In the course of a month, we've had over 50 former players return as well as a few completely new players join. At peak hours we've had 11 or 12 people online simultaneously. For a shard that was offline for 7 years, I'll admit that I've been really surprised by the positive response. The server itself is stable and running well, with only the occasional bug popping up. The website is in a "workable" state although I admit that it's more utilitarian than attractive. We also have a great wiki-format manual that's being updated on a regular basis.
A couple people have asked if the server will be sticking around or if this just a temporary thing. I can safely say that as long as there's interest in The World of Dreams, I will do my best to keep the server online. There are still a number of areas that will need to be addressed if the server is going to remain viable in the long term:
- The website: I'm not a web designer and only know enough PHP/HTML to cludge things together well enough so that they work. I've been unable to get the "World of Dreams" header and menu bar on to the top of the wiki manual so that all of the web pages look uniform. I also need help figuring out how the vendor search page functioned. And an overall better-looking design for the site would be great.
- Applications: If we are going to start accepting new applications again, it would be great to have a group of people willing to review the apps and vote on them. We had a good web-based system back in the day, but I don't have the PHP skills required to recreate that.
- Seer events: We had a new seer start some activities last week, but for things to really take off, we'll need a couple of people who can work together to make the WoD come alive.
- GMs: A couple of you have offered your services as GMs, which I really appreciate. Please don't be offended if I don't immediately take you up on the offer, though. When you're given the "keys to the kingdom", it's absolutely vital that I'm able to trust you 100% of the time. Trust is one of those things that just takes time to grow. I'm being very cautious about this, so thanks for understanding.
- Developers: The proverbial elephant in the room. Without someone (or a team of people) actively working on the scripts, WoD will remain fairly static. There are only a handful of people with the experience in POL scripting, the time, interest, and maturity to tackle this role. In the mean time, I'll continue to explore various options.
