Well... This was unexpected. (Neo's usual boredom emotional venting)

[SKNeoDio]

I never had any kind of emotional restraints around here so let's get to it - my life has been mostly been a Greek Tragedy during the past 4 years, when I had a fallout with my very own self, got divorced and lost a dog-son, along with losing the will and joy to do most things that I enjoyed, even the unthinkable happened: I lost my interest in Daemons Ring.

1/2 weeks ago Wesley told me that he bought a virtual server for DR, and that one of our developers was working on a DRGunz client.

I was like: okay, can't really care, just logged into the virtual server, changed a premade "Neo's Files" folder to "Neo's Porn" just to tease the crew, and went back into forgetfulness.

A few days ago Wesley tells me that they have a DRGunZ server up and running, and that "I" was needed to publish one of my WOTs™. (© Wall of Text)

"I", the old, punished, venom-demon, kinda-like Snake / Big Boss base character from the Metal Gear series, or a Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII who blames himself for everything he did and everyone else did.

"I", the guy who struggled through almost an entire decade to keep DR alive, to eventually reach a point of inner sadness that made me abandon it.

"I", for the first time during the past 4 years, felt needed here, yet I told Wes to please wait a few days because I've been battling a severe injustice case here in Portugal that even hit the news even in the US, and honestly, I wasn't motivated or even inspired to do anything here, I had no hopes nor dreams.

So, yesterday, which for a "sleepless me" means 2 days ago - I didn't sleep due to my own issues, then I kinda got hyped when I saw the DRGunz client being announced on the DR Discord channel, I've chatted a bit with the guys, downloaded and installed the game client, played for 5 minutes and quit - back to my own issues, and tried to slept, but couldn't...

Something got into my head, a feeling of a possible redemption, that I could actually make a difference even after all the hard work has been done - something that made me feel literally obliged, forced by own self to actually do something productive around here for a change - even if it was just to honor the crew who made this happen without any kind of help on my end...

I tried my best, which kinda came out like a shameful mess since I haven't "technically" used the forums for a long time and the DRGunz game client's link was broken on the mass emails and private messages I've sent, my double fail spammage...

I even downgraded myself from my "Spartacus" personal forum usergroup into the crew's "Administrator" usergroup, because I've felt, and still feel, unworthy of having that tiny perk around here, while doing nothing when the crew has been on the works.

As I've said, I expected nothing.

Then this happens.

Really?

More than 1000 people visited our forums within the past 24 hours, or 15/16 hours, more or less since I decided to do something productive?

It's not like I'm making a stand or bragging, on the contrary, this was completely unexpected, I am deeply moved and humbled by this...

Although there are only 2 players ingame at the moment because there's still a lot of work to be done in all areas, I am truly and honestly moved by the amount of people who took a few minutes (or more) to visit our - basically - dead forums - in what seemed to be a hopeless attempt to bring back anyone at all back to this place.

2 of my most trusted staff members and e-friends inspired me with all they've done, Wesley and Jeff, and now seeing one freaking thousand people visiting the freaking forums?

Watching familiar and well-known names downloading the game client, creating characters and testing this BETA client, reporting bugs and asking for ingame help? It was 2006 all over again for Dejá Vú's sake...

I find myself at a loss of words to conclude this Wall of Text, I stand completely awed, in a midst of sleep deprivation and that - nowadays rare in my life - feeling of actually being useful here, even if it's just this one last time.

I don't know where we're headed from here, I don't know if this DRGunZ server will ever reach our previous solid player counts of 500 - when we peaked during 2008-2011 - or that 50 almost instant ingame players we've managed to achieve during 2013/2014 after all of our internal issues, I don't know if we're going to make a comeback and host new games, I know nothing, but two things.

All I know is that: there are no words which can express my gratitude towards every single one of you; and that the Daemons Ring Community is still alive and standing.

Something like this is meaningless to geniuses I've admired since my childhood, brilliant minds in the gaming industry like Sid Meier, Sir Richard Garriott, Tetsuya Nomura, or Hideo Kojima, them bigtime and greatest videogame creators/developers with AAA mega grossing market sales, but to me, it's basically everything right now.

You, every single one of you, have made a tired and washed out old man extremely happy, and even if it ends here, right now, at this very precise moment, I will still be happy for the interest shown by every single one of you.

I am truly humbled by the devotion and loyalty of our Community, and for the faith that this crew, these 2 friends and colleagues, have shown regarding me, even after I've failed everyone around here.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you...


Wes and Jet, you asked for a Wall of Text, well, here it is: you have a good old-fashioned one, full of emotional bullcrap, self-pitying, and randomness out of nowhere, that will either make people laugh or cry.


Now, finally, concluding this essay:

Since 2006, it's been an honor to be here, one of the greatest honors of my entire life.


Sincerely,

Diogo / NeoDio

 

[Wesley]

You'll have to do another mass email/PM once we get the email server working again.

 

[SKNeoDio]

My second mass email actually went in the spam folder of one of my accounts -.-

 

[Wizkid]

Your wall of text made its way through the Microsoft Outlook spam filter. On the contrary, actually legitimate mail keeps sticking in this spam filter. Chapeau!

 

[SKNeoDio]

Your wall of text made its way through the Microsoft Outlook spam filter. On the contrary, actually legitimate mail keeps sticking in this spam filter. Chapeau!

Really? :]

Who would have wondered you would drop by with your well-known and, even admired, spirituous sense of humor.

Come on, cut me some slack, will ya? This right here is a vague, random, although heartfelt, pure concrete Wall of Text full of a dead man's rambling.

My humble and short emails+private messages merely apologizing for not doing jack shit, and announcing the work of two of my friends, in which I wasn't yet involved, were as simple as they could be. (Or at least, I tried! )

It's good to know you're still around, and thank you, for leaving your mark here once again.

I hope all is well with you and those you love.

 

[Wizkid]

Really? :]

Who would have wondered you would drop by with your well-known and, even admired, spirituous sense of humor.

Come on, cut me some slack, will ya? This right here is a vague, random, although heartfelt, pure concrete Wall of Text full of a dead man's rambling.

My humble and short emails+private messages merely apologizing for not doing jack shit, and announcing the work of two of my friends, in which I wasn't yet involved, were as simple as they could be. (Or at least, I tried! )

It's good to know you're still around, and thank you, for leaving your mark here once again.

I hope all is well with you and those you love.

All is well on my end, hoping the same for you. Was kinda surprised by your email (and the fact it slipped by the spam filter), and guessed my password right on the first try so figured I'd drop a message.

Best of luck on getting involved in this project and best of luck to your project . I'm honestly not interested in this at all, but if you ever need something, I still have a shitload of old stuff that I recently came across when plugging in an old backup drive. Including old LegacyGamers, EuroGunZ, LegendGamers and ijji clients. Just let me know if you need anything.

 

[Dax]

It's so nice to see you back Neo, and everyone coming back together again.

 

[Sheen]

Hey Dio less of the old! You're still young.

 

[SKNeoDio]

All is well on my end, hoping the same for you. Was kinda surprised by your email (and the fact it slipped by the spam filter), and guessed my password right on the first try so figured I'd drop a message.

Best of luck on getting involved in this project and best of luck to your project . I'm honestly not interested in this at all, but if you ever need something, I still have a shitload of old stuff that I recently came across when plugging in an old backup drive. Including old LegacyGamers, EuroGunZ, LegendGamers and ijji clients. Just let me know if you need anything.

I kindly appreciate that, I'm sure you get along with Jetman, our lead developer; for now we're just trying to recover some old DR stuff, mostly quests though so we don't end up with a 1GB client like back in 2010.

Again, my gratitude.

It's so nice to see you back Neo, and everyone coming back together again.

Hey Dio less of the old! You're still young.

It's nice to see you guys as well.

 

[foxboy94]

I honestly couldn't even place the year that I found and first started playing DRGunZ. It had to have been 9 or more years ago, when I was still in middle school. I can't even begin to describe how much I loved playing this game with everybody that was on here. The countless hours I spent doing obstacle courses, or gladiator fights on stairway, or quests to grind out levels to unlock the ever-elusive lightsaber. I made so many friends along the way, and have nothing but the fondest memories for this game. At the time I wasn't able to donate to the server because, like I said, I was in middle school. But I very, very fondly remember the wakazashi sword that somebody gifted to me that I had wanted for ages.

Now, I've graduated from college with a degree in computer science, and in the process of searching for a job, I've taken on a handful of personal projects to bide my time. One of which is attempting to make a 2d game that pulls some of the gameplay elements I loved to practice in GunZ, like k-style wall-climbing, butterflying, and the like. Then, today, in anticipation of an email that could let me know that I'm moving on to the next phase of interviews with a company I really want to work for, I randomly decided to check my spam folder. And I see the email from Neo. My heart lifted as I read "DRGUNZ IS BACK", and the memories came rushing back to me. Then, I come here, and read the wall of text and I start tearing up. Honestly, it's been a really, really long time since I've been this happy about something. I don't think I've ever been brought to tears by happiness, but you managed to do it

Thank you guys so, so much for all of this <3

I hope that one day I can finally make a stable release of the game I'm making and share it with you all. It would mean the world to me if I could somehow return the favor, and make you guys happy too someday.

 

[SKNeoDio]

I honestly couldn't even place the year that I found and first started playing DRGunZ. It had to have been 9 or more years ago, when I was still in middle school. I can't even begin to describe how much I loved playing this game with everybody that was on here. The countless hours I spent doing obstacle courses, or gladiator fights on stairway, or quests to grind out levels to unlock the ever-elusive lightsaber. I made so many friends along the way, and have nothing but the fondest memories for this game. At the time I wasn't able to donate to the server because, like I said, I was in middle school. But I very, very fondly remember the wakazashi sword that somebody gifted to me that I had wanted for ages.

Now, I've graduated from college with a degree in computer science, and in the process of searching for a job, I've taken on a handful of personal projects to bide my time. One of which is attempting to make a 2d game that pulls some of the gameplay elements I loved to practice in GunZ, like k-style wall-climbing, butterflying, and the like. Then, today, in anticipation of an email that could let me know that I'm moving on to the next phase of interviews with a company I really want to work for, I randomly decided to check my spam folder. And I see the email from Neo. My heart lifted as I read "DRGUNZ IS BACK", and the memories came rushing back to me. Then, I come here, and read the wall of text and I start tearing up. Honestly, it's been a really, really long time since I've been this happy about something. I don't think I've ever been brought to tears by happiness, but you managed to do it

Thank you guys so, so much for all of this <3

I hope that one day I can finally make a stable release of the game I'm making and share it with you all. It would mean the world to me if I could somehow return the favor, and make you guys happy too someday.

It's nice to read such words. I mostly miss hosting Events... And I sure as hell was good at it, keeping 40/50 people stuck in a Gunz room for 2/3 hours gives you the Astra God status. "lol"

It's also nice having a server up so I can just hop on and play Quest/Survival/Challenge Quest anytime I wish. :]

 

[Mitsurugi]

[glow="lime"]Go back to your color.
Only the cool cats get the annoying orange status!
Been up and down with uni lately, sorry for that.[/glow]

 

[Prime]

Takes a lot of courage to stand up and admit the things you’ve done and the feelings that you’ve felt emotionally, it’s good to see you back Neo [wavy], I’ll be sticking around quite a bit.

 

[Xiles]

LETS GET IT BOI

 

[Vatharna]

hmm