Dragonsmeet 2014-07-03 – Announcement from Rustic Dragon
Last night Rustic Dragon again hosted another Dragonsmeet, which is always a joy to take part in, or even just watch as a live stream. This particular one had a few items of big news for everyone, that I will touch on shortly. After the stream, as always, we have our classic “after-rabble”.
Rustic informed us of some of the Hearth of Britannia Telethon prizes that have come to fruition and will be sent out in the future weeks to those who have prizes coming. The other announcement is that Rustic Dragon will no longer be the Shroud of the Avatar Community Ambassador. He also will no longer be doing customer service. Portalarium is undergoing something that happens to many video game developers, a stage of transition as the game continues to be developed. So during this transition, Rustic will be doing solely web development work, until his remaining time with Portalarium is over. This whirlwind of a journey involving Portalarium for him will be over, but I am certain a new journey is just over the horizon for him.
For many years starting in 2004 I took time away from the Ultima Dragons for personal reasons. Only a few years ago I returned, and it has been a joy to reconnect with friends of years gone past, as well as meet new people who add wonderful, fascinating, and unique views on so many things. Rustic Dragon has been one of those new ppl that I have been grateful to have talked with online, both in other hangouts but also Dragonsmeets. He has so much enthusiasm and creativity, it is honestly infectious at times.
When Rustic’s remaining time at Portalarium is over, I am certain his work will be greatly missed. However, despite my sadness of him leaving Portalarium, I know he will forever be a huge part of the Ultima Community and SotA Community. I wish Joseph, aka Rustic Dragon, the best of luck as well as my prayers as he moves forward in his life to hopefully bigger and grander adventures that hopefully provides him with much happiness in both his personal and professional lives. Many of our community members have shared their feelings in the past 12 hours. Stile Teckel, another wonderful man in the Ultima and SotA communities, made a post last night on his website. After reading it myself early this morning, I feel that it echoes alot of the feelings many of us in the community feel. Please feel free to read his post as well.
To end things on a happier note, I give you a wonderful video that Joseph talked about last night that was done by him, Richard Garriott, and Bill Johnson.
So, he had to go or did he go out of his own?
Is Hearth of Britannia II still happening in November? I was thinking of trying to make it down to Austin.
@Dragonbee and T.J.
The answers are in the Dragonsmeet video. The short answers are Yes and Maybe. I’m reminded of a word Spoony used over and over in one of his videos. The Ultima IX review, actually.
Thanks for jumping in and responding for me Kevin… been one of those crazy busy days and didn’t have internet for a big chunk of the day….
Glad to do so. I haven’t been able to get the situation out of my mind. I told my wife Maria about it as she knows Rustic from my stories about past Dragonsmeets. She had a reaction similar to ours in the recent meet. Surreal, WTF (not Kenneth), righteous anger-type feelings.
Maybe he did out-fence them, and they were ashamed. Rustic was a true believer; perhaps Portalarium and associates are not. I protested by reducing the number of people I follow on my @eightvirtues Twitter account by one. It looks so out of place…”eightvirtues” following only seven people.
My personal loss in this is one less childhood hero. My total now stands at zero. Unfortunate.
You know what sucks most was that after landing the job, he proposed to his fiancee. I assume they both made the move down to Austin, and now could possibly be uprooted again. That’s the bit that saddens me most in this turn of events.
I hope Portalarium bigwigs help line him up with a good job actively and not in the form of a recommendation letter or something impersonal like that.
At what minute mark is the announcement?