Shane Isaac, CEO Earth 2, tweeted that they have been working on some fixes to open blocked countries as well as brand new countries.
Shane added that there will be no official announcement prior to the unlocking. We can only presume this approach has been used to ensure that the Earth 2 servers do not get overwhelmed with traffic or are targeted with DDOS attempts at the time of opening.
Locked Countries users have been heard!
The announcement also addressed the long standing issue of users losing out on potentially higher EDC (Essence Distribution Commitment) from these locked countries. Some days ago, E2News had written about this issue and whether the grievances of such users will be addressed. It seems Shane has walked the talk when he says 'we have proved that we have the community at heart'.
We would like to remind that since these countries were locked post the initial purchases and no new land was bought in these places, the tile price remained stagnant. The EDC was based on New Land Value (NLV), and therefore users who had land in such countries lost out on potentially higher Essence. Finally, it seems they are bound to get some compensation, and their patience has been rewarded.
Will there be fair distribution?
On being prodded, Shane said he will think about how E2 can make this as fair as possible from their side given that they need to work on so many other things, all at the same time.
The Whitepaper
Shane had mentioned in an earlier community chat on Dec 16, that the Whitepaper will be released in early 2022 (potentially over the next month as he mentioned Jan/Feb). When asked about it again today, he asked users to be patient and it will be done 'correctly'.
Given Earth2's emphasis on being meticulous, which is actually good, we believe the Whitepaper could still be weeks away if not months. We will have to wait and see if it gets released within Q1 2022 or is pushed further.
Till then E2 News wishes luck to the Earth 2 community for the imminent release of new and blocked countries. May you get lucky and catch it before the others.