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General: The Four Shortest Lived MMOs

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  • TuxedoSLYTuxedoSLY Ultima Online CorrespondentMember UncommonPosts: 93

    I only played Tabula Rasa from that list, and growing up on Ultima Online I probably had hopes for it that could never be satisfied. The game itself was a lot of fun. Running around blasting aliens with my shotgun was a treat. The constant feeling of war and combat was a nice change from the other MMOs I was screwing around in. The drop ships were amazing too. Every MMO has some kind of respawn, and its usually just some sort of "pop up." But in Tabula Rasa enemy drop ships actually flew overhead and would teleport Bane to the surface. You could always hear them coming and it gave the game a very cool feeling.

     

    Shame it didn't last. Of the four games listed I think it had the best chance at being a success. Hell, that SOE first person shooter/rpg hybrid is still alive. Tabula Rasa had way more going for it.

     

    Maybe they should have called it World of Tabula Rasa...craft.

     

     

  • RoadshowRoadshow Member UncommonPosts: 21

    Auto Assault was a pretty good game until you hit maximum level. It's problem was that after that there was no further content, just repetitive and unbalanced pvp. This ensured that even players who enjoyed the game eventually tired of it and cancelled their subscription.

    Tabula Rasa was a light but enjoyable sci-fi romp and the story of the Logos was one of it's stronger points, driving the story forward. It's downfall was really a result of a buggy release and then disastrous patch releases, destroying whole career archetypes which players had invested months of gameplay in. This was done with the goal of 'balance' for pvp, but since there was little meaningful pvp in the game it just pissed everyone off. MMORPG gave a shamefully lightweight puff-story when the game lead changed last year, when you should have been asking why buggy patch releases were being released despite terrible test-server feedback, resulting in players leaving in droves.

  • fiontarfiontar Member UncommonPosts: 3,682

    TR definitely released prematurely, with many bugs and design flaws. It also suffered from a completely illogical story foundation. These aliens manage to conquer the entire planet Earth with the snap of a finger, but they are on the ropes in their effort to tackle a few thousand survivors that fled to another world?

    However, for me the biggest problem was the lack of content.  The zones were few and tiny. The quests were completely typical and unimaginative. We all expected tons of depth and an abundance of content from "Lord Brittish", only to be presented a level of content not even sufficient to last a typical player a month.

    Garriot basically mugged NCSoft for the money he needed to go into space, left a worthless game in his wake and crippled NCSoft financially to a degree that their strategy of producing games beyond the Korean market had to be greatly scaled back. The ripple effects have impacted efforts to fund MMO development around the world. He did more damage to the genre than people realize.

    Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
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  • neschrianeschria Member UncommonPosts: 1,406

     I also played SEED in beta, and I felt like it had the potential to go some interesting places, but it needed more time, money, and people to get it where it could have been.

    I'd really like to see a good non-combat MMO that has interesting problems to solve plus the cut-throat politics of a lot of the text/forum based government sim games out there on the web. 

    ...
    This is where I draw the line: __________________.

  • GeridenGeriden Member UncommonPosts: 390
    Originally posted by Dana

    Originally posted by Hammertime1


    I can't beleive that they left out AC2 from that list!
    David Bowman killed that game in an incredibly short time...

     

    As Jon wrote in the intro: "Asheron’s Call 2 survived a whopping 1,134 days."

     

    They actually still have that for sale in my local gameshop lmao its in the bargin bin

  • IoshtIosht Member Posts: 38

    I thought TB would make it but i guess not

  • NovaKayneNovaKayne Member Posts: 743
    Originally posted by neschria


     I also played SEED in beta, and I felt like it had the potential to go some interesting places, but it needed more time, money, and people to get it where it could have been.
    I'd really like to see a good non-combat MMO that has interesting problems to solve plus the cut-throat politics of a lot of the text/forum based government sim games out there on the web. 



     

    Me too.  It felt like more of a social experiment than a game tho.  Would be interesting to see some University pick it up and either offer it online or on campus to see how it would play out.

     

    Would be interesting to see what would get accomplished and what would not.  While on a campuss I believe there would be more interaction outside the game than in.  It could also add another layer of who is really who in game!  hehe, hrmmm.......

     

    Might have to look into that and see if you could sell it that way.....

    Say hello, To the things you've left behind. They are more a part of your life now that you can't touch them.

  • WSIMikeWSIMike Member Posts: 5,564
    Originally posted by bmdevine

    Originally posted by WSIMike

    Originally posted by patrikd23


    Final Fantasy XI , 1 whole day for installing and downloading and patching + registration. And I played for 1 hour and after the frustaration with the controls and chat system + the visuals I decided to uninstall it and never try it again.



    I'm trying to find the connection between FFXI - a live game still ~500k players strong after 7+ years... and an article discussing the 4 shortest lived MMOs....



    Gotta say, I'm drawing a blank.

    Care to enlighten us on exactly why you think your personal experience with a game that's neither mentioned in nor even relevant to the article warranted an off-topic post about it?

     

    It's called hijacking.  More than likely, it's just the result of reading the title but not reading the post or any of the responses.  It happens all the time.  If it bothers you, I would recommend reporting it instead of complaining, because hijacking is reportable.  There are times when complaining just makes the thread veer off course, perpetuating the problem.

    Personally, I haven't played any of these games, but it would be interesting to see a more comprehensive list of the titles that have flopped and been forced to shut down.



    I'm aware of what hijacking is. However, I was asking the poster to explain what brought them to submit that particular message. I don't see any logical connection, but who knows...



    That said... I notice you didn't call out the other 2 or 3 people who actually *did* engage him in further conversation about the topic, but singled me out for asking him to explain what relevance he saw in it. Interesting.

    That said...



    I did try TR in beta and it really didn't grab me. Personally I think it'd have been better if they stuck with the original design they were going for. Tried Auto Assault as well and couldn't get into that game either. Surprised me that they both went down as fast as they did. Never played the other ones.

    "If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road,
    and the cash shop selling asphalt..."
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  • Rikimaru_XRikimaru_X Member UncommonPosts: 11,718

    I knew SEED was going to fall even though I wanted to play it. Auto Assault was fun in my opinon and I wanted to playTabula Rasa for the longest. Sad to see those two go.

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  • BloodDualityBloodDuality Member UncommonPosts: 404

    Never heard of SEED before reading this article, but it sounds very familiar. In the anime Trigun humans where trying to find a new planet to restart their civillization. I think the entire thing in the anime was projects seeds, and seeds was written on the ships because they were the seeds to a new life for humanity. Each ship had people in a type of stasis to be woken when the ships landed on a suitable planet.

    On a side note I also think some of the uniforms matched that of the one shown in the article picture.

  • summitussummitus Member UncommonPosts: 1,414
    Originally posted by arcdevil


    where is HG:L in that list?



     

    Maybe because no one could figure out if it was even an mmo ! 

  • BroomyBroomy Member UncommonPosts: 487

    Out of the 4 listed I only played Tabula Rasa.  Played thru beta and a few months into launch, got my main character to level 49 so I knew the game well.  No end game, no raids, poor itemization, generic armours, horrible crafting, no main game forums, too many issues to mention, it just missed the mark on too many things.

    That being said, I think it brought about some fantastic ideas that I hope to see implemented in other scifi games: incredible mob AI, great music, fast combat, a constant feeling of battle on the warfields, great visuals and effects (who can forget the sound and look of Striders falling from bane ships and landing on the planet, only to slowly unfold and go about their deadly business), cloning system and fast teleport travel.  It could have also used a "peaceful" place where one could just hang out, craft, hunt or gather resources and perhaps get a little tent/housing going on.  It was too much about war.

    I was a big fangurrl of TR at one time, I do mourn its death.

    Current Games: WOW, EVE Online

  • MMO-RogueMMO-Rogue Member UncommonPosts: 47

    Why only 4 games?

    Oh yeah to leave room for darkfall.

  • zaltarzaltar Member UncommonPosts: 125

    My 2 cents

     

    I was sorry to see Fury go  , good concept that  was poorly implemented .

    Still hoping to find a worthwhile pvp experience , so far no luck .

  • benasatobenasato Member UncommonPosts: 193

    -seed

     

    (( It turns out that the MMO community was not ready for a game that looked and played like a standard MMO, but didn’t include any form of combat. Like it or not, combat is the core of almost every game out there. ))

    thats jus so far off it not funny, seed had a good community an it had jack shit to do with pvp on why it fail

    it was.

     

    radlock crashes

    zones that dont load/crash

    2 sounds in the whole game that you was lucky to hear once a day / for a game based on repairs to a ship ugh

    missing gear  made half the other areas a wtf zone/  some did get add later, so it was 3 zones a 4th one when you could get the lift to work

    ect ect i wont go all day on the list, to put it simple it was pre alpha an on top of it they wanted you to pay for it,

    but ya it was the missing pvp..

     

  • logoherelogohere Member Posts: 77

    Did beta for both Auto Assault and SEED. Played TR trial and it was just terrible.

    Auto Assault, to me, was the same concept as EVE Online that had already included non-combat player avatars in cities. It had amazing graphics and the gameplay was very fast paced. It would have been a nice single/multiplayer PC game but definitely not an MMO.

    SEED was a very interesting idea and the cartoon graphics added to the whole atmosphere. Unfortunately there were many bugs and even connecting to the game was very difficult. Once in, there really wasn't much to do and I usually ended up crashing to desktop after a few minutes. This MMO was similar to Face of Mankind in that it left a lot of room for RP it just lacked the firepower.

    And well TR. Its not even worth talking about.

  • A.BlacklochA.Blackloch Member UncommonPosts: 842

    Auto Assault is the only game from the list I really miss. It was different and nice in it's own way.

  • logoherelogohere Member Posts: 77


    Originally posted by Mortemia
    Auto Assault is the only game from the list I really miss. It was different and nice in it's own way.

    Like destructible environments and that "Snow Run" where you had a time limit to race through a blizzard while fighting off enemies?

  • Kaynos1972Kaynos1972 Member Posts: 2,316

    I'm pretty sure Darkfall will make the list, i dont count on that game to finish the year.

  • esarphieesarphie Member UncommonPosts: 76

    Interesting to hear what I've been saying to friends for years in this thread... namely that Auto Assault should have been more like Interstate 76, and less like Twisted Metal.  If you're going to be driving a car for hours on end as the main activity of an MMO, then I'd say half the effort in the development needs to go into the driving experience. In many ways AA ended up being just another fantasy MMO with car characters instead of bipeds.

    What's always been fun about auto sims... actually any vehicle sim, is that a good program can give you the illusion of actually being able to operate that vehicle in the real world. Now add some rocket launchers and machine guns, and you've got the potential for an MMO that can grab players viscerally in a way that hotbars and cooldown timers can't. I think that's what a lot of us were hoping for out of Auto Assault, but didn't get.

    Tabula Rasa could have been genre-defining, but somewhere along the way they got lost. In my opinion, if they'd worried less about trying to cram a good/bad/who cares Fable character development skeleton into the game, and worried more about giving you dynamic battlefields with solid teamwork goals and a sense of actually accomplishing things, they could have really been something. Instead, we got what we got... and then it went away.

  • dlunasdlunas Member UncommonPosts: 206
    Originally posted by vickykol


    I played SEED regularly.  I think the problem wasn't just that there was no combat -- there was not much of a fully functional game there.  I think it could have been a nice niche game with the right resources behind it, and I would have paid as much for something like it as I do for my PvE games.

     

    I had never heard of SEED until reading this article just now.  It sounds pretty interesting, too bad it didn't work out.

  • DustmanDustman Member Posts: 1

    For any of you interested, the Seed community is alive and well, though it's small in size just as it was small when the game was actually running. Many of us feel that Seed was the best game we ever played while even more agree that it was the best online game ever. The fact that mainstream MMO players left it after a few minutes/hours/crashes is that it brought RP into the MMOG. It had brilliant writer team and a group of GMs (Alchemic Dream) who were real game-masters insted of just customer support. Also, it had a story that the players could join and shape instead of just watching it by doing quests.

    If you are curious what happened with the community in the years since Seed closed, check out:

    www.seedthecommunity.org

    I hope some who missed Seed or lost track of the community will be glad for the link and join us on the forums or on IRC.

    Cheers,

    Dustman

    PS.: I played Seed from beta till it's closed, best summer I ever had.

     

  • dlunasdlunas Member UncommonPosts: 206
    Originally posted by Dustman


    For any of you interested, the Seed community is alive and well, though it's small in size just as it was small when the game was actually running. Many of us feel that Seed was the best game we ever played while even more agree that it was the best online game ever. The fact that mainstream MMO players left it after a few minutes/hours/crashes is that it brought RP into the MMOG. It had brilliant writer team and a group of GMs (Alchemic Dream) who were real game-masters insted of just customer support. Also, it had a story that the players could join and shape instead of just watching it by doing quests.
    If you are curious what happened with the community in the years since Seed closed, check out:
    www.seedthecommunity.org
    I hope some who missed Seed or lost track of the community will be glad for the link and join us on the forums or on IRC.
    Cheers,
    Dustman
    PS.: I played Seed from beta till it's closed, best summer I ever had.
     

     

    Well, that's bookmarked.  Thanks.

  • SortranSortran Member Posts: 148
    Originally posted by zaltar


    My 2 cents
     
    I was sorry to see Fury go  , good concept that  was poorly implemented .
    Still hoping to find a worthwhile pvp experience , so far no luck .



     

    Agreed, I Alpha'd and beta'd Fury along with some friends and family, and until they made some changes to the entire game world (which created a nasty nightmare for most pcs) it was really invigorating to play pvp in. Despite huge volumes of feedback from the veteran testers from alpha and early beta, Auren just didnt fix anything, and when they went to balance skills they nerfed em to oblivion and boosted the other ones to near godmode like levels.

    Im actually surprised it lasted as long as it did, and even after release new players and alpha/beta vets kept screaming on fixing tons of issues.

    Never got the chance to play the others on the list, I was watching TR a bit, but waited due to getting vanguard'd I wont buy games unless I get to beta test them or wait 6 months or more after release to check on em.

    As for HG:L that game couldnt really be considered an MMO, since it was more like battlenet lol. I played it online for a while, just wasnt fun in groups.

    Playing: Not much actively.
    Games played: to many to list, been playing MMO's since 2001
    --------------------------

  • blotzblotz Member UncommonPosts: 99

    out of this list i only feel bad about SEED 

    as far as i know they simply ran out of money and had to decide

    to release it in an unfinished buggy version or never release it at all

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