Well let me start by saying Wow…

Where do I begin?

This is something amazing, not only is Meridian coming back, legally, but it’s without 3do. It’s been a long time since I’ve played I never had the urge to play in German, due to the language restraints and I would never have felt right playing on a pirated server, nor woud I trust that they’d be around long enough to invest my time into them. Now though, things are different, we have someone whose love to the game is unthinkable and another whose dedication kept it going as long as it did. These people loved Meridian, they were the ones who put in their personal time to make it a better place, and they are the ones who did everything in their power to make it a fun place to play. However then there was 3do, and the endless Bureaucracy, which caused people who probably never played the game, and defiantly never loved it to make the decisions. People who believed that MMORPGs were a failure and Meridian was an embarrassment to 3do, these were the people who made the decisions. Many of them had intent on killing the game, though most people know that already.

Everything’s changed now, the bureaucracy is gone, and the game is in the hands of those who love it, who will care and nurture it, who will put the time into fixing bugs and adding features, rather then working their hardest under strict rules on what they are allowed to do, and then getting told they shouldn’t be wasting their time and should be working on a different project… but that’s a rant for another day, I think I got my point across now.

In a bit of Irony, this weekend I was going through my closet, and I came across my old Meridian 59 memorabilia, an unopened original game box, bought from K-Mart during the Insurrection update, (It always seemed immoral that they were still selling them, but who am I too judge, 3DO really should have recalled them and re-released the game box after vale, instead of just selling CDs), a game map, and one of every Meridian CDs except for Revelation (note does anyone want to sell me a Revelation CD?) as well as the 3do flyer from the November 1996 edition of PC Gamer, where I first heard about Meridian. I’ve always kept that stuff, and as I came across them I looked at them and put them in the garbage bag next to me, then I thought for a minute, and pulled them back out putting them back into the closet. Even though then I felt I would never have any use for them again, I just couldn’t bring myself to throw them away, to throw away the last little bit I had of a place I spent 4 years, and which changed my life dramatically, in a good way.

Today, though I may take them out again, and put them back on the shelf where they deserve to be, we shall see though, it may be some time yet before we can all actually play again.

I would like to encourage everyone who plays Meridian now, and in the past, to support this version when it is released, and if you have money, to donate now, give them some inspiration, and some food to feed themselves and there families with. I know I will after Christmas is over with.

This will be a new era, one with good updates, bug fixes, and improvements, that don’t have to go through a many months long approval process.