The List: Eight Games Fit For Resurrection
In the wake of the recent announcement of Gods & Heroes' rise from the grave, MMORPG.com's Bill Murphy put together this list of either other canceled gems that could stand to walk in the daylight once again.
Column By William Murphy on February 24, 2010
While writing up a recent article on the history of Science Fiction MMOs, it occurred to me how many games we've seen shut down in recent years. It also occurred to me how many games we've seen vanish before even seeing the light of day. For players of now defunct offerings, or fans of games that never were, the disappointment felt is not at all unlike actually paying to see either of the Matrix sequels. Then, with the recent announcement that Gods & Heroes would be seeing the light of day after being put on hiatus over two years ago I thought about games that I'd like to see get a similar treatment.
Here, then are the eight games that were cancelled either in infancy or in development that I think might be fit for a Gods & Heroes-like resurrection. Keep in mind this is all wishful thinking, and there are probably a dozen more games to add to the list, especially considering how many titles never make it out of development limbo. Still, these are the ones that stand out in my mind.
advertisement #8 Auto Assault
;)
A personal favorite of my own, NetDevil's follow-up to the original Jumpgate was like Twisted Metal: The MMO. I loved the setting, the lore, the action, and the physics. Even if the game was buggy, light on content, and had a very out of place player-avatar mode it was a heck of a lot of fun to play and died too swift a death. There have been numerous post-mortems by the development staff chronicling what they think went wrong, but the simple truth is that the plug was pulled too early. We've seen plenty of games stick through tough launches to become better products and ultimately flourish, and Auto Assault was never really given enough chance to that. It's highly doubtful now that NCsoft would resurrect the title, and it hurts a little bit to see how struggling games can be made successes through a change in marketing tactics a la Dungeons and Dragons Online. I still cry at night because I miss my Engineer, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.
#7 Earth & Beyond
Earth and Beyond was (pardon the pun) light-years ahead of its time as a space exploration and domination game. But it never quite struck a chord with the Everquest obsessed masses of its time, and before it really had time to mature as a certain other spaceflight game has, Electronic Arts pulled the plug, as they would do to their own The Sims Online (which also deserves special mention here). Doubly painful? Not only was the game axed, but the fabled Westwood Studios behind it crumbled thereafter as well. Would it have become something of a sleeper hit like EVE? The world will never know, but the former players of E&B will tell you how they miss their ties to Infinit Corp. if you care to listen.
;)
#6 Imperator
Imperator was Mark Jacobs' original follow-up to Dark Age of Camelot. Set in a future where Rome had never fallen, this is one of those titles that never even made it out of the conceptual stages. Perhaps the vision was too broad, or the goals too lofty, but for whatever reason Jacobs and the rest of Mythic canned the game and instead began work on Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Maybe it's something to do with MMOs about the Roman Empire? Whatever the case, the world will never know what Mark Jacobs and company had up their sleeves for this title, unless of course MJ comes out of hiatus to announce he's gone back to drawing board on this one. A guy can hope, anyway.
#5 Wish
;)
Wish is a weird case. Like Gods and Heroes, Mutable Realms' now defunct game was rolling along in beta, and was receiving praise from the community at the time of cancellation. Maybe someone who was in the beta could explain why a game so close to launch would be canned, because I'm just not getting it. Did the developer just decide that there wasn't enough interest to gain traction and turn a profit in the crowded industry, or was it something deeper? It was intended to hearken back to the days of Ultima Online's glory, with in-game "Dungeon Masters" leading live events on their single-server setup, and a robust classless system that allowed players to develop characters in whatever way they pleased. Aren't these the trappings of a game players seem to be begging for lately?
#4 Shadowbane
Shadowbane divided players like no other game on this list. You either loved every second of it, or hated it for being so unpolished and with such merciless PvP. Similar to the recent Aventurine release Darkfall, Shadowbane was designed around a player-driven world where guilds and alliances raised buildings and cities and fought one another for dominance. But the game, for any number of reasons someone who had more experience with it can tell you, never quite gained the attention it needed to survive. After going free-to-play in 2006, the game limped along with a core of supporters until it was finally shut down in 2009.
#3 Tabula Rasa
;)
Tabula Rasa was supposed to be big, people. It was the second MMO from the fabled luminary Richard Garriott. It had spent nearly a decade in development after being reworked from the ground up midway through its creation. And more importantly, it was something new and unique to an MMO scene that was crowded with games that looked too similar. And yet it was canned. What went wrong with TR then? Perhaps it was rushed out the door too soon after being overhauled, or perhaps it simply cost too much money to ever realistically turn a profit for NCsoft, or perhaps rabid monkeys raided the offices and Destination Games suffered an outbreak of Dustin Hoffmanian proportions. All I know is that Tabula Rasa was really getting to be a lot of fun right when it was cancelled, and is yet another title I wish would have tried the F2P model before pulling the plug. But such decisions are never up to the player.
#2 Asheron's Call 2
AC2 was actually my first real love in the MMORPG genre. I joined up when the title was on life-support with scant knowledge of how radically different it was from its predecessor, or how close it was to being closed down due to lack of player-interest. Still, I don't think I'm alone in saying that AC2 had a lot going for it, even if it shouldn't have been called Asheron's Call. Primary fingers of blame are being pointed at Turbine for making the title too drastically different from the original, which led to AC1 being still in operation while the sequel is little more than a footnote in history.
#1 Ultima Online 2
Ultima Online 2 was going to be the big leap of Ultima into 3-D, and the successor to one of the forefathers of modern MMOs. Maybe the folks at Destination Games just didn't have good luck. About one third of the team from UO developer Origin Systems that was working on UO2 when the title was shelved left to join Richard Garriott on the now defunct Tabula Rasa. Maybe it's an indication of the times that MMO gaming's great visionaries have seemingly failed to have a big second act in their careers. Was Ultima Online Worlds: Origin going to be good? Or was it going to be a dumbed down version of one of the industry's most revered titles. What may be even more painful for fans of Ultima Online is knowing that UO2 was merely one of two titles shelved by EA that should have been continuations of the series. Ultima X: Oddyssey was also pitched in the middle of development. Maybe there will never be a successor to the legendary pioneer that is Ultima Online. And maybe there shouldn't be. That doesn't mean I can't sit and wonder "what if" though.
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Grate list but if it was me making it shadowbane would be in the top spot. Lucky ShadowBane cant be be killed all hail ShadowBane Emu.
AC2... dude... William "Wound Opener" Murphy
:)
You hit the nail on the head, though. We already know what kind of a hit it would be if it was renamed, given a different theme and rereleased - it's called LOTRO.
Auto Assault, EnB, Shadowbane... would really like to see any of those revived. Now... let's see how many people post that your opinion is wrong, that you have them in the wrong order or that you should've listed others. :)
Regarding WISH:
The following is a post I made on the Istaria forums, back in 2008, regarding WISH and why it just vanished one day...
Yeah. That RackSaver setup they bought was pretty nice: 176 Xeons, 176 Gigs of ram and a mere 5.2 Terabytes of storage...
I can't imagine spending that much for a 'beta' server.
Wish's design was similar to Eve Online, where everyone would play on the same server, so the hardware costs were huge... If you ask me, that's why they cancelled - in beta 2 they got some numbers that showed how many of those RackSaver setups they'd have to buy to support their target 250,000 subscibers.
MR had stated that due to the huge beta2 turnout they would have to let people into the game in stages. Here's the email they sent out just prior to beta2:
“Because of the enormous number of beta applications that we have received (more than 60,000 at the time of this writing), we will not enable all beta accounts on January 1 at once. Instead, we will only enable a number of randomly chosen beta accounts every day, starting January 1.”
Two weeks later the game was gone, the forums were shut down, and the server was on ebay...
The reason I figure it the way I do is mostly because of knowing what kind of hardware it takes to run an MMO 'server' that supports 30,000 concurrent users...
Tranquility, CCPs big glowy supercomputer, a year ago was exactly 70 IBM LS20 blades, and each LS20 has 2-2.4Ghz 64-bit Opterons on it and a minimum of 2 gigs of ram (some had 4 gigs). That's 10 Blade centers of 14 blades each for 140 processors and 300+ gigs of ram, all running multiple 1Gbit pipes between BladeCenters - and all for 30,000 concurrent users...
And, CCP moved up to the LS20 Opteron blades because each LS20 replaced 3 of their 2.8 Ghz XEON systems - which is what MR's RackSaver system was comprised of... So, technically, it is taking about 3 times the hardware and twice the ram to handle one half of MR's 60,000 beta2 users.
Aditionally, a year ago, Tranquility was running two TMS RamSan 4000's... Thats over 3000 MBytes a second and 400,000 I/Os per second of SQL munching power...
I think CCP has added some more hardware in the last year so my numbers are probably on the low side now.
Anyways, this is why I look the 'Wish' story the way I do... I can only imagine MR getting about 5000 people into the server and thinking to themselves "We're screwed".
Cancellation of Wish was shock to all betatesters. The game was light on content but it was just about 100% bug free. The gameplay was fun and graphics was decent and good majority of the testers were having a blast. The common theory with its cancellation was that the CEO pretty much just lost the nerve and chickened out.
Shadowbane died for its main flaw, all servers got taken over by super zergs and other guilds were simply left sitting inside the npc cities unable to advance at all as just about everything required a player city and if you tried building one, it would get annihilated before first wall was up.
UO2...one word: EA.
EA turns anything and everything it touches in to poop, if it cant turn it in to poop, it will cancel it...just wait till it's finished destroying Bioware.
DDO has proven that games can switch payment models and be a success.
The game sthat you listed that were closed down like TR and SB can easily be profitable for the companies owning them if done with the right model.
I only played tabula and frankly the entire way it was handled it can stay dead unless they move it to another mmo company.
The rest I don't know enough about.
Now one that should be on the list is SWG clasic server. I did not see it anywhere. I know folks are going to say swg is alive, but I am talking clasis pre cu server, and not the emu either.
Oh well.
Oh how I wish Tabula Rasa would see the light of day again...
Everytime I quit a current MMO, I always go looking through all my old games, and i always find the TR case.
I flip through the big ass manual for it, and look at the game discs and pack it away again.
Its the only game I can honestly say I would still jump in and play for a month here or there if I could. TR wasnt the best game ever, in fact it had a shit load of problems. But It was one of the best gaming experiances I ever had.
RIP TR and SWG.
DDO is nowadays a success? Interesting.
Anyway, Lotro is ressurected Asheron's Call 2 as someone else already pointed out, but without the deep crafting, character customization and meaningful PvP.
If you want MMORPG gamers to notice you, create a sequel/resurrection of the genre's best:
Make a:
UO 2
AC 2 (a better representation of the first)
DAoC 2
EQ 3
Anything Blizzard
If anyone here see's one of the above being made, it'll get their attention due to the respect thier predecessors have gained.
I just wanted to point out that Tabula Rasa is Garriott's third MMO: Ultima Online, Lineage and Tabula Rasa.
DDO is nowadays a success? Interesting.
Anyway, Lotro is ressurected Asheron's Call 2 as someone else already pointed out, but without the deep crafting, character customization and meaningful PvP.
Wait, what, LOTRO resurrected? It never died.
Wait, what, LOTRO resurrected? It never died.
He said that LOTRO is the resurrection of AC2.
Richard Garriot didnt develop lineage. He moved to work for NCSoft before forming Destination Games and played as Lord British in Lineage1 while participating on running it.
what no Dragon Empires? Man i was so looking forward to that game, and then poof the plug was pulled.
There was also another game several years back called Charr: the Grimm Fate. It was probably nothing more then vaporware but the concepts and the lore was amazing.
Make AC2 again, make it more like the original game and i'd play this game for a long, very long time.
Earth and Beyond, absolutly loved that game, we really need that game back, it had an awesome game mechanic.
I had completely forgotten about that! Yeah, I think that one was, in several ways, a spiritual successor to DAoC.
I would love to see Auto Assault back or even Tabula Rasa, I was in Beta for both and they had tons of potential. >.< I miss them!
well tabula rasa was a bit of a self fullfilling prophecy. the active subscriptions became a blank slate :p
AC2 and SB failed for a reason.
Why should they be resurrected without some major changes? They would just fail again.
AC2 was god awful. I was super hyped about it, and bought it on day one. I cancelled a few weeks later. SB had some great ideas, but failed to implement them properly.
Do I know the secret formula to fix them? No. I do know they failed, because not many people found the games worth playing.
Personal favorite or not, you need to leave auto assault off the list. The game had no redeeming value and struggled to provide any kind of interest of players to keep playing. Some themes just do not fit the MMO genre, this was one of them.
The others all have possibilities, although I think AC2 should remain dead. It offered very little new in the genre and basically was trying to provide a EQ like experience for an audience that did not like EQ.
DDO is nowadays a success? Interesting.
Anyway, Lotro is ressurected Asheron's Call 2 as someone else already pointed out, but without the deep crafting, character customization and meaningful PvP.
HUH? I played AC2 and Lotro is nothing like it. Where in the world did you people come up with that idea? They were about as different as night and day.
A really interesting read. I'd have to assume the list is good considering I haven't played most of the games, but I did play Tabula Rasa and I thought it was really cool. TB had an interesting combat mechanic and it was diferrent from all the high fantasy games I had played. Also one of my friends played Shadowbane and raves about it any time we talk about MMO's, I'm sorry I missed out on that title.
I'm also curious if Hellgate: London was considered for the list? It's kind of debateable if it was an MMO in a way, and I guess with rumors of it being picked up by another publisher it may not qualify for this list. But I'm just curious I guess.
I would really like to see something new from the Ultima franchise. Even moreso if RG and EA got together.
If Shadowbane is to be resurrected, one thing would make it popular: optional PvP. Forcing PvP is not what people want, as having been proven time and again.
Tabula Rasa was killed to fuel the launch of AION. It was turning a profit... but not the profit that they they expected from AION. They shut it down to re-use these resources to get AION out the door.
Tabula Rasa was backburnered as a remodel for F2P in Korea. The concern was that despite having turned a profit in the US that it wouldnt turn a profit in Asia (which is the larger market for NCSoft). So, the plug was pulled, so they could focus on AION, and then they could slowly retool the game as a F2P game and relaunch at a later date.
I have not followed up on this for Korea, but as we are starting to see other similar games (Hellgate) coming back now, I would guess that it might show up in a year or so.
Yeah, except LOTRO had at release working chat, a working crafting system, characters that don't look like they're ice skating over the landscape, and buildings you can actually go in to, to name a few. Yeah, it was nothing like LOTRO. I agree had it not been called AC2 it possibly may have done a little better, but it still would have died I believe because there were just too many game breaking issues.
The AC2 folks can look at it with the rosiest colored glasses they want but the truth is the game was hella broken in so many ways I felt embarrassed for Turbine(one of my favorite dev houses). Top that off with a dev team that seemed to change direction with the wind and AC2 just had no chance.
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Great list OP.
IMO Wish was the biggest disappointment on that list. I mean the game was ready for release for gods sake, then all of a sudden it was canceled. To say the people beta testing it were shocked would be a huge understatement. Maybe someday....
HUH? I played AC2 and Lotro is nothing like it. Where in the world did you people come up with that idea? They were about as different as night and day.
LOTRO was built off of the engine and toolset that was used to create AC2. Obviously the game is different - no sense in using the engine to recreate a failed game. They upgraded and expanded the G2 engine in order to create LOTRO. That's a good thing primarily because they were able to devote more time to the world and content since the core was not only established but was one that the team had a very good familiarity with.
I believe the final engine used in LOTRO was simply named G3.
I agree with most of your list except these two:
Tabula Rasa - It was a title with very high expectations but what was actually released was nothing what people expected. The zones were tiny, it skill system (forgot the name it had) was supposed to be innovative and complex but ended up being simpler than WoWs with far fewer skills. Also PvP barely existed which made the game mostly about fighting against a PvE mob army for taking over and then losing bases back and forth ad naeseum. It was a terribly boring and shallow game and its subscriber base dropped like a rock, and deservingly so.
Asherons Call 2 - Another awful game with some redeeming qualities. The number one issue many people had was that it completely lacked any NPC towns and all that there was were some ruins where you could craft and allegadly build up a town, but they never actually implemented that part which made the game completely pointless.
Also it was a sequel to Asherons Call, which had a skillbased system, crafting and magic system which was quite complex. Yet Asherons Call 2 was a severly dumbed down WoW version of skills, pitiful. This was quite odd as WoW had not been released yet, but still the game had a skill system that was quite similar to WoW (except more simple).
And I know If the game AC2 would have released at this day and age it would basically be a carbon copy of most of them casual friendly games of today, only AC2 was FIRST at this when it actually was released. I do not think players where ready for this at that time..Only a a year later WoW was released, and we all know how that went..
There is alot of reasons a game can fail upon , and In the end AC2 was absolutly a blast to play, but with the negative start and so on, it never gained enough population to keep it floating..But a bad game, NOT A CHANCE..
And there was NO HYPE around AC2, maybe for some AC players, but they were also one reason it failed , because it was so diffrent from AC
People forget that a sequel to UO was in development TWICE! The first one the radically better of the 2 in my opinion! The damned money-men managed to murder not 1 but 2 sequels!
I would personally love a -new- sequel to AC, not a resurrection of the last one, but a real upgrade of the original. Mostly a major graphical upgrade keeping the core mechanics/systems as they were, not the radical changes of the dead sequel.
NCSoft and EA are rather disturbing companies.
Does anybody know how far Dune was when it was cancelled?
Westwood Studios closing was the biggest wound on that thread for me. Command and Conquer was such an amazing RTS series. And then EA bought out Westwood Studios, and then C&C turned into a joke of an RTS for the rest of history.
AC2s had a few problems, like Microsoft forcing it out the door too fast, chat system issues, bugs, lack of vision etc. But the biggest issue was that they didn't take all that engine work and graphics improvement and just apply it to a rerelease of AC to keep the game current. Instead they never upgraded AC's engine and made a product completely different (although influential to say the least, look at the resemblences of MMOs now).
Richard Garriot didnt develop lineage. He moved to work for NCSoft before forming Destination Games and played as Lord British in Lineage1 while participating on running it.
Garriot was the producer of Ultima Online and the executive producer of Lineage and Lineage 2. He and Starr founded Destination Games prior to his partnership with NCSoft.
Earth and Beyond FTW !!! I am one of those players that will tell you it was a hoot in it's day and ahead of its time for sure, I beta tested Auto Assualt, it was ok, but I always felt it would not last same with TR, Wish I was beta testing also, I do remember it having allot of issues, but most new games do, but it was coming along.. :)
AC 2 was a solid game in my opinion, better than Lotro. It suffered from horrible launch and dev's inability to fix things fast properly. Let's not forget Microsoft was involved in AC2 , just like they were involved in games like Mythica or Vanguard - which they abandonded to fund at certain stage. And I'm sure there's more examples where Microsoft was involved in game that ended up either as a vaporware or became an instant failure right after release.
I would have to add Motor City Online to this list. It was really a great game and brought a whole new fold of people into the MMO world.
You could probably insert the entirety of auto assault into a "traditional" post apocolypse scifi MMORPG and make both more replayable/fun.
Wish died in part because of the hardware requirements but also because the network code didn't lend itself to all players on one shard. If they had split the world after all of the promises to be one shard the game would have been panned.
AC2 was rather good. It could easily compete with WoW on its gameplay. Unfortunately, not enough people played it to find out.
There are a number of MUDs I'd like to see brought to a 3d MMO. There are so many great gameplay ideas out there that simply won't come to light because everyone wants to be a WoW clone. Problem is, cloning WoW won't get you subscribers - you have to be better and/or different than WoW to lure all those juicy subscriber dollars. More of the same just means people will stick with WoW and you'll fail.
Planetside was/is a lot of fun...for awhile. Since the world doesn't change in response to your wins/losses it gets old fairly quickly. I'd like to see that game remade with some new ideas to make it more replayable.
I think a Mechwarrior style MMO would be awesome. Guild missions to different instanced planets where you could actually see your progress as you conquered or were driven off planet would be awesome. Rival guilds could sign up to fight you in your instance for PVP style action. It could be a really cool game, but probably will never be built that way.
Played Earth and Beyond from launch until the day the pulled the plug on the servers(Sunset). Had some good times and bad times as with any MMO. The best thing about that game was the community. People would go out of their way just to help somebody else. I miss my 150 Jenquai Defender and destroying the tengu in the fishbowl, and who could forget the commercials in-station.... BIG! STRONG! WOW!... TADA-O!....tada-o *kids giggle*
DDO is nowadays a success? Interesting.
Anyway, Lotro is ressurected Asheron's Call 2 as someone else already pointed out, but without the deep crafting, character customization and meaningful PvP.
DDO is a massive hit with its new payment model. Check some more favorable f2p mmo sites its winning awards everywhere. more content is being released for DDO now than when it was failing as a p2p.
Why couldn't SB and TR do the same?
didn't you guys already make a list like this not to long ago, why you keep redoing your own articles all the time its getting old :)
I loved Wish +1 for that
Wish put a lot of stuff in the client...perhaps it ended up being too much stuff that would have lead to exploits and recoding the game to fix them would have been too much money so they scrapped it (just guessing but from my experience with the beta I think this is what happened /// or they just ran out of cash)
The game had some economy problems (Npcs would run out of money and not buy items from players....) The idea was that everything in the economy would be created by players who would sell items to npcs the nthe npcs would turn around and sell them again to the players that needed them.
UO2 would rule BUT now that Mythic are doing the UO updates...well after WAR I just dunno
Precu SWG should be resurrected.
Auto Assault was HORRIBLE. Don't bring that turd back. Dang.
Gods and Heroes should be resurrected. I hear it might be and hope this is the case.
Tabula Rasa had some nice things about it. But what to me was bizarre wasn't the game design decisions, but the fact that, as I recall, there was no long hair for girls. WTF. I guess it's a personal thing...somewhere in my male brain I equate long hair with female and short hair with male. Narrow minded I guess. But I like to have an attractive female avatar and if there is no long hair or decent long hair styles for women...well that's just basic. If that isn't in there, then there are a million other things the developers didn't think of.
Ultima Online 2 sounds intriguing since I missed the original.
Um ya AA just needs to stay dead. Its the only MMO I betaed that I simple could not bring myself to play long enough to exit the tutorial.
AC2 had issues and absolutely needs to come back. No more MS passport systems crippling communications, mature engine. It was a great game despite its issues and really has gone untouched for original design. And yes DDO and LotRO are AC2 reskinned.
Oh and UO:Origins should have come out. It looked awesome and had so much hype behind it. Anyone else remember the motion capture videos? Jaw dropping. UO2 also looked good but much less ahh factor that many years later.
Pretty much Ditto across the board. I am afraid that i refused to give EA any more money after the announcement and do regret not being there for the parties at sunset and i miss this game a lot.
Tried to get in to EvE as an alternative (as a lot of people did) and although it is a great game in it's own right, it just didn't push the same buttons at all. As you said, the community was everything and there was never a problem finding a group and people would go out of their way to jump you around, a great blend of pretty well balanced classes and great community that i have been hard pressed to find since :((
Garriot was the producer of Ultima Online and the executive producer of Lineage and Lineage 2. He and Starr founded Destination Games prior to his partnership with NCSoft.
Other than in name, Richard Garriot had very little to do with the development of Lineage 1 (none in fact) and Lineage 2.
Back on topic, I'd like to see Shadowbane fleshed out more and re-released, (EMU doesn't cut it) and UO deserves a worthy sequel.
I would love to see an analysis of UO's long line of failed attempts to move towards a sequel (or at least to a new engine), combined with a comparison to the strategies of EQ (through EQ2) and Runequest to modernize. I just don't know enough about these games to really compare them, but I know there's an important story to tell.
The fundemental question of sequel is how do you transition the existing game/player base/loyalties. Just because you create a new game and slap the title "UO2" on it doesn't mean the game will actually succeed ... gameplay still trumps IP once the hype dies down, especially if people are losing all their years of accumulated experience and trinkets. And just because to introduce a new client, doesn't mean people will move to it - people are very sensitive to the tiniest tweaks. Both paths can leave you in the nightmare limbo of two independent engines in need of support - or even more catastrophically, a player base that becomes actively skeptical of your future efforts.
What makes me most skeptical about a UO2 is that the original UO has not been able to maintain focus on a vision/fiction - plans bogged down in endless delays, are left half-finished or have dubious consistency with the spirit of the game. Every time there are hints of revival, a corporate reorg happens and everything collapsed. Whatever the causes of the chaos, the problems run deeper than the engine.
Everytime I quit a current MMO, I always go looking through all my old games, and i always find the TR case.
I flip through the big ass manual for it, and look at the game discs and pack it away again.
Its the only game I can honestly say I would still jump in and play for a month here or there if I could. TR wasnt the best game ever, in fact it had a shit load of problems. But It was one of the best gaming experiances I ever had.
RIP TR and SWG.
Agree. I really couldn't understand why TR was cancelled. It seemed populated, had no trouble finding parties for whatever. I am usually skeptical of such things but here i fully believe the drama and conspiracies.
Followed the same path as you. Played EnB from start to finish and then ended up in EVE, for 5 years, afterward. I would love to see Earth & Beyond resurrected and upgraded.
I can't believe you missed Neocron.
I was in the beta for Wish and I loved the game. I was shocked when such a cool game was gone before it even made it out of the gates.
Agree. I really couldn't understand why TR was cancelled. It seemed populated, had no trouble finding parties for whatever. I am usually skeptical of such things but here i fully believe the drama and conspiracies.
Yeah Tabula Rasa was quite a bit of fun, at least in the eyes of a power gamer...wish they were able to at least track packets on it, in hopes for a player revival of it :/
Neocron is still up and running.
None of the games listed in the article are up and running, or never made it to release.
Tried around 4 times to get into Eve after E&B died. I just can't "not" play a game for six months before it's actually fun. I'm sure the zero-sec is sweet and the gigantic fleet battles are epic, but I never got to see any of that. I was flying around in my retriever trying tossing cans of minerals and hopping on my hauler to bring it back to the station. I accomplished more while offline than I did while online.
well, theme was Games Fit For Resurrection, so if i had to pick 1 game, i would not have to think twice - it would be Mythica. i believe, that besides the strong IP (tho the norse mythology could be pretty appealing in some countries, especially here in europe (and especially in scandinavia, ofc :) )) it would have pretty much every pro wow had, plus many interesting ideas plus really great community. cancelation of mythica is by far my nr.1 regret in case of mmorpgs :(
I miss Tabula Rasa so much... I wished a company could take it and finish it like it would have been supose to be... Damn I miss that game..
About TR, I always laugh when I go to my Future Shop and they still sell the box 9.99$... hahaha!
Dark & Light would be my choice with a new dev team and no illegal court cases it would make a fantastic mmorpg. It still has features that are still not seen in any mmorpg today.
www.darkandlight.com/en/
Earth and Beyond was a decent game, and I was a bit surprised by its demise, but at the same time I kind of understood why it happened. There was really no end game going on. Once you hit a certain stage of the game, there was really nothing to do at all. I kept hoping they would realize this, but instead they just pulled the plug.
Ultima Online doesn't really belong on this list because the sequels were never made to be resurrected in the first place. The first game is still going strong, or at least limping along.
Now, Tabula Rasa was an example of a game that had so much potential going for it, but it, too, had no end game available to it. This caused a lot of senior players to just keep dropping out, and that meant that as you got higher and higher in the game, you were surrounded by fewer and fewer other players. I was not surprised to see it killed off, even though I have to admit that it is probably the most fun I've had in a MMORPG to date. From the opening movie to the actual playing in that universe, it was a lot of fun. I kept imagining how it was going to be when we finally took back Earth, thinking that had to be the eventual direction of the game.
But it died too soon. I don't think I've ever been in a game where you had to do that much destruction to take back a post that had been taken over by the enemy. That was so much fun. Or the times where I'd hide out in a tower and be a sniper, taking down their numbers one by one until outside forces could assault the front gate and then I could help them by sniping the defenses while they took back the town. THAT was so much freaking fun. No online game I've played has ever done that as well as that game did. And I don't think we'll ever see that again.
What really killed Tabula Rasa is the same thing that got it made: Richard Garriott. His ego. As much as I like the guy as a designer, every time he commented about the game, I kept wishing he'd just shut up. When he tried to turn his "space flight" into a part of the game (as free advertisement), I felt embarrassed to be playing the game during that time. It felt so cheezy. I won't begin to indicate that I know the business decisions that went into the demise of the game, but it's too bad it happened. It's one of the few innovative ones out there that feels like it was killed by its own company's inability to advertise properly, because there was a game there worth playing. There was just no one left playing.
Awwww give me back Auto Assault....shallow but soo much fun :)
Trials of Ascension, an amazing MMO Concept in which you have Perma death. Wide open worlds to explore, ACTUAL DIFFERENT RACES instead of reskinned humans including playable Dragons. Gryphons, and Pixies.
Language barriers/Gods to worship/heirarchy of religious factions/player buildable colonies/Real time combat
No "balance" of things. all skill based and it was contemplated that you only get 100 lives, each time you died your soul weakened until it ceased to exist.
Changing weather that actually effected gameplay/worship of gods that bestow powers when loyal and punish followers who stray from the path. Heirophants of gods which represent each god. Gods of battle/nature/healing/death. As the Heirophant you would have the capability to mold your god's intent slightly in any way you wanted. and would become very powerful in your choice of god's specialities.
To make Dragons a challenge to play they had Dragons have a life cycle. A hatchling dragon could only catch rabbits to sustain itself. very weak and easy to slay. adolescent dragons were more powerful but still very vulnerable just learning to fly. Adult dragons could pick a breath type as there would be multiple to choose from, dark energy/electricity/fire/frost/acid/others. To prevent clans from taking a dragon player and nurturing him throughout his life all dragons have a very large area of effect curse. Ancient Dragons are the pinnacle of power. But it would take many months if not years to achieve
Master Wizards would be as powerful as Ancient Dragons, but their lives are equally as dangerous as magic isn't something to be trifled with by the inexperienced and could easily backfire and kill it's caster.
But if you became a master cook in your lifetime or a master thief or master mage or master swordsman or ANYTHING you would have the chance to drop an artifact that represents whatever path you chose to dedicate your life in. That artifact would represent your whole character and it would make your in game accomplishments immortal. The artifact would be very useful to whoever wishes to follow in the footsteps of your path. Of course the catch is you had to perma die for it to be created.
If any game deserved to be on this list it is THIS GAME!
www.shadowpool.com PLEASE IF THERE ARE ANY RICH OLD GUYS LOOKING TO GET RID OF THEIR MONEY BEFORE UNGREATFUL GRANDCHILDREN GET SOME GIVE IT TO THIS
COMPANY SO THAT THIS GAME WILL EXIST!
Looking towards the timing of the development of these games and which could have been abandoned because WOW made them unprofitable ventures? The game managers do look at the market and compare so who lost hope to even enter? As much as I like sandbox game play, it has become obvious that was a turning point in MMO development.
i definetly see a trend. its NCsoft. they trash potential good games in favor of turn a quick profit fail ones. They should all kill themselves for ruining the mmo genre.
The original SWG should be on that list.
As the current SWG is something totally different.
+4Billion
MC Online was what finally got me away from over 3years of UO. Loved it, I would buy and pay monthly for it right now if it came back. After it died I couldn't bring myself back to playing UO and have jumped from MMO to MMO ever since.
Here's one that didn't make the list: Classic WoW.
I realize WoW is still in operation (orly?) today. But I'm talking about the game before it began its long path of being stripped of everything that truly made it great, and gave it its identity.
I'm curious as to why SW didn't get recounted?
As has been mentioned before, Auto Assault, Tabula Rosa, and Dungeon Runners are the three games that NCsoft has axed over the last few years. All of them western games. Given past history, one suspects that the NCsoft suits don't have a clue at what works(and what doesn't) in the western markets. Aions current retention numbers are also right in line with that.
A game that should have been on this list is Mythica. It looked like a blast, and from what I understand it was doing well internally. Then Mickysoft pulled the plug. MS has an even worse track record with MMO's than even NCsoft has managed.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythica
Been playing the stress test but I can't bring myself to cap knowing that my toons will be reset 2-3 more times before it goes live.
I agree and they even celebrate the original Game with an annual anniversary whilst playing the current game.
Of that list I only played Tabula rasa and I think if there ever was a game which shouldn't have been canned it's that one . To think they also diverted all their resources to the "lemon" that is Aion makes it even worse.Right at the time when TR was closed down players were discovering it or coming back and the developers were updating the content on a weekly basis ( so much so we got an entire "earth map " right before the final day it was live ) and were very responsive to the suggestions being made by the player-community . After that debacle and the massive dissapointment Aion was I think TR was pretty much the final game I will ever play which is being published by NCsoft ( including GW 2 , I just don't trust NCsoft anymore ) .And there was a time I was an avid fan of that company and played every title produced or published by them . They destroyed any chance of ever becoming a big player in western hemisphere when they lost both the Garriott brothers and Strain/Reid - in the process also canning loads of folks all across USA and Europe .Even SOE knows that policy doesn't work ......
The only thing "wrong" with Tabula Rasa was that it was lacking content in certain areas... and NCSoft.
As I said in the news thread about sci-fi MMOGs recently, I would start paying for Earth & Beyond again today if it came back and started up right where it left off, with no changes... as long as EA wasn't involved. I played from phase 4 beta until sunset, AnDRAMAda server, oorah Merchant Marines! 8)
Played on Drama as well. Borarus Dragons.
I know Istaria still exists, but I really would like to see an MMORPG like the original concept of Horizons.That would be my favorite "resurrection".
The only game I agree with on that list is Shadowbane. If it could be remade minus the exploits and bugs it would be my first choice to play mainly because some of my best times in an mmo were in that game. I realize it would never be more than a pvp niche game but the player base it attracted was a blast to interact with and even more fun to crush under my dwarven prelate boots. Another game I would love to play an updated version of is AC. It was my first mmo love and I have yet to play a game which combined a massive world with a skill based system since. If you add to that the early days when it had constant world events going on with truly interesting updates I would happily play my life away. It did need more content for the size of the world but overall a new version with some tweaks would in my opinion be the best mmo of all time. Basically take what AC2 should have been and make that.
Just my 2 cents.
Followed the same path as you. Played EnB from start to finish and then ended up in EVE, for 5 years, afterward. I would love to see Earth & Beyond resurrected and upgraded.
Well, EnB have been resurrected by a group of diehard fans. Their server 'sunrise' are open for stress test 4.
I am surprised how well they have reverse engineered their server so far.
It hurts you didn't list PlanetSide it's still to this day the only real mmofps and back in the day one of the best no grind questing magic elf crap games to ever live.
I have to agree, Shadowbane was by far the most fun I ever had playing an MMO
every game but the game we are actually playiing right now at any given time!
I tried AA in beta and quit after 2 days. It just didn't have anything that I found that interesting.
I was also in beta for AC2 and after playing AC1 for years, it was a huge disappointment. While AC2 had beautiful graphics, is was so dumbed down and over simplified compared to AC1 that I lot interest before beta was over. If they had used the same game engine to actually update the game play of AC1, it could have been a huge sucess. I had fun revisiting AC1 during their anniversary welcome-back, but the UI really needs to be brought up to date.
I played E&B for over a year in beta and loved it. The problem was that by then I'd seen it all and there wasn't much else to do. If they brought it back, I'd play it again as it is a much richer game than STO. If Cryptic had taken E&B and put a Star Trek face on it, we could have had a great STO game instead of the shallow disappointment that we have now.
I played TR in beta and had fun, but the crafting system was too much of a mess for me to buy it.
I would like to try a full 3D version of UO as the current one is just to dated for me to enjoy.
I was in the Wish beta and would have bought it if it had ever been released as it was a great skill based system. However, the beta play stressed the servers far beyond what they expected. Their rack of blade servers was already at the max expansion size and it couldn't handle enough players to even break even. Adding a second server rack wouldn't have changed the economics, so it wasn't a viable business project. With todays hardware, I expect that it could work.
#7 Earth & Beyond
Earth and Beyond was (pardon the pun) light-years ahead of its time as a space exploration and domination game. But it never quite struck a chord with the Everquest obsessed masses of its time, and before it really had time to mature as a certain other spaceflight game has, Electronic Arts pulled the plug, as they would do to their own The Sims Online (which also deserves special mention here). Doubly painful? Not only was the game axed, but the fabled Westwood Studios behind it crumbled thereafter as well. Would it have become something of a sleeper hit like EVE? The world will never know, but the former players of E&B will tell you how they miss their ties to Infinit Corp. if you care to listen.
like the movie said,, IT'S BACK
just go to the enb forums, follow what they say, and you can log in and start playing again. I have a few toons back to 150 now. it takes a little longer to lvl then in live, but stilll fun, hope to see you on the new server called SUNRISE
#7 Earth & Beyond
Earth and Beyond was (pardon the pun) light-years ahead of its time as a space exploration and domination game. But it never quite struck a chord with the Everquest obsessed masses of its time, and before it really had time to mature as a certain other spaceflight game has, Electronic Arts pulled the plug, as they would do to their own The Sims Online (which also deserves special mention here). Doubly painful? Not only was the game axed, but the fabled Westwood Studios behind it crumbled thereafter as well. Would it have become something of a sleeper hit like EVE? The world will never know, but the former players of E&B will tell you how they miss their ties to Infinit Corp. if you care to listen.
like the movie said,, IT'S BACK
just go to the enb forums, follow what they say, and you can log in and start playing again. I have a few toons back to 150 now. it takes a little longer to lvl then in live, but stilll fun, hope to see you on the new server called SUNRISE
Checked out the web site. It looks like they are at ST4 right now. I've no idea why EA hasn't sued them yet(given how fond of such they tend to be). But I'll keep an eye on it to see what happens.
I most certainly would have liked to have seen an Asheron's Call sequel building off the original game. I didn't play AC2 because, as you stated, it wasn't like the original. At least enough for me, anyway. But yes, if Turbine would go back to their roots I'd actually break my vow of never signing up for a lifetime membership again.
I wasn't there to follow Wish yet from how it is described here I'd consider seriously a $20/month subscription. It sounds to me like a game targeted to old school (Advanced D&D 2nd Ed and before) table top dice rollers/rolers and that's right up my alley.
I also didn't follow the UO line of games after the original. I must admit, though, I'd certainly give such an effort a look if they modeled themselves after the original and not the prevalent choice of modeling after WoW that we see these days.
AC2 I would love to see a return (I've seen an article like this recently and said it there too).
For those who played AC2 and left in the first year of release, I totally understand how you feel about the game...it was a complete unmitigated disaster until Microsoft pulled out and Turbine was able to fix the major issues with the game.
If Turbine had been able to come out at release with the Hero leveling and Crafting systems they eventually worked into the game, it would have been a stellar game. Unfortunately their initial vision of the game was....broken. By the time they got it right and fun to play (and it was VERY fun to play) it was just too late, too many people had left the game, and no one was willing to give it a second chance, not that I blame anyone for that.
Actually AC2, Came out in 2002, WoW came out in november of 2004. and to the guy who said that AC2 is a carbon copy of WoWs talents.. you're an idiot. WoW's talent tree is a copy of the way that Diablo was built. AC2's was dynamic you could change/add upgrade talents on the fly (with a little XP) Was it also similar to Diablos, sure it was. But since when does a game company not use ideas from other game companies? Are you one of these ignorant people who has this really insane idea that Blizzard was the innovator of everything MMO? No they've borrowed the ideas and implemented it into their own environment. they haven't done ANYTHING innovative. They take ideas of what other people have done, and copied it, just like everyone else. In a lot of ways they are behind a lot older MMO's
I'd love to see AC2 Come back. The issue with chat was actually Microsoft's fault. www.eldergame.com/2010/01/community-friendliness-size-matters/
Microsoft had complete control over AC2 until '03 when they went to shut down AC2 because they were using it as an experiment table for their graphics engine (Halo's graphics engine look familiar to anyone else?) Turbine said no and bought it away. But they weren't ALLOWED to make changes to the engine. chat or otherwise until the transaction and legal ownership was complete. And in the end Microsoft didn't uphold to their end of the contract agreements knowing that turbine was in a bad place. All of you haters who blame Turbine, should be blaming microsoft. Ac2 Brought back? Hell ya! needs to update the quest log just a touch a few other enhancements and I think it would do well in today's market as a casual MMO. Am I fanatic? No, but I research stuff before I shoot my mouth off like a forum troll.
The "Have you got the SAND to take down the MAN?" stuff was also very embaressing. Not only did it have that pathetic sell line, it also depicted Garriott as a huge, muscular badass with scars on his face. Absolutely cringeworthy.
It was certainly a fun game, and its a shame it closed down.
seed should definatly be on this list,, it was a great Idea but terrible implimentation.
I definately Agree that they should bring Asheron's Call back but I want it to be like AC1 not AC2. I also want it to be a completely new release with modern graphics, a true sequel named AC3
I was in the WISH beta from day one, and I have to say I really really really reaaallllyyy WISH they would breath new life into this again. That has always been my #1 MMO in my heart even in the beta buggy stage. I think the reason it never made it to release was they bit off more then they could chew with all that they where trying to do with it. it all was new stuff, and nothing was barrowed from another game at the time. I think if they would have made one or 2 small changes to what they wanted it would be a big MMO right now. One of the bigest things i think help them stop it was, to pull an Eve server idea, 1 server to rule them all, but without any form of instan, it was to be on large server and never a loading screen when you traveled from on end to the other of the world. and to have the largest world in even todays standards was just to much at the time. Plus the live content, ever changing world based on what players did in that world (where if the king of the land such and such was killed by a raiding faction (player) then, the king would never respawned, and it was writen into the lore of the game).
i would love TR to be brought back, there is a lack of sci-fi games out there >.>
I too was in the WISH beta, and that game had so much promise, it was so deep and so involving, it sucked you in. I haven't a clue as to why they canned it, but even letting someone buy the source code of that game, and slapping a new 2010 look on it would make this game grow like crazy. It has so much of what so many people are looking for.
Would love to see Wish brought from the dead as I was very interested in it. And although not officially dead Heros Journey should be on that list.
Games die for a reason. Auto Assault had a lousy UI and movement controls that made you feel like you driving a blimp rather than a car. It had far more flaws than this article points out as do the rest of the games on the list.
I loved Earth & Beyond, and would love to see it resurrected. It definitely had some fun aspects to it, and was the first "non-traditional" MMO that I had encountered.
But the one I really would like to see come back is Auto Assault. I did the beta, then got into it later in the actual live run. I was on a hill watching over the endgame area with some of my fellow die-hard fans when they pulled the plug and shut down the servers. Sure, it wasn't perfect, but still it was alot of fun. Honestly, if they had left it a post-apocalyptic drive & gun game, the appeal might have been more solid across the board, but the developers obviously tried to WoW-ify it too much - I mean, it was too much like spell casting in many of the classes, which detracted from the hardcore Mad Max feel that attracted many to come check it out initially. The crafting system was fun and made sense, the driving mechanics were loads of fun, and the scenery was very cool. It just tried to be more than it should have been, and never achieved that niche hook to keep players loyal. It also had some very steep initial hardware requirements (relative to mainstream computers at the time), which limited who could even run the game. Still, a redux that stuck to the initial theme and didn't water itself down, I'd be in line to buy that (again).
Any early or mid 90's gamers would love this game turned into a real 3d MMOG --- Shadows of Yserbius
(Mainly on The Sierra Network -> The Immagination Network). Now that would be badass. Another I would like to see ressurected would be Dark Sun Online(On TEN -> POGO).
-ststew
UO, DAoC, and maybe a stellar remake of Shadowbane are the only titles worth rehashing. Sure, some of those other games were ok, but the genre needs something different. Either of those three games offers a unique experience in the current market of mediocre pve repetition. Have to agree that Mythica had me pretty riveted, shame that we never saw that come to light. When Microsoft really committs to something, they normally have extremely good results (see Age of Empires series).
But in no way should anyone hope for Jacobs to re-emerge. I think most of us had plenty of fun bringing his stupidity and unprofessionalism to light on numerous message boards, we dont need him to repolute the genre any further. And you really have a desire for Romans in Space eh? Takes all kinds I guess.
I'd love to see Tabula Rasa back, NCSoft should try it F2P or something. It had a lot of potentials, it had a great scifi setting and it was mainly PvE. Seriously, the scifi MMOs that are coming out are all about being a ship avatar like in Eve, I have no interest in such a thing. In Tabula Rasa we were supposed to go to other planets which would have been way more fun than going around in a ship and never setting foot on planets and exploring them.
Don't know about you guys, but I'd love to see Imperator make a comeback.
A modern-day (or rather, futuristic), Roman Empire that never collapsed... the idea sounds intriguing to me.
Read through all the posts and was pretty surprised that no one even bothered to mention this game.
[Mod Edit]
Either you are incredibly ill-informed or you like to watch pvp games self destruct. Forced pvp has caused most pvp games into very small niche markets, usually unsupportable by the player base. Even if they had mastered all the bugs in Shadowbane it still would probably not be available today.
The most successful pvp game in the genre today is Eve and it has large pve areas. So next time watch who you call names because the label might apply to you instead.
I can't believe Mythica was left off the list.
Wish promised more than it could deliver and was nowhere near finished. Didn't they have some goofy plan of charging $50 a month?
I definitely agree with AC2, WISH, SB, and EnB being on the list!
I played EnB from closed beta all the way up to its closure. I still actually have my game still in its box with the strategy guide and have no desire to toss them just because I really enjoyed the game and keep hoping it will be resurrected some day. I too tried EvE online hoping I could get into something similiar to EnB, but I just could never get into it like I did with EnB.
I was in WISH beta and thought it was a unique and fun MMO. I was sad to see it get closed down and just abandoned the way it was. I loved not having to choose a class and being able to develop your character the way you wanted to.
I played AC2 from closed beta until it closed down. It was a very nice change from the grind of EQ and other MMOs. I would love to see Turbine or some one else revive it as a F2P like DDO.
Shadowbane was unique with its player driven world and I enjoyed it from my first day in closed beta. As time went by though the game seemed to lose its lackluster and it just never seemed to draw in the numbers it needed to stay afloat.
I'm am one person who is actually really surprised to see Gods & heroes being resurrected. I loved the game in closed beta and thought it had a lot of potential. An MMO based on mythology was something that interested me a lot. I was shocked when Perpetual closed it down and stopped production on it. I can't wait to see what Heatwave does with the game!
That's 'cause SOE is keeping the skeletal remains of Planetside "alive". In the same way a marionette made of your friend's bones is "alive" :(
I'll add Daggerfall MMO to the list. I think you could easily make a browser-based MMO out of it and people would have a blast. The world is big enough for a boatload of people too.
Imperator is very interesting as a concept. I recently reread a book of the Renegade Legion series, where Rome had resurrected and was a galaxy-spanning empire sometime in the 3rd millennium. Since it's already an RPG, it would be a great candidate for an MMO, provided enough worlds could be generated (always the issue with space games).
There are a few games I can think of that couldve made it with a few changes:
Planetside, great game play and delivery, however due to lack of initial content it died to soon. How could they have resurrected this, acquire the Star Wars IP, if you put Star Wars clasees/vehicles in Planetside it would still be online today. I mean Star Wars Battle ground was aweful, but if it had used Planetsides engine/controls I would be hooked.
AC2, the only thing they couldve done is turned it into a graphics upgrade for AC1 and added more content with it. If they had done that instead of a new game AC1 would be cruisigin like World of Warcraft. Turbine however didnt want Microsoft involved in round 2, so limited funding, poor financial support made them rush it out the door.
Champions Online, YES I know it is still online but can we say it will be a year from now. For those that dont know this was being developed as marvel universe online originally. They made it look so comicbook like and allowed for so much copy catting of the marvel characters that Stan Lee pulled the marvel license out. So they grabbed up Champions IP and remolded it into Champions Online. Problem is, it still had the over done comic book look, which to me and my friends very distracting and totally took away any immersion. Throw in the cheesey chat bubbles and yep they ruined it, thank goodness I didnt plop down money for it at release as it was.
There is a resurrection brewing if they pull it off.
Age of Conan, the worst things I can say about it at launch we all know and most of them were just rush out the door problems. Graphics were sweet (still better than any other MMO hands down) and gameplay was good. I tried it again last week with the free trial (I didnt reactivate) and I must say kudos to using the time since launch to fix the games problems. Biggest problem is, once you loose an audience it is hard to get them back without the word FREE tossed in somewhere. They really should offer previous subscribers a free 30 days to come back and try it with their other characters, NOT restrict them to level 19 and Tortage on a new trial account. We all know Tortage was a pretty well done area and the problems mostly existed after Tortage. Funcom should wake up and throw the old current and old subscribers a free month to try again.
Defending and attacking bases in Tabula Rasa was the most fun PvE experience I've ever had.
The original Neverwinter Nights (on AOL). That was pretty awesome in its day, I would have to see something like it back
TR and Matrix... here's why:
1. TR... because the beta videos look awesome and I never got as chance to play it.
2. Matrix deserves a second chance simply for being the perfect IP for an MMO (the IP itself is about a simulation). From what I've seen in videos, it could have been done MUCH better than how it turned out.
Ken
If 'resurrection' includes bringing the graphics up to date, my list would most certainly be:
10. The 4th Coming
The Ultima Online clone nobody knew about, and my first MMO. I can't think of anything uniquely great about it, but it holds a soft, warm place in my heart.
9. The Sims Online
Years ahead of its time. There's a perfect market for it, now, playing right into what Garriott recently talked about regarding Farmville.
8. Mythica
The Norse-mythology MMO which Microsoft Game Studios was developing prior to refocusing on Vanguard.
7. Dawn
Here we are, ten years later, and it would still be considered innovative. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
6. Middle-earth Online
Not the Turbine project that became Lord of the Rings Online, but the Yosemite Entertainment project that was axed by Sierra in 1999. The 2D one of which we saw one screenshot of a man and a wolf. The one that introduced us to the idea of player characters actually dying when killed. The one in which but a privileged and responsible few would be hand-picked by GMs to play elves (probably fulfilling the role of guides ala UO/EQ). This was good stuff, by my reckoning.
5. Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
What ever happened to that relaunch plan? UE3? Lothenland? R.I.P., Sigil. If Microsoft had kept you, or if SOE hadn't destroyed what you had in Beta 2....
4. SEED
Science-fiction that's not a dystopian hellscape war-torn by things the extant technology obviously would have prevented/fixed? Yes, pl0x. I could stand to not play a mass-murdering sociopath, just once.
3. The Matrix Online
The interlock combat system alone made this supremely memorable, in a good way. If only it had been filled with the content that the setting deserves.
2. Warhammer Online
Not the Mythic project, but the Climax one. With the Warhammer-appropriate art style and atmosphere, plus the immensely superior graphics four years prior to Mythic's. Yes.
1. Shadowbane
Oh, Meridian, where art thou? This setting deserved so much more.
the biggest problem with AoC is there is nothing to do at max level but stand around and duel. and it takes a week or so to max out a character, plus over half the zones are empty so you pretty much play solo unless you know sombody else just starting off then you can duo the whole game with no challenge of other players.
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
No, that gilded dropping should stay dead
They do, and they do often. Have to check my email but I think they send me a welcome back email 4 times a year. LotRO does often as well. Wish CoX would more often though =(
You people on your Lotro is bascially ac2 because they were built of the same engine are rediculous. That's like saying these are all basically all Unreal 3. Or better yet, every thing written on paper with lead is the same thing.
I rest my case.
2009 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand Swordfish Studios Vivendi Games
2009 A4 (sequel to A3) AniPark
2009 Alliance of Valiant Arms RED DUCK Ijji
2010 Aliens: Colonial Marines Gearbox Software Sega
2010 Alpha Protocol Obsidian Entertainment Sega
2009 America's Army 3.0 US Army US Army
2008 American McGee's Grimm Spicy Horse Turner Broadcasting System
2009 APB Realtime Worlds Electronic Arts
2008 Army of Two EA Montreal Electronic Arts
2007 Alliance of Valiant Arms RED DUCK Neowiz Games
2009 Batman: Arkham Asylum Rocksteady Studios Eidos Interactive
2007 Black College Football: BCFX: The Xperience Nerjyzed Entertainment
TBA Black Powder Red Earth Echelon Software
TBA Blade & Soul NC Soft
2008 Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway Gearbox Software Ubisoft
2007 BlackSite: Area 51 Midway Austin Midway Games
2008 Blitz CJIG
2009 Borderlands Gearbox Software 2K Games
2009 Crimecraft Vogster Entertainment[23] THQ
2008 Damnation Blue Omega Entertainment, Point of View Codemasters
2010 Dark Void Airtight Games Capcom
2009 DC Universe Online Sony Online Austin Sony Online Entertainment
2008 Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon[24] Sandblast Games THQ
2009 Earth No More Recoil Games / Radar Group 3D Realms
TBA Ender's Game: Battle Room Chair Entertainment Chair Entertainment
TBA Elveon 10tacle Studios[25]
TBA End Faramix Enterprises
2009 Fairytale Fights Playlogic Game Factory Playlogic
2007 Fatal Inertia Koei[26] Koei
2008 Frontlines: Fuel of War Kaos Studios THQ
2007 Fury Auran[27] Gamecock Media Group
2006 Gears of War Epic Games Microsoft Game Studios
2008 Gears of War 2 Epic Games Microsoft Game Studios
2010 Global Agenda Hi-Rez Studios[28] Hi-Rez Studios
2008 Hail to the Chimp Wideload Games [29] Gamecock Media Group
2008 Highlander: The Game Widescreen Games Eidos Interactive
2009 Hei$t inXile Entertainment Codemasters
TBA Hessian Boots[30] IF Studio
2007 Hour of Victory N-Fusion Interactive Midway Games
2009 Huxley Webzen Games[31] Webzen Games, NHN
2010 I Am Alive[32] Darkworks / Ubisoft Shanghai Ubisoft
N/A Killed in Action (K.I.A.)[33] Virus Studios Virus Studios
2008 Legendary Spark Unlimited Gamecock Media Group
2009 Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Team 17 Codemasters
2007 Lost Odyssey Mistwalker, feelplus Inc.[34] Microsoft Game Studios
2007 Mass Effect BioWare[35] Microsoft Game Studios, Electronic Arts
2010 Mass Effect 2 BioWare Electronic Arts
2009 Magna Carta 2 Softmax
2010 Medal of Honor EA Los Angeles,DICE Electronic Arts
2007 Medal of Honor: Airborne EA Los Angeles[36] Electronic Arts
2008 Mirror's Edge EA Digital Illusions CE Electronic Arts
2007 Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia Artificial Studios[37] SouthPeak Interactive
2008 Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe Midway Amusement Games Midway Games
2010 Mortal Online Star Vault
TBA MU 2 Webzen
2008 Parabellum Acony GamersFirst
2008 Rise of the Argonauts Liquid Entertainment Codemasters
2008 Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy High Moon Studios Sierra Entertainment
2006 RoboBlitz Naked Sky Entertainment[38] Naked Sky Entertainment
2009 Saw: The Video game Zombie Studios Konami
2009 Section 8 Timegate Studios Gamecock Media Group
TBA Sephiroth 2 IMagic Entertainment
2009 Shadow Complex[39] Chair Entertainment Microsoft Game Studios
2010 Singularity Raven Software Activision
TBA Sin City Transmission Games / RedMile
2010 Stargate Resistance Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment FireSky
TBA 2010 Stargate Worlds Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment[40] FireSky
2009 Star Trek DAC Naked Sky Entertainment
2009 Sky Gods BlackFoot Studios BlackFoot Studios
TBA Soul Scream[41] IF Studio
2007 Stranglehold Midway Chicago Tiger Hill Entertainment[42] Midway Games
2008 Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars Psyonix Psyonix
2010 The Agency Sony Online Entertainment Seattle Sony Online Entertainment
2008 The Last Remnant Square Enix Square Enix
2009 The Punisher: No Mercy Zen Studios
TBA The Scourge Project Tragnarion Studios
2008 TNA iMPACT! Midway Studios - Los Angeles Midway Games
2008 To End All Wars Kuju Entertainment [43]
2008 Tom Clancy's EndWar Ubisoft Shanghai Ubisoft
2006 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas Ubisoft Montreal Ubisoft
2008 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 Ubisoft Montreal Ubisoft
2008 Turning Point: Fall of Liberty Spark Unlimited Codemasters
2008 Turok Propaganda Games Touchstone Pictures
2007 Undertow Chair Entertainment Chair Entertainment
2007 Unreal Tournament 3 Epic Games Midway Games
2009 The Wheelman Midway Games Newcastle Midway Games
2007 Warmonger: Operation Downtown Destruction NetDevil NetDevil
2006 Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent Ubisoft
2010 Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction Ubisoft
2007 BioShock 2K Boston/2K Australia 2K Games
2010 BioShock 2 2K Marin 2K Games
2009 X-Men Origins: Wolverine Raven Software Activision
I remember the day EnB went down :'( sad day. I moved on the my second mmo ever (still my all time fav) Saga of Ryzom which as survived 2 bankrupt companys and has been resserected frome the grave once thank goodness.
I can comment on Wish. :-/
Basically ...
a) iit had a bad (bad) problem with the server engine and server blades connection speed. I don't remember the details of that technical discussions but something about the protocol used for those not able to allow enough traffic between the blades was what it boiled down - if I got that right.
b) it had a problem with hardware requirements for being a niche MMO and small company. Much too high limiting entry. The forums were full of people who realized after (!) beta access their grafics card are not supported.
c) they run out of funds.
The Wish assets (modells and such) have been long since that times sold, Irth Online/Worlds used them and some other companies. Some of the Wish team founded "collosal studios" offering MMO modelling/texturing as outsource company.
So ressurection is pretty unlikely with the engine this problematic (ok, the client demands not anymore), the assets sold and the company fallen apart.
AC2 was quite boring in my opinion - but the music system was awesome and that high diving when running/jumping from cliffs! Auto assault had too little interested in auditory, as far as I recall that was not an engine thing but the game. So ressurecting isn't much worth in my eyes. Tabula Rasa ... hm. If you can't generate enough interest in the game even after as much post-release-polishing time I think you either sell it to a small company dedicated to sustain it or found one yourself to do so. And if nobody is willing to do that ... nobody revives it from the death.
I was very curious about UO2. And Atriarch. Mythica maybe. And yes, Wish ... definitelly!
But apart from that right of my head I can't recall any MMO I'd see revived.
The "Have you got the SAND to take down the MAN?" stuff was also very embaressing. Not only did it have that pathetic sell line, it also depicted Garriott as a huge, muscular badass with scars on his face. Absolutely cringeworthy.
It was certainly a fun game, and its a shame it closed down.
Investing +100$ mill on a middle age man with a bald head with a pony tail calling himself for General was a bad idea in the first place.
Investing +100$ mill on a middle age man with a bald head with a pony tail calling himself for General was a bad idea in the first place.
If THAT makes you decide where to put money ... you should never be on a real battle field (company or management) I guess. *shakes head* Which doesn't mean I don't agree that Garriott was not good enough in terms of being a producer, I think Koster and the others as a team where what made UO a success (plus the times and lack of competition). And it is nonsense to put one name than on a new team and saying "Wow, that is going to be awesome!".
I miss a certain ... MBA experience (and talent) when it comes to those building and running a lot of MMO companies. Funny - does that happen with offline game companies too? Just designers who suddenly think they can run a multi million dollar project?
Auto assaults problem was the mechanics. The idea of using regular MMO mechanics for a game like this just is silly, tanks and healers in a car game?
No the best we can hope for there is that someone license Steve Jacksons old Car wars game for a MMO and turning it into a nice game without levels or other silly stuff, basing either the game mechanics on Eve or making new ones.
It is a shame about many of the other games, in some cases they released with too little content or just being a mess which really is the devs own fault. The rest of them that got out of cash before launch is of course a tragedy.
I would like to see a resurrection of UO before Renaissance.
Either you are incredibly ill-informed or you like to watch pvp games self destruct. Forced pvp has caused most pvp games into very small niche markets, usually unsupportable by the player base. Even if they had mastered all the bugs in Shadowbane it still would probably not be available today.
The most successful pvp game in the genre today is Eve and it has large pve areas. So next time watch who you call names because the label might apply to you instead.
You, like the poster I quoted, obviously never played Shadowbane. The game litterally would not function if PvP could be toggled off. It is an absolutely retarded concept given Shadowbane's core mechanics and design.
"A banestone? Screw that, I think I'll decide not to PvP today."
In Shadowbane, your non-pvp option was hiding in a safehold, as it should be. Shadowbane had no appreciable PvE content. It was all PvP. Take that away and the entire game is pointless.
[Mod Edit]
meh i played the beta for AA... it wasnt all that great... for a game set in the future where you spend 99.99% of the game time in a car there was 0 music... not even ambiant... it was totally void of sound other then you car noise and battles... all of which were lacking i might add.
found a few exploits on boss instances that allowed groups of like1-3 people beat a boss that should normally require a full team (something like 4-6 cars)
and the town stuff was dull... you could improve the car BUT it didnt nothing....
honestly if they revived AA sweet... it reminded me alot of carmageddon BUT... it would require aLOT of work to revamp the game to be enjoyable beyond a few minutes
There would be a very limited market for that these days.
The most successful pvp game in the genre today is Eve and it has large pve areas. So next time watch who you call names because the label might apply to you instead.
You, like the poster I quoted, obviously never played Shadowbane. The game litterally would not function if PvP could be toggled off. It is an absolutely retarded concept given Shadowbane's core mechanics and design.
"A banestone? Screw that, I think I'll decide not to PvP today."
In Shadowbane, your non-pvp option was hiding in a safehold, as it should be. Shadowbane had no appreciable PvE content. It was all PvP. Take that away and the entire game is pointless.
[Mod Edit]
The game may not "work" the way it was intended if PvP was made optional, but he is not incorrect in that shadowbane was niche at best due to it's PvP ruleset, and a large part of why it imploded.
Unless they can feasibly and profitably support the game with a limited niche playerbase, the game simply isn't worth it for the developer to resurrect with the mechanics it sunk with.
Tabula Rasa i miss you so.......the odds are slim to none that anyone at that company will read this and say "hmm they got a point lets try Tabula Rasa once more , and lets put some passion into this time" but i can dream.
Investing +100$ mill on a middle age man with a bald head with a pony tail calling himself for General was a bad idea in the first place.
If THAT makes you decide where to put money ... you should never be on a real battle field (company or management) I guess. *shakes head* Which doesn't mean I don't agree that Garriott was not good enough in terms of being a producer, I think Koster and the others as a team where what made UO a success (plus the times and lack of competition). And it is nonsense to put one name than on a new team and saying "Wow, that is going to be awesome!".
I miss a certain ... MBA experience (and talent) when it comes to those building and running a lot of MMO companies. Funny - does that happen with offline game companies too? Just designers who suddenly think they can run a multi million dollar project?
I would have saved +100$ mill *head bang*:D
Slim? Since its a western game, I'd say zero. Its obvious that NCsofts main focus is on the Asian markets. Its been demonstrated time after time, that who ever is making the decisions over there, has very little grasp of the differences between Asian and Western markets.
I played it,it was an online game but not massively multiplayer. All you could do was race against a few players at a time you couldn't just drive around in a world w/ other ppl though.
Auto Assault had more than its share of problems, but it was mindless good fun. But I always did hate the idea of cars casting heal and buff spells. Tabula Rasa was also super fun for a few hours -- but there were diminishing returns.
I see a lot of people wondering why the FTP model wouldn't have worked for TR. Here's the answer: the game cost so very much to make that it had no hope of recouping its investment under any pricing model. For tax reasons, it was better for NCSoft to close the game and take the writeoff than try to squeeze money out of it over time.
It's because of the failure of many of these games that we now have companies like Cryptic releasing bare-bones products with the promise of adding more content "soon." There's a strong incentive to keep development costs low, because if they escalate too much (like in the case of TR), you reach a point where profitability becomes impossible.
You, like the poster I quoted, obviously never played Shadowbane. The game litterally would not function if PvP could be toggled off. It is an absolutely retarded concept given Shadowbane's core mechanics and design.
"A banestone? Screw that, I think I'll decide not to PvP today."
In Shadowbane, your non-pvp option was hiding in a safehold, as it should be. Shadowbane had no appreciable PvE content. It was all PvP. Take that away and the entire game is pointless.
The game may not "work" the way it was intended if PvP was made optional, but he is not incorrect in that shadowbane was niche at best due to it's PvP ruleset, and a large part of why it imploded.
Unless they can feasibly and profitably support the game with a limited niche playerbase, the game simply isn't worth it for the developer to resurrect with the mechanics it sunk with.
Your conclusion is debatable, but if you've played the game you understand that if, for whatever goofy reason, took open PvP from Shadowbane, the market the game did have, niche or not, would never play it. Nobody would play it. What would they do? AoE macro mobs and tell each other jokes in vent?
If you take away the core point of the game and replace it with nothing, well, ...
I can't believe anyone would take a suggestion as this seriously.
[Mod Edit]
You, like the poster I quoted, obviously never played Shadowbane. The game litterally would not function if PvP could be toggled off. It is an absolutely retarded concept given Shadowbane's core mechanics and design.
"A banestone? Screw that, I think I'll decide not to PvP today."
In Shadowbane, your non-pvp option was hiding in a safehold, as it should be. Shadowbane had no appreciable PvE content. It was all PvP. Take that away and the entire game is pointless.
The game may not "work" the way it was intended if PvP was made optional, but he is not incorrect in that shadowbane was niche at best due to it's PvP ruleset, and a large part of why it imploded.
Unless they can feasibly and profitably support the game with a limited niche playerbase, the game simply isn't worth it for the developer to resurrect with the mechanics it sunk with.
Your conclusion is debatable, but if you've played the game you understand that if, for whatever goofy reason, took open PvP from Shadowbane, the market the game did have, niche or not, would never play it. Nobody would play it. What would they do? AoE macro mobs and tell each other jokes in vent?
If you take away the core point of the game and replace it with nothing, well, ...
I can't believe anyone would take a suggestion as this seriously.
If it's debatable, then by all means feel free to try to argue history as being wrong. Shadowbane could not garner enough subscriber base to be more than a niche playerbase, and was therefore dropped by the developers because it was not profitable -- or profitable enough.
Would making PvP optional within the game mechanics of Shadowbane ruin the intended design? Yes, of course. That's not the point. The point is that the fundamental design of Shadowbane will, for the foreseeable future, only appeal to a niche market of gamers and is therefore not very appealing for a developer to carry unless they can do so with minimal costs.
The game may not "work" the way it was intended if PvP was made optional, but he is not incorrect in that shadowbane was niche at best due to it's PvP ruleset, and a large part of why it imploded.
Unless they can feasibly and profitably support the game with a limited niche playerbase, the game simply isn't worth it for the developer to resurrect with the mechanics it sunk with.
Your conclusion is debatable, but if you've played the game you understand that if, for whatever goofy reason, took open PvP from Shadowbane, the market the game did have, niche or not, would never play it. Nobody would play it. What would they do? AoE macro mobs and tell each other jokes in vent?
If you take away the core point of the game and replace it with nothing, well, ...
I can't believe anyone would take a suggestion as this seriously.
If it's debatable, then by all means feel free to try to argue history as being wrong. Shadowbane could not garner enough subscriber base to be more than a niche playerbase, and was therefore dropped by the developers because it was not profitable -- or profitable enough.
Would making PvP optional within the game mechanics of Shadowbane ruin the intended design? Yes, of course. That's not the point. The point is that the fundamental design of Shadowbane will, for the foreseeable future, only appeal to a niche market of gamers and is therefore not very appealing for a developer to carry unless they can do so with minimal costs.
Shadowbane population declined from launch, when it had more subscribers than DAOC, due to bugs and exploits. By the time those were worked out, for the most part, the graphics were dated. Shadowbane's ruleset does tend toward player loss as related to individual servers, but the player base returns upon new server launch. The open PvP is most definitely not the problem. A system that ultimately results in stagnant player conflict (a LACK of PvP) in a game that is only about player conflict is the problem. There is an easy fix for that issue and it has nothing to do with consentual PvP.
And the point that you responded to was EXACTLY that removing open PvP from Shadowbane would destroy the game in terms of, well, everything the game ever was.
If your insightful observation is the profound realization that a lot of players can't handle and don't enjoy open PvP ... congrats Sherlock. You've stumbled on a clue. The cliche' term "niche" can appropriately be applied, which has nothing to do with whether removing open PvP from this particular game would make any sense whatsoever.
DAoC 4TW.
Agree ;)
BTW i hope that Mythic can work on Imperator Online. I don't like sci-fi MMORPG (with some exceptions), but Mythic is... was the best (why was? well, WAR is a little crap :()
Nice list. I'm happy Auto Assault was on there. I sometimes replay the soundtrack for that game because it reminds me of some really unique moments to MMOs that will possibly never happen again. I didn't love the game but there was plenty to like, same case with other people and TR.
Heh, I remember the whole Wish fiasco. I was told by friends that it was going to be so great and got in the beta2 the first week and it was a laggy mess increasing exponentially every days. I did the short tutorial, traveled to the first town and picked up a quest, and even explored some but it because unplayable so fast. Then the game was shut down and soon after my friends showed me links the server on ebay... I can't remember how much.. $20k maybe?
Shadowbanes basic concept is still superior to any PVP game ever created. Being able to build your own cities, shops and actually go to war with a lose all potential just rocked. Combat mechanics were second rate but the skill system was first rate. It's problem was a SEVERE lack of funding and support.
Imperator would of flopped. Us hard core DAOC'rs were in love with the lore of Camelot and to put a Rome game out there just wouldn't of worked. MJ was never a bright mind when it came to making solid gaming decisions. Just look at Warhammer now. He let it be crossedressed as WOW and sunk that ship.
The game world doesn't need part 2 or part 3 of any title . They simply need a new player experience. Something worth learning and doing for FUN.
Shadow Banes focus on hard core PvP(which usually translates to ganking and griefing) spelled its doom in the western markets. It might have done better in the Asian markets, as they have more toleration for that. As for Warhammer, its a mixed bag. Many of its technical issues at launch put a lot of people off, and its attempts at attracting some of Blizzards player base didn't go over very well. They had some good ideas, but they didn't impliment them at all well.
A new player experience would be nice, but I'd settle for a game thats fun and polished. Thats why once Dungeon Finder arrived in WoW that I've gone back. Not to mention that any really new approach would likely be risky, and when one is using millions and millions(of other peoples money) thats not a concept thats likely to be approved by those controlling the money.
UX:O...
I did see that mentioned under UO 2.
There was one other one, thought it looked really cool for it's time.
Mythica, which was going to be a MMO by M$...
EnB gets my vote. It was my first mmo, and remains my favorite. A shout out to any Orion server survivors out there.
Sparta Toiletpaper - When the call comes, be ready.
Yes, I very much enjoyed Earth And Beyond. I'll always remember some of those corp ad's. Big! Strong! WoW! Tada O! ^^
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.
I would add Star Trek Online to that list. I know it just came out, but Cryptic's version is nothing more than Champions Online with a Star Trek skin. Lets put the IP in the hands of a studio that can do more than just combat and character creators.
Aaah, Earth & Beyond...I would totally jump back in that game if it ever came back. I found the storyline captivating and the exploration aspect was A+++
DDO is nowadays a success? Interesting.
Anyway, Lotro is ressurected Asheron's Call 2 as someone else already pointed out, but without the deep crafting, character customization and meaningful PvP.
Uh. Who really cares about a indept crafting system. The crafting system is the one system the coninsdes with the auction house, that is overly aboused by players. With all the mmos out there the player driven economy is a broken system that need to be put down like a rabbid animal. As for PVP. Its there players just dont play on the other side. I have and have had my butt handed to me plenty of times. What you want is infight among the allined races. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. SO if you want meaning PVP youre going to have to look somewhere else.
I was agreeing with you up until the "anything Blizzard" part. Something alog the line of the Diablo, Starcraft, and Warcraft I-III series yes. Something along the lines of World of Warcraft. Hell no.Blizzard just about tainted the mmo industry with WOW. Making all other mmo developers afraid to even consider an mmo. When the game above Blizzard started losing players to WOW. They tried to copy WOW in some way, But met with utter failure. It hust completly backfired in there faces. In conclusion "no more Blizzard MMOs
I was agreeing with you up until the "anything Blizzard" part. Something alog the line of the Diablo, Starcraft, and Warcraft I-III series yes. Something along the lines of World of Warcraft. Hell no.Blizzard just about tainted the mmo industry with WOW. Making all other mmo developers afraid to even consider an mmo. When the game above Blizzard started losing players to WOW. They tried to copy WOW in some way, But met with utter failure. It hust completly backfired in there faces. In conclusion "no more Blizzard MMOs
Blizzard has added millions upon millions of players to the MMO scene. They have set the bar much higher in terms of what investors expect. While I believe that to be an unrealistic expectation, that happens to be the reality. WoW will be around for a long, long time. At this point the only threat to WoW is Blizzard itself. It remains to be seen what happens when they release their next MMO. If its anything like as popular as WoW is, then you are looking at the face of main stream gaming for another decade or more. Now while that may drive certain types into foaming at the mouth rage, thats simply the nature of the beast.
This post brought a tear to my eye. I miss that game so much, problems and all.
Boy do I miss upgrading my ship and watching it transform in Earth and Beyond. Ahhhh the memories.
I can't believe you missed Survival Project, it was so sad that they closed their english server
I had a great time in AC2. It had its faults but they could have been sorted. No game since got me entranced by the landscape enough to sit and watch the sunset.. The game was destroyed by the rabid trolls on forums and the disastrous launch which combined to put off new players. I have played LOTRO from launch and apart from musical instruments they are distinctly different games. Of all the MMORPG i have played AC2 and Horizons were the best if flawed games
I was waiting for WISH when it was unplugged :(
As for Blizzard, they made playing MMOs cool, and not so nerdy...but I'm still a nerd :)
Either you are incredibly ill-informed or you like to watch pvp games self destruct. Forced pvp has caused most pvp games into very small niche markets, usually unsupportable by the player base. Even if they had mastered all the bugs in Shadowbane it still would probably not be available today.
The most successful pvp game in the genre today is Eve and it has large pve areas. So next time watch who you call names because the label might apply to you instead.
You, like the poster I quoted, obviously never played Shadowbane. The game litterally would not function if PvP could be toggled off. It is an absolutely retarded concept given Shadowbane's core mechanics and design.
"A banestone? Screw that, I think I'll decide not to PvP today."
In Shadowbane, your non-pvp option was hiding in a safehold, as it should be. Shadowbane had no appreciable PvE content. It was all PvP. Take that away and the entire game is pointless.
[Mod Edit]
I am reading this thread and came upon this series of quotes. I played SB from the day it was released for about a year. It is the only game I ever played for over 24 hours in 1 sitting - defending our city against a seige. I loved it despite it's lag and bugs. I do agree the end was forced by guilds that controlled the major resources and killed off any competition quickly. They should have reset it it from time to time, or found a way to encourage large guilds to break up(my opinion). I loved the fact that Europe and the US were intermingled on the servers - I belonged to a guild that was about 1/2 Danish and it was a blast.
As far as PvE - it was there. We often went solo or in parties to farm mobs. The beauty of PvE was that the longer you stayed in an area farming mobs the better your chances of getting ambushed and PvP starting. The last City/guild I played for used to send out 2 groups to a farming area - 1 to farm and 1 to guard the farmers. If SB came back I would probably give it a try even though I dislike PvP because of gankers. Again, despite it's flaws it is one of the games I remember most fondly.
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.....
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.
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...
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.