Hey! How ya been, friend?!

Still upright and taking nutrition, myself [gods be praised], so that's a big ol' W for all of existence.

These forums are much like the Fields themselves, these days. They are largely an empty, soulless wasteland where some few befuddled lunatics still wander [Frosty, jalim, et al.] and some creepy voyeurs still browse regularly [me].

The startling thing about that is how exceptionally fun and fulfilling the game continues to be, even improved in some respects. Perhaps it's just the old adage - 'hunger is the best sauce' - but with a limited playerbase, even the extremes of single-digit counts, every interaction packs a LOT more punch! Whether it be a short, largely hostile conversation about beliefs, a successful learning group's banter, or a heart-thumping, blood-pounding PK event, every contact with other players is magnified.

*** dons long fake gray beard and produces rickety wooden cane ***

Why, back in MY day, young whipper-snappers, we had MUDs that were flighty, capricious, unstable, and downright punishing! I'll bet a few of you older folks might've slapped a few fish around in Medievia, or one of the CircleMUD variants for a while. But I'll paint a portrait of skunk shit on a mountaintop with blood from a svirfneblin spleen if any of you can lay honest claim to being veterans of the OLD school! Renegade Outpost, anyone? Black Knight Diku? Or shall I invoke the grand-daddy of all PK Muds- Copper Diku?!

We fought and died at 1200 baud, children! The great majority of you can TYPE the action faster than it scrolled for us. For a truly clear impression of what I'm driving at, go on the Youtubes and look up Monty Python - Four Yorkshiremen.

*** removes beard and cane ***

TL:DR: The Fields are amazingly fun (they would be without a single other player, in my humble and always-correct opinion) even with the low numbers. These forums are fairly well dead- all the kids are on the Disk-rod [Discord] these days. Oh my hip...

Great to see ya.

HA!