Best of luck Marweas - you are much loved and appreciated. Sierra is cutting off its nose to save its face. While I wish your successor the best, he will never recreate the reservoir of good will that you engendered through your personal commitment, honesty, and humor.
You connected with the Tribal community in a personal, selfless way. Few Brand Managers, in any discipline, connect with their market as you did. Thank you for being instrumental in saving a game I (we) love. I have no doubt that absent your leadership Tribes would be dead as a franchise.
Keep a stiff upper lip - good things are coming. Being laid off may be the best thing that ever happened to you. I know that being laid off from my last job allowed me to find my (current) dream job. Had I not been laid off, it would have taken me at least 5-10 years longer to achieve my current position.
Here is one of my favorite Chinese fables. It helps me keep perspective through both good and bad.
__________________
"What appears to be a curse may be a blessing"
As told by storyteller Joel ben Izzy...
There is a story of a man who acquired a beautiful horse. All his neighbors told him how lucky he was to have gotten such a wonderful possession and they exclaimed "What a blessing has come to you!" The man responded by saying, "What seems like a blessing may be a curse," and his neighbors did not understand what he meant.
One morning, the man awoke to find that the beautiful horse had disappeared. His neighbors went to console him on his loss. He responded by saying "What seems like a curse may be a blessing," and again they were puzzled by his statement. Time passed and the horse returned, bringing with him an entire herd of beautiful horses. His neighbors congratulated him on his good luck and once again he replied "What seems like a blessing may be a curse."
One day his son was thrown from the back of one of the horses and broke his leg. When his neighbors came to support the man and commiserate with him about his son's injury, he said, "What seems like a curse may be a blessing."
Soon afterward, all of the young men in the village were conscripted to fight in a war in another land. All, except this man's son, who could not go because of his broken leg.
_________________
So in summary, I wish you many fine horses and a broken leg =).
<3