As most have probably already seen, {
Edit ... MS9 has made an important decision}. She has her reasons and I can attest that it was not an impulsive decision. Also, please refrain from PM'ing me asking why she has come to this decision. It is not my place to put her business out there. She will make her reasons known herself.
For anyone who has ever run a radio station, you know that 1 person cannot run it by themselves. While I have the option to take over the station and simply bring on more people, I cannot commit the time required to do so. I am blessed with a great family, terrific friends, and fun RL activities that preclude me from considering doing such a thing. I'm the Director of Technology for my church (20-30 hours a week building or fixing tech), I'm on the local roller derby team (football on roller skates for those who don't know), I love to hunt (and deer season is on!), I exercise 4-5 nights a week (lost 150+ pounds in the past 10 months), etc. So, yeah, pretty busy. So, after discussing it, MS9 and I have decided together to shut down MSR after we complete an obligation - Oleg's Boxing Tournament. I'll handle that as MS9 has already stepped away. I will most likely shut down MSR when I go to bed tonight and only bring it up for Oleg's boxing matches that I am able to be home to cover. After this event has ended, MSR will fall silent for the final time.
I would like to personally thank all the GREAT people who have supported us while we showed what altruism and the spirit of paying it forward could do to grow and strengthen the fabric of community within our Universe. I count myself as very fortunate to have met so many extremely cool people over the fast few months that we've done this. Very fortunate, indeed.
In closing down MSR, I ask one thing, if I may have just a greedy moment here. *story* When I was a brand new noob and the sweating spot was Camp Phoenix, 3 things made a massive impression on me - all 3 things being acts of generosity:
#1: a fellow I do not remember the name of came along in shining white armor, I now know to be Angel. I was sweating a Berycled Young. These mobs killed me regularly and quickly. He was merely passing thru and noticed I was trying to sweat it. He pulled out a small gun and shot it to get it's attention off of me. He held it while I sweat it. I was AMAZED how he sustained zero damage. UBER ON THE BRIDGE!! I didn't understand decay yet as I owned no armor yet. He held it for the 3-5 minutes while I sweat it and I stayed alive. When I was done he killed it in 1-2 shots. I didn't even have an Opalo yet, but I had seen people with them take forever to kill them. This guy showed me compassion and gave me a great first impression of the game.
#2: A guy came into Phoenix with the offer of free Pixie armor. I was very hesitant to accept his offer at first. First, this was an RCE and why would anyone give away money??? Second, I had read the posts warning noobs of "too good to be true" trade offers. I decided to try it and see if he was going to ask for anything in return making his offer not free. To my utter amazement, he gave me the armor for free. I don't know how much those Pixie gloves really did, but I felt like Superman and swore I stayed alive longer. Now I and people in my soc do this for noobs. They cycle begins anew. Again, this generosity gave me a great impression of the game.
#3: While I have met a ton of really awesome people, my mentor, Larry CompuSmurf Wright, sticks out as the biggest influence for me. He saw a noob in PA selling some basic hunting loots like animal hide and wool. He bought from me and paid a generous amount. He wasn't trying to rip a noob off. After a few sales, he chatted with me about mentorship. I had declined a few offers as I had read you couldn't kick a bad mentor (back in the day that was the case) and I wanted to be careful. Larry had always been more than fair so I accepted. Shortly thereafter we formed the Skillin' Villains society. We became RL friends and got to know each other's families. I became his first disciple to graduate and he bought me the baseball cap I wear ingame to this day. Same textures and same colors. They had just come out and my noob butt couldn't even dream about affording one. He colored it blue and yellow (closest thing to maize) to match the favorite school - the University of Michigan. GO BLUE!! Yet another person who was generous to a noob.
What did these first 3 people do for me? They showed me that even though this is an RCE, the PEOPLE are where it's at first and foremost. Now here four years later I am still playing with a desire to help people get started.
In the past few months, we've tried to show that things are better when you give to others, when you put others first, when you give to others before they give to you. My request is that everyone will continue that spirit of community and looking out for others even after MSR is gone. I think many people found how much fun running noobs around to get TP's can be.
I too have a few items that had been donated as prizes. Over the next week or so, I will be handing those out to noobs in PA and the swamp camp so that the intended recipients of those items can enjoy them as was the goal.
Again, thanks to all of your great people who have made it so fun to organize events and stuff. I look forward to continuing friendships made in the game through this adventure. Who knows what the future may bring. For now at least, I'll be a listener.
Don't forget to check out Oleg's Boxing Championships:
https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/...-boxing-championships-2009-sponsored-fpc.html
and Archman's Haunted Castle:
https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/...t-annual-skillin-villains-haunted-castle.html
... Twitch in the house ... looking forward to it partner, and I agree, I hope things become more stable. We had a bit of a challenge with server crashes during our Fort Fury road trip today, and I'm hoping that the Athena Spaceport TP run won't present the same issue. Catch up with you at Billy's on Sunday. 
