Well, it’s been a few months since I did a ‘State of the MUD’ – seems like winter is ridiculously busy.  We’re indoors more – at least I am because in Michigan it’s really unpleasant outdoors during this time of the year.  It also means holidays, birthdays, travel time, weekends away, new toys (Christmas time, tax time, video games – yay!)

However, I am trying to regain a bit of my focus and take a look at projects we were starting before the snow began to fall.  It’s been nice seeing a few older faces around a bit again in the last week (Lex, Ariadne, Daklore to name a few), and we’ve had a handful of newer players as well.  Several months ago we shook up some religions and kingdoms with new leaders, and overall the results seem to be good, though a few of them less so.  I’m certainly open to ideas and discussion on this: it’s always been a slight issue for us here at KotL.  We hear that people like the interactive elements of having player-run leaderships, but it seems that often times as soon as someone gets a rank, they vanish and then there’s cries of frustration that the leader’s not around to fill that role.  We had attempted to address this after our last player wipe years ago by using an automated NPC-run version that people really did not seem to like.  So, if you have any ideas or feedback on this aspect of the game, I’m open to it and want to hear it.

The weekend of April 24/25 we will be doing Murkwood’s spring festival.  As usual, seasonal shop keepers, linking in the festival grounds, some new mods, auctions, etc.    Anything else you’d like to see added?  Toss us some ideas.  Probably won’t show up in this festival, but maybe in future ones we can implement some of these ideas or put them to a poll vote and see what you like most.  It’s your game as well – and we want to make it appealing for you so that a) you’ll continue to play and b) you’ll bring your friends along.

We certainly have more things coming down the pipe – hopefully this summer if all goes smoothly.  Looking forward to seeing you around!

- Chalgyr