I only know enough about Tabula Rasa to really comment on, a shame they shut it down. I still don't get why, except the "rage and anger" because of Richard Garriot JeroKane mentioned. It had a terrible perfomance in beta, but it did quite a lot of things right, and they actually improved the perfomance, whereas many games get worse and worse.
I don't play most MMOs long enough (and i actually only came back to Tabula Rasa when it was free the last month(s)) t o notice that, but boy did it drop from CoD 4 to 5. From 60+ everywhere with nearly maxed settings to max 30 even with everything turned off and standing still looking against a wall. Everything turned on, giant explosions - 20 fps, funny enough.
It did some other things right too, like, i liked the auction house, especially the filter and searching stuff, making it easy to make some money on the stuff you found, without going fullblown "trader". Years later, most games either still don't have one or it's absolutely lacking. The combat, being FPS-like, the sci-fi setting.. i even remember a map name (Concordia Dvivide), it's stuck in my had somehow.
I'll wait to the day's end when the moon is high And then I'll rise with the tide with a lust for life, I'll Amass an army, and we'll harness a horde And then we'll limp across the land until we stand at the shore
If I won the lottery (yeah yeah, I know...) Spellborn would be bought the next day and be put back in development for another year.
It really was a cracking little game, ruined only by the cash running out, a bad publisher, and an early release (which is really all part of the same thing).
I looked at some old SS from the game while reading this and it still looks good to my eyes.
Few people listing AC2, did you guys ever play it? It wasn't that fun, nothing at all like AC. Tabula Rasa was a fun game and different than the rest. SWG also should still be around and much more popular than it was if they hadn't of screwed it up so bad.
Please tell me how Dominus makes the list when you don't even know anything about it? If you want the communities list than you do a poll, if you are writing to give us your list than don't include something you don't know anything about. "We don’t know too much about this one, but Dominus had the MMORPG.com community particularly excited."
Kind of surprised that NCSoft has not brought back Tabula Rasa as a f2p. Certainly it is a lot better than many of the current f2p games out there. They have a decent code base for it which works, should not be too hard to add in f2p.
I was looking forward to Dominus, shame they could not get the funding needed.
Spellborn could not even survive as a f2p. As to the Matrix online, it was just basically a horrible game, not sure you could even fix it.
I think the Agency was one of those games that looked good on paper, but as a game it was not worth finishing development.
As to SWG, not even worth mentioning because LA's licensing costs would be prohibitive.
Spellborn had some great combat gameplay. Way ahead of its time. Good concept too. Oh well.
I always want to get into vanguard, but like some have said, I could play years and never experience everything. Do I really want to invest that kind of time into an older MMO...
I've tried to play a few times, but cannot make it past the starter area. Maybe when it goes f2p.
What about dark & light. I know it was a disaster but if executed right it could've been archeage.
The title of the thread was "5 dead MMOs with POTENTIAL"
SWG was played out. Everything that could be done to make it viable, had already been done. It was a dying game when SWTOR came out so it was shut down.
The reason NGE happened was because the game didnt appeal to the mass market, despite what the hardcore of SWG supporters on this site say, the reason it was killed off was because there was nothing left to try to make it a success.
Cluck Cluck, Gibber Gibber, My Old Mans A Mushroom
The Matrix online, never got to play that. The day I realised it existed they shut it down. I thought it was my fault. Played TR and Spellborn. Both of them went before their time but Tr is the only one I want to see make a comeback. In a world which still has time for games like Dofus or Rappelz, why did TR have to go? Makes no sense to me.
1. Warhammer Online-how can one screw up such a stellar IP so badly is beyond me(I read about that dark and gritty version of WAR-any pictures and/or movies? It had been developed by Climax until they shut it down), INFINITE potential ...
Not dead
2. Vanguard:Saga of Heroes-one of the best open world games and it lies ruined. It had SOOOO much potential lol.
Not dead
3. Tabula Rasa-was it as buggy as WAR's or WoW's or AoC's launch? I believe no. So why is it dead(other than extravagant mister Garriot)? LOTS of potential.
4. Matrix Online-shame bout both what happened to movies and the game...
5. SWTOR-yeah like I do not even care about Star Wars(ST ftw!!!), but it is obvious this is a piece of unrefined software(lol!). You know why? Trollheads from Mythic laid their grubby hands on (another) great IP(Carrie Gouskos DIEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You fat cow!)
Not dead
Addendum: TESO-I like what I have read and how they will mix it with ES lore. BUT... TROLLHEAD ALERT!!!!! Strange lifeforms from Mythic detected!!! SAAAAVE YOURSELVES!!!! i.e. Yet another great IP ruined by Mythic(oooohhh how I hate that studio-it is like Uwe Boll of games lol).
I totally agre with The chronicles of Spellborn, this game was freaking grt and fun to play i only stopped playing it becase of the low population i dont know why it turned down like this but i think the developers stopped working on it i dont really know but it was for sure a grt game !
Another game i think it was awesome back then was RYL and RYL2 i love that mmo its pvp was fantastic for its time and it didnt looked like any other mmorpg in the time i really miss playing it and their race wars
Precu SWG all the way. So many great ideas. So many wonderful game mechanics that while flawed, allowed a social/economic/political system to emerge that was multilayered and very immersive. I wonder if maybe they just didn't get lucky making that game. Making unique crafted items, building up economic empires, building cities, pvp, exploration, role play, housing, space and land game, on and on. This game was the best mmo I ever played.
Yeah, they just got lucky. Basically it was like a beginning chef throwing a bunch of ingredients into a pot and coming up with something amazing, but he didn't write it down and can't duplicate it. Yeah...the dish was not perfect, but the overall impression was wonderfully crafted and flawed at the same time.
Ofcourse, I'd fix the bugs. I'd make a few changes here and there. I never liked how the jedi system was handled. I wouldn't worry about class imbalances because life has class imbalances. I can study and train with all my heart but I will never have it in me to be an Einstein or a world class athlete. It's just not in my genetics. But I have other abilities. Life isn't always about competition, sometimes it's about the experience of living and family and friends. That's what made SWG great, the sense of family, the friends, the immersion of living in a galaxy far far away and being Uncle Owen.
I am suprised Vanguard isn't on the list, had so much potential the vast scope of the game and vision. If it had only been finished who knows where it would be now? It's still a good game today but no one wants to go back to an old game.. I'd like to see how they do free to play though
seconded, Vanguard should be on that list imo. One of the biggest worlds out there
ER, Vanguard isn't dead like the others on the list are? Reports of its demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Earth and Beyond, AC2 come to mind as always wondering what might of been.
A proper sequel to Ultima Online was started and failed a couple of times which is unfortunately.
Heck, I always wonder what would have happened if Mythic/EA had never occurred, nor had they obtained the Warhammer IP.
They might have gone forward with their "Romans in Space" project (Imperator Online) which could have been interesting but was cancelled in 2005.
personally I believe with out the warhammer IP Mythic would still be its own company. Imperator wouldnt have sold as many boxes as WAR did, But it would have held mythic to more of its roots, three factions and with a whole new ip (like how DAoC was) the limitation would have little to none.
Mark Jacobs would still be in charge and Imperator would be running strong today.
I played AC2 from beta until death. Played all aspects from the group/raids the pvp (Palisades was such a fricking blast) and crafting (Craigstone I swear was the only functional crafting area) I feel that it had potential to really be a top MMO of today had Turbine not spewed so far off from the original story of Ac1 and removed muchs of the loved game play. To this day if they did a reboot on AC2 I would go back in a heart beat. I feel it deserves a spot on this list.
Gaming community: IRONFIST New World: Lilith - US East WoW Guild: IRONFIST <Burning Legion> Alliance(We transferred to Illidan) WoW Guild: IRONFIST <Illidan> Horde SWOTR: IRONFIST <Satele Shan> Empire/Republic
I remember playing AC2 and really enjoying the environments and graphics in the game, the big problem was they had no central hub or cities where people could meet.
Loved the mele combat in Matrix Online, there prob was all the environment looked the same
I'm surprised SWG isn't on the list because it had the most potential of any game I've ever played....the CU was by far the funnest game I had ever played.
I was also a fan of the CU. It made some necessary tweeks to the game without getting rid of all that was good about SWG. SWG should be at the top any list about dead MMOs that had potential. Best crafting and economic system I've seen in an MMORPG, plus the most class options I've ever seen.
Dual character-spaceship avatars with instant transformation into spaceship or character visa-versa and 6-way directional arcade flight control. Got turned into a franchise of the legends for pocket devices instead. Even as a tf2 style game it would have potential without "full mmo". Plus tak on some pve if it grows.
I still think one of the major mistakes they made with MxO at launch was going with the standard mechanic of clothing with bonuses. It seems like a silly thing, but in the context of the Matrix, it really killed the feel of the game to have people dressed up in yellow trenchcoats with purple aligator skin cowboy hats and other equally mismatched clothes just for the bonuses.
In keeping with the way the Matrix is supposed to have worked they should have allowed almost the entire wardrobe to be available from level one, and made the bonuses pieces of code you attach to your clothes. And it would be the pieces of code that would be loot drops, quest rewards and level restricted.
Comments
The lack of SWG on this list is ... staggering.
Perhaps the staff at MMORPG thought they had bashed EA Bioware enough for now.
I maintain this List of Sandbox MMORPGs. Please post or send PM for corrections and suggestions.
Not "dead", but pretty much before his time (And so, never widely know) is Saga of Ryzom.
In the "living dead" section, I agree with SWTOR and TES Online. Sigh.
I only know enough about Tabula Rasa to really comment on, a shame they shut it down. I still don't get why, except the "rage and anger" because of Richard Garriot JeroKane mentioned. It had a terrible perfomance in beta, but it did quite a lot of things right, and they actually improved the perfomance, whereas many games get worse and worse.
I don't play most MMOs long enough (and i actually only came back to Tabula Rasa when it was free the last month(s)) t o notice that, but boy did it drop from CoD 4 to 5. From 60+ everywhere with nearly maxed settings to max 30 even with everything turned off and standing still looking against a wall. Everything turned on, giant explosions - 20 fps, funny enough.
It did some other things right too, like, i liked the auction house, especially the filter and searching stuff, making it easy to make some money on the stuff you found, without going fullblown "trader". Years later, most games either still don't have one or it's absolutely lacking. The combat, being FPS-like, the sci-fi setting.. i even remember a map name (Concordia Dvivide), it's stuck in my had somehow.
I'll wait to the day's end when the moon is high
And then I'll rise with the tide with a lust for life, I'll
Amass an army, and we'll harness a horde
And then we'll limp across the land until we stand at the shore
If I won the lottery (yeah yeah, I know...) Spellborn would be bought the next day and be put back in development for another year.
It really was a cracking little game, ruined only by the cash running out, a bad publisher, and an early release (which is really all part of the same thing).
I looked at some old SS from the game while reading this and it still looks good to my eyes.
Auto Assault; coulda been outstanding.
Few people listing AC2, did you guys ever play it? It wasn't that fun, nothing at all like AC. Tabula Rasa was a fun game and different than the rest. SWG also should still be around and much more popular than it was if they hadn't of screwed it up so bad.
Please tell me how Dominus makes the list when you don't even know anything about it? If you want the communities list than you do a poll, if you are writing to give us your list than don't include something you don't know anything about. "We don’t know too much about this one, but Dominus had the MMORPG.com community particularly excited."
Earth and Beyond, how I miss thee...
/tear
Kind of surprised that NCSoft has not brought back Tabula Rasa as a f2p. Certainly it is a lot better than many of the current f2p games out there. They have a decent code base for it which works, should not be too hard to add in f2p.
I was looking forward to Dominus, shame they could not get the funding needed.
Spellborn could not even survive as a f2p. As to the Matrix online, it was just basically a horrible game, not sure you could even fix it.
I think the Agency was one of those games that looked good on paper, but as a game it was not worth finishing development.
As to SWG, not even worth mentioning because LA's licensing costs would be prohibitive.
I always want to get into vanguard, but like some have said, I could play years and never experience everything. Do I really want to invest that kind of time into an older MMO...
I've tried to play a few times, but cannot make it past the starter area. Maybe when it goes f2p.
What about dark & light. I know it was a disaster but if executed right it could've been archeage.
The title of the thread was "5 dead MMOs with POTENTIAL"
SWG was played out. Everything that could be done to make it viable, had already been done. It was a dying game when SWTOR came out so it was shut down.
The reason NGE happened was because the game didnt appeal to the mass market, despite what the hardcore of SWG supporters on this site say, the reason it was killed off was because there was nothing left to try to make it a success.
Cluck Cluck, Gibber Gibber, My Old Mans A Mushroom
The Matrix online, never got to play that. The day I realised it existed they shut it down. I thought it was my fault. Played TR and Spellborn. Both of them went before their time but Tr is the only one I want to see make a comeback. In a world which still has time for games like Dofus or Rappelz, why did TR have to go? Makes no sense to me.
We are talking about dead MMOs.
I totally agre with The chronicles of Spellborn, this game was freaking grt and fun to play i only stopped playing it becase of the low population i dont know why it turned down like this but i think the developers stopped working on it i dont really know but it was for sure a grt game !
Another game i think it was awesome back then was RYL and RYL2 i love that mmo its pvp was fantastic for its time and it didnt looked like any other mmorpg in the time i really miss playing it and their race wars
Precu SWG all the way. So many great ideas. So many wonderful game mechanics that while flawed, allowed a social/economic/political system to emerge that was multilayered and very immersive. I wonder if maybe they just didn't get lucky making that game. Making unique crafted items, building up economic empires, building cities, pvp, exploration, role play, housing, space and land game, on and on. This game was the best mmo I ever played.
Yeah, they just got lucky. Basically it was like a beginning chef throwing a bunch of ingredients into a pot and coming up with something amazing, but he didn't write it down and can't duplicate it. Yeah...the dish was not perfect, but the overall impression was wonderfully crafted and flawed at the same time.
Ofcourse, I'd fix the bugs. I'd make a few changes here and there. I never liked how the jedi system was handled. I wouldn't worry about class imbalances because life has class imbalances. I can study and train with all my heart but I will never have it in me to be an Einstein or a world class athlete. It's just not in my genetics. But I have other abilities. Life isn't always about competition, sometimes it's about the experience of living and family and friends. That's what made SWG great, the sense of family, the friends, the immersion of living in a galaxy far far away and being Uncle Owen.
I agree with Warhammer Online.
Awesome game totally ###### up.
Although people gave up on the game really fast aswell.
personally I believe with out the warhammer IP Mythic would still be its own company. Imperator wouldnt have sold as many boxes as WAR did, But it would have held mythic to more of its roots, three factions and with a whole new ip (like how DAoC was) the limitation would have little to none.
Mark Jacobs would still be in charge and Imperator would be running strong today.
I agree with
1. Mythica,
3. Hero's Journey
4. Warhammer Online (The original version that was being developed by Climax which was suppose to be a bloody dark version of Warhammer)
I played AC2 from beta until death. Played all aspects from the group/raids the pvp (Palisades was such a fricking blast) and crafting (Craigstone I swear was the only functional crafting area) I feel that it had potential to really be a top MMO of today had Turbine not spewed so far off from the original story of Ac1 and removed muchs of the loved game play. To this day if they did a reboot on AC2 I would go back in a heart beat. I feel it deserves a spot on this list.
Gaming community: IRONFIST
New World: Lilith - US East
WoW Guild: IRONFIST <Burning Legion> Alliance(We transferred to Illidan)
WoW Guild: IRONFIST <Illidan> Horde
SWOTR: IRONFIST <Satele Shan> Empire/Republic
I remember playing AC2 and really enjoying the environments and graphics in the game, the big problem was they had no central hub or cities where people could meet.
Loved the mele combat in Matrix Online, there prob was all the environment looked the same
I was also a fan of the CU. It made some necessary tweeks to the game without getting rid of all that was good about SWG. SWG should be at the top any list about dead MMOs that had potential. Best crafting and economic system I've seen in an MMORPG, plus the most class options I've ever seen.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
Blackstar Chronicles for PC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc8dXW61bv4
Dual character-spaceship avatars with instant transformation into spaceship or character visa-versa and 6-way directional arcade flight control. Got turned into a franchise of the legends for pocket devices instead. Even as a tf2 style game it would have potential without "full mmo". Plus tak on some pve if it grows.
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
I so much wanted Dominus to launch. I had more fun in the stress test than most MMOs until the BWE for GW2.
TR I loved playing the beta and that game could have been great.
Matrix Online I actually subbed when in came out, big learning curve but I thought the game was pretty good for the time.
AC still almost the only perfect MMO ever released.
Shadowbane! Would love to see that again.
I still think one of the major mistakes they made with MxO at launch was going with the standard mechanic of clothing with bonuses. It seems like a silly thing, but in the context of the Matrix, it really killed the feel of the game to have people dressed up in yellow trenchcoats with purple aligator skin cowboy hats and other equally mismatched clothes just for the bonuses.
In keeping with the way the Matrix is supposed to have worked they should have allowed almost the entire wardrobe to be available from level one, and made the bonuses pieces of code you attach to your clothes. And it would be the pieces of code that would be loot drops, quest rewards and level restricted.
They could have done so much more with MXO.
Joined - July 2004