Aion was horrible if you were unlucky to pcik the bad servers, i waited 6h in que once while my RL friends was ingame and haveing fun.
avarge wait time for me was 2-3h befor getting in. and if you didt pay attention it would disconnect you for beeing afk while selecting chars so you had to go to the end of the wait line again.
The launch of an MMO is arguably one of the most important facets in a game's long term success or failure as most players will not hang around a buggy game. In The List this week, MMORPG.com's Bill Murphy takes a look at the five worst MMO launches thus far in the history of MMOs. Check it out and add any you think are missing in the comments below.
In a week’s time, SOE will be launching the anticipated (and oft argued over) DC Universe Online. No stranger to MMO launches, SOE will hopefully be able to pull off a successfully smooth opening day. But despite a wealth of experience, sometimes things just don’t go as planned in the first days of a fledgling MMO. In the brand new year spirit of looking back to see where we are when moving forward, let’s take a look at five of the worst MMORPG launches in recent memory. Bear in mind, these are based on the author’s (my own) personal experiences since I began this hobby, and when I write the following synopses I’m not picking on the mentioned games… I’m just trying to call it like I see it. All said, let’s list us a list, shall we? Be sure to add your own thoughts below, as always.
Just for record there writer Craig Morrison didn't step into his position with AO till well well well years after the launch he had nothing to with the making the game stable.He over the website AOVault nothing more than a fanboy with no mmog or game experience.
Also AO def should be number 1 in this poll the funny thing is Funcom havin 2 games in top 5 ESPECIALLY knowing they needed to make it right after AO was such a mess and ppl still think Secret World will be good.Those money grubbing pigs at funcom have no respect for there customer base AT ALL and if you think different then have fun handing more of your hard earned money to them.
Just for record there writer Craig Morrison didn't step into his position with AO till well well well years after the launch he had nothing to with the making the game stable.He over the website AOVault nothing more than a fanboy with no mmog or game experience.
Also AO def should be number 1 in this poll the funny thing is Funcom havin 2 games in top 5 ESPECIALLY knowing they needed to make it right after AO was such a mess and ppl still think Secret World will be good.Those money grubbing pigs at funcom have no respect for there customer base AT ALL and if you think different then have fun handing more of your hard earned money to them.
The Secret World is Funcom's last chance to redeem themselves. If they screw this one up, it's game over for them.
But as it's completely silent for the last 6 months around The Secret World, together with this game already being in developement before AoC. I think they finally got the message not to release the game unfinished and that they really trying to do it right this time.
And seriously, as I said, they have to. It's their very last chance to do something right.
WoW at the top of this list is just plain silly. Sure it had it's problems, but no even CLOSE to some of these other games that launched. I honestly think your memory is skewed or something on this one.
Aion was an awful launch...I just remember laughing at the "Please wait 7 hours to join the game".
Vangaurd was unplayable for me at launch.
Those 2 games were the worst launches I have personally witnessed.
'Ha!' to all those defending WoW like they were insulted personally. I remember all the horrific lag and server downtime when WoW first launched. When the huge lag spikes hit, the servers were down, or the game was just simply unplayable, I just played another game... no big deal... but it was just plain awful. 10 minutes... 15 minutes to loot. I remember my early guild even came up with a holiday attached to the terrible servers: Shiddylag! Shiddylag doesn't just come once per year... it came many, many, many, many times.
Your memory has had a major lapse. Never had a problem looting, sure servers went down at times, but it was nothing like your post. I just get really tired of such disinformation. Probably were not even around for the launch!
Try the EQ2 launch it was laughable compared to Wow. Half the computers could not even run the game.
There was a set of WoW problem servers that had major, persistent issues. The game was rarely playable for the first month and barely playable when you did get in on those servers. I'm not surprised there are people who had different experiences because like an earlier poster said that set of 20 servers was more problematic than the other servers.
clearly we are seeing people that didnt try to play wow on release...it was a horrible mess at release..it still makes me shiver
I did play at day 1 actually, Warsong server. Other then huge queues in first few days it had zero problems. One of the most polished games in the history of MMORPG.
clearly we are seeing people that didnt try to play wow on release...it was a horrible mess at release..it still makes me shiver
I did play at day 1 actually, Warsong server. Other then huge queues in first few days it had zero problems. One of the most polished games in the history of MMORPG.
lol@post proves my point...zero problems..thats laughable
Ummm no vanguard or anarchy online? Who is this guy?
Originally posted by Scagweed22 is it the graphics? the repetativenesses? i mean what is the point? you could be so much more productive in real life Real life brings repetition and pointlessness too. The only thing real life offers is Great graphics. Its kinda expensive too and way to dependent on the cash shop. Totally pay to win as well. No thank you. Ill stick to my games.
When I think of bad launches i'm thinking of technical issues. So I wouldn't put Age of Conan on that list though WWII Online should be tops.
I didn't have any issues with WoW at launch however there has been non stop issues since the launch of Cataclysm. There is a 150 page thread on it on the forums related to connection issues and blizzard acknowledged they are having issues. The launch of BC was also unplayable due to massive lag as well as some bugs.
Wtf are you talking about??? no technical issues with conan? HELLO *echo*
ok now that im donw with that.. how about mass memory leaks for anyone who ran a 32 bit system, some even on 64 bit.. how about falling threw tortage's ground to land in a mas lake of random water that you couldent drown in, or use your return!... oh.. and what about aocbuddy? the hacking tool that was sold to mases becasue of the disgruntled employee leaked the damn source code out so people could play god mode/port anywhere/infinant speed so on so forth, the program gave some of those players who like to cheat vitual GOD mode, they had almost all the powers the damn devs had. thats the the tip of the ice burg.. how about cimmeria crashing every 5 seconds? skills blatently not working. Unfinished skill TREES. Bugs out the wazoo includeing one that when you swiched weapons you would impale yourself with your sword/mace. OH and how about fatlity glitches when coupled with server lag would instant kill you? that game was HORRIBLE at launch... thoe it did get better the game took another 6 MONTHS untill it could even be considerd ready for closed beta..........
sorry for the insult but realy.. im happy you had no issues but MY GOD did i have them...
Agree about WoW, but guess I am in the minority. It was very much a server issue, great for you if you didn't have it, frustratingly unplayable if you did.
However Vanguard was just a broken shell, pushed out of the door rather than left to add some form of polish. That experience put me off any further SOE games . .
These people saying that WoW shouldn't be on the list obviously didn't play at launch. If an MMO now had the kind of launch WoW had it would have a shorter lifespan than APB.
I'm not sure if Aion should be on the list, however. I know that some people had a ton of problems, but I personally didn't have any.
I agree with Donblas , Final Fantasy 14 was definitely the worst launch. They are still giving out free credits right? yah , worst launch ever.
We should differentiate between worst launch and bad game. Or make sure what is definition of "bad launch". For me bad launch is not being able to log to servers, having so many bugs that gameplay is nearly impossible, .... I do not see FFIV as bad launch, but game itself is for sure the worst disappointment ever for me. Speaking as SE lover. I was not in at wow launch because at start did not like cartoony graphics (however they are now for me the best, I literally love them), but for sure on top should be games as Vanguard, AO, AoC, ... Not that Warhammer was any better. Do not know about launch time of TB, but was one of the shortest lived games on my computer, before after months servers closed.
clearly we are seeing people that didnt try to play wow on release...it was a horrible mess at release..it still makes me shiver
I did play at day 1 actually, Warsong server. Other then huge queues in first few days it had zero problems. One of the most polished games in the history of MMORPG.
lol@post proves my point...zero problems..thats laughable
What really is laughable - your attempts to judge on topic while having zero MMO experience other then WoW
These people saying that WoW shouldn't be on the list obviously didn't play at launch. If an MMO now had the kind of launch WoW had it would have a shorter lifespan than APB.
I'm not sure if Aion should be on the list, however. I know that some people had a ton of problems, but I personally didn't have any.
Agree. I do not see Aion as bad start, despite had to wait for hours and hours to login (mainly because of that personal shops players abused just to be logged constantly in) ... but is game that I stopped to play when 6 or so of my alts reached .v. 20 or so ....and is kind of game I knew already at that time I will be never ever back. Game was simply said pure Korean grind fest. After few weeks in game were present more bots then real players, support=0, and when I decided to expand chat frame to entire screen was literally filled with gold spamming messages in around 5 secs. Impressive in some way.
No, WOW was a horrible launch it's heralded as the worst not just here. You got lucky VERY VERY VERY lucky, or your lying. Lag in stormwind was so bad you would experience the feeling like your wearing electromagnetic shoes trying to sprint across a steel golden gate bridge and someone keeps flipping the shoes on and off. People just logged in standing around, zones overfilled with people, queues horrible. What's potentially the worst, is the game has gone from what it was, a reasonably descent game, after they ironed out those problems, to something I don't want to call a real challenge anymore. They've increased the level cap, 85, great, now make it harder to HIT 85, REALLY harder, the game is no longer a challenge as a worgen within 2 days of launch at MAX(maybe less I forget what I was told) hit max level, that's stupid, I understand quick to hit 60 maybe, but they've turned it into something that's too easy. Eve Online has done some great things, removing learning skills refunding players back those skill points and making the new player experience better by not having them so people aren't stuck training learning when there are cool ships they want to fly but a corp mate says no train learning not that it'll be faster. I've been playing eve for over 3 years now, it's one of the most solid mmo's I've had the pleasure to play and I've been involved in beta for Aion, Warhammer online, champions online, dozens of Free mmo's, and been a subscriber to everquest, everquest II, Age of Conan, City Of Heroes, DDO, WoW, Final Fantasy XI, and I know there are probably a few I'm forgetting. But off subject there, really world of warcraft had a horrible launch it was too popular and it took blizzard quite a while to get things settled. Hopefully their next mmo will be released with lots more stability and implemented with better results.
Comments
Aion was horrible if you were unlucky to pcik the bad servers, i waited 6h in que once while my RL friends was ingame and haveing fun.
avarge wait time for me was 2-3h befor getting in. and if you didt pay attention it would disconnect you for beeing afk while selecting chars so you had to go to the end of the wait line again.
FFXIV sound be on this list hands down. I assume this list is of MMO that haven't been cancelled already.
Just for record there writer Craig Morrison didn't step into his position with AO till well well well years after the launch he had nothing to with the making the game stable.He over the website AOVault nothing more than a fanboy with no mmog or game experience.
Also AO def should be number 1 in this poll the funny thing is Funcom havin 2 games in top 5 ESPECIALLY knowing they needed to make it right after AO was such a mess and ppl still think Secret World will be good.Those money grubbing pigs at funcom have no respect for there customer base AT ALL and if you think different then have fun handing more of your hard earned money to them.
The Secret World is Funcom's last chance to redeem themselves. If they screw this one up, it's game over for them.
But as it's completely silent for the last 6 months around The Secret World, together with this game already being in developement before AoC. I think they finally got the message not to release the game unfinished and that they really trying to do it right this time.
And seriously, as I said, they have to. It's their very last chance to do something right.
WoW at the top of this list is just plain silly. Sure it had it's problems, but no even CLOSE to some of these other games that launched. I honestly think your memory is skewed or something on this one.
Aion was an awful launch...I just remember laughing at the "Please wait 7 hours to join the game".
Vangaurd was unplayable for me at launch.
Those 2 games were the worst launches I have personally witnessed.
Well I guess this shows any mmo has the potential of being the underdog......well some more than others.
WoW #1 at worst launch? Rofl, it shouldnt even be in in this list. Same as Aion.
Vanguard, FF14, Shadowbane, Spellborn - there were loads of games with horrible releases. Stop writing if you have no clue
clearly we are seeing people that didnt try to play wow on release...it was a horrible mess at release..it still makes me shiver
There was a set of WoW problem servers that had major, persistent issues. The game was rarely playable for the first month and barely playable when you did get in on those servers. I'm not surprised there are people who had different experiences because like an earlier poster said that set of 20 servers was more problematic than the other servers.
proof we should go back and try some games... like ffxiv. aoc. and yes even vanguard
I did play at day 1 actually, Warsong server. Other then huge queues in first few days it had zero problems. One of the most polished games in the history of MMORPG.
lol@post proves my point...zero problems..thats laughable
guess you didnt read the initial disscussion
i know right...funny shizt i played on burning blade. i actually quit for like 4 months and played eq2 cuz of it
Ummm no vanguard or anarchy online? Who is this guy?
Originally posted by Scagweed22
is it the graphics? the repetativenesses? i mean what is the point? you could be so much more productive in real life
Real life brings repetition and pointlessness too. The only thing real life offers is Great graphics. Its kinda expensive too and way to dependent on the cash shop. Totally pay to win as well. No thank you. Ill stick to my games.
Wtf are you talking about??? no technical issues with conan? HELLO *echo*
ok now that im donw with that.. how about mass memory leaks for anyone who ran a 32 bit system, some even on 64 bit.. how about falling threw tortage's ground to land in a mas lake of random water that you couldent drown in, or use your return!... oh.. and what about aocbuddy? the hacking tool that was sold to mases becasue of the disgruntled employee leaked the damn source code out so people could play god mode/port anywhere/infinant speed so on so forth, the program gave some of those players who like to cheat vitual GOD mode, they had almost all the powers the damn devs had. thats the the tip of the ice burg.. how about cimmeria crashing every 5 seconds? skills blatently not working. Unfinished skill TREES. Bugs out the wazoo includeing one that when you swiched weapons you would impale yourself with your sword/mace. OH and how about fatlity glitches when coupled with server lag would instant kill you? that game was HORRIBLE at launch... thoe it did get better the game took another 6 MONTHS untill it could even be considerd ready for closed beta..........
sorry for the insult but realy.. im happy you had no issues but MY GOD did i have them...
Agree about WoW, but guess I am in the minority. It was very much a server issue, great for you if you didn't have it, frustratingly unplayable if you did.
However Vanguard was just a broken shell, pushed out of the door rather than left to add some form of polish. That experience put me off any further SOE games . .
These people saying that WoW shouldn't be on the list obviously didn't play at launch. If an MMO now had the kind of launch WoW had it would have a shorter lifespan than APB.
I'm not sure if Aion should be on the list, however. I know that some people had a ton of problems, but I personally didn't have any.
I can't talk about APB because i haven't played it but, where is FFXIV. This game made me cry.
I am not surprised mmorpg.com has always been antiwow :P
We should differentiate between worst launch and bad game. Or make sure what is definition of "bad launch". For me bad launch is not being able to log to servers, having so many bugs that gameplay is nearly impossible, .... I do not see FFIV as bad launch, but game itself is for sure the worst disappointment ever for me. Speaking as SE lover. I was not in at wow launch because at start did not like cartoony graphics (however they are now for me the best, I literally love them), but for sure on top should be games as Vanguard, AO, AoC, ... Not that Warhammer was any better. Do not know about launch time of TB, but was one of the shortest lived games on my computer, before after months servers closed.
What really is laughable - your attempts to judge on topic while having zero MMO experience other then WoW
Agree. I do not see Aion as bad start, despite had to wait for hours and hours to login (mainly because of that personal shops players abused just to be logged constantly in) ... but is game that I stopped to play when 6 or so of my alts reached .v. 20 or so ....and is kind of game I knew already at that time I will be never ever back. Game was simply said pure Korean grind fest. After few weeks in game were present more bots then real players, support=0, and when I decided to expand chat frame to entire screen was literally filled with gold spamming messages in around 5 secs. Impressive in some way.
No, WOW was a horrible launch it's heralded as the worst not just here. You got lucky VERY VERY VERY lucky, or your lying. Lag in stormwind was so bad you would experience the feeling like your wearing electromagnetic shoes trying to sprint across a steel golden gate bridge and someone keeps flipping the shoes on and off. People just logged in standing around, zones overfilled with people, queues horrible. What's potentially the worst, is the game has gone from what it was, a reasonably descent game, after they ironed out those problems, to something I don't want to call a real challenge anymore. They've increased the level cap, 85, great, now make it harder to HIT 85, REALLY harder, the game is no longer a challenge as a worgen within 2 days of launch at MAX(maybe less I forget what I was told) hit max level, that's stupid, I understand quick to hit 60 maybe, but they've turned it into something that's too easy. Eve Online has done some great things, removing learning skills refunding players back those skill points and making the new player experience better by not having them so people aren't stuck training learning when there are cool ships they want to fly but a corp mate says no train learning not that it'll be faster. I've been playing eve for over 3 years now, it's one of the most solid mmo's I've had the pleasure to play and I've been involved in beta for Aion, Warhammer online, champions online, dozens of Free mmo's, and been a subscriber to everquest, everquest II, Age of Conan, City Of Heroes, DDO, WoW, Final Fantasy XI, and I know there are probably a few I'm forgetting. But off subject there, really world of warcraft had a horrible launch it was too popular and it took blizzard quite a while to get things settled. Hopefully their next mmo will be released with lots more stability and implemented with better results.
Wat other games could have been on that list?
Tabula Rasa was a disaster (open beta was ugly), Auto Assault was on the same tracks, and recently FFXIV was horrible.
I'm sure I'm forgetting some.
Edit : indeed I am : Vanguard and Dark and Light. THe worst of all. ^^