I have decided to make a statement since there have been a lot of questions.
First of all, all I have towards Tupac is gratitude for all he did for me and for Warcraft 2 players. Both of us put incredible amounts of time and energy into creating a place for W2 players to enjoy themselves playing the best game ever. We had 6 fantastic years of fun times and lost count of how many new players tried out Warcraft 2 over that time, although, as life goes, the majority moved on to other things. No one is perfect, not him or me, but I saw immense dedication and hard work, respectful discourse, concern for human beings, and a strong desire to protect his server's players and give them the best playing experience possible, paying for upgraded hardware for a very well-functioning and stable server. He was always available for tech support and helped many, many people with computer issues of all kinds. He spent lot of hard-earned money for the maintenance of War2USA across those 6 years.
That being said, Tupac has my full 100% support to close War2USA for any reason, as no one is entitled to a man's money and time, except maybe his own real life family. A man has a right to do what he wants with his time and money, and I thank Tupac times a million, for the incredible 6 years of good times we had because of his hard work and how selflessly he gave of himself to everyone who wanted to play W2.
With the Warcraft 2 Remastered adding a 4th Warcraft 2 server to the 3 previously in existence, the small player base the game had was spread too thin. It became harder to get games going since many or most of us, including Tupac and myself, purchased the W2 Remaster edition to experience it. Tupac wanted to shut down USA when news of a Remaster came out and wanted us all to go play at Remaster, but after realizing Remaster was sorely lacking, was willing to keep it going out of love for the community he'd created a private W2 playground for. Once the remaster was released and the population was split again, I realized he was right and that USA was no longer sustainable.
Neither I nor him wanted to fight the new tide (of darkness lol) of a significantly reduced player base because of the release of a new server.
We each may have other personal reasons on top of the obvious one, such as wanting to put more time into real life things than video games, and the truth is, running a server and leading a community and keeping it energized and vibrant and active takes a lot of effort and time.
I am so happy for having had the War2USA experience and for all the people I met and the great games that were had.
If there are hard feelings from anyone towards Tupac or myself over the closure of USA, it's very understandable. There have been some feelings of betrayal expressed, and I will say that I am very sorry to those who felt that, and that it was never in my heart to cause those kinds of feelings (ie. by me logging on to ru while pondering the future of Warcraft 2). Whether he perceives it or not, I am loyal to Tupac and will defend him based on my own experience with him. That's not to say I endorse his every word and action, ofc not, but the person I experienced is a caring, devoted, hard-working, friendly, fun-loving individual and employed family man. Those who have experienced another side of him have surely provoked him first. Healthy men also have a lot of fight in them and can be like mother bears when their cubs are threatened. If I'm alive 20 years from now I'll still remember Tupac as someone who made my life better and who helped a lot of people.
People are human and everyone is going through their own personal things that they usually keep to themselves.
A number of people who were real dicks to people on W2 wrote on forum later about how bad their life is, whether is was being homeless or jobless or having cancer or other hardships. We never know what people are going through, which is why I've been a proponent of kindness and grace, because humanity sure needs it.
For people who still want to play Warcraft 2, there are only less-than-ideal options, though.
GOG: broken garbage, missing basic features
RU: most people have had very negative, unenjoyable past experiences, although I heard from ru admin team that they are wanting to improve conditions (esp. for new players)
Remaster: great UC and gameplay sort of works, but missing basic features
(USA: population split with remaster, no longer an option)
I know there are some who are thinking "Why are you posting here, retard bitch, go f*@#ing die!"
I'm saving you the trouble of replying as I have your petitions on file. We'll give you a call if I choose to go with your application.
As for me, my W2 heart is still a prisoner of the past. No W2 experience can top the memories and gaming quality in terms of enjoyability for me personally from USA server's peak. Which is why I'm inclined to go down with the ship.
Although I have been contacted by very respectful and kind ambassador of RU admin team telling me RU is better than it was and that they want to provide a user-friendly experience including for new players and I should come lead it.
