Stardock Alpha Prime, owned by Abraxus, is to close its doors due to a number of reasons. Follows is a statement made by Abraxus on his website.
Well, it’s been a long time coming and, unfortunately, the time has finally arrived.
It’s time to close the docking bays at Stardock Alpha-Prime.
There are many reasons behind the closing, but I will give you a few of the biggest.
First, my PC is dying. I get an average of 3 BSOD’s* per day. Something is going on in my PC that isn’t quite right and I don’t know how to fix it. In addition, my poor PC simply can’t keep up with the super-beast PC’s out there. It’s only a 533mhz and it’s quite slow most of the time.
It doesn’t help that this is my only PC. When the kids (or I) want to play a game, this is the one they (or I) play it on. That just slows down both the game they (or I) play and TW.
Secondly, I’m moving. I currently have a great ISP, Everest, but they don’t service where I am moving. That makes my only real options Southwestern Bell DSL or dial-up. Neither one is a good option for running a TW game server.
Third, I can no longer afford it. $40/month isn’t too bad for a good cable connection, but I’m not getting $40 worth of value out of it and I don’t really have that $40 to spare. Finances are getting tight in my household, and the needs come before the wants. I want to run a TW games server. I need to feed my family. In addition, I don’t have $1,000 for a new PC to bring it up to par.
Finally, the maker of the game server, John Pritchett as EIS, has basically handed over control of customer service to a moron. Gypsy has the customer service skills of a yak. To him, there are 2 ways something can be done: His way or the wrong way. He has shown that he has no regard for the customer or their opinions and doesn’t care that most of what he says is full of inconsistencies and half-truths.
I don’t have the desire to deal with that type of idiot during my free time.
It would be wrong of me not to thank a few people, however. There are many good people in the TW universe. There are players, SysOps, webmasters, and more that give freely, and ask for nothing in return. I would like to publicly thank some of those people who have helped me make Stardock Alpha-Prime a great place to play:
- Aitvo
- Eleq
- Timberwolf
- Traveler
- Bonz
- Vid Kid
- Stonewall
- Fuseblown
- Elric
If there are any I’ve forgotten, please forgive me.
If I ever decide to bring Stardock Alpha-Prime back to life, I’ll make it known and would invite anyone to come visit a while. It’s been an interesting experience, and I thank you for your contributions to making it so!
The games will remain up until 5/1/2002, as will the website.
Thank you,
Morgan Erickson – Abraxus
* BSOD = Blue Screen Of Death
Abraxus is a good man and his absence will be felt. I wish Abraxus the best of luck and agree with him on many of his points including this one: Gypsy is a moron, all right 🙂
