| Red Devil |

before i start, everyone who is so inclined to groan about a post on this topic, don't both reading. I'm not preaching to the choir, i'm voicing something about why (in my opinion)TAO is going down in the long run. If you want to make a one sentence reply, or say "I agree", don't because its wasting space in this thread. This shouldn't be a "YES DEATH TO TAO AND LF" thread either, but rather a general observation thread. The good and the bad are welcome.


Now, once you've read the above, you can continue reading.


The year is 2006. The month is February. I go to my clan website and click to launch the TAO game. I enter my login info: Name: Ninja of ~Fire~, Pass: (right). I am greeted with a "Server Full" notice. I try again with the same response. Ugh, i wish seed would do something to make logging in easier. There are too many people playing this game and its only going to get busier. Finally, I can log in. Now to find a game. "Any greys over 1100 looking for a game?" Many respond, and i choose one and the game starts. [subnote here, many times there are more golds than greys and there were none available on such a call-out, but a random grey jump yields a 1100+ 50% of the time] We play a competitive opposite side 1 frost vs my 2 frosts. As the game completes, gg's are exchanged, and the Furgon drop that came during that game was safely in my settings after a game with a little lag that was annoying. Seed would fix that soon enough. (4-5 months or so which his fast in seed's time lol). There are always plenty of people to fight the starting lag to play a game of TAO. Blue chat lines are sliding up the chat box as clan discussions are held and new clans are created. Rumors are flying about this new unit that is coming. Is it an Egg? Is it a new melee unit?

The promise of changes and fixes keep new people coming to the game as it updates the external linked sites such as mofunzone and adds hours of new gameplay as a new unit changes the entire fabric of the game if its a good enough fit. New players are flooding in daily and clans are gobbling them up. Devil's Dynasty is growing exponentially as new members from 800 and up are brought into the clan to grow into the next generation of great TAO players. There are always some on to chat with. Clan site is booming with the forums Legends Forums is (or is about to) become the most active place to type about TAO as Shin's celebrity and power in the game grows.

Fast forward to today.

I open the game after not having been on for over a month. I guess I'll open it and maybe play a game if I feel like it.....meh... whatever. I log in and get in the first try with no queue. (remember that queue when it used to serve a purpose). After getting on and facing the lag which varies from time to time depending on when the last server reset was. Its unfortunate the server has to literally reset itself to work properly as no maintenance has been done in quite a while. The lobby looms on the screen as the 20 players there are all silent except for the few which want you to go to some odd website, join their new clan occasionally, or spamming it up. The days of constant chat are well over. Now to find a game..... Quality greys are hard to find these days. The few that are left have nearly the same sets, which grows old as its 2 frost furgon vs 2 frost furgon all the time. The group of 1200-1400 is nearly non-existent as those above are long time greys and those below are new players who won't last long enough to survive past 1200. Rumors have ceased to exist as nothing new looms on the horizon anymore after the '06 rumors of a new server called Pandemonium and that new unit that was only a month away for years. Shin's gone. Seed's gone. TAO's almost gone....

LF - what fate does it have? Activity is way down from a year ago when there were many different threads to read and catch up on after a day (midnight through 2:30pm est). Now, there's the RDT which rarely nets 3 pages (20 post pages) in a day when it used to have enough members to reach 4 pages in much less than a day. New users are nearly non-existent and old users aren't as numerous. LF is still here and still strong enough to survive at this moment, but the TAO side of discussion is gone, just as TAO is nearly gone.

The end.

As a quick end note. The game is good enough and the userbase loyal and strong enough for TAO to last over 2 years with no updates. Its a great game, but nothing lasts very long with no official leadership and with no maintenance crew. Things need overhauling. Its fact of life. People won't continue to go to the run down Acme if a brand new Shop Rite supermarket opens 10 minutes away. No matter how great something is, if its not taken care of and lead, then it can and will crumble...

__________________
..

S3R0SIG

Duraza

And? What're you going to do? Is this just some doom and gloom post you wanted to write up?
What do we do about it? Or do we do anything?

__________________

^Hollywood^


TAO's Finest Greys. TAO's Hardcore. Calvinball. (Legends Game Help)

Bottle

I agree.



But seriously, it's not an uncommon cycle. Rather than bemoan the fact that the good times have gone, we should try and remember those good times with fondness. Getting angry, annoyed or unhappy about the fact that those times are gone won't change anything.

Enjoy the good things that are left, before TAO and LF die away altogether.

__________________

Courtesy of ExpectDeath
Official Best and Worst Moderator of 2007 and 2008

Phoenix

I agree entirely. But what did you expect?

Vito's biggest error was not selling the game on to someone who could develop it further. The neglect the game has suffered at his hands was hard to watch for many years, but now, I simply don't care. I've long since grown tired of the kids who use it as a place act out their e-fantasies, or the continual battles of rush V my old turtle, that's not won a game in years. It's boring. Same formations, same things, as you say.

My in-game friends largely moved on years ago. They quit the forums some time ago, too. Newcomers can't quite take their place, because they don't share that sense of history that you do. Like you belong, and that without people like you, there would be no game today. Yes, I'm being "elitist", but it's true. If people like me didn't donate way back when, there'd be nothing now. It's just a shame that he never sold it on, to progress further. It had much potential.

I sound like Moose now, but you're right in that it is dead. It was dead to me in 2005. It's just got progressively worse since then. You're at the stage now that I was at 3 years ago.

You moderate a forum - half the active users are decent, of which maybe 25% of that half are worth talking to over Messenger. The rest are trolls, or too irritating to share a conversation with, and think that breaking forum rules is the next big thing. You give your time and energy to a place you once loved, and a game that you once checked daily for new and exciting features. You moderate a graveyard, essentially, with a few zombies like Cong, Xia, Gyp and myself still lurking around, and some passers by from time-to-time. And for what?

Nostalgia. That's my only excuse.

EDIT - You should rename this thread "An homage to Moose and Uniquin"

__________________

LoSt SouL

Grey playing nowadays is totally different, as you've said. There's golds who'll jump with bombs or some weird sets that are pretty much unbeatable as a grey and the fact that not alot of good greys are around anymore kind of sucks. Everyone that is semi-decent has either boosted to get there stats or they're all stat whores. Lower stated people are mostly noobs who nobody wants to spend there itme with, with all these questions of "What's a drop? and how do I get it, Woah where did you get that monster?" Don't people read the site anymore? No, nobody of high importance to the game is around anymore and nobody can promote the game anymore. www.digisonline.com/tactics is rarely read, maybe once a year it seems, nobody reads up on the news because NOBODY is here to update it, nobody updates anything, all this FAQ is GREAT for people, but no, nobody recognizes it in the first place, so nobody gets help. Tao is a great game, yeah, but sooner or later with no updates, it's going to be nothing at all. The forums are supported for now by old users but most of us are getting bored with the same old crap. Most of it is spam that I personally think is bull crap, and people are always complaining, hey look we're all hipocrits deal with it. Why am I typing this? Most of it's been said. And the mods, all bottle does it complain about how nooby we all are and how tough it is being a mod and giving infractions and what not, guess what mods, it's tough on both ends, deal with it. You don't like it, maybe you shouldn't have taken the position in the first place. LF is bound to fall sooner or later due to spam, not so great leadership, and dependant on few users to keep donating to keep it running. It's already fell a few times, but with generous users it's thankfully been saved. And as of recently, it almost fell again, but thanks to simon, it's all back to normal for what, a month maybe? Then what? Depend on the same people over and over to keep paying? Sooner or later they'll leave and then what? Then theres nobody. And it all falls. LF falls, then TAO falls, then it's nothing. Where is SeeD to help? Probably some rich punk now who cares nothing about what he created. No new units, no additions, it's all falling and getting boring.

__________________

| Red Devil |

I spent the first paragraph of the message on the good times. The good times were what made this place what it is/was.

you can't complain properly about tao without nostalgia and reminiscence about the good 'ol days

__________________
..

S3R0SIG

Phoenix

No clan system, no mud quake, no wisp, twin scouts, LW drops and an overpowered dragon. Good times

__________________

vietnamese_boy

It's hard to find good quality games nowadays. I remember '06 when everyone gave me a good challenge since i was a noob. Seems like everyone either quits from losing too much or being afraid of losing stats.
Goodtimes.
Browsing on Mofunzone looking for a timekiller. Hmm whats this? Tactics Arena Online? It must be good if it's on the Most Played list. Browser pops up. Oh gawd why isn't it working? Maybe because dial-up? Lets wait. *whooop* 100% loaded click to play. Hmmm what name to use? asiandragon414. wait 50 que. What's que?..... Lobby opens everyones chatting. "How do i play this game?" replied with rude remarks. I look around on the first flr. "how do i get a dragon?" Replied with a "press f5!". I fell for it =\ Relog. "how do i play?" the same rude remarks. Oh what's this? an invitation to The w][sh foundation. What is that? /join. Along with Shania and dark_ruler my skills grew thanks to their training. I then joined -TROY- thanks to my loyalty i became recruiter. The on to soul reapers and to leader. Took a short break. I came back and everyone i remembered were gone.

__________________

Gypsy

Lol and 2006 was different than 2004. Anyway, we all come to the same realisation. I can't say I disagree with any of the points red devil made. What I do want to say is that everyone needs to accept tao for what it is. Activity flares up and down, the only way to get tao out of the funk it's in right now is an update, but we all know that's not going to happen so please check the above sentences for the word accept. :/

ITS(DRUMROLL)GUIDE

Aye...

Sadly, it is coming to an end. The fact that this game has survived as long without official technical supervision is a testament to the sheer determination the remaining members show in their attempts to preserve TAO's...greatness. It will be devestating to see the last remnants of Legends' members leave.


Still, it is not the complete end of TAO.

Yes, it is the end of the Legends server. Yes, it is the end of Legendsforums. While this is a heartbreaking thought for all of us who have played the for years, and even moreso for those who have forumed AND gamed for years, there is always the Flash servers. While many of us scoff at the notion of this, it is always an option. Due to those of us who stubbornly hold onto Legends for all it's worth, I don't forsee it dying for some time yet.

__________________
Gypsy <3
Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.
<< FPS 7 Day Gray

Signature by Mike(isuckatthisgame121)
Gift(s?): Black Bishop