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General: Legendary Failures of Legend, Part One
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
MMORPG.com columnist Scott Jennings uses his column this week to discuss "some of the most spectacular MMORPG flameouts" in part one of a two part article.
Part One: What were they *thinking*??!?
Today, let's learn from failure.
Specifically, let's look at some of the most spectacular MMORPG flameouts, and try to find some common cause between them. Warning: This is a two part article. This is the fun part, where I go into great detail about where everyone screwed up and we can all laugh nervously.
Ultima Online: A Well Crafted Simulation Of The Result Of Man's Best Intentions
Being one of the first MMOs, Ultima Online had the luxury of launching with a community best called "dystopian." Intended to be a fantasy simulation where you could wander the land, killing bears and skinning them to make your own armor and selling the meat to happy farmers, thanks to its somewhat... utopian ideals of allowing players the freedom to do whatever they wanted, UO swiftly became a gangland simulation where you could brave the crowds of pickpockets and suicide bombers at the bank, and then run as quickly as you could past the gauntlet of hidden bandits to your home in the woods, where you would then be beheaded with a halberd while frantically fishing in your backpack for your keys, at which point your slayer would chop you into parts, make a small campfire on the spot, and then eat you.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
So many old wounds re-opened
What's this article doing here? It makes far too much sense for this site.
I eagerly await the second part and the conclusion.
A guy in my guild actually owns a collector's edition of Auto Assault that he bought as his first MMO before he met any of us. The only things worse than buying it was telling us. He will never ever live it down in vent.
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DAoC: Dark age of camelot actually gained quite a few subscriptions in the year following trials of atlantis. It was the catacombs expansion that during the first month boosted subs by a few thousand and then dropped them by over 50k by the same time the following year. I feel this was because of two primary reasons, the mass instancing that turned a massive multi-player game into a small online co-op game, and the introduction of a few insanely over powered classes which would go on to dominate in pvp for years to come. These classes included the warlock and vampiir which on occasion managed to kill full groups single handed.
SB: Lets just get one thing out there right away. SB.EXE was a full fledged shadowbane feature up to the point it went free to play and eventually shut down in 2009. If they fixed one cause for it, 3 new ones sprung up. Also the launch of the game was rampant with dupers, hackers and corrupt customer support, which you covered with your buggy launch statement but its worthy of noting on its own imo.
As for the other games in your article, while I've played most I'm not nearly as knowledgeable on and will refrain from commenting. All in all quite funny and an enjoyable read.
You forgot one, Warhammer. Break away from the 3 realm success of DAoC for a two realm one in Warhammer, add in many of the mistakes they made in pvp and expound on it and you have the mess they have now.
It is only a matter of time before EA pulls the plug on Mythic. EA is not one to take consistent loses sitting down.
"DAoC: Dark age of camelot actually gained quite a few subscriptions in the year following trials of atlantis"
Now that comment is a load of nonsense. Within 3 months of the Age of Atlantis expansion, Mythic dropped literally half it's subscription base and never recovered from that. Catacombs had nothing to do with loss of subscribers.
Actually on UO, the Age of Shadows expansion was the one that caused many of the suscribers to leave. They tried to make UO more like EQ by making equipment more of a determining factor in a fight than skill. That and the fact that the servers were down more than they were up for two months following the release of the expansion.
BTW Scott excellent acticle.
I also agree with what Lokto said below.
There was a lot more that caused the failing of AC2 then the chat.
AC1 still existed (and still exists) and was popular. AC2 made what was a skill game into a class game, mistake number one. It split the user base between two games, mistake number two. It was forced out the door by Microsoft when it was far from ready (in fact reports came out that the entire project was rushed along by Microsoft, there wasn't time for docs etc etc.) so the amount of issues with the game was staggering. And finally, once they got the issues worked out, they gave up on it instead of trying to build back up a user base. Now I realize pretty much no game has gone on to boost up it's numbers to huge levels after failure but they could of at least tried.
A very interesting read. As a UO PvPer, I think I'm one of the few that actually liked the introduction of Trammel. While suddenly (and with the highest level of shocking behaviour possible) massacring a clearing of picnicking roleplayers never ever gets old, I can clearly see how that was a lot more fun for us than for the group that did not expect dismemberment to be part of the evening's activities. When the server split to Trammel (consensual PvP) and Felucca (FFA PVP), it created a distinct line that wasn't really there before for many players. Prior to Trammel, there was the deceiving illusion of safety at times.
After the split, it was very clear - if you are in Felucca, you are choosing to be freely attackable. It made PvP a lot more enjoyable because you knew your opponent was up for combat - he may not necessarily be alert and aware, but you knew he made the conscious decision to be in a PvP zone.
Although nothing had changed about the mechanics of Felucca, the population and perception changed. The facet was comprised of that 5-10% of the playerbase that was interested in FFA PvP. For my personal approach to PvP, that worked out very well. For MMO PvP as a whole, it was a landmark change that clearly showed the distinct difference in numbers between people that prefer FFA PvP and people who rather not get torched and beheaded during their monthly guild picnic.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
never got to play it but do have 3 14 day trial keys and apprently lineage trial and cox trial forgot i had those
lol says trial code exp[ired hum wonder why lol though there is no expiration on these keys lame
I wonder, how many people agree with me when I say: The new SWG is better. InB4FlamePreWasBetter. I honestly used to play it back when it was new, and I wasn't impressed : / it was quite boring and the combat was wonky and felt awkward. The only good thing about SWG before was the social aspects and RP opportunity. I was in it for action and I didn't really get it. I know i'll get flamed for saying all this but it's just my opinion.
The "NGE" / "CU" made the game more fluid for me, and I'm not afraid to say, simpler. Before you ask, yes I rolled a Jedi on my 2nd time around. I mean really, what is Star Wars without Jedi? I understand the whole time frame issue people have with Jedi being so common but really, SW-Jedi=Just another Space Opera. I do understand the whole "we just bought an expansion that doesn't apply anymore wtf?" and I agree that the whole implementation of the patches was done in a crude manner, don't get me wrong here. Whoever was in charge of that could of done it better. All in all I prefer the way SWG is now to how it was way back when.
If I forgot anything, please let me know. I'm not afraid of criticism or flamers. :]
InB4LolNoob and Wtf1stPost. Been playing MMOs for a very long time, been through hundreds of them, literally. Still not impressed with MMOs as a whole, but still I continue... : /
Total MMOs played: 274|Enjoyed: 9. >:|
Likely it was a tossup between that and TR, which got the "meh" award. TR gets the win for having bled much more quickly, methinx. WAR is going the SWG route... not with a bang, but with a whimper. And of course, a long "mehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"...
I think that giving Cryptic the Star Trek IP belongs on this list.
Yes, yes, yes. Those guys are crooks.
To think I almost pre ordered that game.
Total MMOs played: 274|Enjoyed: 9. >:|
"Other causes of SB.EXE errors included network instability, server instability, general instability, phases of the moon, and something you did you know what you did don't lie."
Simply classic.
... And sometimes when it's really dark and scary in my room I can hear the echos of screams from the poor people who were trying to siege only to have the server crash and they come back to a tree that'd reset.
Let's not forget Anarchy Online.
Arguably the worst MMO launch in history, and just when it recovers and is becoming a solid game, they tack an ENTIRE FANTASY GAME right onto a sci-fi game.
I mean, it's like duct-taping an asshole on your forehead. It doesn't belong there, it's ugly, and stupid, and pointless.
And let's not forget to mention that entire realms of this phantasy game were incomplete, broken, and in some cases not even there....to the point where the quest givers were intentionally missing or broken to prevent players from discovering that they'd been RIPPED OFF, by being sold an "expansion" that wasn't even finished.
And STILL is not finished, years later.
Of course, we could also talk about Funcom's other bomb.....Age Of Conan....but I think we all know what happened there. Let's not beat a dead horse, eh?
Probably about 3
. I'd agree with you that the CU had the potential to make the game better, though, had they worked on fixing the bugs it created instead of scrapping it for the crappy NGE.
The part about EQ (original not EQ 2) made me laugh but that was only the tip of the iceberg that sank EQ. If the insanity had been isolated to a handfull of one-time quests it might not have been so bad but their entire endgame was centered on that kind of insanity.
And remember, back then we had no clue what was in store for us. People started EQ and discovered a game which was primarily focused on a kind of casual, get in get out, small group game. Log in, go where you want, hook up with a group, have fun. That's the EQ that people fell in love with.
But as the game evolved the high end game turned into something entirely different. It was all about raid, raid, raiding. Join a raiding guild or hit a brick wall. Have an in-game boss (guild master) treat you like his bitch and put up with it or you're out and right back up against that wall again. It was no longer about logging in and out when you felt like it; it was about showing up for raids when you're told to and putting in your required time. It was about sitting around for hours of <hurry up and wait> crap. It was about DKPs or the other systems guilds experimented with. It wasn't about fun and adventure anymore.
My God, I don't think the insanity of EQ raiding can be exagerated. Oh, the horror! I could rant and rant about it but I'll just say that if you were very, very lucky you might only have to sit through ten hours of mind numbing boredom. But then you would have to do it on a regular basis if you wanted to ever get anything for your trouble.
To this day it baffles me that the developers of EQ would take such a fun game and turn it into such a nightmare of boredom, frustration, and maddening bullshit. And I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that it was this, more than anything else, which drove people away and sent EQ into decline.
I'll take Scott's word that it hurt the game, as he was one of the lead developers for DAoC during the time of ToA.. And I'll agree with him - ToA threw what semblance of RvR balance there was out the window with the ML and artifact abilities.
Anway, great article! Bit of a tease, as I really wanna see the conclusion.
Great read. I remember when I was making one of the most important decision of a young man's life: what is to be your first MMO, it was a toss up between EQ2 and WoW. From the evidence produced here it looked like I make the right decision. Bunch of polygons? 72 hours? Uh, nah...
On a side note: the 'Meh Factor' should become an internationally recognised rating system.
He hit the nail on the head about DAOC.
Not so much on SWG. I played SWG for 2 months when it first released. I started playing again off and on about 2 years ago and enjoy it alot more now. I don't play a Jedi, I play a BH and Commando and they are both alot of fun. Next month I will be playing it again when SWG sends out the free 1 month invites for Feb.
The keys are expired because the game has been shut down. Hard to play a game with no servers, no matter what the lack of expiration date may otherwise imply!
Can't believe there are still people advocating EQ's style of PvE. Seriously? To those people: If this article didn't make you realize that you have no life, nothing ever will.
SEVENTY. TWO. HOURS.
Good article.
Awesome article. Felt like a journey back through time for me. I remember UO, Everquest, DAoC and SWG. You would think that most developers would have learned something from their initial designs; but, they seem to wing more towards that instant gratification group out there somewhere, meanwhile all the veteran gamers find themselves wondering between games like refugees.
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo Galilei
The keys are expired because the game has been shut down. Hard to play a game with no servers, no matter what the lack of expiration date may otherwise imply!
well i was being sarcastic though if there is no expire key it wouldnt have been a bad idea to maybe give free time torwards another game or a free makeover in gw or something as the key was never used it cant be expired
/Agree. I played it because from 1999-2001 it was the best thing out .
Probably about 3
. I'd agree with you that the CU had the potential to make the game better, though, had they worked on fixing the bugs it created instead of scrapping it for the crappy NGE.
3 sounds about right. :-) I actually looked at the design document (diagram?) for the CU and it made a lot of sense. They were trying to more clearly define the roles of the different combat classes which needed doing and, as you pointed out Luxumaru, fixing and tuning that update would have made the game better but, lets face it, SOE was always more intersted in trying to add content that fix bugs.
To fix the end-game, I always thought they should have introduced a couple more uber classes that could take on the Jedi... Mandalorian Bounty Hunters & Dathomir Witches could have been good. Give them the same crazy Jedi grind and they could have made for interesting user creatable end-game content.
Before the NGE, I always saw WoW as a MMO trainer for SWG. I figured that when people got tired of WoW leading them around by the nose, the would migrate to the more free-form game that SWG offered. Clearly, I know nothing.
-=[ Gaidin ]=-