OK, I realize that this wasn’t sent to me as a letter. Just, with the holidays quickly approaching, I wanted to try to bring that spirit to our little weekly newsletter. It seem that we have a poet in our midst here at MMORPG.com. Our member, Wepps, has brought some holiday cheer to that galaxy far, far away. Personally, I thought the classic “'Twas the Night Before Christmas” needed updating anyway.

'Twas the month before Christmas, when all through the town,
Not a creature was stirring, the servers were down;
The questions were posted in the forums with care,
In the hopes that Thunderheart soon would be there.

The children were playing a whole different game,
While visions of Night Elf chix kept them away;
And Tom in his composite, I in my RIS,
Were debating the plan for today's hunting bliss.

When out on the chat room arose angry chatter,
I sprang to the website to see what's the matter;
Away to the patch notes I flew in a tick,
And barfed up my pancakes, I knew I was sick.

The thread it was ugly with new posted gripes,
I tossed down some Pepto to settle my pipes;
When what to my wondering eyes should appear,
My Ranger was missing, and with all his gear!

"A respec, that's it?" I said in hoarse voice,
I knew in a moment I just had no choice;
More rapid than eagles the Jedi they spawned,
They whistled and shouted, and were instantly pwned.

Now CH, now Carbineer, now Ranger and Doc,
And Pistoleer, Rifleman, Squad Leaders mocked;
To buy a new game, they went off to the mall,
They dashed away, dashed away, dashed away all.

This week, “Off the Boards” is going to focus on what is without a question, the hottest forum topic in the last week: Dark and Light. On December the 8th, NPCube released 10,000 “Settlers of Ganareth” keys. The keys were gone within a rumored 1 minute and 20 seconds. This has led our readers to question or defend everything from the game’s practices where it relates to this prequel, Settlers of Ganareth”, to the game’s features.

It also seems that a good number of people (including people who pre-ordered the game to get a Pioneer Package) expected to be able to get into the game on the 8th, which was not the case.

Below, you will find a sampling of what people are saying:

As you can see from this brief sampling, our readers seem to be up-in-arms about this particular topic. What remains to be seen, is whether or not any of the fears or cynicism about this game have a basis in reality. Only time will tell.

If you would like to contribute to this already busy forum thread,click here.