The last couple of days have been pretty eye-opening here for us at Malevay Studios. We certainly expected some to be unhappy that we were taking a stance on the content stolen from us and how it was being used, but we were genuinely surprised to see the responses. We've heard everything from "You killed your game" and "It's all your fault," to cheers and applause for taking a stand against theft. It's been quite a roller coaster! We knew people enjoyed the opportunity to break the tedium of petting. Petting, it must be stated, was never intended to be a massive chore. It was an option. Regard was never intended to be a measure of a players personal worth, it was a leveling system that capped at 25.

Whats missing from the bigger picture in this instance is perspective. Let's set aside for a moment the fact that the autopetter was manufactured from our own scripts taken from game assets that were, contrary to accusation, NOT full permissions. We will set aside the fact that the reason we took awhile to deliberate was to consider the implications on the unknowing customers of the criminals who purchased the object and who do not deserve punishment or persecution. Most didn't have a clue. The scope of the matter - and in many cases - the truth of the matter, have been lost on people who have reacted to third party information or neglected to read all of our posts in the blog and on the forum over the last month. It's far too time consuming to continue defending this stance against people who possess incorrect or incomplete information. We simply have to move forward for the sake of those who understand that theft, no matter how it's presented, is wrong. We have to hold the ship together for the player who never cared about an autopetter, or the small bonuses petting offered. There are people out there interested in playing the game we intended to make from the beginning. Interested in the story. Interested in the unfolding mysteries, the revealing genetics, the anticipation of new content, the uniqueness of what is in store. It is our right and responsibility to maintain the integrity and construct of this game, our product, the result of 13 months of dedicated work, for those players who are invested in the experience and who are spending their valuable time with us, not simply for the sake of regard or to pet, but to immerse themselves in the world we're building. That is our focus. That is where our loyalties must remain.

This is the result of our collaboration. The amount of work and money spent to bring this to fruition is extraordinary, and we're proud of the Meeroos. We're grateful for the community that has allowed us to share our story with them, and who have joined us on this adventure that we've spent thousands of hours crafting. We're both moved and inspired by the people who given us the privilege and the opportunity to entertain them. We're going to protect that. We're not going to let someone with a spiteful intent damage what we've created, or compromise the trust we have built. The autopetter creators got exactly what they wanted. The evidence is in the following posts. They wanted to manipulate the community in order to exact revenge for having been banned themselves. They wanted to remove control of the game from us and give it to another, using our content as the catalyst. What transpired wasn't fair to this community, as people were fooled into buying something they perceived as legitimate. It wasn't fair to the company, to force us into a corner where there was no possible positive outcome, we either punished innocent people who had, themselves, been victimized, or we redeveloped core features of the game which would have resulted in significant changes making regard useless. At the same time, plenty of people not using an auto petter were seeing an ever increasing disadvantage and directing their anger toward us. Anything we did to resolve this would have made us the bad guy.

And, we were.

And no matter how we tried to individualize our communication to correct misinformation or explain and re-explain, the torches and pitchforks were out and nobody cared to listen, as the drama of it was far to entertaining to care about logic or truth. Se we endured a beating, both personally and corporately, that was undeserved and misdirected. It made us question whether or not this behavior and maligning and those exacting these attacks was worth working for each day. If the three of us were fixated on money rather than creativity, there wouldn't be a second thought. For us, it's about the experience and the achievement of creating something unique and relevant to people. The rewards encompass the results of that achievement. It's about many, many things. Making people happy. Building a healthy community. Witnessing their reactions and seeing them progress and watching their excitement. It's nice to have made it into a business. But if it was only about money or "greed", as has been said, our job would have be much, much easier. And those attacks, accusations, namecalling and lies would all roll right off, because we wouldn't care. But the detractors will never be satisfied will anything we say. Why? Because for them, it's about the money. It's a little ironic isn't it?

I'll be personal for a moment, ladies and gentleman. I don't fancy myself a businesswoman. I like to think I'm a better person than I am a businessperson. The three of us core creators brought unique skillsets to a collaborative endeavor. Levio, to many of you known as Tiger, owns entirely the intellectual rights to the scripts that make the Meeroos work. Our softspoken Chimeric, the brilliant artist, owns the intellectual property right to the textures, artwork and signature aesthetic of the Meeroos. I wear many hats, but primarily as project manager. I also organize our support team, supplement art when necessary, negotiate contract for products we don't have time to make but were in our game plan from the start. We don't do this with each other because we have to. We do this because we enjoy it. It's hard work, it challenging, some days it's absolutely defeating. But we do the best we can.

From 40 days into our game we've dealt with an onslaught of attacks in many forms. From simple cyber thugs, stealing or exploiting whatever they can, to organized crime rings intent on preventing us from operating all the way to your coveted autopetter. This too, was all motivated by one thing: Money.

To be ruthlessly maligned by a community who you expected would support you in standing against malicious activities was a deathblow. Discouraging is an understatement, and in truth, unneeded. I'll say this directly and unapologetically, not a professional but as a person: No one here, not you, not us, is making enough money to justify or excuse vile, heinous attacks some of you have launched. If the issue of regard or an autopetter created from our work and it's consequential removal has pushed you to such an extreme where you react this irrationally, threaten to quit and throw a tantrum, don't expect a fanfare. You won't be missed. There is a misconception in the business industry of Second Life, one that I believe particularly afflicts "breedables" and that is, if one is a paying customer, they can behave anyway they like, mistreat anyone they like, distort things to make them fit their argument. They can lie, cheat and steal. They can come here and laugh at us for having done so. You've seen this. Many of you, yourselves, have seen and reported copybotted Meeroos to me - out in the open and on display for the world to see. An attorney contacted us claiming an individual got in touch with him for a consultation saying they had gotten our scripts full perm and wanted to make a breedable from them. People behave as if accountability is unrequired, and this is a lawless land. Neither is true. Our goal has always been to develop for people.. it breaks or hearts to have to redevelop because of people.

Ultimately, for the sake of honoring our time invested our work and our dedicated community, we're pulling the game back together and moving forward with an optimistic attitude, but we're making some significant changes that will affect the game.

First and most importantly is our revised EULA. This has become much more stringent and much less liberal. Agreeing to it will be required to move forward in the game. You have the right to reject this and stop playing, but it is mandatory you read and understand it, because lack of knowledge is no longer an excuse.

Also, an Autopetter is coming, but not in the way many of your want or expect. This autopetter is FREE, but you have to purchase batteries for it for 100 Lindens. It will last a week on average before the batteries need replenished. We're providing this to our customers in order to placate them because we are putting the Wee-Mee back into development as originally intended. The Wee-Mee will collect your treasures and pet your Meeroos and will require no upkeep. It will be a far superior version of the autopetter.

The Regard cap is being lifted to 35 soon. At this milestone level regard is being stopped. You will not continue to acquire regard once you've hit level 35. It will be hard capped. It will remain this way until we revise regard and input specialization points. I will speak more on this at a later date. We have to do work to restore the value and relevance of regard to the game and player as well as lessen the gap between those that used the original illegal autopetter and those that didn't.

A Genetic update is coming allowing Meeroos to reach back even further into their genetic history. This will reveal new species, coats and eyes.

The Dryad Message ensconced in singing stones will be out this week. A puzzle for you to decipher which will make a major reveal.

And here's the final word, from us to you, those who have sent us supportive, kind and encouraging messages: We're here with you for the long haul. Whether we have 5 or 5,000 people with us on this adventure, our path won't change. We'd rather have five of you with us enjoying what we do, then 5,000 people who don't and make us miserable because of it. We're going to fight to maintain our vision, because, at the end of the day, it is ours. This is our company, our product, our privilege and right to protect it against the things we've seen and we're going to be far more vigilant and lawful to ensure there is never a repeat of events past.