COUGAR RIDGE GAZETTE // SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16th, 2007
Good morning Cougar Ridge.
It’s with regret that I have to say we’ve hit a hitch. My co-Moderator Hook has decided not to continue with the game with immediate effect, whilst I’ve also been phasing out my characters and from this week was planning to stay on in the sole capacity of maintaining the page. Our reasons are varied, but foremost is the obvious observation that the game is rapidly shedding players and therefore characters, which is reducing the all-round enjoyment.
This isn’t necessarily the end of Cougar Ridge, however. Another player has expressed interest in writing the Main Entries, and will hopefully make an announcement here soon. For the game to be a success, however, it obviously needs players and characters. Hopefully those still involved will continue, and those like myself who had decided to call it quits may be encouraged to stay on, even if it’s just with a single character.
Thanks, as always, to those of you who continue to post regularly and who also play in the correct spirit. There have unfortunately been a couple of posts just recently that have NOT, in my opinion, been made in the spirit of the game but rather out of petulance and hostility at the expense of other characters and the overall narrative. When gameplay escalates from mischief-making to purposefully sabotaging another character long-term (as Jack Nero’s ‘death’ and Dale Thwaidey’s subsequent declarations did for Terry Burroughs, to cite a specific example) I believe that aforementioned spirit has been forgotten in favour of players exercising power for the hell of it. Cougar Ridge was always intended to be edgy, but never spiteful or some dog-eat-dog survivor competition. It’s a GAME.
Also, an apology to anyone who was disappointed with the abrupt and unsatisfying end of the thief storyline. I don’t know if Hook ran out time or if his original plans were scuppered by something, but I know that I was left a little flat by the resolution, and that others among you may share that feeling.
Thanks all for all your efforts, and now signing off as your regular Gazetteer and Mod,
Meri (and, in absentia, Hook).