Well, it has been quite while since many of you probably even thought about me or the Shadow Ørder clan but if you're reading this then it probably means you're at least curious what's going on. Even while working on this, I've had multiple people notice without me even trying, so I figured I'd update y'all on the basics of it.
The backstory
Ever since I decided to disband the clan, I always wanted to keep the server around and even jump in with you guys every now and then, however I was using that server for free after doing someone a favor and he eventually shut down all of his servers so I lost it in the aftermath of all that. At the time I didn't really think paying monthly for a server made a lot of sense with how much activity we did or didn't have, so I just let it be. Since that decision, I've hopped in on other servers here and there but I really missed having my own home server to come back to.
The Return
A few weeks ago I decided I would bring back the server for as long as I can afford to keep it alive. I restored all of the maps and mods I (believe) we had on there. It still runs my OpenJK fork, same damages. The server config was the only thing I actually had backed up, so I had to hunt down the rest of the pk3s and redo the bots and all that, and I think it's all back to normal.
So! If you are itching to play some JKA and want to visit SØ once again, it's there. There is a page on this website with the server IP, but you can also always use /connect so.jk3.in just like before. I'm the only one with admin privileges right now, but voting is still open of course, so you can change things as you want without rcon.
If you'd like to donate to the costs of the server, that would be awesome too. I rent it from AsuTech.io, so the price is listed there, I pay around $60 every 6 months. You can donate via PayPal at this link if you are interested in that.
Does that mean Shadow Order is back?
No. Well, not really. I put some feelers out regarding interest in coming back, and nobody I asked was interested in the clan part, but a few would be fine with an event here or there. So for now, it's just a server, and I might plan a small event or reach out on Discord to see if anyone wants to hop on together.
Would I like SØ to return? Absolutely. I think as all of us get older, the less time we have for gaming in general, so running a clan in an old game (or even a new game) is a lot to ask. I'm still in charge of JKHub and regularly am in the JKCommunity Discord, so I never left JKA. In fact a lot of my JKA focus that I had in SØ when into JKHub more and we did a big revamp a couple years ago and I interviewed the JK2 developers, and did a few contests. JKA is still alive out there!
I think if we ever came back it would end up being super casual with 0 pressure. Just a group you can call your own, hop in the server occasionally, meet in other games if desired, but not worry about being too active or climbing the ranks. Just having a clan tag and calling a group your own as a special feeling, y'know?
I did seriously consider going all out again to bring it back, starting with this new website design. However the more I thought about it the more I figured I probably shouldn't, unless I had a ton of help, which I don't think I could get in the ways that would genuinely benefit running it all. Running a clan in this game in 2022 essentially means you have to run it like a business with a ton of social communications and planning which is a lot to deal with, and essentially becomes a part time job with 0 profit.
I do plan to use this clan in future games if we ever get another Star Wars game that has some kind of built in clan system or good social system to play together easier, and I may use it even for ones that don't, but if that ends up being a thing, I'll post about it.
So those are my rambling thoughts, of course they could all change. They've changed a lot even within the last week. I go back and forth on the clan a lot.
Feel free to comment below (you can login with Discord) or discuss in the Discord server itself. I'm not expecting anyone to flood the server immediately or to start a JKA revival, I just missed having a server, and I know many of you did as well. 🧡
