years, and here's hoping for more good years to come!
- The KotL Staff
