Three weeks had gone by, and the developers of Prince Herald's Unfinished Kingdom had made little progress on reclaiming the connection between their Players' Accounts and their Player's Characters. Over half of the Forums were ablaze with flaming remarks about their ineptitude, while a strong third of the Users seemed content with trying and experiencing Game Content that they themselves had never seen or heard of before.
The News had taken pot-shots at the company after reports of In-Game conflicts arising. Though it was an AO-Rated Game in America, much of the attention had been brought down onto Cross-Tellurian Fault (the creators) for not cracking down on underaged users. This, combined with a lax In-Game Government to crack down on sex crimes and the like was greatly hurting the reputation of the Game.
Charles watched in horror as a Game he had loved so much for such a time began to be ripped apart by the vampires in the media. "Interactive Child-Pornography", "Massively Multiplayer Anarchy", and "The Greatest Threat to our Nation's Youth," were all phrases that had been tacked onto the events that came out of The Kingdom's recent troubles. Lawsuits against the Game's owners and against specific Players had all come to pass, and slowly the money had dwindled in CTF's reserves that there was little way for them to keep the Game going without affecting the cost to the Players.
After a solid Month, Prince Herald's Unfinished Kingdom brought an unexpected end to itself. An incoming asteroid from outer space inside the game world approached the planet, it's mystical and scientific appearance unable to be explained by Players and NPC's alive In-Game. The world slowly came to a crawl, and only the Player characters remained mobile for only a few more minutes longer.
It was during this time that Charles and all his friends got to view the same message as everyone else in The Kingdom, translated into their respective languages some hours before it's recording. Across everyone'd PDA, nearest TV set, Mystical Portal, or whatever viewing space any Character had, each of the Players were granted a look behind the scenes that they had never known.
The image, which was 2D, 3D, hazy, or booming depending on the Character's 'viewer', was of the head of a wolf-man's face. He spoke in a calm and caring voice, his brownish golden eyes housing human-like bags under them. His fur was a medium gray, and his hair was short and spiky behind his head. Black canine lips curled back as he began to speak a message that could have brought down the end of the world.
"You may not know me, Players of The Kingdom, but I know each of you very well. You are my friends, my neighbors, my allies, and my enemies. You have experienced with me the rises and falls of wars, lands, yourselves, and your fellow Players. We are all like family, and I hold you each in high regard," the cool, male-sounding voice spoke.
"It is with a heavy heart that I must proclaim my Kingdom… our Kingdom is going on a forced hiatus," the canine face sighed. "I know that many of you are unhappy with the recent turn of events after an unfortunate hacking incident one month ago today. Some of you took the hit and changed your outlook and your views, and otherwise of you house a deep-seeded anger towards those in charge over the response that life-altering event.
"Please know that we here at the Cross-Tellurian Fault know what an impact this has made on each of you… perhaps better than you do. But we cannot please the Playerbase much as we cannot please the Media or your respective real world Governments unless we take definitive action," the face looked away from each Player for a moment, and then looked back. "This Kingdom may have come from my mind, but it would not exist without all of you… and it is with this thought I must proclaim this following message.
"Players of The Kingdom, we need your help. Inside and Outside of the Kingdom, our world is coming to impending doom. The 'anarchy in the streets' is now. If you wish to keep your experience true and pure for The Kingdom, then you must take responsibility for what you want. It is you who will make the final choice of if The Kingdom rises above it's plight, or falls and is crushed by the incoming meteor henceforth known as 'Doubt'.
"The Kingdom will fade away in one hour, but it will not be gone forever if you do not want it. From you, we need donations to help fend our way through the incoming lawsuits. We know our laws, we know your laws, and we know we can fight this… it is merely a question of being able to keep the fires burning while our funds are sucked away into this landslide of negative attention.
"More importantly, we require your In-Game assistance. For every Player that spends fifty hours a month playing the part of any kind of Law Enforcement for The Kingdom, you subscription will be free. If you spend over 100-Hours a month contributing, then we will repay you at first with In-Game Items, Bonus Time, and perhaps more as we get back onto our feet.
"For everyone, the last and most dramatic blow is this: We will have to temporarily raise the costs of subscription each month to twenty-five dollars. Our hope is that when the litigation is done and we are found in favor-of that we will be able to repay you all back what is owed you," the canine face looked each Player in the eye. "All we can promise you is our Word in that regard… our Word that we will do everything in our power to repay you," it said.
"In conclusion, I am asking you to take up arms in this fight. Keep watch on the boards as we will have big news for you this weekend. Our goal is to relaunch the game under the new terms in one week's time, on Friday. Your current game-time will roll over to then, or you may cancel and have your funds pro-rated back to you," he nodded.
"Good luck, and I wish you well… with your continued support, we will persevere. This is our chance to shine… and if you believe in our cause, now is the time to bring friends and allies in with you. Three Free Months to anyone who buys a new Total Immersion Suit or sanctioned third-party full-immersion interface. The more we can get seeing The Kingdom in a positive light, the more feedback we can receive, and more Players we can get, the better our chances," the canine face said with a motion that would have been a bow if the head wasn't just floating there. "Good Fight. Good Night," he said, and faded away.
Charles, his friends, and easily the entire Kingdom, erupted into conversation for the hour they were all still together. The NPC's had all faded away, the meteor (showin in the store-front TV's on the news as being called 'Doubt') loomed fiery in the night's sky. Power shut down across cities, black mist covered the fantasy plains, and coldness fell both to the seas and to space. There was an awful since of foreboding through The Kingdom.
But for Charles, he would not give up. He would play on, he would take up the Law Enforcement if he could find the time to… he loved this Game, and he knew many others did as well. It would not go quietly into this long dark night. The fight was his, and he would have it. He knew then his purpose was to gather 'forces' and fight this end.
In the next week, a mandate was put forth. Players who wanted to keep their borrowed characters and had gained at least twenty levels with them, or logged over two hundred hours with them, would be granted the ability to keep them on a per-character basis. Furthermore, with the help of the Players, the developers would use an honor system to help recombine Players with their long-lost characters. Claiming a character as their own by name and additional information would be doable if no one disputed it and preferably if additional Players could be contacted to back it up.
All accounts would regain the ability to make New Characters, and the existing eight-character limit on an account would be raised to ten. Any characters a Player no longer wanted would be removed from their account. The whole effort was as close to a full-game restart as possible without everyone loosing everything.
That coming Thursday, Cross-Tellurian Fault informed the Players that the money they saved not from running the servers for a week, along with donations, meant PHUK would be back online Friday at midnight as planned… and that the efforts of the Players and the Moderators together was a sense of community that was unmatched. In Thursday's Afternoon, a waiting line was formed for the Three point Two Gigabyte patch for Friday's relaunch.
Among all this positive, the only hinderance were the few accounts that had been reported as being owned by Underage Users. A process was set up to gain parental permission from each of those Users as best as could be done, and a restating of PHUK as an AO-Game. The safeguards regarding sexual situations were improved around NPC's, and a few Players were invited into the first wave of Law Enforcement for the Kingdom who were labeled as 'Enforcers' appropriately, though many of their Guilds called themselves other things.
The moment of truth came on morning of Friday, the first day off for many children from school for the summer (as it was with Charles). It was then, that the Game continue, and it was a whole new world to partake.
The Kingdom was back Online.