I hate to go and leave this pretty sight.

[netbug009]

Nakama TCG Is Now Closed.

Closing Nakama is one of the hardest things I've had to do in a long time, and I probably put it off longer than I should have. With college, life, stress, and the holes in my leadership skill set, I've been hearing my common sense tell me that I can't keep running this for much longer and have ignored it as much as possible. But eventually, it started to become obvious how run down the TCG was getting and how it either needed a massive dedication of time or to be put to rest. Sadly, I can only do the later right now. 

Nakama was the only active TCG to my knowledge that allowed western cartoons and comics, and that alone makes this hard as a huge animation fan. But the worst part is knowing about all the other people who enjoy Nakama and all the work everyone has put into it. No matter how much I tell myself "This is a game and other things need to come first" I still feel like I've let you guys down. And myself down - there are so many things I still wanted to do as a mod and so many decks I still wanted to master as a player!

I hate seeing TCGs close, and while I didn't found Nakama originally, it feels like my baby. Running it has been a massive learning experience filled with challenges, great people, and fun. Even though I'm sad now, and I'm sure I'm not the only one, I feel more like a part of the TCG community than ever and look forward to at least being a player in other great games for a long time to come. And maybe someday I'll at least be able to run a small website TCG for western animation because seriously, I love anime and all but I really enjoyed collecting ponies. 

If anybody is interested in running Nakama, has some experience as a mod working with FTP and MyTCG, and doesn't mind that it's a fixer upper, please PM me. 

Thank you so much to every mod, past and present, for making this run last as long as it did. Thank you for running fun games. Thank you for making gorgeous cards. Thank you for putting up with the antics of a first-time owner who really tossed herself into the fray without nearly the technical knowledge many of you guys have. <3

Thank you to all the players who breathed life into this community, had fun, and made it so hard to shut it down and I'm sorry I couldn't have made the experience last for years to come. I hope you all hold onto those lovely mass badges and have good memories of your time here. :)

If you haven't already, I highly recommend joining pairings_tcg  or colors_tcg  to fill the void! They're both wonderful and have aspects that inspired Nakama. 

Comments

[sal]

I don't know where I should say this, so I think it'll put it here. If anyone is interested in running Nakama and is looking for help running any of the services, I would be very willing and happy to help out if you'd like me to! I have a lot of free time and if there's anything I can do to prevent this TCG from closing down for good then I'd be interested. I've had a lot of fun here, and I know my friends have too and probably other players have as well. Unfortunately, I have no experience working with FTP and MyTCG and even if I did I don't think I'd be able take over the TCG, but I could help out with being in charge of services on the DreamWidth community if asked to.

I have had a lot of fun playing at Nakama, and I was more excited over it than usual because the recent deck release featured decks of so many series I love and enjoy. Thank you to the mods and players here, it is thanks to everyone here that I've been able to have so much fun playing here!

[beccastareyes]

I know the backend stuff (FTP and MyTCG), but I really don't have the organizational and people skills to manage a project like this. But if we find someone willing to handle the 'making sure everything gets done/decks get made/services get updated', I can do the physical updating of the website/uploading things.

[aruyera]

I could offer to make sure everything gets done/updated!

[beccastareyes]

We could speak to Netbug regarding the number of duties the admins would have and see if we could divide them along the front-end/dealing with mods and players and back-end/keeping the site working lines.

[aruyera]

That sounds good. Hopefully it'll all work out well.

[sal]

I wish I could volunteer myself for this but unfortunately I don’t think I would be up for it, either. I think I would lack the people skills, too, and for that reason I would worry about the possibility of disappointing other players here at Nakama if I were to take up such a position. If anyone else would be willing to take this role, though, I would still be very willing to help out with the services if any help is needed. I do have a lot of free time, so I could make sure to update any service(s) assigned to me at least twice a day as long as said services don’t involve the making of graphics because I’m not really good at that kind of thing. Ackkk this isn’t much of me to offer, and I wish I had more to offer because I really want Nakama to be able to stay open somehow, all of the people I’ve talked to today who are also players here have been very sad about the news of it closing down and if there’s any way I could prevent that and help it stay open I would be all for it but. Let me know if you’re able to find anyone who would be willing to handle everything you’ve mentioned here and if you’re in need of help running and keeping the services updated, I’ll do everything I can with those. Thank you for being willing to do the phsyical updating of the website and uploading things, I’ve been having a lot of fun at Nakama and it makes me happy to see there are others who want it to stay open too.

[beccastareyes]

You're welcome. And, yeah, being able to coordinate a staff of mods seems to be the sticking point here, since as hard as our dear admin worked, she can't do it all on her own.

[sal]

I think so, too! It would probably be a good idea to make a post to the staff community and check in with the current moderators and deck makers and see who is willing to stay on the staff team and with which tasks and duties they would be willing to keep up with. That way, it'll be possible to make sure each of the services would have someone to handle and keep up with them, and you'll be able to make sure there would be enough deck makers to make decks, if not it would always be possible to search for more? But if Nakama were to reopen, it would be very important to make sure everything was being handled by someone so the game will be able to run quickly and smoothly and be fun for everyone again.

[yuugiri]

Just a head's up here, you guys.

Kiss, Shannon, and I already quit before the closing, and I'm not sure if Emma is still on board or not, so you will more than likely have to find new staff members before reopening.

[sal]

Thank you for the heads up! I didn't know that so many of the staff members had already quit before the closing happened, and with that in mind I do think that Nakama would need to recruit more staff members before reopening, too. About that, though.. I'm not sure if there would be enough interest in becoming part of the staff here and interest from players in general to continue being active and participating in the game. When I originally commented here and wanted to offer to help Nakama if possible, I had no idea that so many had already quit and/or lost interest in the game but now that I do have a better idea I'm starting to realize that even if it were to reopen there might not be enough interest and activity to keep it going.

Anyway, thank you, Kiss, Shannon, Emma and all of the other moderators/deckmakers/players here at Nakama for making this game so much fun for me! I wish it could've lasted longer, but I'll still see all of you around at other TCGs at least. \o/ I've had a fun time here!