As we reach the last third of November, we fast approach the frigid month of December, know for it’s very giving holidays, Christmas and Hanukkah. But, aside from some of our favorite holidays, we think about early December, when Minor Studios is scheduled to release the biggest update in Atmosphir history. “Project Stratosphir” as the team has code-named it will bring Atmosphir to the web browser, and with that brings better graphics, shaders, gravity switches, new blocks, multiplayer, a whole new interface, laser guns, and much, much more.

Tensions are growing as we all await one of the biggest and greatest changes in the over a year that Atmosphir has been in Private Beta. Threads are popping up in many of the section of the forums with countdowns and questions about the release–all I can say is be patient, because Stratosphir will definitely not disappoint.

Seemingly without warning, long time member and head moderator, PizzaBoy deleted his account yesterday. He did not even leave any message for the moderators or users as to why he had deleted his account, and it still seems to be a mystery…

What most to believe the likeliest reason for his account deletion is the New Terms of Service, which states that you should not “modify Atmosphir in any way using non-native code, hacks, third party programs, or anything that changes the game or website in any way from Minor Studios’ original code.” PizzaBoy has a strange passion for hacking, and we assume he was upset that he was not allowed to continue his hobby, and deleted his account so that he would not cause any commotion or corruption from hacking Atmosphir in the future.

This theory seems quite plausible to me, but it seems that PizzaBoy also said to the community under a different account that “the combined stress of several real life events combined with stress from recent events here are becoming difficult for me to handle. Deleting my account was a decision I made to attempt to relieve some of this stress. I may return later this year or early next year depending on how things go. If the state of things in my head does not improve, I may not return. I do not expect to remain a moderator if/when I return. I apologize for any trouble I have caused with this.” [Special thanks to The Atmosphirian for this quote] PizzaBoy’s statement appears to prove the theory wrong. It now seems likely that this is the real reason PizzaBoy deleted his account, not because of the New Terms of Service.

Another Atmosphir moderator has gone today, one by the name of landoralpha. Landor was a great moderator for the Atmosphir Section of the forums, but has officially resigned today because of his inability to be more active. You can read his entire resignation post here. I honestly think it is a very sad thing to see such a valued member of the community, one such as Landor, leave his spot as a moderator. He even says that he will not be active on the forums anymore, which saddens me even more, because Landor was a great guy!

I am truly disappointed that you must leave, landoralpha, but I wish you the best of luck in your outside life. You have made some great contributions to the Atmosphir community, and we will definitely never forget you.

To end on a good note, we recently inducted two new Editorial Staff members, DuffyZeEmu and Swordsman761. They are promising new writers who will hopefully do well in their new position. I would like to say congratulations to my new co-workers, and good luck with those screenshots and reviews!

That is all for today, and I’ll keep you posted on anything new with Atmosphir! Remember, Project Stratosphir is set to launch soon–only about 2 more weeks! I am just as excited as anyone, but we must be patient. Just a little reminder for everyone: Minor Studios will be bringing users in in waves of a few hundred or so at a time. I would assume that the more well-known, forum users will go first, then other users will proceed after them. I don’t know the exact arrangement, so don’t take my word for it, but I believe that will be the probable order.