Happy New Year!

The end of the year is always a good opportunity to have a great deal of fun, but it's also the time of reviews, recapitulations, and new plans and goals. In the past year, we successfully finalised a few large projects, the most significant being introducing a new website and the long-awaited Ankrahmun rework. Admittedly, you had to exercise an abundance of patience - the more reason to be glad that the final results were eventually met mostly with enthusiasm and enjoyment. The past year was also the witness to our highest number of online players so far. We hope to break this record yet in the future, because despite our great pride in what we've accomplished and built together with all of you, we still believe that the heyday of Tibiantis is yet to come!



It has also been the third year in a row to hold the record for the highest number of cheating-related bans. On the one hand, we take pride in this fact, because it shows that despite facing the more and more elaborate and skilful means of cheating, we continue to maintain our efficiency in their detection. On the other hand though, we cannot shake the feeling that behind each of almost a thousand account numbers we banned last year is a player who'd have happily found their place amongst us, had they changed their motivation a little. This would also contribute to breaking the online records. This feeling doesn't shake our firm attitude against cheating though, but maybe it will dissuade someone from their wicked intentions? Please do not forget that even a tiniest act of unsporting behaviour is still cheating. Each fish caught using a macro, each second played on two characters simultaneously - they all can contribute to the new record number of bans. We sometimes face opinions that our approach is too radical, but we're certain that many of you witnessed games lose their entertaining value or their general purpose altogether - including the one whose name we'll refrain from mentioning ;) - and this is something we all have to keep in mind.

Another reason we're mentioning this is that it determines our further plans. The hoped-for game or website updates are by all means very important, but they're only a fraction of what we do. That part of our job that is less conspicuous costs as much effort - but we often abstain from sharing information on it, assuming that some plans best unfurl in silence. This time, however, we'd like to make a little exception. Introducing new methods of eliminating cheaters and improving the overall stability have always been our top priorities. In these areas we managed to progress greatly in the past year, but we intend on taking it to a whole new level in 2023 - we're calling in the big guns. :)

This is not, however, the limit of our plans! Since we announced to release a large content update per year, there's going to be one in 2023 as well. The details will be revealed in due time, especially that the game already - and still! - holds so much that is yet to be uncovered. But we are making note of this as a reminder that the development of the game's content continues, and we have very specific plans for the future. Although we prefer the term "expansion" since the goal of the updates is not to evolve into something completely different but to provide a breath of fresh air and a bit of variety to the old good nostalgic "7.4". Paradoxical as it may sound, expect the year 2023 to bring you news and updates of nostalgia and reminiscence!

Your Tibiantis Online Team