Roughly four years ago, I launched an online, text-based role-playing game derived from some ideas me and a friend had after watching the Matrix. The setting had so much potential that was totally left unused and with some tweaking, we were sure that we could create an interesting setting for such a game. We were right. Even though activity has been ebbing and flooding during this time, in total, there are well above 800 logged sessions in the archive. This is an extraordinary amount of text sparked by the collective creativity of a small and ever-changing group of dedicated players.
Since I moved to Taiwan, though, I’ve gradually decreased my involvement in the game and left most of the plot devising to the other players (I was never a traditional game master as such, but I had some key elements of the overall plot on my consciousness). I played sporadically last autumn, but interest and motivation dwindled not only for me, but for the other players as well. Even though the story is far from completed, we have now decided to close down the game officially. In order to do so, a short note and a short piece of concluding fiction have been posted about it on the official website, which from now on can be found here (the wiki will be there for a long time, so it’s safer to refer to that address rather than to the Antioch main page).
Antioch has meant much to me during these years, not only when it comes to creative writing. I have found some new friends, I’ve had a lot of fun and I’ve learnt much. After personally participating in 250 sessions in the beginning of 2008, I wrote something about what Antioch means to me and most of it still holds true. Even though Antioch is now dead, some elements will live on through me and through the other players. As you might know, I’m in the process of writing a novel which is heavily based on my view of Antioch and some of its characters. It will contain the end of it all as I wanted to have it, although adopted to another medium. Strangely, I don’t feel sad about leaving this big project, because I know that the best parts will prevail and that other things will fill the empty spaces left by the fall of Antioch.
