I spent a large amount of time working this season out, in the early fall. I had every week planned out and I knew exactly how I wanted it to work. Unfortunately all these ideas went down the tubes and nearly 3/4's of my original game plan, never surfaced. I had to constantly adapt and work around the inactives and their impact on the game. Some of these changes came in mid-December when I finally tired to salvage what was left of the game - I expelled the three remaining inactives and merged the tribes early. While merging them early a new player was introduced via a competition - Chock Dee won the new player but voted not to keep him (for it cost them one player to receive this new player). Trying to work this out, I gave the new player a chance anyways and in a very suprising move, I put him/her in Sanuk, to bring their tribe up to five 'active players' (remember, all the inactives were on their tribe so they lost three people in one night). With even playing ground, Sanuk and Chock Dee 'pseudo-merged' with five players each but still had to compete against each other (hence the term 'pseudo-merge'). Again, this was not an original game plan but it was the most logical plan to follow, in light of these changes. At this point it was almost the holiday season so we broke for vacation and had a return date of January 8th. Things were looking up for the game now because nobody was inactive.

Well, over the Christmas season, it seemed the game was just dying out, even if it didn't appear that way on the outside. Deep down, there was a feeling that the game was going to meet its' end very soon. I returned on Wednesday of last week (January 8th) with an important message for the tribes. On Thursday (Day 43), they would return to compete in their first challenge of the year. What happened that night? Only four players showed up. And since then, I have yet to see a couple. My predictions were correct - survivor-webcam 3.0 was a lost cause and it had to be meet a swift and unfortunate end.

Am I annoyed? You better believe I am. What boggles my mind, more than anything is how every inactive player got passed the Elimination Round but when it came time to play, essentially walked away. The five of you screwed this game up for everyone else and now the consequence of that, is the fact that I have to cancel it.

JR, you did not sign online once during that first week - yet a month later, you came on and had the audacity to say "Oops".

Richie, you came into this game as a strong player, yet when push came to shove you blocked your entire tribe. Sure, it generated a lot of humour around the community but you didn't even have the balls to let me know you were stepping down.

Molly, the brickwall that you are - If you are going to give off the fake impression that you are psyched to play a game, save it for drama class. You may have fooled me into thinking you were excited to play that first week, but I caught on. I knew you never had any intention of playing and like our friend Rich, you didn't even have the balls to let me know.

Chris K. - I'll have to say, your ignorant statement, two weeks ago, took home the award for worse excuse ever. First you have your "mom" tell your tribemates that you are grounded (when in reality, your mom wasn't even on your computer, let alone signed-in, under your name). Then, you expect us to believe that the person signed onto your computer, is your mom. What mom signs onto AIM, under their son's screen name, not only once, but almost on a daily basis? This excuse has to be the most ridiculous and elaborate one, in the history of online games. You obviously did not think before you lied because none of what you said, made any logical sense. What I find most entertaining is when you messaged me after Christmas - Your first question: "Am I still in the game?" And the other one: "Does the audience still like me?" I really, really had to restrain myself from not bursting into hysterics.

Alana - It's been discovered that you pulled the same stunt as Richie. Very original.

So my biggest question is - Why did none of you had the balls to fess up? Was this just some quick way to get your name out there? Did you use this game to become known in the community? Well, you certainly got 'known' in the community but your actions will now shine a negative light on each of you. i'm not going to go around speaking bad things about any of you because that is not the kind of person I am.

The whole point of this statement was to let people know my level of frustration and to justify the exact reasons, why I made the decision I made. I have gone on being quiet long enough and it is about time I said what I needed to say. I hope it enlightens and sheds some light on why this season was slow.

Now, I have saved the best part for last - My Thank-You's:

The Active Ones (you know who you are) - You stuck with this game to the very bitter end. Your dedication towards this game was the best part and my gratitude extends beyond these mere words. Despite facing so much turmoil with the inactive cast, you came through and played this game the best way you could. I had strong feelings about this season which is why I did everything in my power to let it go on so I apologize that my efforts were not enough to keep it going. Our final wrap-party on Thursday night was fun even though it was a bittersweet way to end the game off.

You have all supported my decision 100% and that means a lot to me, more than anything. I believe that each of you could have kicked ass but now all we're left with, is but a thought in our minds - wondering how it all would have played out - I know I am.

I'll finish off by saying welcome to the SW Posse - as former players, you are now part of the Survivor-Webcam Alumni, so congratulations! I am 100% certain that this is not the last I will see of you guys and it certainly won't be the last you see of me, because you 'will' get that chance you deserve. It's been a pleasure hosting for you guys!

The Viewers - You stuck with this game, through its' high and lows and believe me, we had considerable more lows than we had highs, in 3.0. I hope that this experience (our first bad season) does not impact your interest in this game or shed too negative a light on the survivor-webcam concept as a whole. Without any of you, we would not be where we are and a lot of this game's success can be directly attributed to all of you. I look forward to meeting new faces in the year ahead as our community continues to grow. Thanks for supporting the game!

My Staff - What can I say? We tried to revive this season by trying different things but none of them worked. I want to thank Sebastian for creating the most eye-stimulating flash graphics for this website - I really appreciate it. You are the flash master and I hope I can hire you again for future websites. Joey, (aka JR from the Online Show) - you put on a great, entertaining show and I am sad to see it come to an end so soon but I really appreciate the work you did. I hope you will still stick around for future games! Michael and Sebastian (again), thanks for the work you did on criticising this group of players. You did a great job and I hope you can do even more criticising for 4.0, perhaps? I really appreciate the insight both of you offered. And finally, Andy (aka DeputyAndy) - Thanks for keeping an eye on the forums. You are a crazy kid with a crazy icon - I know we will see you lurking around sw even more in the future, now that you have been promoted to Forum Administrator! Good job, TrooperGoomba!

In Closing...

Some of you may be seeing this as an end to the survivor-webcam legacy. Truth is, I'm not done hosting and survivor-webcam is far from dead. One bad season out of three is nothing to be worried about, on the grander scheme of things. I still have things I want to do this year - I want to make 4.0 the Ultimate game with the Ultimate cast. I want the bad taste of 3.0 to disappear over the next couple months and I want to start with a clean slate. Our one-year anniversary is approaching and that makes things very exciting around here, not only for myself but for the alumni as well. This year you will see the return of survivor-webcam with 4.0 in March and this Summer, you will witness the most-anticipated game of the year - Survivor:Webcam 5.0 "The Battle Of The Seasons". And, new projects will take the survivor-webcam franchise to new levels. The end of the road for survivor-webcam is a far ways away so I invite all of you back, starting this Spring! If you think you have what it takes to make survivor-webcam 4.0, the Ultimate season, apply beginning January 16th!

Until 4.0, this is Rob signing off from survivor-webcam 3.0.