If Bzpower Had Never Gone Offline...

[Makuta Matata]

If BZPower had never gone down, do you think that we'd have kept on getting new story updates? Because it seems like the serials stopped around the time that BZpower went down.

[Axilus Prime]

No. The serials stopped LONG before that.

[toa kopaka4372]

No. The serials stopped LONG before that.

Not true. I'll give a timeline of the story updates for convenience.July 9 - The Yesterday Quest Chapter 1July 21 - The Powers that Be Chapter 1August 16 - Sahmad's Tale Chapter 5September 21 - The Yesterday Quest Chapter 2October 26 - The Powers that Be Chapter 2November 4 - The Powers that Be Chapter 3January 4 - Sahmad's Tale Chapter 6February 7 - The Yesterday Quest Chapter 3March 29 - The Powers that Be Chapter 4June 30 - Sahmad's Tale Chapter 7BZPower went down at the end of April, I think, which was around the time we should've gotten another update, based on the general pattern of previous updates. We got one update during the downtime, and then no more to this day. I'll just copy and paste my post in another topic for my thoughts.

I'm getting the impression that GregF doesn't want to write BIONICLE serials anymore. I mean, maybe he's gone on for so long without writing any, he's finding hard to go back and start again. As a writer, this happens to me a lot; in fact, I haven't been writing for a while. I think the downtime is really what struck the BIONICLE story a fatal blow.Greg mainly continued the story for us BZP members, because we're the hardcore fans who haven't completely left BIONICLE and moved on to other things. Most of BIONICLE's former audience probably moved on to Hero Factory and Ninjago. So when BZP went down, Greg had no reason to write; I think this is backed up by the fact that the time between the Powers that Be and Sahmad's Tale's update were the longest at the time (3 months). Sahmad's Tale Chapter 7, which is the last update we've had so far, was uploaded back in June, during BZP's downtime. Since Greg was busy in the first place, he probably decided not to write until BZP came back.BZP came back in October, 3-4 months after the latest update. By this time Greg was probably totally out of it, especially with him writing novels for Ninjago and taking care of his family. I think Greg has lost that eagerness to write; you have a hard time writing something you don't want to. I remember, back in late 2010 and early 2011, Greg sounded like he was really enjoying what he was writing; he was going around dropping major hints on the Red Star, answering questions, and was talking about something like "the biggest plot twist yet" and so on. In fact, TPTB Chapter 3 came out a mere week after Chapter 2 of the same serial; I remember being very surprised. Even on his blog entries Greg sounded excited about it. And then with TYQ, with the whole GB contest, I could tell he was excited about the story. After that, the series of events which brought us to the low point we are at today began in quick succession, beginning with LEGO's new policy, which pretty much caused us to lose nearly all communication with Greg.Really, what Greg did with TPTB proves that if he wants to, Greg can find someway to fit writing the BIONICLE serials into his busy schedule. Even if Greg is busier now, he could probably find a way.Really, BZPower's downtime came at the worst possible time; not only did it harm the official BIONICLE story, it destroyed all contests that could have given us new storyline, or at least some interesting discussions. S&T Contest 6 is gone, as is the Lesovikk Hiatus Contest, as is Name the GB contest, all which don't seem to be coming back anytime soon.

[Toa Zaz]

The updates were getting a little infrequent to begin with, but yeah, I suspect we'd have gotten at least a few more chapters if the downtime hadn't occurred.

[bonesiii]

First of all, this is frankly an unanswerable question. It basically amounts to a "what if" topic, which are against S&T's rules. True, this is not what the rule was intended for, but it's even less answerable than in-story what-ifs because you're talking about an alternate timeline to the real world timeline we are living in. Nobody here has the power to peer into such a timeline.Second, as a topic asking for opinions, it would work better as a poll since it's basically a yes or no question. :)Thirdly, a bit off-topic:

Really, BZPower's downtime came at the worst possible time; not only did it harm the official BIONICLE story, it destroyed all contests that could have given us new storyline, or at least some interesting discussions. S&T Contest 6 is gone

I have said many times that S&T 6 isn't gone; in fact I am working on getting the results topic ready right now; about halfway done. It should be up very soon. And for the record, I am in full support of the Lesovikk Haitus contest continuing, if S&T or our story voting section are needed for that. Also, Greg had approved one more S&T contest officializing stories; although with no apparent way to ask him questions we will have to confine that to only things we can already confirm or deny from what is known. I plan to move ahead with it as promised somewhat soon.In other words, they were only delayed, not "destroyed". Patience, grasshopper. ;)Fourthly, all that said, IMO it's obvious Greg was less eager to post chapters he couldn't as easily read feedback on. I would feel the same, and I agree with the comments that he just hasn't felt ready to jump back into it. I run into the same thing in my own writing, especially when continuing requires I carefully review things I've established in the past to avoid forgetfulness-caused contradictions.But at the end of the day, we didn't intend to be offline that long, and for many reasons we did need to make changes that started that process... And many of us, both staff and members alike, as well as Greg, now have other responsibilities that demand our time -- it's nobody's fault, and the horse is dead now, let's stop beating it lol. Let's just hope Greg can get back into it sometime and enough of us can read and give feedback to make it worthwhile... or failing that, be grateful for the ten plus years of amazing story we did get! ^_^Topic will now be closed (mainly because of point #2 FTR ).