Who and what was BLAK?
"was" being the operative word.
Players may return, but the guild is gone. The players are hooked, no, they can't get away...

I think you need to expand your definition of 'Guild'. We are BLAK, we always will be.

Hooked, and coming back with the most implausible and ridiculous stories about how their charas came back from the death. Guess Genka was right.

Well, I'M not the one who said I died, now am I?

mokay, I'll bite Joyce, just since it's you.

I for one haven't been ingame since I decided to stop playing, except for flying BLAK Hive out to look at a gazillion stuck traders once. the reasons for me leaving were both of a social and a techical origin, and as most of the technical solutions are being adressed to a certain degree, the social aspects remain.

thing is, when I was active, I spent around 7 hours a day, on average, on VO-related stuff. be it BLAK Hive, guild interaction, help on hosting events, providing testing material for other players, mentoring, or just downright playing. spending that much time on the current VO wasn't, and isn't, especially fruitful. one might argue as to where and when, but basically every single player in the game now wants and expects changes, radical changes. these changes turn the game on its head now and then and this is the nature of the current VO. this is also also an environment where hardcore dedication doesn't really pay off. anything you've worked hard for can become moot in the next update, or become trivial to get. the only real long-term goals that haven't been rocked back and forth by updates are the PK medals... once you have those, well...

and no, I don't do the casual gamer thing very well, if something doesn't hold my interest well, I move on. if it holds my interest, I play lots. looking at the playerbase of VO, that's not exactly a rare trait.

I do however love some of the tenants of the game, and I like most parts of the way those tenants are implemented. this leads me to still stick around and post on the boards, as I look for a time when maybe VO provides me with something that I might find worth hooking on to again. actually, I'm fairly certain I'd love to play the game Inc is working on. :-)

but as I said, these are technical matters. aside from them there are social matters (yes, VO-related, not RL-related) that really turn me off playing the game. maybe that'll change too sometime down the road but it hasn't really done so since I took my leave. in the meantime, I'll be around in the shadows, peeking at one of the best games to run on Linux, and keeping track of what happens.

how you or other players relate to that, or my possible return, is far from something that bothers me.

what kinda social problems? stagnation?

I'll bite too, jex, since you seems like you really wanted to know what's going on, but for some reason is not willing to ask nicely ;).

I have not played since I nuked my chars and unsubscribed. I lurk in forums once in a while, when someone (read : BLAK members) pointed out to me some funny or ridiculous things that are being spew on this forums.

And yeah, I am pretty much still active chatting with BLAK members out of game, since some friendships transcend a silly game, a fact which perhaps answer some of the questions about whether BLAK is alive or dead posted in this thread.

Do I like this game? Hell yeah.

Am I addicted? Read the 1st line of the 2nd paragraph.

Holden come back! We need an announcer on the Deneb run!
Wahhhhh! /me cries.

Argh, could you people stop calling me Joyce?

Joyce is Joyce and doesn't exit outside the game. Things said here are things she'd never say (or even think), and likewise, things she does ingame Jex'd never do (like giving out money as if it were going out of style).

In fact, Jex the Genka-wannabe doesn't exist outside of the Net, he's also a "persona" designed to annoy in whatever forums I happen to frequent (I don't recommend that you Google Jex, though, it's not pretty).

In short, though Jex is baiting people over this, I can perfectly understand why these people are returning to the game; it rocks! Joyce herself is overjoyed, but wary since some have said they were brought back by the Hive, and who knows what the Hive had in mind when it cloned them, or how (and if) it has tampered with said individuals?

I said I was cloned by OUR Hive. And perhaps I was... It may also be that I went into hiding. The Vipers were very active, there was a irritant bot taking over the galaxy, who has since been vanquished, but changed the galaxy forever, and there was also an escalation of the Serco/Itani war at the border. Maybe I got scared and hid in a station. You may never know...

I think tumble decided to spend some quality time with his REAL harem?
(Glad you're back, tho. The "others" *ahem* as well...)

The "others" *ahem* as well...

Yarr! =D

Noooooo! I've been tricked into being sponsored by... by....

(?)

0 =-)

NOW we have to talk. >:)

Image link removed -SarahAnne

whoa who resurrected this old thread?

Looks like cunjo did, and he posted an image link, which sarah removed, which means it was obnoxious and insulting, which is just like cunjo.

Heh. Like they say, there is no such thing as bad publicity.

Aye, remember LeberMac's ingame ads? Those were the poster children of softy's comment.