2011 in Review

It's been quite a year for NarniaMUCK and if new years are good for anything, they're good for looking back and waxing nostalgic while smoothing your fake mustache, adjusting nonprescription glasses and sipping a cup of organic tea. ...Oh just me on that last part? I suppose I can just focus on the nostalgia bit, then.

("Where did you get enough hands to do all those things at once, Antheia?"
"I'm a magical centaur wizard; I can do whatever I want, hypothetical skeptical player.")

So yes, nostalgia. Here it is, a(n incomplete) list of the many changes and events that occurred over the last year:

Shortly after The Voyage of the Dawn Treader came out in the end of 2010, Feaelin stepped in as Acting Headwizard. I couldn't be more grateful for his graciousness and guidance as he has taken on this load of a job while Wix is busy with Real Life. His presence has been a blessing and we owe many of the good things that happened this year to his knowledge and empowerment.

One of the first things Fe took care of was a new site and new forums after our originals had been hacked and abandoned. He also installed the great website telnet client so that entering NarniaMUCK, previously a struggle to figure out, has become a breeze for any and all players new to MUCKing.

Lydia joined us on the NarniaMUCK staff shortly after Feaelin did and while we are talking about blessings, let's talk about HER. She has been phenomenal at learning the ropes of Game Development, getting things done (a harder task than it sounds), and being a sounding board for any problem or idea you can possibly come up with.

In January, Myrd and Jana were released from the dungeons and have been leading surprisingly normal lives for two reformed bandits ever since. Around this time, all of the Pevensies became active again.

In April, we held a Science Fiction themed April Fool's Day, which featured working Weeping Angels, characters from Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, and WALL*E, and the Robot Unicorn song. In addition to the usual Silver Apple pelting, nonods, and AFD contest, it included for the first time ever free-for-all new character creation for all players.

In July we had our 10th Anniversary Event. There was a huge fair in Beruna to celebrate 10 Golden Pevensie years, and I couldn't be prouder of the RP that event elicited. Petraverd and Glyn emerged victorious from our first ever Melee Competition, Fidus and Frillawit got splendidly smashed during the feasting, and Winterden and Ulfden first tried to literally spill each other's guts and then metaphorically really did spill their guts. Some of the RP from that day is still going on now half a year later.

The same day, we opened up a new region, Coghill, which was gorgeously planned and created thanks greatly to the Game Development staff's careful efforts, and the contribution of almost every other member of staff as well. We opened up two available slots of human characters to all players, which meant that Coghill is full of rich, brilliant RP. There is rarely a dull moment in this region, full of a wide mix of characters who are sympathetic, varied, complex, and yet so lovably normal. In my opinion, Coghill truly represents a canon Archenland town.

Shortly after the creation of Coghill, Honour and Dar were married, which led to an interesting bit of noble drama that I am sure will stick around long into their marriage.

Also in mid-summer, Melody and Emilia launched the log contest program, which has resulted in dozens of brilliant logs shared for everyone to get to read.

At the end of summer Nevarre and Eirwyn finally got hitched. Thank heavens!

In October, Glyn wrote us a brilliant new log-scrubber.

Astera delivered a baby girl in November, and Peridot is looking to her own foal.

The arrival of Indra in the late summer and Snowback in early winter has shaken up Ulfden again and promises to keep doing so for some time.

In December, we had our Narnia-wide Christmas party. Despite far fewer planned events than the 10th Anniversary, this festival prove nearly as active and RP-inducing. The Wolves got a chance to renew old drama, the Fauns got a chance to eat, dance, and tell more stories, there were promises of spars, and several characters were able to meet Tumnus and hear a good old Narnian story.

These events don't highlight the myriad of little and not-so-little game improvements made by the Devo Staff, the hundreds of tinyplots cropping up among Eagles, Badgers, Unicorns Dwarves, Hares, and Otters (not to mention more RP than can be listed coming from Wolves and Humans), the exciting number of returned players, the influx of new players, the late nights discussing plots and new characters, the 3am RPs, the number of graduations, new jobs, tragedies and triumphs in the Real Lives of our players, or the amazing community that has arisen from both those Real Life and those MUCK events. Most MUCKs don't last more than a few years. Ours has not only lasted a decade, it is alive and kicking with great and good-hearted players and promises to continue doing so long into the future.

It's 2012, and Horse and His Boy happens in just two years. I remember when I joined NarniaMUCK, Horse and His Boy was seven years away. I thought "I'll never be around so long. I bet the game won't even be around that long!" Now here I am and it seems only moments away. The year is kicking off well with a Winter Boar Hunt in Coghill, the building of Chesterton well underway, and a new MOTD tips program but I am looking most forward to (finally) the development of the events and characters of Horse and His Boy and especially to all the unexpected things we'll see from you players that we staff could never possibly have planned.

I'm all out of organic tea, and just in time to wrap up this post and brew another cup. Make 2012 the best NarniaMUCK year yet, friends.

HipstantheiaHipstantheia