It was fragmenting my market. It had to be done.

*thumbs up*

Also, there's this:

SEO benefits of switching to https/SSL

There are benefits to this than I even realized.

/weep

And we get 1 crystal for every level we had on a character on local.. right.. right!?!

I think this is causing more people to sign up for accounts. I've had 16 accounts created today which is kind of high for a normal day at 3:30 p.m.

Local mode might have had a bad impact on longevity of stay, people could play on local, realize they wasted their time because real game is server side and just quit. Imagine playing for hours and then you get the message "All your past efforts are null, kthxbai!"

In some cases, that's possible. Le growing pains.

When I first started playing, I played a shadow knight (abysmally slow levelling mind you, was at like 150 dps at level 30?) without even realising there was a server mode. So I felt those hours were indeed wasted, but for me at least, the concept was intriguing enough to plug along anyway. Having one unified mode is better I think.

Now don't get me wrong, I usually prefer for games to have a single player version, but being browser based, I think the portability of characters, and the additional ability for you to be able to fix them if there's a problem, is a big enough reason to have it server-based.

This wasn't a game that you installed from a disc that you bought at the game store, it's a game literally played in a browser. I think internet connection is implied here, and it's not a particularly taxing game insofar as internet speed is concerned. You could probably play it on dial-up with little worry. Internet stability is a different matter of course.