Dear fellow Pirates, bloggers and blog readers,
Well it's that time of year again: the leaves have fallen, the snow is beginning to come down for some of us and the stores have long since set up their Christmas and Hanukkah displays. Yep, it's Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving has always been important to me, not just because it symbolizes the bountiful harvest (and great comfort food!), but because it's also about giving thanks for that harvest. And while Thanksgiving is almost exclusively an American holiday, it's appropriate for all of us around the world.
Thanksgiving has always been important to me, not just because it symbolizes the bountiful harvest (and great comfort food!), but because it's also about giving thanks for that harvest. And while Thanksgiving is almost exclusively an American holiday, it's appropriate for all of us around the world.
The harvest is a year-long process. In the winter, seeds are prepared and stored. In spring they are planted and nurtured carefully. By summer they've grown into beautiful plants with budding flowers, and by autumn they're ready to bear their pumpkins, corn, beans and squash. Animals raised in the spring and sustained in the summer for consumption are also rounded up and give their lives to sustain someone else's life- a noble sacrifice, indeed. By Thanksgiving time, the benefits of a year's work are finally enjoyed. Many things could have gone wrong over the course of the year, but in reality the negatives were far outweighed by the positives.
My year-long experience with Pirate101 has been much the same way as this year-long harvest as we make our way past the 1-year milestone for the game. Much has changed as we watched the game bud and bloom into an amazing experience. In autumn we received the game and rejoiced after much testing and waiting. In winter we waited out the few updates and finished our side quests as KingsIsle only improved bugs here and there and secretly worked hard behind the scenes. In spring we saw the game blossom as Marleybone and Aquila went live, and in summer we enjoyed the continued growth of the game with Ryan the Relentless and Class-themed Housing. So here we are in autumn again, finding ourselves thankful for a whole year of fun experiences and hoping for many more to come.
My year-long experience with Pirate101 has been much the same way as this year-long harvest as we make our way past the 1-year milestone for the game. Much has changed as we watched the game bud and bloom into an amazing experience. In autumn we received the game and rejoiced after much testing and waiting. In winter we waited out the few updates and finished our side quests as KingsIsle only improved bugs here and there and secretly worked hard behind the scenes. In spring we saw the game blossom as Marleybone and Aquila went live, and in summer we enjoyed the continued growth of the game with Ryan the Relentless and Class-themed Housing. So here we are in autumn again, finding ourselves thankful for a whole year of fun experiences and hoping for many more to come.
We all have our own individual things and experiences that we can be thankful about, too! I started this site not knowing where it would end up. After struggling and failing with a previous attempt at a fansite, I decided to simply follow my heart and interests instead of push so hard for something that might burn me out in a few months' time. It turned out to be the best decision ever. While I'm not focused on one aspect of the game, like PvP or Housing, I've been overjoyed at seeing the interest in my site anyway.
While my site is still very small and I have a long way to go if I ever want to be an official fansite, I enjoy keeping up with it and writing blog posts- and that's the most important thing to me. I'm also extremely grateful for all the people who have supported me and helped signal-boost my site and its content.
Friendships over the internet continue to amaze me. Even if we have never seen what another person looks, talks or acts like, humans can maintain connections with other people across the internet and make the other side of the world seem like it's just next door. My friends and I all have different schedules and busy real-world lives and we don't always see each other in-game, but we remain close and know we can still laugh together, be there to support each other and celebrate friendship facilitated simply by an online game.
Thank you to KingsIsle, Pirate101, Twitter, Pirate101 Central, Weebly and all my amazing internet friends for an incredible year of Pirating. While it's not every day that we get to sit down with our families, eat good food that was grown with patience and care and think back on all the things we are happy to have in our lives, I hope we spend many more years together and continue to be thankful for our bountiful harvest all year round.
Sincerely,
Beatriz Abbott
& Commodore Chucklesworth
While my site is still very small and I have a long way to go if I ever want to be an official fansite, I enjoy keeping up with it and writing blog posts- and that's the most important thing to me. I'm also extremely grateful for all the people who have supported me and helped signal-boost my site and its content.
Friendships over the internet continue to amaze me. Even if we have never seen what another person looks, talks or acts like, humans can maintain connections with other people across the internet and make the other side of the world seem like it's just next door. My friends and I all have different schedules and busy real-world lives and we don't always see each other in-game, but we remain close and know we can still laugh together, be there to support each other and celebrate friendship facilitated simply by an online game.
Thank you to KingsIsle, Pirate101, Twitter, Pirate101 Central, Weebly and all my amazing internet friends for an incredible year of Pirating. While it's not every day that we get to sit down with our families, eat good food that was grown with patience and care and think back on all the things we are happy to have in our lives, I hope we spend many more years together and continue to be thankful for our bountiful harvest all year round.
Sincerely,
Beatriz Abbott
& Commodore Chucklesworth
PS- if you haven't done so already, please click the Pirate Gold below to claim a free Autumn Eyepatch and up to 5000 gold!