Our Spring event for 2019 has reached capacity, and we no longer have any open slots for new registrations. Anyone interested in attending that event should write to staff@portkatherine.com to be placed on a waiting list (we released between 5 and 15 people off the waiting list at our events last year, so don’t feel like the waiting list means you won’t make it!).
That’s the main announcement, but before I move on, I wanted to take a moment to say: wow.
Last year, when our first event hit its cap, I made a comment about how doing so had left me a bit humbled and stunned by the overwhelmingly positive response to this LARP I had created with some friends. Early on, the community took my ideas and made them their own, expanded on them, and they made Kithira and Port Katherine a real place, a place people wanted to experience. And we hit cap, and I was in awe. To be honest, I did not expect to then (this is why we had no policies in place - sorry!), and I really did not expect to now.
Today feels, if anything, more shocking. It’s hard to stay at cap. The first game’s attendance is inevitably partially driven by marketing and imagined versions of the game that we could not possibly live up to. Over the passage of time, as people realize that the version of Port Katherine they had in their heads is not the version we had in ours, it’s unsurprising that players would drift away. And we have seen some of that attrition, though I dearly miss every one of the players who gave us a chance and decided it was not for them.
So to have hit cap again leaves me incredibly surprised and happy and amazed. Over the past year, I have tried to show you the first pieces of my vision for this world, and you have overwhelmed me with the depth and warmth and radiance of your own vision. Together, we have set about building a place that people want to live in, a place that people want to call home, and that outpouring of love has made this game belong more to its players than to me, and it fills me with joy that I get to put my name at the bottom of this post and say that I am its Game Director.
We have hit cap this time not because of my efforts to build hype, or because of the natural desire for people to want to get in on the ground floor of a new game, or because of anything I did. We have hit cap this time because of what you did: you’ve welcomed new people, told your friends about this game, and made a community that people want to return to.
So thank you. Thank you for an amazing first year. Thank you for the year to come. And thank you for continuing to be an incredible part of what makes Port Katherine a special place. I hope I can continue to meet the high standard you expect for me as your Game Director, and I know that together, we will continue to tell some amazing stories.
Thank you again,
Brian Misamore
Game Director, Port Katherine