Meeroos Gone!

Oh man! It looks like every Meeroo on the Grid for Open Beta has wandered away! Don't worry, nothing is wrong. Well, not too wrong. As Catherine writes on their Blog: "...we left on our "Beta End!" switch that told the database to set Meeroos to the wild beginning today. Many people coming online today will find that their Meeroos have all returned to the wild with their families." She goes on to be very candid and forthcoming with this explanation and apology: "I'll be completely honest with you, this was our mistake. Please note, it was NOT our intention for it to happen this way, and we deeply apologize for the suddenness of it. We understand how shocking and confusing it was for many of you Meeroo Parents. Although our intention was to have them vanish to the wild, we wanted to provide you adequate time to say your good-byes and prepare for the inevitable." So it was just an accident.

I have to admit I was a bit worried when I got the offlines! I understand, these things happen, no big deal. It's Open Beta and we have known we were going to loose these little guys eventually. It is a bit jarring; which it is obvious Team Meeroos understands from the blog post. There is also an indicator of just how quickly endearing these Meeroos can be: I miss them already. I don't like that they are gone, and I want them back. How can they not be an amazing breedable if I feel this level of loss knowing they will be replaced on Monday? And yes, they will be replaced on Monday, May 2nd 2011, with updated versions!

I've read through the changes they are making for Mondays release, and it looks good. Some of the most mentioned topics I saw on the Forums are in there, including my personal favourite:

>> Meeroos petting distance increased! No more having to chase!

and the rest:

>> The Seasons displaying ---- has been being removed and replaced with text better indicating a Meeroo's status. 

>> Breeding time has been shortened once again. They'll be mature at 5 days old, and will have entered their first season by 7 days old.

>> Fix for Fellowship set Meeroos who are hopping around stumps set to fellowship stumps belonging to another member. "Home hoppers" as i like to call them!

>> No more spam! Every time a region would restart all the Meeroos would IM or email their offline owner to say they're going for a wander! We've reduced how often Meeroos contact a user.

I don't see any info about changing anything appearance related, so I would expect everything to look pretty much the same after the Monday release. I am pleased about that as I think everything looks amazing as it is. I am in the "big fan of the HUD" camp, so I hope it hangs around in something similar to its current form for awhile.

Fellowships and Regard will NOT be reset on Monday. So you will still be in your current Fellowship and your Regard will also remain intact. In fact it appears that you can continue to answer Oracle questions during this time and accumulate extra Regard while the Meeroos are away.

So, panic over. Everything is all right with Meeroo kind, well except that nobody has any Meeroos. It is going to be a long wait until Monday. I'll try to keep busy, maybe a little scripting, update my Meeroo finder a bit so it'll sort the list alphabetically [Don't fret, it will always be free]. Maybe read a book or two. But I'll make time, and perhaps some of you will do the same, to say a belated good bye to: Smeego, Minni, Lope, Blonk, Jimp and the single un-named Meeroo. I wish you well in the wild. Come visit home some time.