Members of Massassi, JKHub, and anyone who has ever played Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2, this is a message for all of you.

I understand this may be considerably longer a post than you guys are used to - but I ask that you please read through the whole thing, as a JK player you may find it applies more to you than you initially assumed.

I'm going to get to the point. Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 has continued to decline year after year. Although it picked up in 04/05, JK's life is rapidly coming to an end. It has become increasingly difficult to locate players at any given time for games, and after a short period of long lost JK players returning to observe and participate in the action, JK is all but a dead game with an only mildly active community of a few dozen players.

This cannot continue and I will stop at no end to prevent the total elimination from the Internet of JK's player and editing community of individuals.

My call is to those of you who believe JK was and is more than just a game.
Better than any other game in the history of computer games.

The BEST GAME EVER.

A game that is unmatched in it's grandiose and extensive history. A game that had and continues to have massive potential. A game that served as a platform for tens of hundreds of players around the world to meet together. A game that you and I played throughout years of your childhood or adulthood. A game that holds indescribable memories of pure fun.

My call is to each and every one of you who has met irreplaceable Internet friends through the game. To those of you who still hold JK in high regard. To those who hold JK in your heart as a part of indescribable emotions.

JK is our game.

This is our time.

The time for each and every one of us to join together in final games of Jedi Knight. The time for us to reunite with old JK friends. The time for us to play JK once more with players we haven't played in months. years...

The time for us to finish this the way it should be finished. Each one of us left the JK world or reduced our game play as the result of something. Perhaps it was because it seemed like all the friends you met playing JK were no longer playing. Or perhaps it just wasn't exciting anymore. Perhaps JK just got too 'old' for you.

The way I see it?

There has been simply too big a decline in active JK players.

A year ago I couldn't imagine ever quitting JK. Now as I write this, it seems an inevitable reality. 9 Years - the game stays the same, the people stay the same, your life continues to change and at a certain point, JK no longer has a role in your life and thus a chapter in your life ends, without your realizing it.

Think about what we have, guys. We have a huge collection of Mods and Maps and other cool new modifications. We have a handful of people who continue to make Maps and Mods, we have pioneer editors like ZeqMacaw who continue to make JK editing breakthroughs and continue work on large scale projects like JKLauncher and we have Shred who has nearly completed a fantastic mod that will upgrade the graphical appearence of all models, among other things in Jedi Knight. Projects like these will help bring about a community revival, hopefully. These people still believe in Jedi Knight.


Most of you probably know who this is. For those who don't, I am EAH_XxHeReTiKxX, most likely known to you all as ReT. No doubt some of you continue to hold me in low regard after the Fall 2005 incidents. All I can do is apologize, and hope that we can all move on. It should be known that it has been a considerable amount of time since any reckless behavior on my part, and I'm not in any way presenting an excuse for my obviously reprehensible actions, and I just want to say that I have no intention of ever restarting what I chose to end a long time ago.

The reason I'm here is to find those who still believe in JK, and hopefully set into motion a revival of sorts in JK - even if just for a few months. Even if only 20 people came back to the JK community for games and chat and other fun, I would be happy. At least I would know that I had done all I could.

We all have something in common - we all once played Jedi Knight at one point, or in some cases, a few of us still do play on occasion or even actively. Jedi Knight is how I found this site. Jedi Knight is why Massassi was created in the first place. Jedi Knight is probably why most of us are here in the first place.

So come on guys, let's do this.

Those of you who still hate me, hate the sort of community that comes with JK, or no longer have any desire to play JK again for whatever reason, please keep your thoughts to yourself. JK still means something to me, and I think it means something to other people, too, I hope.

I am aware of a general resentment of zoners because of their bizarre and vulgar behavior at times. Don't let this prevent you from playing JK with the community that's left.

One more thing. Although I run http://jkdf2.net, the largest remaining Jedi Knight portal, it's hardly any sort of "attempt at controlling the JK community". I pay nearly $500 a year to run the web server for a 9 year old game. I think that's more than most of us can say. I don't believe the JK community is under the control of any one person, nor is that my intended goal. My intended goal is simply to get JK players to join together and play, because I think we can all agree that's what the game is about. If you guys don't like what's going down on the forums or on IRC, then make your own IRC channel or your own site! I don't care, I just want people to play again. My second concern is keeping the JK community united, but I understand that simply is only possible to a certain extent.

So what can you do? I have a few ideas. What people do is up to them. Again, I'm not trying to dictate any one's actions, just simply trying to get them to play JK again.

• http://jkdf2.net - #1 site for most things JK. The JK community has seen a huge revival and at least 35+ JK players visit a day to check out the site, and participate in discussion on the forums. I'm not asking you to register, but hopefully if you like what you see and it stirrs up a desire to participate in a once great community again, you'll register and start posting on the forums.
  
  
• irc.enterthegame.com #narshaddaa - The Jedi Knight community IRC channel, where people gather each day to chat and participate in games. Let's say you drop by and perhaps nobody is actively playing games. Don't moan about it, stick around and host games whenever you can get a chance! Stuff like this encourages gaming and reminds people why they are sticking around for a 9 year old game. Don't let a lack of activity or an apparent disinterest in gaming discourage you. JK has survived on people who disregard the bad stuff and do their best to further develop the good.
  
  
• http://jkhub.net - The Great JK Editing Site. I'm sure most of you know about this site because it's hosted here on Massassi, but I remind everyone that it is home to all kinds of JK editing and some great projects. Maybe some of you have less of a desire to play than you do to edit. That's cool, it's still participating in JK, so it's all good.
  
  
• http://jkdf2.net/?global=info - The Jedi Knight Dedicated Server (JKDS). Hosted by JKDF2.net, The JKDS is still running 24/7 after nearly a year and a half of providing a place for JK players to play JK whenever they want. With cool stuff like Hamachi support and constant status reports of games on the server shown at http://jkdf2.net/?global=gamecentral, it's truly one of the best places to play JK. So if you want to simply play a game with people, check this out. To join a game, just put "jk.servegame.com" without the quotes into the TCP/IP IP address box when joining a game. For more details, go to http://jkdf2.net/?global=info.

So that's it. Even if this post is met with negative thoughts or opinions, at least I will have tried.

Want to talk to me? Want to scream at me? Drop me an email at eah.heretik@gmail.com

Long Live Jedi Knight.

- EAH_XxHeReTiKxX

I'm not reading all that.

*Goes back to playing FEAR*

And cue "Blah blah blah, all thing must come to pass, blah etc."

Hi ReT.

Hi ReT. I'd love for JK to make a comeback too, but I don't think it'll happen. But I'm just a naysayer, so let those who truly believe in this project come forth and try to revive it.

Take this energy and fight for something worthwhile, please.

I'd play JK until the end of time if it had a more modern netcode. If I combined all of my hours of playing JK, I'll bet I spent about a year of my life in that game. However, it's not the graphics that are killing the game, it's the netcode, in my opinion. There are too many games out there now where I get 30-60 ping and don't have to worry about people warping all over the place. Good luck, but I doubt I'd play more than a few games of JK, and mainly only NF CTF if I did.

I'd definately still play if I could ever find a game.

Mmmm... JK making a comeback would be great. It'd need to be freeware or re-released or theres no way were getting new players. Has anyone noticed that noone participated for the buildmap contest?

It's been a while Ret. I'm glad to see people are still interested in JK. I need to make time for some games.

my hamster still plays JK on his pocket calculator.

Poor little scamp.

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

Despite the 100 dollar reward.

I'm still into playing and editing JK. I just haven't had any time for it at all, lately. I can't wait to have a little more free time on my hands so I can continue working on my projects and getting people into the games.

That is what suprised me the most.
Sad it is...

Hi ret.

No one cares.

Continue being a script kiddie.

Contest? What contest?

LOL ROFL!

I'm sorry but your post was ungodly long. You really need to get away from JK forever. Yeah, it was a good game. The best game in history? Can't say. HL has probably had a larger community with more successful mods and has contributed more to gaming as a whole. $500 on web hosting for JK? A waste, perhaps? I want to know exactly what $500 gets you.

You are such a loser.

ReT? Weren't you banned?

I'd rather prefer proper endings for Leeza's Destiny and Tales of a Mercenary.

Or just some another grand spanking AKPiggott level extravaganza for some game.

This coming from a guy who spent months trying to bring down the massassi servers with childish hacks and "denial-of-service" click fests. Give me a break, you are no longer welcome at this site, and you know it. So if you truly have changed, you'll leave and never come back without us having to continue banning you.

Yeah, revealing your identity was probobly a bad idea

I say we give the guy a break. After all, he provided that dedicated server that we all had fun with awhile ago.

I didn't.

The game is old.

It was ugly when it was brand new.

The engine is a giant pile of hacks.

It's even worse now.

Get over it.

A break for continuously attempting to take Massassi down? Sorry, but that's not something you just "forgive and forget". Especially since it's straight up illegal.

Why is he not banned then?

If there was like a Barons Hed RPG day I'd so come back

JEDI KNIGHT IS DEAD. QUIT TRYING TO MAKE IT COME BACK AS AN UGLY ZOMBIE LOOKING THING.

JK is pretty much dead. It's had it's little revivals now and then, but it's not going anywhere. You should focus your energy on a newer game with a real audience.

I still don't get what happened.
Ret what pissed you off so much and what exactly did you do?

Welcome to ignore.

* As he read the post, a massive surge of emotion filled his body. Memories of playing Jedi Knight again flooded his memory, epic lightsaber duels, gun fights, love, loss, all of it. Then he remembered he was 21, and didn't give a crap anymore. Then he went and ate a Muffin. The End.

Hes got a point.
Can someone tell me why im on Anovisis ignore now? His quote just had a dot so it makes it hard to figure out how i pissed him off.

Um, it was a good game. Great for it's time. But not the best game ever. Eloquent, I admire your enthusiasm but JK is dead, long dead.

You didn't realize that you are on numerous people's ignore list?

Yep, I hate to say it but I agree with the consensus here. The JKDS is rarely used anymore. I think I could make better use of my extra hardware and bandwidth hosting some other game.

But who knows- maybe Lucasarts could license JK to nintendo, xbox, or sony for online play thru their next generation consoles - I heard the original doom is running on xbox360 live.

The next JK game is already in the works. There was a Force power concept video floating around on the net a few months ago. Sige is working for LEC, doing shader and effects work for it.

Well yes. But what pushed Anovis over the edge?

[QUOTE=Cool Matty]A break for continuously attempting to take Massassi down? Sorry, but that's not something you just "forgive and forget". Especially since it's straight up illegal.[/QUOTE]


True, but how much of that happened recently? People can change.