I was playing AoT today after watching Preds' slide show and began to think back not only to what has happened to AoT recently, not only to when I myself joined, but back over all the updates and events I have heard of from those who were there. When I though of the recent events I saw the money exploit and the following reset, since then many of the old players have begun to drift away, becoming less active, letting more and more newbs help newbs. I think of my discovery just a week before the reset, when I realised that AoT was not a game of competing for riches, but of making memories of each ersion, each new glitch. I had a resolution, I would keep at most 30k in the bank, the rest would be used on dyno and other things, so that I could participate in major blowoffs and other things. I had realised why noone stayed angry over anything for long, it was trivial, the true value was in the events.
      When I thought back to when I joined, I remembered at long last how I came by AoT, I had been looking for the apparently sacred RTB mod for Blockland. I thought of my first day, under the name Ashali Jehns. I never asked why males were not in, at least not that I remember. I asked how to harvest wood, I asked where the hook was. I knew that Level 2 existed and assumed THAT was the place for the gold hook. I even said what is the point of the LC, thinking that. Ashali Jehns turned out a criminal, and it was COp Insanerperson that made me create the alter-ego Anti-Cop, by killing me several times within half an hour. I remember that Minded played when I joined, but did not notice his passing from our game weeks later.
      Thinking back over things of which I have only heard, I thought of the old D2, the old Treehouse Challenge. I thought of how far the game had come, and of how many lamented that those times were behind us. I thought of the fabled Sharks, which I have still not seen a screenshot of, and of the carbon bows and boats, and thought of how few people remembered them.
      I believe we may be leaving this Age of Time, I do not know whether to call this the first, second, or third, but I do know that the game is changing. It likely began before the reset, Minded was gone, Badspot was busy with retail. Updates had slowed and the shop glitch was removed, twice. Newbs were coming in unprecedented numbers, and the old timers were losing their vigor. Now with each additional person from the limited set of those old timers that leaves, those that remain become less driven, for this is a game of relationships and hanging out and jacking around with friends and chasing old foes. Each additional person who leaves behind a legacy takes more of the game from those who stay, and then those players begin to fade.
      We are on teh brink of this age, the old players are losing strength. They have seen this game develop for over a year and have seen the come and go of mant fellow AoTers, but they have stayed together and held against the change. But no longer, they are one by one leaving the ranks, if not totally then by degrees. Soon the newbs will need us no longer, they will discover all the areas and secrets of AoT for themselves. I feel that soon even I will leave the game if too many of the aged players go, for I find myself one of them, albeit I am only a player of at most 3 months. It seems that even Cougar may leave, for who will he have to bother when noone has the ego that comes from experience?Â
Indeed, we are nearing the End of an Age.
