Hello friends!

I wanted to let everyone know that on Friday we celebrated the 6th anniversary of Meridian 59's commercial launch. The game has had quite an interesting history over those six years with some good times and some ... rough times. Having just finished up six months since its relaunch by Near Death Studios, Meridian 59's future looks great! The players are very happy with the stability, bug fixes, and new features being added to the game all the time. New players having just learned of the game are joining every day. We now have licensees in Germany and Italy bringing Meridian 59 to their fans locally in their own languages. We at Near Death Studios are very pleased.

On Friday we celebrated the anniversary with a fun update. We tightened up the gameplay, fixing bugs, closing up loopholes, and adding new features. Most of these changes were directly from player feedback.

We also surprised the world by adding a secret Mana Node, Meridian 59 players' source of magical energy. With a chance to boost their over all Mana attributes, the players set to work on finding it! The adventurers set out across the remote island where the settlement of Ko'catan was discovered some years ago. Using Meridian 59's "group send" and "broadcast" communication features the players worked together from around the island to share clues and let others know what they've tried in searching for the Mana Node. After many hours of searching, the Mana Node appeared as a group of players entered the village of the bird like Avar and began their slaughter. However, their reward was not without risk as they heard ominous rumblings from what seemed to be an angry Avar god.

As the day progressed players shared their knowledge of how to make the new Mana Node appear. Some were worried about the warnings and with good reason as later in the day groups of Avar began attacking in the city of Ko'catan working their way into the Orc Caves toward the mainland and city of Tos. Defenders rose up to push back the encroaching Avar and other players set back to the Avar village in an attempt to appease the angry Avar god. Again using Meridian 59's communication features they shared all of their clues.

It was then that a player of good alignment placed a tribute of food at the base of the statue in the center of the Avar village and the players realized that the slaughter was not necessary. The ways of the island are complex and there are often multiple solutions to any problem. Here the players learned that rather than expend the effort and risk of slaughtering the Avar in their village, they could share with them and gain the same benefit.

The evening went on with the Royal Feast Hall of Duke Akardius in Tos open to the players. The feast hall is home to many exotic foods and drinks of Meridian 59, all given to the players at no cost. There is also an attached dance hall and lounge where the players can relax and enjoy themselves.

We also released a new batch of Meridian 59 products themed around the anniversary. Two new designs join the Resurrection themed products. The first design shows the original and current splash screens. The second design has the image of the original paper map that was included in the retail box release of Meridian 59 six years ago. The products include T-Shirts, mugs, steins, and mouse pads. http://www.cafeshops.com/cp/store.aspx?s=meridian59

For me personally, I'm pleased with where we stand at the end of six years. Some of the developers I've worked with since the beginning are still my closest and dearest friends. As well, there are countless players that I've enjoyed my time with over these years. The one standing point of Meridian 59 is that it doesn't come easy. From the beginning it's been hard work and struggle to get the game going and keep it running all these years. There are few that really know the inside of working on Meridian 59 and how few resources we've ever had at any given moment. But as a team with faith in our game we pulled through and got the job done.

There's something very special about Meridian 59 and the game cannot be lost or forgotten. I can assure you that I'll be taking care of this game for as long as there are players that want to share our world.

Thanks to all of you for your help and support over the years! =) -R

Source: Rob Ellis II - rob@NearDeathStudios.com