Surely this will succeed.

I like it. Also I really like this game and really like you as the game's creator. Not to dick ride or anything but you seem pretty awesome.

Was wondering, whats the history of the game and the timeline? I've only been at it a couple/few weeks and was curious. Looks like an initial launch with old EQ sprites/zones and then a big downtime with a bunch of changes?

Thanks bro, yeah I really want to make some great products and I don't plan to stop any time soon. I already have tentative plans for future games, but I want to flesh out Nevergrind first. I appreciate the dick riding as it actually helps keep me going! Knowing that people notice and care helps keep me motivated. A lot of developers with more talent than me just fizzle out and simply can't deliver a full-stack product.

So it just started out as a game with no server-side code at all. Just a small project that was kind of like an EverQuest fan game. I draw a lot of inspiration from EverQuest due to its potency as limitless nostalgia fuel. So I tried to make a fun little browser version of EverQuest and I also got a lot of inspiration from Progress Quest. Seeing such a simple game operate in the browser triggered a lot of ideas in my mind.

Then one day I decided to post it to Kongregate having no idea what to expect. To my surprise it triggered a traffic spike that actually caused my web host to unplug me (sound/music files were draining a ton of resources). It was back up within 24 hours, but my web host made me DELETE all of the audio files (lol, as if I couldn't just re-upload them?). Anyhow, I ended up upgrading from shared hosting to a VPS, which I've been on ever since.

Now I find myself considering upgrading to a dedicated hosting solution since it has actually started to make enough money to cover recurring web hosting costs. Dedicated hosting can get expensive and costs anywhere from $80-$100 a month. But it's totally worth it because it gives you limitless control over your server. This would be really important if I implemented a "real" chat solution like websockets. I could easily implement a cheesy chat system using polling at intervals, but that's not as good solution if you start to get a lot of concurrent users.

When I upgraded to a VPS solution I also decided to hire artists, which appears to have worked. I had to learn a lot of stuff on the fly, so I made a lot of mistakes, but I think I am positioned well to make very cool stuff in the future.

Thats awesome, man. Could easily see this place catching on. Really enjoy how you handle your microtransactions, as well. No one seems to get that right.

I mean the game is cool and I can see a nice expanded future on it, but your interactions with the players and personality really stand out.

I mean maybe I'm just jaded from years of gaming with dbags, so all of that with a grain of salt ya know.

What if I can't login to Ragefire either but already signed up? Can I get some of those juicy free crystals?

Multiple email accounts, of course!