Behind the Fang Episode 4 - The Source Speaks on Progeny

• 05/07/2015

• Lachiel Vaher

• Good evening vampires, this is the voice of The Source, Lachiel.
• It has been awhile since I last spoken to you and there's been a lot of issues in real life that have caused my long silence. *Although, I have been in constant contact with the Arch vampires and Diabolics during my quiet time, which I will explain shortly.
• I was planning on putting out a normal episode of Behind the Fang this weekend, depending on the availability of guests for my beloved format. However, upon logging into the forums this morning I noticed a post called “Is Progeny Dying?”.
• Is Progeny dying as a result of lack of new updates in the system?
• Lack of news pertaining to magazine, lycan, slayer classes.
• Lack of any new activities stuck in beta for four years.
• Introduction of new and more engaging system.
• Too many meetings?
• Too many cheaters?
• Why are you still in progeny?
• You like the RP?
• You enjoy the community?
• You still have hope for the system
• You don't want to forfeit it your status and inventories
• You enjoying meetings and political bureaucracy?
• You enjoy feeding on citizens?
• Well, when I first read this post I was a little annoyed and upset but it doesn't matter. I was going to write a reply and then I thought I would instead respond with a vocal podcast easy to do and more fun. So, just a quick response. It doesn't matter. If you like Progeny play it. If you don't like progeny, leave it. There are other options out there. Nobody's holding a gun to anybody's head to enjoy the system I designed it to be open, fun and free and it is. I am adding new elements, but I am one guy as he has time to do so.
• What's going on with me why have I been so quiet? The source has not been present except for over the last two days in about two or three months. That has to do with both the nature of Progeny and what it means to me as well as the effects of Real Life on me. Is progeny dying? Well, as long as I'm breathing and sucking down air, no it's not because I will keep developing it. While we've said this, even if there is only one person playing in the system or even if no people are playing the system I will continue to build on it and develop on it because this is something I do as a hobby. I enjoy it. It gives me decompression time away from the trials and tribulations of real life. Some people shop. Some people create artwork. Some people socialize, dance, explore. I like to build things. I like to solve mental problems For progeny is my own time and I enjoy doing it. That said I made a decision early on progeny would and always will be free. I don't mean everything is free. What I mean is, everything you need to play the system is free. The HUD is free. You need to be invited but that's not exactly hard to accomplish these days. You get the HUD for free. Anything that is necessary such as potency etc, is free. Things that are optional, generally speaking, have a cost and that offsets the cost of operating the system. I'm certainly not laughing my way off to the bank. At best progeny might buy me a couple of hamburgers a month at the moment. Even if I applied myself 100% of the time, 12 hours a day for the next two or three months and got everything developed that is on my plate currently I might double the revenue of progeny which still not pay my bills for full-time. It's not likely anytime in the near future that I will be able to make progeny my full-time job as much as I would love too.
• Instead, I have taken a full-time job with a software development company in my home city of Cincinnati. Moved back home after after 11 years abroad and started a new job. In January I moved halfway across the country and February 2nd I started my new position. For about a month or half,two months I have been extremely busy learning the new job. Software development I can do, their internal proprietary framework, that was a mystery. Had to learn it. I had to learn how to do my job so I can keep up revenue coming in to feed my family, to keep a roof over my head and to keep this progeny thing going. That's why I have been gone. That's why nobody has heard much from me. I have been in constant contact with the arch vampires and the Diabolics. The Diabolics have me on a instant voice messaging system that allows them to contact me no matter where I am or what I'm doing. It might take a few hours to get to me, but I get it and then I am able to respond when there's an emergency such as the server crashing a few weeks ago.
• Anyway, I been busy in real life trying to keep things going. Let's get back to the topic. "Is Progeny Dying?" I don't think so. We have currently, as of last check and this was about a week ago, 3600 active players or active vampires. How many of those are actually active people and how many are actually alts? I'm not 100% sure but I think a majority of those are active players. At least 20% are active personalities I'm familiar with and then the others at least 40% that are fairly new people that are keeping quiet and haven't quite joined the upper echelons of power or sought at any form of advancement yet. They're just not coming to my attention just yet. There's probably a few alts out there and my alt detection system periodically pings up warnings, but I won’t generally take up any action until I have solid believable evidence that this alt belongs to this person. Even then as long as they're not causing too much trouble I may not take too much action. The system's not going away. The system is growing. The community growing. We have lost old players and we have gained new players. Really the question is do you want to stay or do you want to go? That's a valid question. There are many things about the progeny system that is wonderful. I think the community and the drama that plays out in the various councils that people complain about are one of the best parts of the system. Lot of people who read vampire novels see that a great deal of the drama that does play out in this sort of forum is very appropriate to what we are trying to create here.
• I am a little sad that my little SLARP initiative sort of fell by the wayside while I've been quiet. I'd hope that the people who I have pulled together on that particular task force might be able to make progress in my absence, however that's fine. We just didn't make enough platform groundwork for them to really keep rolling in my absence. Other things have been rolling along well in my absence such as arch conclave and the marshals and the advocates and inquisition. Development of this internal complaint handling system as well as role-playing subsystems have been developed quite nicely in my absence and that makes me very happy because now that I am back to work on the system I am developing again there's much less distractions for me having to mediate disputes and things like that.
• If you want to stay great I am happy to have you. I think I have built a great community with the help of all my diabolic family and friends in the vampire community. We have created something very special here. If you enjoy political vampire roleplay we are here. If you want to just feel like a real vampire here in Second Life that is what progeny is all about. I think it achieves that goal quite nicely. Yes,there are things we have been waiting for. Yes, there are things that we want. As long as I am the only active programmer, the only active developer, we are kind of limited to what time I have to devote to it. I try to devote as much time as I possibly can, but sometimes real life gets in the way of that.
• The current things I'm working on, if you're interested, the new vampire framework which is also the framework for all the other species has been a major priority and whenever in last few months I've had time to do any work it has been working on that. I'm trying to fix a lot of the problems we've had with a HUD. Such as, it locking up when the server goes down for an extended period of time to the point that you have to get a new HUD to get working again. This has been a vexing problem I have been trying to solve for months. I think I've finally found a solution It has to do with a state lock happening in one of the subscripts. Another thing I've been working on is the heart element that allows for the combat system components to be introduced. This is necessary for all the other races and adds new features to the vampire system. There's many elements of the new system but it is a complex entity and its departure from the current vampire framework. It is quite different and is quite expensive but it is much more efficient. I'm hoping it will be a much better combat platform as we start to introduce those elements. I've been working on the new blood bank model that Lhino(Lhinovanion Helcaraxe - Greater Diabolic) created. This will allow vampires to purchase their own vampire blood bank to put in their own home or castle or crypt, wherever they want so that people do not have to come to the sim.
• This is an argument that can be made. Sim traffic is way down. The new system introduced by Lhino and Tasha (Tasha Helcaraxe - Greater Diabolic) has much more activity on it's sim. People are not coming to the progeny sim as much. That's fine. I don't run a mall. I don't run any kind of traffic driven enterprise. It doesn't matter to me if a lot of people are coming to the sim or not. It's great if they do but if they don't it doesn't bother me. If sim traffic drops to nothing then I can save $400 a month in fees that I'm paying just to keep it going. I maintain the sim so that there is a central place for people to get the support that they need for progeny. If you have an issue or you need new equipment or you need to use the blood bank and you don't have a clan you need somewhere to go.
• I don't see the progeny sim going anywhere anytime in the near future. I don't see the progeny community decreasing in size. It seems to be growing rapidly. I'm about to introduce several new clans and I may be introducing a new diabolic and possibly a new Bloodline or two in the near future. We are growing. We are moving forward and we do lose people. It's never happy to see somebody go but a lot of people who do leave, come back.
• This is been a voice in the source and I will return shortly with a new episode of Behind the Fang, a much more happy and upbeat one. This time I just really wanted to share with you guys was what been going on with me and why I've been absent apparently for so long. Have a great night and a wonderful vampire life.

• Lachiel Vaher - The Source & Progeny Vampire Creator