I've been a VIP backer for a year and a half now. . . I know some others have been backing for longer than that. So far what I'm seeing is a major disconnect between the developers and the backers. We've been delayed far too long, and we don't even know what we're backing yet. There's been "small" "game-play" videos, but no actual "fruit." I am now getting to the point where I feel like I've been waiting too long for too little, and considering refunding. I don't necessarily want to go that route, because I am excited, and have been, to see what Asylum has to offer. But, Asylum was supposed to start "sharing" more with us, and I feel as they haven't met that expectation. Yes, there's been videos and streams of development, but I've gotta say it's far too little far too late. We haven't seen ANY of the content that we've been backing for, with the exception of the incredibly small video's which have been released relating to Town Square, and a horribly scripted RP meth lab shootout. Not to mention the TS module tracker that goes days without being updated. . . I don't mean to rant, but what's going on Asylum, what are we waiting for, and how much longer can we expect to be delayed? So far it's been pretty redundant, standby and wait to standby and wait longer, oh and by the way. . . Since we've delayed twice already, we're not gonna inform you (the players and backers) when to expect the NEXT delay. . . Asylum, the least you could do, is show us what our pledge's contain and give us a timeline of when we can expect to see the TS module. And to be clear, I'm not counting "place-holder" assets. Please Asylum, give us something to feed us, I know I'm not the only person who feels this way.

The finishing touches Greetings, and again thank you, to all of Identity's backers receiving this dev blog. Everyone's been hard at work putting together a game that can change the industry, and you're soon going to be getting your first taste. With the Town Square (Identity's first social gameplay module) nearing release, we're hard at work testing and putting the finishing touches on two of the major features. Everything's been progressing very well and I'm quite proud of the team. These last systems are the art/canvas mechanics and the player housing. Both of these have been functional for a long time, although a couple tweaks need made before we push Town Square out the door. A few minutes of decorating an Ash Hill penthouse We've added a new button in the elevators to allow you to visit a public version of any apartment. You can run around and see them in their default state before committing to buying them for yourself. This will be a very useful way to explore the available options, given that some of the floorplans will be very rare to come across with other players. Above is the penthouse after a few minutes of quick decoration. I'm not exactly a decorator, myself, but you can get a good idea of the way it looks now! It's a huge space with three large bedrooms (which means you and two friends can use it as your home) and tons of storage. We've had to refactor the backend of the housing system a good bit, but the end result you see is everything you saw in the prior Identity Insider apartment video. All features shown then will be ready for you soon in the Town Square! We have lots of other cool features coming for your house parties that you haven't seen yet, too. In case you hadn't seen that video, or you want to see it again, I've linked it below. Identity Insider: Housing - CLICK TO VIEW VIDEO Town Square gameplay live stream With my last developer blog post I included a link to gameplay video from our live stream showing character creation and the exterior environment in the Town Square module. Recently, I joined in on another development live stream to show about 20 minutes of more Town Square gameplay. This time I showed off interior environments as well as a few of the gameplay mechanics you're going to come across in the Town Square. YouTube Town Square preview live stream 2 - CLICK TO VIEW VIDEO The team and I are so very excited to show you guys what we've made in the Town Square and beyond. The Town Square isn't enormous on its own, but it's a very good way to give you an idea of how the world looks and feels. The task master The Task Tracker is a new tool on our website which displays up-to-date data pertaining to how much work is remaining for the Town Square release. If you've been following our progress through the tracker, you'll have seen that just a couple of days ago it progressed to its current point, with only two tasks remaining at the in-testing state (the ones I described above in this blog post). Keep your eye on the tracker to get the best idea of when we're ready to go. You will of course also get notified by email when the Town Square is published on Steam! The future of the Dev Blog This may be one of the last couple developer blogs being sent out in this format as we're planning on soon transitioning to more frequent developer video blogs! In the past, it's always been myself who wrote these blog posts. They've been a great way to reach out and letting everyone who doesn't follow us on social media know what we've been up to. That said, I think I speak for most people when I say video is more interesting and entertaining! Look forward to meeting the team face-to-face in short but frequent videos. Some will be general updates about our work on Identity and some will be focused on certain aspects within the game. Also, on that note, you're going to be getting a very interesting Identity Insider very shortly, covering criminal activity and gameplay. It's a major part of the game and we've surprisingly not been asked many questions about these systems in the past. You'll be getting all kinds of juicy new information and ideas of what you're going to encounter! The Twitch Clips If you've been following Identity's development closely, you probably already know that developers stream their work live on the Identity Twitch channel every Tuesday and Thursday. We also use that time to answer almost every question that gets asked about Identity's development and gameplay. Now that we've been doing this a while, we've answered a lot of questions. Our awesome community manager, BeachBall, has taken the time to compile a massive list of questions linked to clips where they're answered by a developer. Get comfy and head over to the Twitch Clips Directory forum thread. If you haven't found this already, be prepared to spend a good bit of time listening to all sorts of awesome information. This is the best place to get to know the fine details Identity! -- John VanderZwet

Ok. So If most of you wonderful community members remember me that is good. But for the rest of you who don't let me introduce myself again. I am TPlays. I have been backing this game for a long time. I mean a long time. Now the thing about that means I have seen the ups and a lot of downs. But I have always been on the dev teams side. But today I bring my first formal complaint. Why on God's Earth have we been at one task remaining for more than 2 months. I mean come on. I have done nothing but fight for this game and fight for people to know that I love and support this gAme. But devs you are making me look like an idiot. But none the less. I am still going to support that the devs deliver the game we were all promised a long time ago.

This. This right here is my issue. Everything should be organized in a place where people don't have to dig through a myriad of media outlets to get the entire information on this game. > .<

Seeing as the last one took around 3-4 weeks, I would hedge a bet on late august, early september for this. However, I genuinely don't think this tracker has anything to do with actual development... It has just given the devs control over a release date without having to give an actual date. There has been 0 transparency in what any of these tasks actually are/were - They probably do not correlate to anything - more just something to keep people interested and talking about the game.

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In fairness, he really shouldn't have to when on an official website of the company... discord, twitch and community forums aren't official outputs of information for any company. You don't have professional companies sending out official memos via twitter now do you?

In before tracker part 2 released.

People are upset, Do you blame them? There is 0 transparency. They are not stating any issues they are facing to be clear why are they so behind. Stating that they had to start from scratch does not mean they lost the models, they may had to rewrite the code but then again it would put them behind but how far behind nobody knows. Also no developer is ever alone in, a lot of technical stuff is being helped out by the unreal team when you have the license they will provide support. In 3 weeks we have not heard from the dev team giving us some kind of answer and if they are so confident everything is going the right direction why don't we hear anything from them about it?

I thought that it was supposed to be the same for a week after the new website got up, after that the packages that existed before will be gone and you have to pick loose stuff? (which costs more)

5 days and still no tracker update I'm hoping this means it's a good sign for it to be completed. If not I'm going to punch myself in the face the more likes I get is how many times I will punch myself

First things first, I've never developed a game before nor am I evenly remotely qualified to but even I can see some big flaws in the development progress and team for Identity and instead of just complaining about it (Which at this stage I could probably do all day) I have some suggestions for them. 1. Just release the module in it's current state, as long as it's playable no one is expecting a masterpiece for a pre-alpha build I understand you want to make it perfect so everyone get's hyped about how perfect it is and therefore donate more money but your constant delays are causing all your current fans to turn on you. I know based of everything that's happened so far I can't possibly recommend this game to any of my friends due to the fact we're virtually kept in the dark of progress. 2. Take a holiday. Literally shut the entire office down for at least a week and head off some where to stop thinking about all the complaints and instead focus on what you decided to create this game in the first place and how you envisioned it. When you come back have a meeting about you can most effectively reach your vision. To me (As previously stated, not a developer) that means you need to focus on the coding of the game and less on all the assets. Don't get me wrong the game looks great, way way better than what I was expecting, but what's the point if you don't have any gameplay. 3. Bring all your social media back to the forms. A lot of us have jobs/study/whatever and don't have time to look everywhere for bits of information. The forums in it's current state is so toxic but if you create a new section literally called Information where you briefly summarise what's been happening I guarantee you everyone will be happier because the way it is at the moment noone knows what's going on. There's no need for having Twitter/Discord/Facebook/Whatever else you have exclusive posts if people want to follow you on those platforms provide them links to the update on your forums. 4. Reevaluate your priorities. Currently people who have already pledged are mad, and they're your literal source of income. The community should be your number one priority, even more so than the actual development of the game. A happier community will lead to a larger community, a larger community will lead to more funding to the game and more funding will mean more room for developers and bam, by focusing on the community you've also improved development. 5. Acknowledge your mistakes, but more importantly actually learn from them. I understand that a game of this size is no easy task otherwise I'd have been down before but whenever someone makes a complaint on this forum they get attacked for doing so and then almost completely ignored, 99% of people here and complaining because they want this game and they're getting frustrated because they're not being herd and left in the dark. Respond to them if even with a generic message "We understand you're upset and we can definitely do better we plan on doing this so "complaint" isn't a issue anymore." or "We're currently working that issue by doing this" These are my opinions on the current biggest flaws on the development progress of the game if you don't agree with my feel free to say so below I'd love to hear your opinions on what you think they could do better or how I'm wrong. More importantly I'd love the developers to comment on this post maybe some of this has been already incorporated and I didn't know or they plan on following some of this advice.

I agree with a lot of what he is saying, it is not hate. Things are just fishy right now. Hope they do prove us wrong.

Not saying your post is wrong but they actually have a 1.3 million dollar budget.

We have had patience for over a year.

Salutations everyone, Our new website went live over the weekend! You’ll now see an updated FAQ section, revamped account system, an improved presentation, and more! We’ll continue to add more content to the site as time goes on, and you can expect to see the next Identity Insider very shortly! Last month’s Dev Blog mentioned we’ll be seeing one pertaining to “criminal activity and gameplay”, so stay tuned! Out of all the areas on our website, the shop page arguably received the biggest overhaul. It has an entirely new look, and you can now purchase items individually rather than in packages. Still, the packages that you saw on the old site remain available to purchase at the exact same prices they were before. You’ll also notice that some packages have even had items appended to their contents! (See: Up-Sized and The VIP) The original plan was to keep the packages found on the old website as they were for exactly one week after the new shop went live. We intended to take them down after seven days, leaving only the individual items remaining. However, since PayPal is currently the only payment option we offer, we will be extending the duration for how long these packages will remain available. It would be unfair to those who are ready to make a purchase but don’t have access to a PayPal account, so you can expect to see the packages stay up for a little while longer. Once we secure more payment options, we’ll be sure to let users know how long they have to purchase one of the older packages. Regarding tweaks to individual items, we’ll be changing around the “Custom Logo” item sometime this week. We weren’t very clear with what this item granted, so you’ll see “Custom T-Shirt Graphic” take its place. Those who purchased the “Custom Logo” item will be able to import a custom corporate logo in the full game. (Of course, if you aren’t satisfied with this change, feel free to contact me and I’ll get your account fixed up.) For reference, the “Custom T-Shirt Graphic” item will allow users to produce 10 T-Shirts with an imported image of their choosing. The “Custom Logo” item will allow your imported image to appear on items such as clothing, furniture, and even your corporation’s in-game website page. The “Custom T-Shirt Graphic” will display the image on the front of the T-Shirt, whereas the “Custom Logo” will appear in small designated areas on crafted items for branding purposes. If you happen to purchase the “Custom Logo” item before it gets replaced with the “Custom T-Shirt Graphic”, then lucky you! We may see it return someday, but for now, it’ll remain off the shop page once “Custom T-Shirt Graphic” takes its place. Once again, if you aren’t happy with this change, contact me and I’ll see what I can do for you! Another thing to mention is that our web developer has been hard at work fixing a few oddities that have popped up with the new site. If any of you suspect that something isn’t working quite as intended, feel free to message me and I’ll send your concerns to him! Lastly, you’ll see a new Dev Blog go up shortly after the next Identity Insider that will cover the new website as one of its discussion topics. You’ll likely get a more formal overview of the new website’s features there, so you should definitely check it out when it’s up! (For reference, Dev Blogs are found here.) That’s all for now! Feel free to keep us posted with any concerns you have regarding the new website’s design or its functionality. Have a great rest of your day, and I’ll see you around! August 14th Edit: The price of the Sphynx Cat has also been adjusted to better reflect the exotic nature of the animal. August 17th Edit: As of 3:45PM ET today, users who sent password recovery emails should receive a working key to log into their account. Changing passwords is still causing some problems for some users, so keep this key handy to get into your account. Gifting oddities are being addressed, and anyone who has had any items not reach their recipient should message me. Thanks to those who are providing feedback and screenshots of issues, I'll continue to convey such things to our web developer as its been helping tremendously!

I've been through the hideout section, and there seems to be an incredible amount of gangs and communities with criminal intents. I'm looking forward to serving alongside other police officers in-game.

I don't know... if you are going to make a rant video about anything, at least get your facts straight... lots of misinformation in there. And saying "I love to be proved wrong" trying to be the owner of the truth in both cases, doesn't add credibility to your words.

I don't want to be a pessimist here guys, but one task left on this funny little tracker thingy doesn't necessarily mean the TS relase is gonna happen soon. Just saying.

Winter Jacket by Umut: Cruiser Jacket by Umut:

That disconnect is why I have been hesitating on backing (I do want to, but I'm waiting for a lil more substance). I'm lurking because supposedly things are supposed to ramp up, according to one of the developers, but I'm at least waiting until the pledges show what I'll get for supporting the project before I go shelling out money. I've seen too many red flags with this project to even think of doing otherwise. I am excited about TS release, but I feel I'd be foolish to buy anything other than a standard pass without the products pledges page is updated with some images of what goes to what. I want the game to succeed though! And I understand these devs are new to making their own full games, and I know it's a difficult undertaking and risky with being so ambitious. But they've just GOT to understand that dev-to-playerbase communication is everything in indie crowdfunded games.

Alright, i'll start by saying this. Money isn't my issue. I spent 30 dollars on this game, and it only comes to mind once every couple of weeks. Im not motivated by desire, or a refund, or even anger. So devs/moderators, take this into consideration. All of it. The Dev Tracker is honestly ridiculous and you guys know it is. Whoever you had in charge of updating it wasn't doing that, and it sat on 1-2 things left for upwards of 2 months. That is... words cant describe what that is. The game itself has been in development for YEARS, which is something you have all heard before, and your generic "Developin gayms taeks a lot of tyme" isn't even reputable anymore. It's been too long, and you guys are VERY OBVIOUSLY focusing your efforts on things that are so stupid, SUCH AS: Streaming the development. Streaming takes A LOT of effort, and communication with fans in the chat, and so far your streams have been an accurate depiction on the work ethic. "Hey guys, welcome to this stream where we take about 2 of our (previously stated) 20 developers, and take about 4 to 5 hours making a fucking lampshade! Join us again next year when we start work on the table legs!" Its absurd, streaming it is stupid and time consuming. A whole new fucking website design? Seriously? We're all SCREAMING for an update on progress and the best you can do is make the fucking website look pretty? What was even the purpose in that, just stop fiddling your dick and FINISH THE MODULE. Fucking. Micro-transactions. This is the main reason im making this post. You have over 1 million USD just from backers. Thats the average middle class mans LIFETIME EARNINGS. Yet, you spend more time making pointless things like fucking more apartments? Only this time it costs 100. Fucking. Dollars. I snooped in the store some more, and saw that you're LITERALLY SELLING THE CONCEPT OF A CUSTOM LICENSE PLATE FOR 15 FUCKING DOLLARS. Thats fucking ABSURD. Considering so far we get updates tri-monthly that contain messages like "We still workin on it" and "Hold yer horses, its only been 3 years" you would think they could give us something other than another way to waste our money on hope. Which, ties into my final point. See, i've realized a steady pattern with this development team, and I have a theory. You see, Asylum was a very small team, with a genuine hope to recreate that ARMA RP that we all know and love, but they needed funding. They started simple, you know, advertising an amazing game with a trailer and saying "Please, all we need is funding and we can make this happen" and they said it with TRUTH. Then, the wave. People donating willy nilly, praising this god tier game trailer, expecting an orgasm worthy experience. They have amassed a grand total 1,296,948 United States Dollars. Now I dont know how much it costs to pay for resources like textures, licenses, and a monthly subscription of whatever software they use to develop the game, BUT, I can tell you that there is NO reason it should cost 1.296 million dollars to make ONE MODULE that by the way, has no currency system, is completely experimental, and has a grand total of TWO CARS. TWO. I cant even imagine what the physics system is like. So anyway, Asylum were SHOCKED at this, and noticed that, they were making fucking bank on this. The hype train, the Pledges, the donations, hell, the twitch revenue (cant confirm, just a thought) and them being a very small, inexperienced development team, took the EA route real fucking fast. Overhyping games, putting out JUST enough information to keep the fans from rioting, and collecting those sweet sweet pre-order deals, then the second the game drops, there are paywalls EVERYWHERE. The player had no idea, and now they wasted hundreds on a game that they can barely play. Asylum, you've practically fucked your entire future as a company, and destroyed every last bit of fanbase you had. You needed to release more updates, you needed to put more effort into the game, you needed to stop being fucking greedy, and either release the game, or refund the backers. Judging by the micro transactions, this game is going to be HELL. And I will be refunding as soon as possible.

1. The very first part is the worst idea and is what the big game companies set as the standard for games. Second not pre-alpha but alpha build. No one has stated that it will be perfect on the release of the module, however the biggest feature is the feature they are working on and is a must for them to complete before they release the module. There are no more constant delays, there were only 2 delays and so how is it constantly getting delayed? If there was a date then it could be delayed but there is a task tracker instead and so no delay is possible. 2. 3D artist are not Coders/ programmers. Why should the 3D artists sit idle while we all wait for the programmers to complete the task. Them doing nothing is th worst idea ever IMO because if they create more assets while we wait, in the long run there will be less assets needed to make for the game. Yes, but that means a slower development speed and slower means that the community will still get mad. People find reasons to just complain really which is sad. They have said in the past about there mistakes. Also, they do get a response but because there is a reasonable answer in the response, they decide to complain more anyways. I will pass this post onwards

Everyone please. I get angry too but we cannot let that get in the way of this game. I say we give the Devs more time. I know how hard it is to make a game. SO all we have to do is give time. Also like I said yesterday GTA V took 5 years to create. FIVE YEARS. You guys need to understand that this game is offering a lot more than GTA and the fact they are actually getting us something to play is great. You guys need to understand that staying loyal to the cause will help the Devs. We must show that we still support the game. I would like to hear what you guys have to say please reply and I will be checking the forum hourly!

Never in the history of calming down, has anyone ever calmed down by being told to calm down.

I think the tracker is suffering from 99% Syndrome.

first there will be another tracker to track how far the tracker already is. The tracker tracking the tracker that tracks the progress will take about 2 months tho so there will be a tracker who tracks the progress of the tackers tracking tracker. and yes i confused myself with that. * NOTE THAT THIS IS A JOKE *

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Hello Tautverve, You'll still be able to purchase a "Passport" (pre-order of the full game) or "Beta Access" (access to pre-release content beginning with the Town Square Module) even after Town Square is released. Prices and shop contents on our website will eventually change, however. The next major update to our site will introduce the ability to purchase individual items rather than being forced to buy packages. The packages you see right now on the shop page will eventually be phased out completely. For example, you might not see the $30 "Founder" pledge reward package anymore, but you'll still be able to purchase both the Passport and Beta Access items that were included in it. The only caveat is that some items (such as the Founder Hat and Cash bundles) will not be available for purchase individually, so if you'd like to have either of these items, you'll want to do so before they disappear for good. (The packages also provide a good value, such that purchasing each individual item within a package will usually be more costly.) We'll be sure to announce when prices and package contents are changing so that users will have a sufficient amount of time to decide if they'd like a package before they disappear. The current plan is to keep the packages as they are for at least one week after we add new payment options on the shop page. It's difficult to list an exact date for Town Square's release, so we stick to the Task Tracker and update it with our progress. The final task involves integrating the new UI with the housing system, and there's been some tricky bugs the developers have been ironing out in this area which explains the long wait time for its completion. Each fix typically requires another run through the majority of the housing system to make sure that the UI integration hasn't broken anywhere, and sometimes a bug fix can cause a few more issues to pop up. Arriving at the proper solution can be strenuous, and our programmers are working hard to try and get this final task tested and working correctly. I'll definitely update the community the moment I learn more.

Its already sad how this game has shown its real side of itself and now its future players

I really can't understand why crime, drugs and murders don't offend as much as sex, being the last one of the most natural aspect of human behavior. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for sex. Having said that, does it fit in this game? I'm not sure... That would be cringy to say the least

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For your information where you say. "Which platform is this going to be released on" And saying that are gonna use that as an excuse if you would open your eyes and ears and follow the progress like some of us that really want this game you would know that when town square is ready you get an email that sends you to the side where you link your steam account and get the game that way. So town square is gonna be on steam sweetheart. And that also answers your how do we download this game question. And dragged on to the point where nobody wanna play i dont think so no. I dont know about you but like someone else say you will get a refund and buy the game anyway at some point again. And they have not told the public for over two years that it is going to release they have had to redo town square multiple times. Oh and here you said the site says the release day is 2017 wrong that is a estimated date Quote "We expect the first module, Town Square, to be available in early 2017." EXPECT is the keyword here they didn't say it would be done in 2017 they expected it to be done but it wasn't. Last time i checked there have been 2 Release dates March 21 and April 23 2018. They are the 2 release dates the devs have given us everything else have been estimations and not a exact release date. So dont say they have been pushing it for a year they have gives 2 release dates which they unfortunately was not able to meet. I can't tell people what to do with their money but i myself is 100% safe with the asylum team having my money and making a game that me and a lot of my friends have been waiting for. For years even before identity was a thing. So before you come on the forums and start crying at least get your facts straight.

Virgins, Virgins everywhere

REALLY dragging this out. The Town Square is probably going to be a boring glorified chatroom... At this rate we won't see any significant gameplay for another 30 years.

I am not trying to be mean or anything but you didnt pay for a product, you helped back a project. If you cant handle delays and even more delays then maybe you shouldnt have backed in the first place... As i stated before i m not trying to be mean but there are a lot of people who think they paid for a product, people like these actually give the developers a hard time by first giving their money and then taking that away again...

Servers will exist on all continents!

Most informative post in the past two months.

Because development takes time and they are obviously finalizing everything for release. I'd bet on next month, calm down, the site just updated dear

The tracker is broken right now as most other parts of the site is buggy still but is being fixed.

oh woah another topic senselessly bitching and bringing up things that have been discussed millions of times before.

As most of us now poor Beach_Ball has to travel by bus every single day... But why? There sure is a beter option. Thats why I started a petition to buy Beach a Rusted car or a bike https://www.change.org/p/identity-community-buy-beach-ball-a-rusted-car-or-a-bike Hope we can rise enough votes to make it happen (Its just a joke)

this dev cycle is a joke

Agree, the number of people who have the wrong idea about what module 1 actually is is astonishing. You will be able to walk around, chat, go to a karaoke bar, play chess and change your outfit... I'm pretty sure u could pretty much do all this in children's visual chat rooms when I was 10 (22 year ago). The disappointment for many will be huge I feel.

I feel you're arguing for the sake of arguing... However... I'll bite. My comment wasn't directed at us, the community, being a part of their company. It was directed at the fact their information is and always has been scattered to the wind. I do know that Asylum are taking this issue seriously, which is why post TS release, they're looking to address the issue. Games developers that have their own community forums (mostly all of them), often engage through their community with Announcements, when there's something to announce. In most circumstances, the developers already have a game released, or the development is behind closed doors. It isn't a crowd-funded project, therefore does not require transparency. Asylum are currently operating behind closed curtains and it's like there's an un-lidded blender behind that curtain - unless you're looking in all directions at once, you're going to miss some of the information flying out at all angles when it's switched on. The simple solution to that is to remove the curtain, and have everyone looking at the blender in all its chaos so everyone can see what's going on, and what's flying out. Bad analogy aside... Asylum aren't being put on a pedestal... and other developers aren't getting a pass. The only other major crowd-funded game that's made by a company and not a bunch of individuals is Star Citizen... and I'm pretty sure that got slated for like 3 years because it was behind schedule and updates weren't being released often enough. More to the point though; if you compare RSI to Asylum (despite their budget being far greater now), they have constant announcements and all their media published direct to their website landing-page, and asylum don't do that.

Every server

better guess for the full game release is 3041. the First module wont release before dezember 2018 i bet on that.

Oh shut up you whinge bag and cry us a river. We don't care for your trolling attitude. Go back to call of duty or wherever you came from

We were all just taking breaks and watching TV, but after reading this post you've set us straight! Thank you for getting the team back on track.