March 2012 News Roundup

Introduction
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*tap tap* This thing on? *urgent whispering* *thump thump crash!* Wow. I'm not paying for a new one! Game Development! Get this microphone fixed!

*cough*. Where was I? Oh yes. Introducing the new newsletter system. I must say, you have to like the way that sounds. 'new newsletter' If you had two new ones, one of them would have to be the 'new new newsletter'! Wow. This is fun already, and I'm not even speaking to the public! *frantic whispering* What's that you say? Its already recording? But I wasn't ready yet!

*loud cough*. Welcome fellow NarniaMUCKians--(wow that is a mouthful!)--Narnians to the new newsletter system! If you're reading this then you've already signed a waiver and donated a small portion of your stamina--*FRANTIC whispering*--whoops! I wasn't supposed to say that last part, I mean, I'm just kidding about that stamina thing. Pay no attention to that guy that just fainted on the front row. Something he ate, no doubt.

Right. New newsletter system. We took our old list of e-mail addresses and copied into the new system. So in theory, everyone who wanted news from us in the past will get news from us in the new newsletter system.

If you secretly miss the 'good old days' (last week, I think!) well, that's unfortunate, because I fed the old system to my cat. Not sure we'll get that back--not sure I'd want to talk to it even if we did!

Anyway, they tell me the most important part of the new system is how easily you can opt-out! If you read this to the very end, you'll find a link you can click (or paste into your browser), it'll take you to our website and with just one more click on a unsubscribe button you'll be fed to a dragon! *FRANTIC WHISPERING* Whoops, I wasn't suppose to say that either. Pay no attention to my little slips of the tongue there. What I meant to say is, you'll be unsubscribed from the newsletter and you'll never hear from me again.

What a depressing thought. In fact, I'm terribly hurt you'd even think of such a thing. I think I'll just go off to my corner and sulk now.

Border System OTD!
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Okay, you're not going to get rid of me that easily. You still have to get to the end of *this* message first. And I have plenty of things I could type/talk about--this quite possibly could go on forever! Bwahhaha! Next on my list: Borders.

You've heard the rumors. You may have even seen a post on the website about it. But here, I'm going to give you the real story. The border restrictions have been removed! We can move freely from region to region without being pestered about the borders!

I know. Anti-climatic, wasn't it. Unfortunately, the denouement is equally uninteresting. Borders is one of those things that we tried out for a while in hopes it would encourage better and more role-play. I think it did for a while, but the world changes, and we have to change with it. But only a little bit. In recent times, we've found that it hinders RP more than it helps. So we've removed the mechanics. Now you will still get the messages, like this: "You have crossed a full border!".

That'll help us notice when we've traveled a long ways--easy to do with you're typing east repeatedly. I want to remind everyone that we try to make a least a tiny obeisance to 'realism' on NarniaMUCK. IC-ly, it simply isn't possible to travel from one end of NarniaMUCK to another. Its rumored (to be confirmed in a later newsletter!) that an outdoor room is around one mile, maybe even two miles, across. On easy terrain, that might take a human 15 to 40 minutes to travel. So keep that in mind when you're RPing--it won't make sense if you're RPing your story at the Mouth of the Great River one day and RP'ing with Caprus (have you RP'd with that guy? He's completely undercommunicative...it really gets my goat!) in Bergdale the next! So watch out for that. No no, put your calculators away...you just need to use good sense here. I'm certainly not getting out there and measuring how many miles that is. Have a great time out there. And Caprus? get up to speed, will ya?

April Fool's Day Approaches! Run in Fear!
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Those of you that were here last year may recall that on April Fool's Day we mix up the game a bit for your entertainment! I'm moderately pleased to announce that we'll be doing it again this year. Get ready! Its only 16 days, give or take, before April Fool's Day 2012!

This year, we'll be doing Sci-Fi themed--*urgent whispering* *paper shuffling*. Whoops, sorry folks, that was the newsletter from 2011. Bizarrely, it only just now made it into my hands. Let's try this again. I'm fairly confident that the theme this year will be Famous Musical--*urgent whispering* Oops. I'm wrong again. That was back in 2010. I think I'll just give up on announcing this one in advance. You'll just have to wait until April 1st, 2013! I'm betting there's a moral to this story, but I have no idea what it is.

Request System
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This is actually pretty old news. But I didn't take the time to say anything to the public about it at the time, and since it's my baby, as it were, and I'm the one speechifying here, I'm going to wax eloquently--I heard that! No more stamina for you! Guards! Remove that rabble-rouser!

Anyway. Last year, as the old task system began to creak and crumble under its own weight, I decided to deploy the new web-based system. You can access the web-based system at http://requests.narniamuck.org/. As with everything else, you can log in with your NarniaMUCK character name and password. Any requests you've made as that character you'll be able to view.

The reason I bring this up is that I don't actually have a lot to do around here. The staff does all the heavy lifting, so my main source of entertainment is reading requests/bugs/typos/etc. Lately, those reports have slowed down! Leaving me sitting here, bored, idle...casting about for ways to entertain myself. Trust me, you don't want that. You'll log on and find the mouth of the Great River flowing onto the Lamp-Post...

Put in your requests. Spot those typos, the bugs, put in your ideas. I do look forward to laugh--er, reviewing them and filing them appropriately. You can use the in-game commands (bug/gripe/typo/compliment) or go to the 'new requests' project on the web-based system to submit a 'new issue'.

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If you've managed to read this far without falling asleep...Well, I'm impressed. And a little bit disappointed, because now you'll see that there really is an unsubscribe link down here. Maybe if I keep talking...