I began playing Avendar in 1999. When I type that I realize how much time has gone by, and then I look at the game and I see how much has changed. When I started playing we had a pretty decent sized playerbase at all hours of the day and night. It was never quiet, but that's a good thing. We had an Immortal staff that was busy cranking out stuff, making the game better and all in all the people seemed happy. Back then I was new, though. This hard game was just that: Hard. I didn't realize at the time that while some people made an effort to help me most of these people were content just living in their own worlds, making their characters as strong as possible.

I got better. I learned the ropes. Things looked up for me for a long time, but I never was part of any of the cliques that at the time seemed to always run the game. Newbies came and went. Sometimes they stayed but overall the numbers in the game gradually declined. There were obvious highs during the summer and the expected lows during the winter but each year it got worse and worse.

Some of these highs I would miss and sometimes I'd miss the lows too due to my job in the Navy, but then sometimes I would come back and see the sad shape of the MUD. It crashed often, sometimes two and three times each day. Again the numbers began to decline. New staff members took over and it seemed as if things would change, yet again the MUD stagnated. Lofty promises would be made, but most of the work was being put on just a few people who couldn't maintain game. Often there was talk of 'Avendar 2.0' and yet this was just another promise that ended up never seeing the light.

Eventually the game became stable and updates began happening, but it was like getting a school bus running for the upcoming school year when there were no kids within a hundred miles. Some of the vets stayed around, but mostly the game became a ghost town. Avendar was, for all intents and purposes, dead.

There were three Immortals that changed the tide though. Neongrey, Ninjadyne and Brazen. Brazen and Neongrey had been part of the staff for some time and both were making huge strides in trying to make the MUD a better place, while Ninjadyne spent his off time helping Neongrey with helpfiles and Brazen with coding. Ninjadyne eventually became an Immortal and Neongrey became the Implementor of Avendar.

I'm reminded of a word from Norse mythology; Ragnarok: The end of the reign of the Old Gods and the beginning of the New Gods. This is Avendar 2.0, not because the code has been completely redone, but because Neongrey, Brazen and Ninjadyne have breathed new life into a once prospering world. For the first time in years this is a game that I can honestly say that I look forward to logging on to. I recommend going to their website at www.Avendar.com and checking it out. While I'm not part of the staff I know that myself and most any other player would be willing to help you learn the ropes, though members of staff monitor the 'Newbie' channel so they'll be able to get to you before most of us.

I look forward to seeing some new faces. Besides, who knows, we might run into each other and get a chance to roleplay some.

-TKD