The year 2005, was for me something of a vacation year as far as BatMUD
is concerned; work took precedence, as so often happens, as did a few
(well many sessions of World of Warcraft. But as the old saying goes,
"ei sota yhtä miestä kaipaa" - the game goes on and on.

So what has been achieved this year? For starters, this was BatMUDs
15th anniversary year, so naturally B.A.T. ry arranged a worthy party
for the occasion at Kaivohuone in Helsinki. And from my somewhat blurry
recollections of the evening, it seemed like everybody had alot of fun
and internal disputes were set aside for the evening

Also, the year 2005 brought us two new archwizards - Shardik and
Shinarae, both who have been very active and contributed alot to
the game as wizards. As I, and some other arches who have been
here a long long time, no longer have that much time to use on
hobbies, it's natural that fresher blood needs to take over

Looking from within the game, there's been some additions and changes:
The power hours, in a modified format, are back. Similarily, the battle
system was tweaked to support weapons of differing speed, thus making
it more realistic. Several new areas were opened, and Sirdar arranged
a new round of the epic BatMUD gladiator games, just to name a few
prominent changes.

There's been alot of discussions about marketing BatMUD, both among
you and also among the archwizards, and I agree that we should more
aggressively recruit new players. However, that is usually where the
conversation ends - I rarely, if ever, hear any solutions for how we
should market or where. And as the survey we arranged in November
proved: over 80% of our players have started playing BatMUD through
word of mouth. Which to me, means that maybe expensive banner- and
magazine advertising isn't the proper way to reach out to new players.
Maybe the way of keeping BatMUD fresh, is for our players to recruit
their friends into the game?

There's alot of changes that have been planned for 2006. I was told
that I couldn't name them all ("they're secret!"), but some of the
changes include a new background (military) including ranged combat
in the form of an archers guild. Three other guilds are being worked
on (to my knowledge). And yes, that includes the by now infamous LoC
guild (it's starting to become a tradition to promise that it will
open up "next year"). And there's some rather big areas in the
development as well.

Finally, B.A.T. ry is planning a VegasCon in fall 2006, which I hope
will spark interest both among our American players/wizards, as well
as with the Finns. More information about this event will be published
throughout the year, but there's a poll up at www.bat.org about which
dates would suit you best. Make yourself heard.

Overall, we will continue to develop BatMUD, both keeping in mind what
you have voiced to us through news and through the survey, but also
not forgetting what new players would potentially want to see in
BatMUD. We should not be arrogant and too resistant to change - alot
of the new commercial mmorpg's have quite nifty features, some which
may well be implemented in BatMUD also.

Wishing you a happy new year on behalf of the administration,
Gore

P.s. Isn't BatMUD's outerworld small, cramped and ugly?