September 30, 2025

[EMS] 18 years of Rayque!

I hope you've brought your gokiburi hoi hoi plus today, because you should've brought the whole damn isle.
Today is day 6576, the 30th of September - which means I've been playing EMS daily for 18 years now!

As promised in last year's blogpost, I'd like to take the opportunity to continue the evaluation about the state of EMS. In particular, this year is very important historically as it's the point of equilibrium where EMS has been as long under its current management of Nexon US as it has under Nexon EU. The contrast between these two nine year tenures is concerning at times, and while I would love to write a more in-depth post I just don't have enough time for that.

However, what I can do for today's blogpost is to write a concise evaluation that probably communicates the point a lot better than something of the length of last month's blogpost. Besides, a more casual conversation like this might be a good palette cleanser after all that raw data. I can always revisit certain topics that we'll discuss today in a future post. With a more casual approach to this blogpost, I'm also just going to be yapping in a less organized, impromptu matter.

So, I'll just rip the band-aid off by addressing the Shrelephant in the room: EMS has not been performing well under the current management of Nexon US. You'd be hard pressed to find people who would disagree with this statement. 

I do believe this is a well-understood fact, but what is not is how damaging Nexon US and its community has been to EMS. Understandably not the prettiest topic to discuss, but it is unavoidable in today's topic given we'll discuss how little EMS has recovered from the migration purge and why that is. Understand that this topic is nuanced but I'll try my best to write it as best as I can within the week I've given myself. To my surprise, this wasn't the type of blogpost I was expecting to write because I was saving it for an autopsy whenever EMS kicks the bucket - yet here we are.