Ive thought about this alot. And i cant say it enough, if a development team right now were to release an actual Sandbox MMORPG like Asherons Call, it would destory the market.
There are NO good quality sandbox mmo's on the market, at all.
Every developer continues to try and rerelease WorldOf________. <Insert your theme here.
And then the arguments concerning it are all about how this game is 99% identical to WoW, but that 1% difference, lets talk about it at great length.....
What made Asherons Call so great, it was the alter ego factor, the excitement of combat when there was actually somethign ventured/somethign gained. And the massive gameworld you never felt you knew entirely.
Every game out there today tries to make it so that EVERY player see's and does EVERYTHIGN.
Asherons call was sooo massive, no single character woudl ever had the same adventure as any other charaftyer. No character ever seen or did or knew of everythign in the game. People have played it for 8 years and still find new things in game.
The argument does come down to Themepark vs. Sandbox. It is the question. It is the devide.
Right now every development team has it in their head "We can make more money if we make a themepark, than if we make a sandbox". And so every development team is making a themepark, in blizzard fashion, with some new IP painted over it.
Gah, if only i had the right investors, this market could be turned on its head. Persistent, dynamic, changing gameworld, with intricate character development that never ends, never reaches an end. NO END GAME AT ALL. No end game concept, no end game talk, no end game items, no end game end game at all.
Ive thought about this alot. And i cant say it enough, if a development team right now were to release an actual Sandbox MMORPG like Asherons Call, it would destory the market. There are NO good quality sandbox mmo's on the market, at all. Every developer continues to try and rerelease WorldOf________. <Insert your theme here. And then the arguments concerning it are all about how this game is 99% identical to WoW, but that 1% difference, lets talk about it at great length.....
What made Asherons Call so great, it was the alter ego factor, the excitement of combat when there was actually somethign ventured/somethign gained. And the massive gameworld you never felt you knew entirely. Every game out there today tries to make it so that EVERY player see's and does EVERYTHIGN. Asherons call was sooo massive, no single character woudl ever had the same adventure as any other charaftyer. No character ever seen or did or knew of everythign in the game. People have played it for 8 years and still find new things in game.
The argument does come down to Themepark vs. Sandbox. It is the question. It is the devide. Right now every development team has it in their head "We can make more money if we make a themepark, than if we make a sandbox". And so every development team is making a themepark, in blizzard fashion, with some new IP painted over it. Gah, if only i had the right investors, this market could be turned on its head. Persistent, dynamic, changing gameworld, with intricate character development that never ends, never reaches an end. NO END GAME AT ALL. No end game concept, no end game talk, no end game items, no end game end game at all.
Good point. But you know at some time all great things must come to an end. But with WOW tainting the industry. We will won't see a game like in a long time. What i'm look for is a game with action not just sitting back and watch all the character do all the action with just the stroke of a key. Champions is the closest I've gotten. I want some combos. I want to be able to put my opponent through an object. I want to execute my enemy in the most gorest fashion possible, while still packaged in the form of an mmo. At the rate Ill have to develop a game like that myself.
Ive thought about this alot. And i cant say it enough, if a development team right now were to release an actual Sandbox MMORPG like Asherons Call, it would destory the market. There are NO good quality sandbox mmo's on the market, at all. Every developer continues to try and rerelease WorldOf________. <Insert your theme here. And then the arguments concerning it are all about how this game is 99% identical to WoW, but that 1% difference, lets talk about it at great length.....
What made Asherons Call so great, it was the alter ego factor, the excitement of combat when there was actually somethign ventured/somethign gained. And the massive gameworld you never felt you knew entirely. Every game out there today tries to make it so that EVERY player see's and does EVERYTHIGN. Asherons call was sooo massive, no single character woudl ever had the same adventure as any other charaftyer. No character ever seen or did or knew of everythign in the game. People have played it for 8 years and still find new things in game.
The argument does come down to Themepark vs. Sandbox. It is the question. It is the devide. Right now every development team has it in their head "We can make more money if we make a themepark, than if we make a sandbox". And so every development team is making a themepark, in blizzard fashion, with some new IP painted over it. Gah, if only i had the right investors, this market could be turned on its head. Persistent, dynamic, changing gameworld, with intricate character development that never ends, never reaches an end. NO END GAME AT ALL. No end game concept, no end game talk, no end game items, no end game end game at all.
Good point. But you know at some time all great things must come to an end. But with WOW tainting the industry. We will won't see a game like in a long time. What i'm look for is a game with action not just sitting back and watch all the character do all the action with just the stroke of a key. Champions is the closest I've gotten. I want some combos. I want to be able to put my opponent through an object. I want to execute my enemy in the most gorest fashion possible, while still packaged in the form of an mmo. At the rate Ill have to develop a game like that myself.
World of Warcraft is not "tainting" the industry. As I've stated it has brought millions upon millions of new players into the MMO market. I loved Asherons Call(one) myself. But I'd certainly not wish to go back to its hash death penalty and dated graphics. Even if they updated it, using say the Cryo3 or Unreal3 engine, the death penalty is still too harsh for today's demographics. I'm personally done with those types of corpse runs, as are many, many others in the western markets.
As for the rest, if you are looking for a FFA full loot PvP gankfest, you might want to try DarkFall or Mortal Online.
I would also luv to see Auto Assault resurrected. I was a great game if only given a little more time, and it filled a hole in the mmorpg genre, which has only been partially encroached on. No one has done a driving mmorpg like it to my knowledge, it was great!
Tabula Rasa was operated by NCSoft , a company that seems unable to run any game properly so it is no surprised it failed. Would be nice to see another company buy it and bring it back.
Tabula Rasa was operated by NCSoft , a company that seems unable to run any game properly so it is no surprised it failed. Would be nice to see another company buy it and bring it back.
No company is going to touch it - it needs more money and work than anyone is going to want to risk
Tabula Rasa was operated by NCSoft , a company that seems unable to run any game properly so it is no surprised it failed. Would be nice to see another company buy it and bring it back.
No company is going to touch it - it needs more money and work than anyone is going to want to risk
I disagree. Tabula Rasa was pretty complete when they decided to shutdown the servers and the developers were releasing updates on a weekly basis ( not some mediocre stuff: entire maps , skill re designs etc. in short: massive updates ) . The foundation was done at the end and we saw folks discovering Tabula Rasa and other players returning. At that EXACT moment NCsoft decided to pull the plug which makes me seriously doubt their motives ( especially considering they promptly sacked Richard Garriott afterwards and Strain and Reid left the company as well, coincidence ? I think not ) . At the expense of TR we got the lemon which is Aion.....
Tabula Rasa was operated by NCSoft , a company that seems unable to run any game properly so it is no surprised it failed. Would be nice to see another company buy it and bring it back.
No company is going to touch it - it needs more money and work than anyone is going to want to risk
I disagree. Tabula Rasa was pretty complete when they decided to shutdown the servers and the developers were releasing updates on a weekly basis ( not some mediocre stuff: entire maps , skill re designs etc. in short: massive updates ) . The foundation was done at the end and we saw folks discovering Tabula Rasa and other players returning. At that EXACT moment NCsoft decided to pull the plug which makes me seriously doubt their motives ( especially considering they promptly sacked Richard Garriott afterwards and Strain and Reid left the company as well, coincidence ? I think not ) . At the expense of TR we got the lemon which is Aion.....
Stand by for the arrival of hysterical Aion Defense Farce in 3...2... ^^ TR needed some work(end game content, a real crafting system, dynamic instances to name a few) but nothing that couldn't have been handled with proper allocation of resources. Instead, NCsoft pulled the plug(and I'm betting got a fat tax write off). Has anyone else noticed that all three of the games they have axed have been western?
As for Aion, the game has serious retention problems in the western markets. Which is only to be expected, because NCsoft insisted on using pretty much the same format that works in the east. It seems obvious that what ever Korean suits are making the decisions, they have little clue about the difference between the eastern and western markets.
Ive thought about this alot. And i cant say it enough, if a development team right now were to release an actual Sandbox MMORPG like Asherons Call, it would destory the market. There are NO good quality sandbox mmo's on the market, at all. Every developer continues to try and rerelease WorldOf________. <Insert your theme here. And then the arguments concerning it are all about how this game is 99% identical to WoW, but that 1% difference, lets talk about it at great length.....
What made Asherons Call so great, it was the alter ego factor, the excitement of combat when there was actually somethign ventured/somethign gained. And the massive gameworld you never felt you knew entirely. Every game out there today tries to make it so that EVERY player see's and does EVERYTHIGN. Asherons call was sooo massive, no single character woudl ever had the same adventure as any other charaftyer. No character ever seen or did or knew of everythign in the game. People have played it for 8 years and still find new things in game.
The argument does come down to Themepark vs. Sandbox. It is the question. It is the devide. Right now every development team has it in their head "We can make more money if we make a themepark, than if we make a sandbox". And so every development team is making a themepark, in blizzard fashion, with some new IP painted over it. Gah, if only i had the right investors, this market could be turned on its head. Persistent, dynamic, changing gameworld, with intricate character development that never ends, never reaches an end. NO END GAME AT ALL. No end game concept, no end game talk, no end game items, no end game end game at all.
Good point. But you know at some time all great things must come to an end. But with WOW tainting the industry. We will won't see a game like in a long time. What i'm look for is a game with action not just sitting back and watch all the character do all the action with just the stroke of a key. Champions is the closest I've gotten. I want some combos. I want to be able to put my opponent through an object. I want to execute my enemy in the most gorest fashion possible, while still packaged in the form of an mmo. At the rate Ill have to develop a game like that myself.
World of Warcraft is not "tainting" the industry. As I've stated it has brought millions upon millions of new players into the MMO market. I loved Asherons Call(one) myself. But I'd certainly not wish to go back to its hash death penalty and dated graphics. Even if they updated it, using say the Cryo3 or Unreal3 engine, the death penalty is still too harsh for today's demographics. I'm personally done with those types of corpse runs, as are many, many others in the western markets.
As for the rest, if you are looking for a FFA full loot PvP gankfest, you might want to try DarkFall or Mortal Online.
Hey what you dont consider taint I do. Like I said Most develpoers wont do an mmo with the simple fact they might get written off a another WOW clone. In other words a tainted industry. The only people wow sucessfuly brought to the mmo market were thoses in the age of 16 and under. For those older it was more like chasing away because they dumbdown the system. Forgein players dont mind the death penalty. As for american player most rather go through the game with no penalty. Why do you think player of UO switched to WOW. Cause they got tired of people being able to walk offwith their gear. Thus the downfall of UO, plus a lot of other reasons. Mortal Online looks cool but it look like it fall just short of Oblivions smooth feel. Im not a PVP whore I prefer to fight mob and explore the land. Thats my thing. PvP is for players who like to cause other player misery.
Point blank lets just agree to disagree. Cause you might not see WOW as a taint on the indusrty . But a person like me and quite a few other will always see it that way.
I'm going to give some info on what Wish Online was, just because it was that good. I beta'd Wish Online for the few weeks before it got canned. I hadn't really stuck to any other MMO up until that point, I'd moved around several MMOs (mostly f2p ones), not really finding anything that could hold my attention. Then I found this gem called Wish Online. The gameplay was fantastic. The more you did of something, the better you got at it, so mining would over time increase your strength and endurance. The loot system was great to, everything you killed actually dropped what it was using, though often it was broken due to you slaying the creature. You could also skin them and get different types of leather. The crafting system is the best I'd ever seen, though it would have been better if the end product had a bit more differences. You'd basically buy blueprints that you'd have to memorize, thus you could only have I think it was 6 learnt at any one time, basically enough for a full set of armour. When crafting the item, say a chest plate, the required materials were not exact, instead you use various different metals/allows and different leathers/woods etc. The end product would reflect the materials you put in via colour and durability, as everything in the game eventually broke over time. The processes were basically: 1. Buy a mule and get a bag for it so it would carry stuff. 2. Go to a mine, which was basically a large open area that had large rocks that, if you had enough knowledge of mining (the more you mined the more you'd learn), you could see what materials existed in each rock. 3. You'd use your pick axe and mine it, when you reached your near max weight limit, you'd dump it into the bags on your mule and resume till your mule couldn't carry anymore. The nifty thing was, you'd get tired over time and need to rest, and you'd move slower when carrying more weight. I have fond memories of sitting around a wood log fire (that I'd setup) with other miners and resting up for another round of mining. 4. Once you were done, you'd head to a forge, in my case I was based out of an underground Dwarven city, so I'd travel down into a mountain and then use the ore I'd mined to create ingots. You'd have to know what to mix to create different ones, hell you could even make the ingot molds or buy them. 5. You'd go to the forge area or furnace and/or the anvil, to then craft your item. It'd take time, and most for the stuff you did in the furnace, you wouldn't have to wait around, it only took like 5 minutes, but still was more realistic. You'd then get your item. The great thing was, you could sell the items based on the materials used. There was no straight forward materials used for maximum output, so it required experimentation. The better the combination you used, the more durability it had and thus the more it was used. I joined a guild as the master blacksmith and were getting orders from other guilds for full sets of armours, it was quite exciting. It wasn't all danger free though, the stronger materials often had strong NPCs nearby or involved killing them, thus you often had people for help or had some help in the guild. The live events were nice to, not far from my Dwarven city, there was a deep mine that spiraled down, which from time to time they'd supposedly dig into the tunnels of underground monsters/evil/undead etc. So you'd see someone running up over the hill shouting for everyone to take arms and head over to the spiral mine, once there you'd see undead or whatever it was streaming out of the exit, and you'd have to fight to contain it, otherwise it'd spread even further. This sort of stuff was done via admins/GMs. As for why it failed, I'd heard a lot of rumors about it being that funding was pulled, but for sure it was some sort of monetary issue. Whether it be the cost of ongoing maintenance plus hardware, or that the devs/publisher/shareholders didn't think that the game would generate a profit, or enough to survive. For a while after, there was said to be a group of people from the community working on recreating the game, with large praise from all those from beta, but I've not heard anything about it since so I'd assumed it has died. If any MMO should be brought back, Wish Online should be. Updated graphics, more content, additional things to do, and actually launching.
That sounds friggin' awesome. Sorry to hear that it went down. I hope they bring it back as an F2P game or something.
I think the list you made was excellent. Personally I would pay to play Auto Assault again, I really miss that game quite a bit. Earth and Beyond would be cool to explore again as well. I know a lot of people loved AC2, I tried it but at the time was a die-hard AC1 fan, and probably could not appreciate AC2 for what it was.
I also tried the trial of Tabula Rasa, but I just didn't get it, wasn't for me.
It would be nice to inform these companies that there still is an audience out here for these games.
I would def love to see TR again... I know at the time I had tons of criticisms, but truth is I enjoyed the game!
I would also love to see WAR flooding with players, which would be the way to save it... but I have a feeling i should say my goodbyes and play it while I still can...
I don't know when you actually last played TR but I can assure you the developers were adding endgame content on a weekly basis when the suits decided to pull the plug . The crafting was pretty much done as well ( they overhauled that well before servers were shut down ). The Earth zone was added about one week (!!) before server shutdown.For me it was corporate in-fighting - very apparent too- which made them decide to pull the plug. It's no coincidence they immediately sacked Garriott brothers AND Strain and Reid "left" NCsoft shortly thereafter. They still have a $24 million lawsuit from Richard Garriott as a result to their management policies. What really pissed folks off is the lying they did right up to the point of server shutdown day . Thy were assuring folks 48 hours before the press release announcing cancelation "they would never cancel TR , that's one of our triple A titles !!" , they lied when they said RG left voluntary etc.
And they still persist in misinforming folks - see Aion and all the promises they made regarding that one ( "no,no ,no !You can be sure it won't be another Asian grinder,folks !". I wouldn't shed a tear if NCsoft west were to close down and they would sell western franchises ( you can pretty sure Guild wars 2 would be purchased by a far more reliable company immediately ) .
IOriginally posted by abhaigh
If TR was to make a successful return to existance it would need at least another year in the oven before it could possibly be considered 'done' the zones were tiny, the mobs boring and the fights predictable. crafting was a joke the skill tree was barren and there was absolutely no point to levelling after you hit 30 and got your class'es signature move not that there was any content above level 40 anyway
I beta tested Wish. I was by far the most promising fantasy MMO I tried and it was a total shock when they decided to close it. Since there was nothing wrong with the game concept and mechanics (though still a lot of development to go), VERY positive feedback from the testers and there is still nothing like it on the market, this would be my #1 option for revival.
I not sure and dont quote me on this. But I think the developers behind ULTIMA ONLINE moved on the to another coompany. Funcom to be exact. I not sure on that one though. The rumored to be mirror UO in almost every aspect is name the "Secret World". I was told that runs the same as UO, but with AOC graphics and UO system. The story revolves around the three orders that are supose to have control of the world economy and government. They are the Illuminati, the Templars, and the last one the Dragons, I thought was a myth. But if their name apperas in this game. The I guess there is some truth to their existance.. Im probaly off on the info though.
Comments
Ive thought about this alot. And i cant say it enough, if a development team right now were to release an actual Sandbox MMORPG like Asherons Call, it would destory the market.
There are NO good quality sandbox mmo's on the market, at all.
Every developer continues to try and rerelease WorldOf________. <Insert your theme here.
And then the arguments concerning it are all about how this game is 99% identical to WoW, but that 1% difference, lets talk about it at great length.....
What made Asherons Call so great, it was the alter ego factor, the excitement of combat when there was actually somethign ventured/somethign gained. And the massive gameworld you never felt you knew entirely.
Every game out there today tries to make it so that EVERY player see's and does EVERYTHIGN.
Asherons call was sooo massive, no single character woudl ever had the same adventure as any other charaftyer. No character ever seen or did or knew of everythign in the game. People have played it for 8 years and still find new things in game.
The argument does come down to Themepark vs. Sandbox. It is the question. It is the devide.
Right now every development team has it in their head "We can make more money if we make a themepark, than if we make a sandbox". And so every development team is making a themepark, in blizzard fashion, with some new IP painted over it.
Gah, if only i had the right investors, this market could be turned on its head. Persistent, dynamic, changing gameworld, with intricate character development that never ends, never reaches an end. NO END GAME AT ALL. No end game concept, no end game talk, no end game items, no end game end game at all.
Good point. But you know at some time all great things must come to an end. But with WOW tainting the industry. We will won't see a game like in a long time. What i'm look for is a game with action not just sitting back and watch all the character do all the action with just the stroke of a key. Champions is the closest I've gotten. I want some combos. I want to be able to put my opponent through an object. I want to execute my enemy in the most gorest fashion possible, while still packaged in the form of an mmo. At the rate Ill have to develop a game like that myself.
Good point. But you know at some time all great things must come to an end. But with WOW tainting the industry. We will won't see a game like in a long time. What i'm look for is a game with action not just sitting back and watch all the character do all the action with just the stroke of a key. Champions is the closest I've gotten. I want some combos. I want to be able to put my opponent through an object. I want to execute my enemy in the most gorest fashion possible, while still packaged in the form of an mmo. At the rate Ill have to develop a game like that myself.
World of Warcraft is not "tainting" the industry. As I've stated it has brought millions upon millions of new players into the MMO market. I loved Asherons Call(one) myself. But I'd certainly not wish to go back to its hash death penalty and dated graphics. Even if they updated it, using say the Cryo3 or Unreal3 engine, the death penalty is still too harsh for today's demographics. I'm personally done with those types of corpse runs, as are many, many others in the western markets.
As for the rest, if you are looking for a FFA full loot PvP gankfest, you might want to try DarkFall or Mortal Online.
I would also luv to see Auto Assault resurrected. I was a great game if only given a little more time, and it filled a hole in the mmorpg genre, which has only been partially encroached on. No one has done a driving mmorpg like it to my knowledge, it was great!
Tabula Rasa was operated by NCSoft , a company that seems unable to run any game properly so it is no surprised it failed. Would be nice to see another company buy it and bring it back.
No company is going to touch it - it needs more money and work than anyone is going to want to risk
No company is going to touch it - it needs more money and work than anyone is going to want to risk
I disagree. Tabula Rasa was pretty complete when they decided to shutdown the servers and the developers were releasing updates on a weekly basis ( not some mediocre stuff: entire maps , skill re designs etc. in short: massive updates ) . The foundation was done at the end and we saw folks discovering Tabula Rasa and other players returning. At that EXACT moment NCsoft decided to pull the plug which makes me seriously doubt their motives ( especially considering they promptly sacked Richard Garriott afterwards and Strain and Reid left the company as well, coincidence ? I think not ) . At the expense of TR we got the lemon which is Aion.....
No company is going to touch it - it needs more money and work than anyone is going to want to risk
I disagree. Tabula Rasa was pretty complete when they decided to shutdown the servers and the developers were releasing updates on a weekly basis ( not some mediocre stuff: entire maps , skill re designs etc. in short: massive updates ) . The foundation was done at the end and we saw folks discovering Tabula Rasa and other players returning. At that EXACT moment NCsoft decided to pull the plug which makes me seriously doubt their motives ( especially considering they promptly sacked Richard Garriott afterwards and Strain and Reid left the company as well, coincidence ? I think not ) . At the expense of TR we got the lemon which is Aion.....
Stand by for the arrival of hysterical Aion Defense Farce in 3...2... ^^ TR needed some work(end game content, a real crafting system, dynamic instances to name a few) but nothing that couldn't have been handled with proper allocation of resources. Instead, NCsoft pulled the plug(and I'm betting got a fat tax write off). Has anyone else noticed that all three of the games they have axed have been western?
As for Aion, the game has serious retention problems in the western markets. Which is only to be expected, because NCsoft insisted on using pretty much the same format that works in the east. It seems obvious that what ever Korean suits are making the decisions, they have little clue about the difference between the eastern and western markets.
Good point. But you know at some time all great things must come to an end. But with WOW tainting the industry. We will won't see a game like in a long time. What i'm look for is a game with action not just sitting back and watch all the character do all the action with just the stroke of a key. Champions is the closest I've gotten. I want some combos. I want to be able to put my opponent through an object. I want to execute my enemy in the most gorest fashion possible, while still packaged in the form of an mmo. At the rate Ill have to develop a game like that myself.
World of Warcraft is not "tainting" the industry. As I've stated it has brought millions upon millions of new players into the MMO market. I loved Asherons Call(one) myself. But I'd certainly not wish to go back to its hash death penalty and dated graphics. Even if they updated it, using say the Cryo3 or Unreal3 engine, the death penalty is still too harsh for today's demographics. I'm personally done with those types of corpse runs, as are many, many others in the western markets.
As for the rest, if you are looking for a FFA full loot PvP gankfest, you might want to try DarkFall or Mortal Online.
Hey what you dont consider taint I do. Like I said Most develpoers wont do an mmo with the simple fact they might get written off a another WOW clone. In other words a tainted industry. The only people wow sucessfuly brought to the mmo market were thoses in the age of 16 and under. For those older it was more like chasing away because they dumbdown the system. Forgein players dont mind the death penalty. As for american player most rather go through the game with no penalty. Why do you think player of UO switched to WOW. Cause they got tired of people being able to walk offwith their gear. Thus the downfall of UO, plus a lot of other reasons. Mortal Online looks cool but it look like it fall just short of Oblivions smooth feel. Im not a PVP whore I prefer to fight mob and explore the land. Thats my thing. PvP is for players who like to cause other player misery.
Point blank lets just agree to disagree. Cause you might not see WOW as a taint on the indusrty . But a person like me and quite a few other will always see it that way.
What about "Dead Games Running" , which need resurrection?
Like Vanguard Saga Of Heroes and WAR?
That sounds friggin' awesome. Sorry to hear that it went down. I hope they bring it back as an F2P game or something.
I'd like to see UO revamped with up to date graphics. DaOC is another that was great fun, but could use graphics overhaul
I also want TR back. Come on Ncsoft just bring it back, 2 servers isnt going to break the bank.
I think the list you made was excellent. Personally I would pay to play Auto Assault again, I really miss that game quite a bit. Earth and Beyond would be cool to explore again as well. I know a lot of people loved AC2, I tried it but at the time was a die-hard AC1 fan, and probably could not appreciate AC2 for what it was.
I also tried the trial of Tabula Rasa, but I just didn't get it, wasn't for me.
It would be nice to inform these companies that there still is an audience out here for these games.
I would love to see a DaoC2, and a resurrection of Tabula Rasa. I actually miss TR a lot.
I would def love to see TR again... I know at the time I had tons of criticisms, but truth is I enjoyed the game!
I would also love to see WAR flooding with players, which would be the way to save it... but I have a feeling i should say my goodbyes and play it while I still can...
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
I beta tested Wish. I was by far the most promising fantasy MMO I tried and it was a total shock when they decided to close it. Since there was nothing wrong with the game concept and mechanics (though still a lot of development to go), VERY positive feedback from the testers and there is still nothing like it on the market, this would be my #1 option for revival.
I not sure and dont quote me on this. But I think the developers behind ULTIMA ONLINE moved on the to another coompany. Funcom to be exact. I not sure on that one though. The rumored to be mirror UO in almost every aspect is name the "Secret World". I was told that runs the same as UO, but with AOC graphics and UO system. The story revolves around the three orders that are supose to have control of the world economy and government. They are the Illuminati, the Templars, and the last one the Dragons, I thought was a myth. But if their name apperas in this game. The I guess there is some truth to their existance.. Im probaly off on the info though.