I meant to leave this blog entry for the 25th of July, but I feel like this is as good a time as any. On the day of July 25, 2014, Travians will close its operations.
Travians was a browser game, free to play (but with some premium content for people willing to pay for it), and somewhat addicting...at first. The meat of the game has always been chatting and sharing with other players, playing mini games with them, having battles, and so forth. Players were encouraged to make friends in game, to trade with them, and have fun. It was a community driven game.
I started playing Travians on the summer of 2009, five years ago. It was my first MMO experience, and it was my gateway to Internet culture. Way back then, the game was PACKED. It was not unusual to see over a thousand players at the same time, all online. The game was a whole year old by that time, so that may explain why it was so popular at the time. I met plenty of people in the game, two of which I still communicate with to this day.
Travians was more than just a chat room with a game attached; there's also a mission based game in there. Your character (one per account) lives up to 111 days (and no, not in game days, I mean Real Life days), and once day 111 comes and goes, your character dies, bringing forth a new generation for your character. Think of it like "levels", and your character goes up a "level" every 111 days. These "levels" are called Generation, abbreviated in game as gen. My character lived to gen 10, and if I had played consistently in 2012, I'd be gen 13.
The game gives you missions from gens 1 to 3. That means you are given a year to finish the game's missions. What happens if you pass a generation without finishing the missions? Well...no penalty! The game just pretends that you passed the mission! Not like it mattered, because the only thing the missions were good for was advancing the story; there were no other rewards, at all. Although this was a huge flaw in the game, the missions were entertaining...at first. More on this later.
Between missions, you were encouraged to chat with friends. There were no less than 12 different chat rooms on the main hud, with many more individual chat rooms per player AND player's house AND guild house! And there were also several chat rooms for the clubs as well! The game really heavily emphasized friendships and inter player communication!
I met a lot of friends there, and no one I wish I had never met. The game was there for me when I needed someone to talk to. The game was there to entertain me on many lonely days and nights. I once stayed up to 5 AM playing the game! I have some great memories from this game...
But the game died out a long time ago. When once there were almost a thousand players online, there were suddenly 250 people online. And then 150 people online at a time. And then...80 people. Of 1650 accounts, only 80 would be online at a time. What happened? Why did the player base shrink so badly?
One of the game's biggest flaws was the fact that, after gen 3 there was NOTHING to do. Every day you came online, it'd be the same thing: you collected resources, you sold resources, you would chat with friends if they were online, you would attend community actions. Lather, rinse, repeat. Every day. Many, many players would delete their accounts due to the absolute boredom brought upon them by this horrid routine. I have had many friends abandon the game because of this.
There were no new missions added to the game until about late 2012, but by then it was too little, too late. A good chunk of the player base was gone, and those that stayed had no interest in the new missions anyway. By then, the game was more of a chore for most players, with many simply ignoring the rest of the game and simply focusing on community actions. That's what happened to me.
And then one day, I stopped caring.
The game held many memories for me, both good and bad. But for a long time, it was nothing but the bad memories that came to me every time I logged on. It was the memories of friends who never bothered to say goodbye, of drama, of sleepless nights where I needed a friend most and no one was online. And other memories too, that I'd rather not write about here, sorry.
So I stopped logging in. There were days where I'd think about deleting my account, but I never got around to it. I would log in again, play a while, and then I'd log out. And it was like that for a long time.
And then one day, I got the message. On June 15, I logged in, and read that in one month, the game was closing, for good. I guess the message hit me harder than expected. I have spent a few days just thinking about everything, you know? About how life changes, and how sometimes these changes are good, and sometimes these changes are not so good on the surface.
A few days before, on June 11, I had to put my dog down. I had that dog for 15 years, which makes that most of my life. I knew it was coming, for a long time I knew. And then, boom. It happened. It had to happen. The dog was no longer walking, confined to his little bed, wetting himself, whining every minute or so. It was way more painful than expected, and I expected a lot of emotional pain.
Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you like that, you know? You never know when what you thought would always be there, will go away. I had that dog for 15 years. I've played Travians for five years. And next month, both will be little more than a memory.
But I'm not angry, or sad, or even nostalgic. Yes, I'll miss them both, but my memories are still in my heart. let me share some about Travians.
Christmas 2009, I got up extra early to play with my present, Disgaea 3. While I gave my little brother a turn at the PS3, I logged onto Travians and just spent the whole morning chatting, having fun. I will always remember that Christmas.
August 2010, a friend of mine had died. She and I would chat in the game every day, just talking, sharing stories, joking around. She was 15 at the time. Kate was her name. To this day I remember the absolute shock I felt hearing the news.
I am thankful for my time with Travians. I met good people, had some good times, some not so good times, and some fun moments that will live on in my heart. I welcome change, even if it doesn't seem like the change is good.
There is nothing left to do, but to say goodbye. It is often said that the most painful words in the English language are "good bye", and make no mistake, these words have destroyed countless hearts. But to me, maybe these words can act as a release, as a way to close a chapter of our lives in order to start a new one. So, good bye.
Good bye, Travians.
Travians was a browser game, free to play (but with some premium content for people willing to pay for it), and somewhat addicting...at first. The meat of the game has always been chatting and sharing with other players, playing mini games with them, having battles, and so forth. Players were encouraged to make friends in game, to trade with them, and have fun. It was a community driven game.
I started playing Travians on the summer of 2009, five years ago. It was my first MMO experience, and it was my gateway to Internet culture. Way back then, the game was PACKED. It was not unusual to see over a thousand players at the same time, all online. The game was a whole year old by that time, so that may explain why it was so popular at the time. I met plenty of people in the game, two of which I still communicate with to this day.
Travians was more than just a chat room with a game attached; there's also a mission based game in there. Your character (one per account) lives up to 111 days (and no, not in game days, I mean Real Life days), and once day 111 comes and goes, your character dies, bringing forth a new generation for your character. Think of it like "levels", and your character goes up a "level" every 111 days. These "levels" are called Generation, abbreviated in game as gen. My character lived to gen 10, and if I had played consistently in 2012, I'd be gen 13.
The game gives you missions from gens 1 to 3. That means you are given a year to finish the game's missions. What happens if you pass a generation without finishing the missions? Well...no penalty! The game just pretends that you passed the mission! Not like it mattered, because the only thing the missions were good for was advancing the story; there were no other rewards, at all. Although this was a huge flaw in the game, the missions were entertaining...at first. More on this later.
Between missions, you were encouraged to chat with friends. There were no less than 12 different chat rooms on the main hud, with many more individual chat rooms per player AND player's house AND guild house! And there were also several chat rooms for the clubs as well! The game really heavily emphasized friendships and inter player communication!
I met a lot of friends there, and no one I wish I had never met. The game was there for me when I needed someone to talk to. The game was there to entertain me on many lonely days and nights. I once stayed up to 5 AM playing the game! I have some great memories from this game...
But the game died out a long time ago. When once there were almost a thousand players online, there were suddenly 250 people online. And then 150 people online at a time. And then...80 people. Of 1650 accounts, only 80 would be online at a time. What happened? Why did the player base shrink so badly?
One of the game's biggest flaws was the fact that, after gen 3 there was NOTHING to do. Every day you came online, it'd be the same thing: you collected resources, you sold resources, you would chat with friends if they were online, you would attend community actions. Lather, rinse, repeat. Every day. Many, many players would delete their accounts due to the absolute boredom brought upon them by this horrid routine. I have had many friends abandon the game because of this.
There were no new missions added to the game until about late 2012, but by then it was too little, too late. A good chunk of the player base was gone, and those that stayed had no interest in the new missions anyway. By then, the game was more of a chore for most players, with many simply ignoring the rest of the game and simply focusing on community actions. That's what happened to me.
And then one day, I stopped caring.
The game held many memories for me, both good and bad. But for a long time, it was nothing but the bad memories that came to me every time I logged on. It was the memories of friends who never bothered to say goodbye, of drama, of sleepless nights where I needed a friend most and no one was online. And other memories too, that I'd rather not write about here, sorry.
So I stopped logging in. There were days where I'd think about deleting my account, but I never got around to it. I would log in again, play a while, and then I'd log out. And it was like that for a long time.
And then one day, I got the message. On June 15, I logged in, and read that in one month, the game was closing, for good. I guess the message hit me harder than expected. I have spent a few days just thinking about everything, you know? About how life changes, and how sometimes these changes are good, and sometimes these changes are not so good on the surface.
A few days before, on June 11, I had to put my dog down. I had that dog for 15 years, which makes that most of my life. I knew it was coming, for a long time I knew. And then, boom. It happened. It had to happen. The dog was no longer walking, confined to his little bed, wetting himself, whining every minute or so. It was way more painful than expected, and I expected a lot of emotional pain.
Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you like that, you know? You never know when what you thought would always be there, will go away. I had that dog for 15 years. I've played Travians for five years. And next month, both will be little more than a memory.
But I'm not angry, or sad, or even nostalgic. Yes, I'll miss them both, but my memories are still in my heart. let me share some about Travians.
Christmas 2009, I got up extra early to play with my present, Disgaea 3. While I gave my little brother a turn at the PS3, I logged onto Travians and just spent the whole morning chatting, having fun. I will always remember that Christmas.
August 2010, a friend of mine had died. She and I would chat in the game every day, just talking, sharing stories, joking around. She was 15 at the time. Kate was her name. To this day I remember the absolute shock I felt hearing the news.
I am thankful for my time with Travians. I met good people, had some good times, some not so good times, and some fun moments that will live on in my heart. I welcome change, even if it doesn't seem like the change is good.
There is nothing left to do, but to say goodbye. It is often said that the most painful words in the English language are "good bye", and make no mistake, these words have destroyed countless hearts. But to me, maybe these words can act as a release, as a way to close a chapter of our lives in order to start a new one. So, good bye.
Good bye, Travians.
I'm sorry to hear your ingame friend died. About Travians...Runescape has kind of become like that for me. It really isn't all that much fun anymore. It seems more of a "Job" then a "Game". I used to play Travians daily...and was kind of sad to see it go. I got a free "Starter Pack" for Miramagia from Travians and played that game...(still do, but it's very boring). From there I got hooked on My Little Farmies...as it has missions, guilds, expeditions, etc. Thanks for posting this...It brought back memories. I just happened to find your blog.
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