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Wish was cancelled for financial reasons
I keep seeing people wondering why the Wish Project was cancelled.
According to a letter posted on the Wish Forum just prior to its being brought down, the reason was financial. The letter was from marc of MR to one of the live content moderators informing him of the decision to cancel the project. The reason given was simple. From the analysis of data they'd gotten thus far in Beta 2.0, they didn't believe they'd get the client base to support the game. The letter said there wasn't time to go into detail at that time, but that was the basic reason given for the cancellation.
My opinion is that the game requirements were simply too high for a large client base. The game was too far ahead of the average gamer's system. I have an awesome system for 3D as I do alot of artwork in the genre, but still, I had to tweak my system to get the performance needed for the game to run as it was meant to. Most of the tech problems testers were having were due to their systems or vid cards.....mostly the vid cards or lack of RAM. I even had to update the drivers on my motherboard as well as my CPU in order to get the game performing properly. Thus, I believe their analysis told them that not enough people had systems that would allow them to run Wish as it was meant to be, and therefore they'd never get enough clients to support the game. The game was just too far ahead of the average technology. Almost everyone that was able to run the game properly, got hooked right away even with all the work that still needed to be done on polishing the game.
For those that didn't like the controls......well, hey....I didn't either when I first started, but I've beta tested enough to know it takes a bit of time to get comfortable. Once I was comfortable it was really easy to get around. I had more problems with the chat system of communication, but the Devs even responded quickly to that and made some changes. In all the beta tests I participated in, the Devs on this one did an awesome job and were incredibly responsive to the players requests and needs. They even got the Auto Run and Run/flee options active rather quickly, which improved travel geometrically. I know almost all of the bugs I reported were fixed with the next upgrade, unless it was a serious bug.....hehe, then they solved it with a live content action that took the problem out of play, but had it fixed by the end of the event. So the Dev's on the Wish Team really did a fantastic job. Also remember, they still had 2 planned betas after 2.0 and time for yet another prior to planned release if they needed it. Many testers crapped out in the early days because of server instability, but they didn't stick around long enough. They had that pretty much solved within 3 or 4 days....pretty normal for load testing actually, for a new release that is....and remember they had tons and tons of people playing all on the same server.....not the normal several different servers. Other testers left the beta because they simply had a crappy, old system that just couldn't handle the game and didn't know enough about them to adjust their settings in game, or even to realize that the reasons they were giving pointed directly to their computer and not the game itself. Easier to pass the buck onto the game I guess rather than admit that they had limited knowledge themselves, or not enough money to upgrade their computer. Many of them that actually posted their system specs, didn't even meet the minimum requirements for the game. *nuff said there, eh?*
When the news came that the project itself had been cancelled, they had well over 600 people in less than 15 mins willing to invest in the game to keep it in development. Project Wish at www.projectwish.com is still trying to keep the game in development, because they actually got a really good look at the game and see it's potential. Many of the software engineers in the test actually offered for the game saying they'd finish it themselves if MR was giving up on it. I hope they do manage their goal. Still, for financial considerations of the client base, the game should be shelved and developed over time to allow the technology of the general populace to catch up to it, and then gamers will be in for a real treat.
Comments
Wow, now there's a serious amount of spin.
Lack of faith from potential publishers, investors, etc. that Wish would ever achieve it's goals is not cancelation for "financial reasons." That's cancellation for apparent inability to ever complete the project and produce a profit. Cancelled for lack of development, cancelled for finding the product to be undevelopable or the project uncompletable using current resources and technology.
Wish had a number of advanced concepts and gameplay ideas, but the 2.0 product was hardly too advanced for testers systems. The graphics looked worse than the original Ultima Online! The problem was more likely server side lag and poor or unfinished graphic engine design. The 2.0 beta looked like placeholder graphics; shells that would eventually receive final artwork.
Alot of blood, sweat, tears, hopes and dreams went into getting as far as Wish got. I hope MR and the Wish developers can someday return to Wish and realize their dreams, but total delusional irrationalization by anyone isn't going to make that happen faster.
I hate poeple complaining about grapich, what are you spoiled? poeple enjoy tetris and packman, so why have all new good games need to have better graphic then the rest. I found then good enough, really good, and i played on the lowest settings.
But it surtenly set one bing step into the MMORPG world, by attempting to make the world first UMMORPG, with a seamless world to provide live content, and the did pretty well, only a shame for the money, but i think the game would be ready to give it an other go in about a year, when there is the technoligy to provide cheaper server cost.
-- Slackker Safecrackker
- Nellus
Wow, now theres a serious amount of flame! Delusional? Placeholder graphics? Worse than the original Ultima Online? Sounds like your rig had trouble running the Wish graphics perhaps. As he said, you wouldn't have been alone in that.
Has MR actually told you the reason they decided to cancel the project? ie do you have evidence for asserting that the other guy's theories are wrong? I doubt it. And, actually, there were a huge number of posts on the MR beta board about people's systems being inadequate and having to upgrade etc, mostly from people who did play other MMOGs - so that *could* have been an important factor. None of us really knows, until more facts come out.
FYI, if you do really hope "MR and the Wish developers can someday return to Wish and realize their dreams" you might want to check out Project Wish: http://www.projectwish.com/plan.htm
MR killed my donkey! Damn them!
Mutable Realms killed my donkey! Damn them!
a lot of the graphics WERE placeholders. duh
I seriously hope this game is picked up again. It was in my opinion, already better than any other MMOs out at the moment, but that's just my view.
It hurts my brain to think how good it could have been if they finished it
-it's just a dream-
[we need a worldwide genocide/ a planetary suicide/ and when the whole damned world is dead/ there''s your f***ing peace]
YES, they where, every update they replaced old graphics for newer one, so at the end that would have been better
I ran the game properly and I hated it. Wasn't ever a matter of performance issues :P