Meridian 59 Pre-Launch goes live! The Meridian 59 game service is back online! The Pre-Launch has begun and users have been emailed their account information. It is incredible to have come so far in such a short time and now finally have the game running officially for players to enjoy. The characters being created now during the Pre-Launch will carry over into the final launch and we hope they will be with us for many years. It's been a lot of fun during the beta test meeting up with old friends that have been playing Meridian 59 since the original alpha test, or while 3DO was running the game commercially. Seeing people come back after playing more recent offerings is an honor. We're glad that many of them will be joining us during the Pre-Launch and full commercial launch. However, Meridian 59 isn't just for old-timers. There are many unique and well-developed game systems in Meridian 59 that players new to the game are sure to enjoy. Several new players have joined us during the beta test and are already hooked on Meridian 59 having ordered their Pre-Launch CDs within hours of them going on sale. More information can be found on the Official Meridian 59 Website or on fan sites such as Gilroy's Meridian 59 Reference. Of course if you're tired of reading about games and want a cool online RPG to PLAY head over to our site and buy the Meridian 59: Resurrection Limited Edition CD now!
	A letter to our international customers Friends, I am very sorry to report that we've decided to start the Pre-Launch phase without international billing in place. Unfortunately this means that those outside of the US will not be able to play during the first day or more of Pre-Launch until international ordering has been resolved. Please understand that I have done my best to get international ordering in place in time for you all to play. I was told that it would work by Thursday. Then I was told Thursday night. Then I was told either Thursday night or Friday morning. Then I was told Friday. I have not been able to get the account representative back on the phone since. Please understand that to the people that have already paid us to play they feel much how I did as I was told again and again that international ordering would be live soon. We took their orders at first saying we would be live by Thursday. Then we pushed launch out a day to Friday. We cannot push it out any longer for those that have paid us in good faith to play our game. I am very sorry and I hope that you can understand. I certainly understand your anger and frustration- I feel it with you. As soon as we can turn on international ordering we will send a mail out to the mailing list and post on Gilroy's and our message boards. Thanks again for all of your support through these difficult times. -Q Rob Ellis II rob@NearDeathStudios.com Co-founder Near Death Studios, Inc.
	BUY MERIDIAN 59 NOW! There are still a few Limited Edition CDs left! Although the sales limit was lowered from 1000 down to 600 we still have some left for sale to US players at this time. The limit was lowered due to problems with international ordering. Unfortunately although we've been working with our merchant account representative all week this issue still has not been resolved. We understand the frustration that our friends outside of the US are feeling. Please be assured that we are trying to get international ordering working properly with our merchant account provider as quickly as possible. We will send out a mailing once we are able to accept international orders. At that time the limit on Limited Edition CDs will return to 1000 and we will open up an additional 100 international Pre-Launch Accounts for players outside of the US and Canada. More information on purchasing a Limited Edition CD can be found at the link below. US PLAYERS BUY NOW!
	Brian's Bug Bashing Allowed rooms to be re-rentable. Giving the innkeeper money now adds time to your room at that inn. Fixed a bug that was causing people casting non-damaging "antisocial" spells to go orange during declared guild wars. Fixed minor error with touch attack spells. Should do slightly more damage now. Made rentable rooms keys only copyable at the inn where you originally go the key. Fixed a problem with morphed players in combat. You can actually hit when morphed now. Increased Jewel of Froz damage bonus for touch spells. Fixed EvilTwin to use the caster's safety setting. Made it so that Create Food only creates one item. No longer puts the "shimmers insubstantially" attribute on the food, so it won't disappear. May change it back when time permits extensive debugging. Reduced reagent cost of Create Food. Changed Illusionary Wounds so it is still similar to how it always has been, but now it more closely looks like it duplicates the effect of another attack spell. Fixed a bug with innate weapon to-hit bonuses. Increased the range of punch. Added in a "bonus" on the range of weapons, touch attacks, and attack spells if targetting a moving player. Changed Silence into a concentration spell that drains mana. Caster must maintain focus while casting the spell for it to continue. Added code to disallow certain names. Players cannot pick the name of NPCs, monsters, Meridian 59 gods, or "guild". "Ah! Forgot to put in about being able to game-mail your guild in BBB. Add that for me, please." -Brian

Source: Near Death Studios - Info@NearDeathStudios.com