A game is essentially dead ONLY when its servers are shut down.
Even then, some games have managed to kind of live on, either via emulators if the game developer doesn't care to sell the game code (SONY I AM LOOKING AT YOU) or because a small company decides to keep it going in some fashion (PotBS, Fallen Earth, etc).
When servers shut down. It's the only definitive answer. Otherwise it's the population equivalent of the 'MMO definition wars'
But which servers? The server you are on? The official servers? Some variant of official servers like Mordred on DAOC closes, so is DAOC dead perhaps, at least to the FFA PVP crowd? What about rogue shards? Is pre-Trammel alive or dead? How about Cities of Heroes, dead or alive? Or was it dead until NCSoft recently sanctioned its operation? What happened to City of Villains? Which version on a rogue shard? What the heck do we call Turtle WOW if/when it closes down? What about Dark and Light? Does anyone know if it is truly alive or dead? SWG emulator appears to be alive, but is it pre NGE or post and is one of those two variants dead then? Or is it a hybrid mutant of both, perhaps we can call it the Frankenstein version. If a game never releases was it ever alive? Is Chronicles of Elyria dead? Jeremy Walsh says it's not. What about Camelot Unchained, looks pretty dead to me but MJ keeps popping up saying "it's not dead yet," but maybe we can call it mostly dead.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
When servers shut down. It's the only definitive answer. Otherwise it's the population equivalent of the 'MMO definition wars'
But which servers? The server you are on? The official servers? Some variant of official servers like Mordred on DAOC closes, so is DAOC dead perhaps, at least to the FFA PVP crowd? What about rogue shards? Is pre-Trammel alive or dead? How about Cities of Heroes, dead or alive? Or was it dead until NCSoft recently sanctioned its operation? What happened to City of Villains? Which version on a rogue shard? What the heck do we call Turtle WOW if/when it closes down? What about Dark and Light? Does anyone know if it is truly alive or dead? SWG emulator appears to be alive, but is it pre NGE or post and is one of those two variants dead then? Or is it a hybrid mutant of both, perhaps we can call it the Frankenstein version. If a game never releases was it ever alive? Is Chronicles of Elyria dead? Jeremy Walsh says it's not. What about Camelot Unchained, looks pretty dead to me but MJ keeps popping up saying "it's not dead yet," but maybe we can call it mostly dead.
When the official servers go down and the publisher no longer supports, it's dead. If later a sanctioned emulator or some such, gets released, it becomes a vampire games. If unofficial servers pop up, those would be your Zombie games. Your Frankenstein games would be your crossovers like World of Tanks and 40k. This creates a Frankenstein.
There are multiple criteria. Economic and technical are two big ones.
Economic death means that a product, MMO in this case, is no longer profitable or even rentable(~0% profit) to produce or maintain. And when there is no potential in the upkeep too. This can, but often does not correlate with technical death.
Technical death is when the population is critically low, when engine and other licenses expire and when game becomes otherwise unplayable.
Economic death often leads to maintenance mode rather than to a shut down and closure. It can lead to closure, but it's more wont to go for the maintenance mode.
Technical death is KO, game over, pack up things and move on. The effort required to play the game far outweighs whatever comfort can be had. Note: such games can still be profitable, believe it or not.
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So when do I consider such a game "dead"? It's difficult to say because even dead MMOs can be resurrected. I consider a game dead when even the basic actions becomes massive chores and the basic elements of MMO genre become unavailable. At that point, the game is truly dead, doing such activity is literally pointless and void of any meaning, any result.
This is not even mentioning the personal aspect. That is easy to define. When I have extracted most enjoyment from the game and when the RoI(as it were) becomes minimal, if that. Then the game is completely and truly over.
As most MMOs run on multiple servers, an MMO may not be dead but a server may feel like it is.
On the server level you want to be able to find groups to do the content you want to do in a reasonable time. Once the wait becomes too long the server is essentially dead to me.
MMOs almost always go into maintenance mode before being shut down. And so for those needing new content to keep them playing, the MMO is dead at this point.
For Marvel Heroes Online, I'd say the death pretty much occurred when new content was halted(after many months of zero communication) and they revamped the PC version to be in line with the new console version. When pretty much all major content creators quit their main game for good, the writing is on the wall.
I'd say LOTRO hasn't entered maintenance mode yet but SWTOR sure feels like it's close.
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Even then, some games have managed to kind of live on, either via emulators if the game developer doesn't care to sell the game code (SONY I AM LOOKING AT YOU) or because a small company decides to keep it going in some fashion (PotBS, Fallen Earth, etc).
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
because even a game with a very minimal playerbase can make a rebound in some way or another.
like the LOTRO legendary servers.
Economic death means that a product, MMO in this case, is no longer profitable or even rentable(~0% profit) to produce or maintain. And when there is no potential in the upkeep too. This can, but often does not correlate with technical death.
Technical death is when the population is critically low, when engine and other licenses expire and when game becomes otherwise unplayable.
Economic death often leads to maintenance mode rather than to a shut down and closure. It can lead to closure, but it's more wont to go for the maintenance mode.
Technical death is KO, game over, pack up things and move on. The effort required to play the game far outweighs whatever comfort can be had. Note: such games can still be profitable, believe it or not.
///
So when do I consider such a game "dead"? It's difficult to say because even dead MMOs can be resurrected. I consider a game dead when even the basic actions becomes massive chores and the basic elements of MMO genre become unavailable. At that point, the game is truly dead, doing such activity is literally pointless and void of any meaning, any result.
This is not even mentioning the personal aspect. That is easy to define. When I have extracted most enjoyment from the game and when the RoI(as it were) becomes minimal, if that. Then the game is completely and truly over.
On the server level you want to be able to find groups to do the content you want to do in a reasonable time. Once the wait becomes too long the server is essentially dead to me.
MMOs almost always go into maintenance mode before being shut down. And so for those needing new content to keep them playing, the MMO is dead at this point.
For Marvel Heroes Online, I'd say the death pretty much occurred when new content was halted(after many months of zero communication) and they revamped the PC version to be in line with the new console version. When pretty much all major content creators quit their main game for good, the writing is on the wall.
I'd say LOTRO hasn't entered maintenance mode yet but SWTOR sure feels like it's close.