For players who refer friends to Shartak, there are small bonuses to be had such as extra XP or Gold. In January, a shorter URL was created and more information can be found on the refer-a-friend page.
The manner of death (player responsible and weapon used) was added to the profile information in February.
One of the features that players could vote for on the Features page was implemented in March - this allowed clan leaders to add clan-only news items that could be announced to clan members.
Many people found themselves attacked by the Easter Bunny and then a few days later robbed of all their belongings by a most unsavoury character on April Fools Day.
In June, we added a number of additional items that show up in character profiles. These items included the wild boar tusk necklace, batwing earrings, and gold hoop earrings.
Although the IRC channel has been around for a while, we added a Java IRC client accessible through the website.
Cannibals were added to the list of possible classes - like Pirates, they have their own camp, this time on a separate island.
A new stats page was added to show kills-per-death for different groups of player. This can be found at https://www.shartak.com/statkpd.html. Feasting stats for cannibals were added to https://www.shartak.com/statextra.html
Ever wished you had a log of what you had seen? Any donated-for character has access to an event history which records all your activity.
In the tunnel network under the island, you can now find fungi that have some interesting properties. The fungi can be juiced to provide an energy-giving juice that has some nasty side-effects.
We've reached the end of the 2008 newsletter. Thank you for reading and if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through this feedback page, on the official forum or even hop on IRC and have a chat on #Shartak.