A long time ago, while many of our current players still used diapers and I was not yet suffering Alzheimer:gand: an event happened that shook a very tiny part of the world.
After a month of hard work to find the right servers and create a script that would be up to par with the best available two brothers and a friend were putting things together.
Then at 18:00 the server went public. Did we expect anything? Not really, mostly we wanted to show that we could do what others failed: run a game server in a good and professional way, based on playing for fun more than creating an atmosphere where winning is the goal.
We were strict on things as language and attitude. Very strict even. And from the first day we had to learn to fight attacks of many kinds. Crashing the server, attacks of flamers and hackers, you name it and it was present.
Luckily at the time creating a DDOS attack was vey complicated, so we did not have to bother with defense at the time. Still we had to engineer various defenses to keep people banned, and managed to do so.
After 4 months we reached the moment where we were the most populated server for the first time, and while servers based on deathmatch were regularly above us, we kept the position among roleplay servers.
MTA:VC was a sucess.
After six months we ventured in to a new mutiplayer. We used a released roleplay script, however it was for 80% rewritten in order to match what we were used to. And it contained some features not seen elsewhere, which led to other server owners visiting as they did not believe it could be done. But it could be, as we used methods not seen before in scripting. SA:MP gained a group of followers that soon exceeded all others.
In the years that followed we continued to explore new ground and find new members. By refusing to become a commercial entity and remaining free we became more of an exception within the community, as the amount of servers grew most were out to earn money from players, getting payment for virtual goods. And it still amazes us how many were willing to pay for what we considered nothing.
As with all things, after growth things settle and then decline. And with the games we use as base getting older, the regulars gowing up and find new interests, it became harder to maintain interest.
Due to our time being very limited the owners could not dedicate the time needed to urge on the team, and updates were taking a long time. When the new script came out, the accompanying reset caused an uproar among the players, and many decided it was no longer worth visiting.
However we still exist, and we do not intend to give up. Also the time of being unable to give any attention has passed. Today, on the 8th anniversary of our opening a new era is starting. We will review our servers, teams and staff and give attention where needed.
Argonath RPG was never about a single game or a single project, but about meeting people from all over the world.
Today also starts our new project, where we revitalise a project that got frozen long ago but we still believe in.
A separate announcement will follow later.
And all servers should be aware that they might get a visit today from people who hardly remember their password....