Withdrawal Poll

[Doug R.]

Withdrawal = compulsive checking of the game, unable to perform daily tasks as usual without Cantr, mental fogginess, etc.
Missing your characters isn't really withdrawal.

I'm going to try to compile some downtime statistics. If anyone knows the dates of past downtimes and are bored, please post them here. User statistics only go back to 1200 or so, so don't bother going back further than that.

So far, I have:

August 25th (3061) -> August 28th (3 days) -Dead raised
June 1st (2985) --> June 9th, 2010 (8 days) -Characters illegally killed/password fishing (possibly unrelated)
May 18th (2972) --> May 22nd (4 days) -Server migration

[kronos]

I feel somewhat relieved to be free of Cantr and FTO for my assignments...but...the desire to RP...grows...

[curious]

I check the holding screen compulsively..!
Right there in the tab where the game usually is...

I found it easier to quit smoking... but then i just started up again anyway.
It was better when i didn't know how close you were getting to having it back up... but have been growing my fingernails in preparation for the last few days.

*stares vacantly into the ether*

[Indigo]

I recently was healed from withdrawal symptoms, nothing better than RL to heal you from that, and set a more realistic vision of what it's really important and what not.

Before that, I must admit that I had a severe withdrawal while the downtime on Jun 2010... It lasted until the game came back.

[kronos]

Pretty sure Cantr is up there in importance

[FrankieLeonie]

I was on vacation when the game was brought down, so it wasn't until going back to work last week that I really felt it. Now I don't know what to do with my spare minutes at work :S

[Piscator]

Well, I can't remember being compulsive about playing the game a year or so, so I guess that counts as zero, but I do get the feeling that something's missing since a couple of days, which is more than I had during the previous downtimes.

[viktor]

i find myself still snarly, i put >9 but i hafta wonder... is it withdrawl symptoms making me grouchy now or just the fact that i don't have the ability to vent through an appropriate char

[Tripkan]

In the last five days, I've forgotten to check on the status of Cantr on three of them. When I'm idle Cantr is still floating around in the back of my mind but withdrawal is over. 7 seemed to be the magic number for me.

[nateflory]

i find myself still snarly, i put >9 but i hafta wonder... is it withdrawl symptoms making me grouchy now or just the fact that i don't have the ability to vent through an appropriate char

you know, that's entirely the cause of my withdraw symptoms (or what I'm telling myself is!)...
The ability to have my really irritating character vent and mentally release some RL stress via in-character ranting... it's cathartic, truly. Bring back the Green screen!!

[SekoETC]

I've occasionally been checking the site, but not compulsively. Feels like I wouldn't really care if it didn't come back at all. Sure, I'd most likely end up losing most of my social network, and I have noticed fading of communications when there's no events to discuss, but I guess I'd find something else to fill the void. I wonder how many of the characters I used to care about or find interesting won't wake up when the game comes back just because people lost interest or don't have their emails up to date. I suspect people will get some sort of an email when the game is back up, but a bunch of people will have expired emails in the database, they'll go on assuming the game is still down and their characters will sleep themselves to death without the players never finding out they had woke up.

[EchoMan]

I will never fade!

It will never fade!

Real life sucks!

My characters have way better lives than I will veer get, so how could I?

(My spare time is more or less dedicated to get a new and improved Cantr on it's feet. That's a hell of a thrill too)

[SumBum]

Not sure how many days into the downtime it happened. Probably when the explanation that it was due to a hacker and the game would be down long-term. I kept the char list screen open on a tab at home so I could look at my char names (kinda like looking at photos of your friends ), then took a screen shot of it so I could close the tab but haven't looked at it since. Still check the forum often at work but I haven't bothered to look at the main page for the game. I figure it will be announced here or emailed when it's back online, so I'm not stressing out over it nor constantly clicking on the main page with my breath held.

As for withdrawal symptoms, I think the worst for me is trying to figure out how I used to spend my time. lol I should be taking advantage of my chance to be productive but I haven't had the motivation. Morrowind has been filling the void but I'm starting to get tired of the constant run-around quests, plus I realized I was obsessively geeking out over my char's stats/leveling and am trying to step back a little.

[mojomuppet]

I'm to the point if I walked away I would have some really good stories to tell about how I once played this game called Cantr and pulled this off and got killed trying to pull that off. I hope when it comes back that feeling fades.

It started with not checking the forums first thing, then not getting on irc first thing, now I might or might not turn my msn on. Its just kinda rolled down hill from there.

[Snickie]

I feel like I could leave the game now, but it'd be difficult to get over mentally, especially when suddenly I start learning things in class and have all this extra time. Half of my conversations would be Cantr-related—"Oh yeah! It's just like that time on Cantr, when…"—and spazzing over it would follow. But then after some weeks I'd be able to converse normally again and stop thinking obsessively about Cantr (though I'd still think of it wistfully). I'd have to completely disconnect myself from all forms of Cantr, though, including the forums in order to make it as painless as possible in the long run.

But I still compulsively check the forums even during school (only when nothing's happening in class, which has been occurring a lot lately), especially the "Cantr not working? Check here first!" thread, looking for an update saying it's back online, or PMs with the like, but I'm mostly always disappointed…

My best friend IRL thinks I'm crazy and obsessed. Which I am. My mom agrees. I agree. So here is my one last request before I am reduced to the tedium of homework:

I can has Cantr back please?