DarkMoonEnigma
Virtualsense Official
Staff member
Moderator
Community & Media Manager
Virtualsense Media Team
VCAT Team Member
Anhithe (Ant), Kendra, Pusherman and I had already been friends for many years, so we were not strangers, but rather well-ensconced in Entropia Universe with a fine-tuned pulse on the EU community. It was now our chance to take what we had learned over the years as players, and me more a media entity, and put into practice what we knew we could do as a team.
We wanted to build our community from the ground up, and that meant a serious focus on the things that mattered most. The new player experience needed attention, we developed our Community Initiatives Program (CIP) and got the community involved, and after a while, we knew we needed to do a bit of reconstruction with the 3 craters and some subtle changes to the underground. Many changes took place over the years on Monria including naming daily mission NPCs after community members and creating them in the likeness of their avatars, and naming our mob armors after community members (Malgar/Shoggoth, Oberon/Yog, Pinthas/Cultist, and Shade/Shub). It's important to us that we recognize community members that are making significant contributions toward us achieving our goals, which is also why Ant created the Virtualsense Volunteer Outfit as a personal thank you from him and awards it to those who have gone above and beyond.
We had our first event on Dec 31, 2015 which was an impromptu New Years Eve Party, we had our first main event on Jan 20, 2016 (West Crater Cultist Event), we had our first Valentine's Day Event in Feb 2016 and then our first annual St Patrick's Day Event in Mar 2016, which is our biggest event of the year. As with everything else, we have certainly evolved over the years with our events, and always looking to improve them for maximum fun and experience.
On Aug 19, 2020 we added Planet Toulan to our virtual family, and then became the Virtualsense Team. It was then that the domains were clearly defined. Ant and Kendra work mostly behind the scenes on development and marketing, and my domain is community, media and forum administration. Ant and Kendra used to be able to spend quite a bit of time with us in the game, and it's always crazy fun, but after adding Toulan to our virtual family, then DSEC-9 with the June 2021 VU, time became limited.
Along the way, we also developed Official Storyline and Quarterly Magazines, then started to merge storyline between Monria and Toulan, and now developing the connection between Monria, Toulan and DSEC-9. You can learn a lot about all 3 locations via our media offerings, but also from Ant's lead-in storylines by reviewing the quarterly VU Release Notes. There are also 3 exclusive interviews with Ant in the quarterly magazines that give insight into his mindset and basic plans. With the new addition to the DSEC-9 map being added with the upcoming VU, there may be a 4th ... we like to share the methods to his madness.
Even after 6 years together as a team and what we have accomplished already, I think it's safe to say that we're still just getting started and there's much more to come. It's important for us to work in partnership with the community because it helps define what direction we need to go to elevate your experiences with us. It's also why we ask that you post your Suggestions and Feedback for all 3 locations to give us an idea of what's working, what's not working, and what you'd like to see.
I want to give a personal thank you to my VS teammates for an amazing 6 years, and I am very much looking forward to even greater things as we evolve with our development and phenomenal community. I also want to give a personal thank you to the awesome community teams I work with on a daily basis and for the immense support you and the rest of the community give, because your continued contributions are what really make a difference, you guys are the real heroes here.
Come out tomorrow (Sat, Nov 27th) at Monria to help celebrate our VS Team 6 Year Anniversary Event.
Happy Anniversary !
