Vampires & Bloodguards Closed ...

[gorboth]

Denizens,

As announced last week on the Sparkle board, the actual closing of the
Vampire guild and its Bloodguard offshoot has come to pass. Opinion will
likely remain mixed on the legitimacy of this decision for the forseeable
future. Regardless, the experience has been shut down, and the members
expunged.

Say what you will about the events that lead up to this, but it cannot be
denied that this closure has brought great hardship, ill-fortune, and
sorrow to a great many players. The majority of the players affected (the
extremely sizeable ranks of the Bloodguard layman guild, principally) have
had their roleplay efforts, time, money, and future revoked having done
absolutely nothing to deserve it. This is, in my opinion, the most difficult
pill to swallow.

As the guild closed, I expected there to be quite a shake-up. I expected to
see my mailbox and the forums filled with vehement outpourings of anger and
accusation. To my surprise, this has not been the case at all. Rather, I have
seen the Vampire players, nearly to a man, offer sincere and philosophical
perspective on the fact that they, too, knew this was the best thing to do.
Many of these players have earned a reputation with their exploits in the
guild that they have now lost. As I have told them, there is nothing that I
can or will do to intervene in the natural processes that await them as they
go forth now to face a new reality with the rest of the game.

That being said, I do feel that some of you will choose, of your own accord,
to grant them clemency. They have lost it all. They will be hard pressed to
gain a foothold among the playerbase that they have, in some cases, preyed
upon for many years. Do they deserve this? Who can say? Again, I feel sure
that some of you will want to extend amnesty to these people, because you
feel that it will be the best way for the game and the playerbase to move
forward, rather than remain mired in what has been (by most accounts) an
unfortunate mess.

I know what I would do.

G.