Sad News Options

[optical]

It is with great sadness that i bring the following announcement.
Due to a number of circumstances involved, Remnants of chaos will be shutting down in approximately a week, around the dates of 15-19th of november, 2009.

This has been a hard decision to make, however myself, as well as Rezlind feel it is the best one that can be made, giving the sitation we are in.

Prior to shutting down, i will be bumping up the votepoint rates to 4x per vote, and there will be a number of events and games ingame being hosted by the gm's, in order for everyone to enjoy the last few days of Remnants.

The arena season hasn't been decided on, however i was originally planning on ending it soon, so in the next few days you can expect your rewards to be in your mailbox.

There are a number of factors that have brought us to this decision, the first one being legality.
As some of you may know, blizzard has stepped in and shutdown wowscape, as well as taken them to court. At this stage there isn't much more information on what they plan on doing. However, it is obvious that they do not want to see private servers in existance any more and because of this, I would much rather respect their work and their decision and shutdown, then insult them as well as risk legal issues myself by continuing to run a server.

As some of you are aware, next year i plan on starting university, as this was my last year in school. This would also mean i have very little time to dedicate to ROC. Prior to the news of blizzard, i planned on either leaving ROC to someone else who is capable of developing it. However, it is unlikely that any such person would of come up in the short space of time there was to find them. I therefore feel that shutting down ROC would be the better decision, and it will be remembered as a great wotlk private server in its prime, rather then dying a slow death due to lack of development.

The third factor is money. As you will of noticed, we have not got any income, unlike most other servers, and i have payed the bill's every month out of my own pocket. This was fine for most of the year, however i could not continue to do so without selling virtual goods ingame, which i am very reluctant to do as it creates imbalance. Therefore selling items was not going to happen, as i created ROC to be a fun, competitive, enjoyable and challenging dedicated PVP Realm, not a business like some of the other wow servers are run with their ridiculous donation packages, such as donation for gm etc.

I am sorry for not notifying everyone sooner, however i have been extremly busy lately as i have my end of year exams next week as well as finishing up school last week, i have had very little time to write up a formal announcement. The decision to shutdown was made approximately a week ago, so it isn't as if i've kept it hidden for a long time.

And finally, to wrap up, i'd like to say thank you to a number of people.

First up - Staff/Others
Rezlind - A great dedicated administrator who was always there to help out. He has been with me since CC, and has been a great help with a number of decisions and was the man who chose the great GM staff we have today - Thanks!
Soon - Has been with us for a long time, took a few breaks to do other things along the way but always found his way back. Has continued to support roc since it was created.
Asetas - Longest standing ROC GM, has been a great help and i have never had a problem with him, good guy!
Janar/Syncron - Two of our younger GM's, also long time dedicated supporters of ROC, they were here since the beta began and have stuck it through till the end/ Never had an issue with them since CC, excellent staff members.
Icelina - A great guy who is pro at frost mage. Was with roc since the beta, also played on CC. He has come along way in maturity and is now a good guy. He resides in bavaria and will continue raging when he loses in arena due to "lag"
Royale - Quiet guy, didn't really get to know him very well personally, however he has also been here since the start and has helped out alot ingame as well.


Second off - Beta tested and long time players.
Thanks alot to everyone who has stuck it through with ROC since the days of the beta, in which we had 10 player peaks. You guys have helped tremendously, and i have alot of respect for you because of that. Thanks!

Third - Voters/Everyone else
Thanks to everyone who has played here and helped keep the community going. Those who voted day in and out, and supported us, you guys are great. Without you, there would be no ROC .

When we officialy shut down, i will be keeping the forums and IRC/Vent online so that everyone can remain in contact for some time. I will also be giving my MSN away to those who ask for it. I will not be giving it to just anyone im afraid, only people who i respect/hot non tarps.

I encourage everyone to remain here until shutdown, however if you choose to leave, i recommend returning to retail, as you just cannot beat it, and your efforts will never be in vain.

If you have any questions, please do post. And i am warning you, if you troll or attempt to derail, i will dish out perm bans, keep this thread clean and respectful.

PS: I am writing this prior to a chemistry exams and haven't had time to check my grammar and spelling - go easy on me!

Regards - Optical.