Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Fresh new Cafe Kong!

As you would all have noticed, the Cafe is in the hands of a new owner; Venzael. Please give him a rousing Cafe style welcome. Venzael brings to the Cafe a fresh new perspective and younger and more vibrant ambiance. It is a sign of great times ahead. I am sure that the Café will continue to grow and will be the defining room of Kongregate’s ethos.

So lets all have a party. A party where we celebrate the new and improved Café.

Before you ask.. No .. I did not abandon Cafe Kong.
One of the reasons I was made a mod was my involvement in rooms that were not very popular or populated, and engage the users there, encouraging them to interact. It has been an ongoing process.

But the more relevant reason for the ownership change is that I believe in the current team at the Cafe. Butterfly623, Nadroj09, Stefan88, PTGmach, Thalarion, Genx (to name a few) and the resident quasi mod.. Doctormarmalade, are capable of maintaining the pleasant ambience of the Cafe. So I feel that I am leaving my baby in safe hands. It is a teary situation.. but I cannot ask for a more dependable team to take care of what I hold so dear to me. If in real life I am asked to put together a team on which my life would depend, without hesitation these would be the names that come to my mind. I have a very close and personal relationship with every one of you. Some of you have defined and reshaped my real life in ways that you cannot even begin to comprehend. Specially Butterfly623. If it was not for her support I might have been committed to the institution of the insane or might have received my last blessings.

Venzael is going to make this room proud. With your support, the room is going to be the biggest room in all of Kongregate. Just watch.

On particular e-mail screamed at me.. "Why Venzael? What about Seniority? What are the other mods; Chopped Liver?"
Well, it helps to remember that the room owners are still a lot lower than the Admins who decide a majority of things like who should own a room. And there are no “Senior” mods. I was asked my opinion and I offered several suggestions, but it finally boiled down to Venzael who I feel is the same caliber of the Café regulars and fits the same “gentle and calm” mod ambience that we expect at the café. There have been some names that I have rejected, even to the point of stating that I would hand in my moderator privileges if they were made the room owners. There was a lot of discussion behind the scenes. This has been a month long process.

So yes.. essentially Venzael was my choice, but it was a choice that does not belittle any of the current moderators of Café Kong, rather seeks to complement them.

As I said before all of the mods in the Cafe are as close to me as I can ever hope in real life so I do not play favorites nor let my personal relationships with other influence my decision.

So now what?
Well I will be in the café as often as I can, while I try my best to make Valhala, The Hall of Odin a worthy competitor to Café Kong. The plans for the website are still active. I will be working very closely with all of Café Kong and The Gibson on several things that we have been discussing. I will try and get The Hall to participate and interact with the café in several things such as contests and such.

Now, I also try to stabilize my life a little bit, earn a living and get back some of my lost dignity.