Underlight Discord Chat: http://discord.underlight.com/
Production Server: Online (Version 3.1.15)
Player Test Realm Server: Offline (Version 3.1.15)

6 Years of KoiWare - Still here, and will continue to be....

Want to talk about non-game related issues? This is the forum for it.
Post Reply
User avatar
Koi-Wish
Founder
Posts: 309
Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2014 3:51 pm

6 Years of KoiWare - Still here, and will continue to be....

Post by Koi-Wish »

Its hard to believe we are about to pass our 6th year of providing Underlight to you, the community, the players… the dreamers.

It seems like forever ago when the controller of DiscoWay and I sat down and said, wouldn’t it be cool if we were running Underlight. Months later I found out the most current version of Underlight, Echoes of Chaos, had shut down which was birthed after the very successful Shades of Truth had moved on.

I wanted to bring all the dreamers together from all version of Underlight, under one umbrella. A Clash of Dreams…. It took months, but we did it. It was an amazing journey and it still is one. I won’t retell the tale; I know many laugh at me when I do because I am so proud of what we accomplished and I like sharing it. But there are posts for that story…

I am still here with you, 6 years later… roleplaying many characters, some good guys, some bad guys, some you know, many you don’t. Always the smirk behind WishBringer as well. I like to think it was the greatest wish I “brought”, the City of Dreams back to you all.

Why do I keep doing it, why do WE keep this thing going, fighting and pushing to keep Underlight alive and well?

For one, because we can! We used to have the servers all up in a fancy datacenter, complete with redundant power and the building could take a direct hit from a F4 tornado and still be standing. We thought that was cool and all, but with the reality of the real bandwidth draw, and some career changes, being at a Datacenter was dramatically overkill. Now the servers quietly reside on a residential property with a dramatic more amount of bandwidth then the original UL ever had. Yah there are some monthly costs there, but we absorb it. Some other costs we incur for legal stuff and a few other things, but mostly its not very costly to maintain. So again, we can!

For two, because its Underlight! For many of us older dreamers, this was our very first MMORPG, the very first time we ever interacted with another human being within a game. I was mesmerized my first time; it was an amazing day and I was immediately hooked. Todays younger generation grew up with tens of thousands of options. When UL was released there were two options, Meridian and Ultima, that was it, period. For most of us, UL was our first, and our first love when it came to online gaming with others. Toss in the real honest to goodness roleplaying…. And wow Underlight was awesome.

No game that I have played personally has ever been close to emulating the true roleplaying aspect of Underlight. Some have attempted “roleplaying servers” with some decent results, but mostly the Roleplaying in the acronym MMORPG – doesn’t really exist. But it does here. Its true roleplaying. I have had many dreamers come to me in real life, or reach out to me via chat or email telling me about how Underlight had gotten them through tough times when they were younger. Vets who suffer from PTSD, folks with self-esteem issues, players with medical disabilities, players with social anxiety… the list goes on and on whom found a place in Underlight where they could be expressive, be artistic even be who they really saw themselves to be on the inside. Underlight was a game for some, an escape for many others, a roleplaying artistic avenue for even more…. A combination for all of us perhaps. But I realized more and more it wasn’t just a “game”, it was something more then that to many of us.

Now as the Producer and one of the key Game Masters for Underlight, I look at that situation, how its more than just a game. I apply that to so much of my roleplaying with you all. Incite emotions, of success, of failure, of victory of loss… sadness, happiness…. Underlight is fully capable of that every day. Its so dynamically alive, it’s so real when you sit back and think about it. A living breathing world that we all build, have built, and continue building.
I have Dungeon Master’d for Dungeons and Dragons with a number of folks over the years, many of which have played with very good DMs and when they come play with me, they are like “Man, you are amazing at this, you are the best DM I have ever played with” – I used to take that as “sucking up to the DM”, and they were after the Bag of Holding or a Stone with Wishes on it or something. But I realized more and more I do the same thing with them that I do here, its not about me, its not about what I get, its vicariously enjoying the emotions and things I can inspire through my roleplay. I got as much thrill or more as them every time we got together.

Some of you that I have interacted with on a 1 on 1 basis, you might see that with my words, how utterly important it is for me to have your dream be amazing. Some days it gets me in trouble with my team, some days I hurt or offend someone, I can’t make everyone happy. But that’s also life isn’t it? We can’t make everyone happy around us.

Underlight is like a huge sandbox of roleplaying that me and my team try to give you all an experience within. Then, you in turn, give us and each other an experience like no other game can possibly do. Just like Dungeons and Dragons, its unique in how if affects us all, and dynamically how we react even to each other. It is truly an amazing game.

That’s why we are still here. And that’s why we will still be here if WishBringer and DiscoWay can continue to see to it. Its was our dream to make this happen… well over 6 years ago. The team mates we have had on KoiWare have also been amazing, I would shout out, but you all know who you are! I appreciate each of you!

Help us grow! Inspire to your roleplaying friends, reach out to your old UL buddies and say get back in the City! I want to dream with you! The more of us there are the bigger this story gets! Over the years, we have had thousands, that’s right thousands grace our City, wouldn’t it be awesome to have them all dream at once!

I hope to continue dreaming with you all.

Thank you for making this game so absolutely amazing.

Now go dream….

Brian Clementoni
Producer
Sadara

Re: 6 Years of KoiWare - Still here, and will continue to be....

Post by Sadara »

And thank you for being Wishbringer. And still making dreams come true. <3 - {Des/S}
Koi-Donut
DreamWright
Posts: 44
Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2018 1:11 am

Re: 6 Years of KoiWare - Still here, and will continue to be....

Post by Koi-Donut »

I can't believe it's been 6 years. I still remember the Facebook messenger group chat of the 5 of us trying to figure out how the heck to make the game start back up again. We were a really strong team from the beginning, each able to divide and conquer in our areas of expertise. The immediate outpouring of enthusiasm from the players really helped cement this version as viable and something worth pursuing. It still amazes me to see this old game with a hundred active players. Wish, Jork, and Drama get huge shout outs for being here and helping push it along (each in their own way) since day 1 also. Wish's passion, Jork's knowledge, and Drama's ability to craft a story have done so much for this game...often behind the scenes and unseen in everyday life.

It's been a ton of fun over the years and, despite frequent sabbaticals, I always get drawn back. It's wild to think how different my own life is over the past six years and how different the game is too. There are always new, different people or old friends doing new, different things. I've played a LOT of characters this time around and hope I've added to enjoyment...or at least the story!

I've especially enjoyed the past few years being given the chance to do some level editing under Citadel's tutelage. The team right now is in an excellent state. The GMs really want to both provide "meta" content and also actively help/support the content from the community. The development side has been committed to updating a truly ancient, crazy codebase. I have zero idea how that works, so I really appreciate their unwavering efforts.

While we tend to go in waves, it's always more fun with more people. I echo Wish's calls to invite your friends!

I might have some fancy GM tools, but I'm ultimately a player who really enjoys the game and the community. Thank you to everyone for keeping this alive for so long!
User avatar
Kelos
House of Calenture
Posts: 65
Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2014 11:58 pm
Character Name(s): Kelos

Re: 6 Years of KoiWare - Still here, and will continue to be....

Post by Kelos »

Time sure does fly by!

It's been a great trip so far...The future looks bright!
Tary
Dreamer
Posts: 264
Joined: Mon Apr 28, 2014 9:09 am

Re: 6 Years of KoiWare - Still here, and will continue to be....

Post by Tary »

It's pretty crazy that it's been six years. I remember those first Facebook chats. I came a bit later on, after attempts to get James' server running failed and everyone realized that we should use the classic Lyra server instead. We had lots of conversations with Mark (Belg / Lyra-Hawk) on getting the necessary packages, and then I had my hands at hacking it to get movement to be smoother and to fix various build errors. After that things sort of flew for a long time. We got the servers running, then we got mares and it was really like someone had unfrozen a time capsule.

I loved adding features. I still, to this day, think of new features I would want to add. Underlight isn't a well-organized or even well-coded project, but it's held my attention for all these years because it was the first online game I truly loved, it was my first exposure to professional software development, and it's probably why I got my first job out of college. I loved adding things that players enjoyed. Unfortunately, that emotional attachment meant that when I worked really hard and added something people didn't like (the "modern chat interface" being the prime example :oops: ), I took the criticism personally and lashed out.

Let it be said: I am not an easy person to work with in some regards. When I feel strongly or passionately about something, I will fight for it. When I think the effort of doing something will not yield the positive response to make it worth it, I will refuse to do it. I don't act that way in my professional life but that's because I don't feel nearly as strongly about the work I do professionally as I felt about the work I did on Underlight. I truly love the features I was able to hack in. I felt like they really added to the spirit and gameplay of Underlight; I felt like they stretched the client and the server far beyond the limits of what it was dreamt they could do, and I am immensely proud of every feature. I smile every time I walk into a room in Underlight and am hit with an area-effect; I love flying, even though it's a really crappy hack and isn't really flying, it's just "jumping and not falling."

I wish I still could dedicate time and resources to Underlight. I truly have a passion for it. Even when I was cranky and unpleasant, I still loved it and loved knowing that others did too.

I don't know if I'll ever add another feature or ever finish my server rewrite that's been gathering dust for several years, but I know that not a day goes by - literally - without my thinking about something I would like to add to the living legacy of Underlight.

Here's to many more years of this terrible, terrible game. ;)
Post Reply