On Community

There's a big rally in Atlas Park on Virtue today to save the game- I'm working, but I popped in early and there were already three instances of Atlas Park.  With four hours until the official start time, Samuraiko reports  four full instances.

This morning was the first time in a few days I'd logged in.
I was taking archival screenshots but seeing my characters, knowing they were all doomed, made me feel so bad I had to go lie down for a while.  The forums make me sad, but there I'm in the same boat with thousands of other people.  Being in-game should create that same sense of community, but that's not what happens.  It's like the difference between being in your living room with those close to you talking about your sick friend, or actually being that sick friend lying in a hospital bed.  There is some level of incarnation (and not the game system) with logging in and becoming a character that you've spent hundreds or thousands of hours playing.  When I'm in-game I feel the threat much more powerfully than otherwise.

Logged out, I'm able to think more analytically.
I can feel pride in the work folks like the Titan Network are doing in promoting efforts to save the game and in the creation of an amazing tool like the Sentinel + Character Extractor, which creates an archival snapshot of whoever you're logged in as.  I can scroll through Ultimus' RL picture thread Time for one last reveal and be amazed and inspired by the tremendous variety of people who share my passion for the game.  I can be amused by TopDoc's How Can Marketeers Profit From the End of the Game? thread.

I mean, I'm still risking bursting into tears at any moment running across particularly heartfelt, poignant posts, but I can get by.

In game, it's a different story.
I need to figure a way around or through it though, because I have many, many characters to archive in the next few months.
I'll give it a bit and see if I feel any different.