Alright everyone, so I've finally received some news of one of her friends!! They said, (and I'm quoting them here:)
"I'm sure Ali will be happy to hear people are interested in her work. She just moved to another city & is well...I will forward your message to her..."
so I hope to hear from them soon? I told them to let me know once my message was delivered to her. I'll keep you guys updated, but if the friend is to be believed, she seems okay right now, which is a relief!!
A relief, but also arguably makes things worse, as it means that there's no reason to keep ghosting everyone. Seriously, it's going to be a year soon. No job would allow you to go MIA for so long. (And yes, as people paid money, I do consider this to be a job)
I sincerely hope that she sorts things out and manages to finish the project, even if not all that was planned will make it in. As someone said elsewhere, something is better than nothing.
I mean, there was never really a reason to ghost anyone to begin with. No matter what was happening, she could've taken a few minutes to just write two sentences to let everybody know what the deal with the game was. A big update with explanations and apologies, while nice, honestly isn't necessary. People just need something, like you said, and the sooner the better.
And while there may not be anything going on with her now, there definitely was at some point—health and family issues were mentioned in another thread. What I'm guessing happened, is that she got overwhelmed by these things and didn't post anything due to that, and now she likely feels too anxious to communicate at all since it's been so long (similar to what she described in this old update). But she really, really shouldn't think that way, since it's obviously avoiding posting that's the problem. There isn't anyone that wouldn't be relieved to hear from her, even if it is this late.
I also hope she can finish this in the future. All that seemed to be left was editing, proofreading, and maybe programming? It just wouldn't make sense to give up so close to the finish line, and it'd be such a waste of effort too. There was clearly a lot of thought, love, and time put into crafting this world with all its characters and lore. She owes it to herself, her backers, and her story to share it with everyone.
Real life circumstances happen in extremes sometimes. It's easy to say no matter what, but if you're in a situation where you lose your home and are living on the street then there wouldn't be a way to update everyone. It's easy to forget that sometimes people don't have access to the internet. Thankfully, this isnt the case here, but I think it's important for people to keep stuff like that in mind in a world where we assume everyone's online and has the ability to do so throughout their lives.
Ah, don't worry about it! It was a given since we all were so worried for her haha, so I was glad to do it~ Also thank you @everyone else who helped getting some new information! I just hope that this friend of hers is to be believed and that we hear from her, soon...I wonder if she had contact with her up until recently. If I remember correctly, Lee already did move houses last year, so I'm wondering what happened that she had to switch houses again? Either she had to move twice in two years or her friend isn't up to date...Regardless, I hope everything is okay and that we'll hear from her, soon.
