Farewell

[John Adams]

It is with much regret and genuine heartache that I write this, my final post to the VGO Community. I wasn't going to post anything at all, but it didn't feel right just disappearing without a word. The real world is calling to me and I cannot ignore it any longer, so I am forced to leave the emulator development world behind for good.

But before I go, here's my exit interview...

I have spent the last 10 years of my adult life working on projects like EQEmu, EVEmu, EnBEmu, WoW emulators, EQ2Emu and of course, VGOEmu with the latter being my pride and joy, the most accomplished of all my adventures because I actually started it (with Xinux and Scatman). Throughout that time, I have worked with some of the most amazing talent you can scrounge up on the internet to work for free People like LethalEncounter, Scatman, Jabantiz and Zcoretri from EQ2Emu who without having worked with them first, I would not have had the confidence to try and create something this big.

From VGO, you should never forget that we would not even have a world had it not been for Scatman and Xen, or the countless hours Xinux spent on packets, opcodes and structs. Along the VGO road, we found a mild-mannered Faux, who no matter how many times I asked him to rewrite something, he took the task willingly if he agreed, and if he didn't he always explained why intelligently and has never once shown arrogance or disrespect. Truly a pleasure to work with Faux, one I will miss. Ratief is a solid coder, and he already knows I just wish he could code faster (his real world spins even faster than mine) because we'd probably have a more robust, scalable server if he could.

I generally do not pat myself on the back, but today I will. Without my own dedication to this community, we wouldn't be where we are. From the day we started the project officially, Scatman and I designed everything. It's all there in the Foundation docs, which most of our divas never bothered to read. When Sunset was announced, I left the coders to create our world and I built many tools, and organized a team of collectors 50+ strong to collect the entire world. I worked tirelessly with Xinux and others on packet analysis, the analyzer tools, and preparing for World Building, I wrote the DBE and a dozen other tools to restore Vanguard to life. There's also the VGOPlayers site (man if you knew how that was pulled together, you wouldn't turn your nose up at it), and this site - all the modules and account management, and 2 different Client Launchers. 2 years I've been sitting here, probably over 1,000 hours of my free time; and until recently, it was completely worth it.

The rest, I never earned their respect no matter how hard I worked, I was always met with contempt, resistance and constant battles when my "big picture" thinking got in the way of them patting themselves on the back for that one line of code they just wrote. But this shouldn't affect the players, because you will still get your server back, and it will look exactly like the videos on YouTube. For most, that will be enough. For me, nowhere close...

My next adventure begins today, and while some still won't care, know that I will miss every name I have ever seen posting on these forums, offering us help and insight, and every blue name floating above an avatars head. And Moldew.

See you in the next world.
John

[Jakkal]

Thanks for all you've done, John. I just hope we can keep this moving without you. That will be a monumental task.

[Moldew]

Seeing VG again would have remained a pipe dream if it wasn't for your hard work. We have a strong foundation to build upon now and support is growing.

See you when you're back next week!

[scrup]

Wow, that's a loss and a half. Best of luck to you John, never had anything but respect for you and what you have accomplished.

[rottstein]

Take care on your next adventure John. Your leadership will be missed.

[falloutdc]

Farewell john,( hopefully not for good). Sometimes you need to step back, take a deep breath and observe something from a different angle . I hope one day you return to the project, without you and xinux this project would not exist.

We all are in constant struggle with your ego until we break free or leave this materialistic plane of existence

[Sile]

I haven't been sure what to say other than what has already been said. It's been an honor to have you take me on board, man. It's just a shame that you no longer see it as what you've been working on all this time. I hope you can at least look back fondly on the anticipation that propelled you this far. Safe journeys, John, and thank you.

[Starcrusher]

We'll miss you while you are away. Thank you for all the hard work you have done to get it to this. Take care and keep in touch.

[Billham]

WOW! All I can say is THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! John for all you've done for this project. I'm certain this would all be a pipedream without you.

[JCL]

This is upsetting to see indeed! You have worked hard on each of these projects John. Even when you ran into obstacles, you and the others have managed to get so far. I wish you good luck on your next adventures!