Has an MMORPG ever completely failed?

Ashigaru

stevenpotter321b14_ESO wrote: »

Tabula Rasa, nuff said.

i enjoyed that really, kind of miss it.

Ashigaru

Knootewoot wrote: »

Hypersillyman wrote: »

Vanguard didn't really fail. It still has active servers and still brings in a steady revenue stream. It certainly didn't succeed on the level they wanted or expected it too, but it didn't really fail.

Warhammer is one of the most well known example of a failed MMO. It is notable for the sheer immensity of the collapse. They hyped it like crazy and poured a TON of money into it, and it completely and utterly crashed. It's been shut down for a while now.

Tabula Rasa is notable not just for it's failure as a product, but also for the controversy that surrounded it. Any company that intentionally screws over Richard Garriott is going to get more negative attention that they can handle. He successfully sued them for what they did to him, which just compounded the failure.

Vanguard has one server left and they are pulling the plug this summer in June i believe. I played from beta until the announcement. I loved the game and in my eyes the game did not fail but SOE's mismanagment (just like SWG)

WAR did not fail in my eyes. I loved the game. To bad it has been shut down recently.

Same as Tabula Rasa, i loved it. Richard went into space and NCSoft pulled the plug. Grrr

I feel vanguard was before its time, the graphics and sound on it were amazing (not many machines back then could handle the game) and i loved the disciple class. I played in beta and about 2 weeks after they changed the whole thing, sorc was a fun class then pvp people started crying about the AE and they nerfed it, took a lot of fun out of the class but i hated the crafting for sure. I still have the flying reindeer lol randy i think his name is lol. I loved building a house there and the whole oriental thing race and cultural rocked.

jircris11

Tabula rasa comes to mind. Was a fun game but way ahead of its time.

Ashigaru

Coolest thing about The Matrix online was the online radio streaming you could do. I loved being able to plug my radio station in and listen to it through the game.

SWG was a really cool game, it had 32 professions you could mix and match and if you didn't like it you could drop them all and regrind up to whatever you want to and no i dont think Jedi was the death of it, the death of it were the people that didnt have jedi and whined about it all the time. There were plenty of riflemen/whatever and mtk/swordsman and Bh's and combat medics that could eat jedi for lunch. They were an alpha class kind of like emperor here and they were supposed to be hard to kill, plain and simple. I think one of the issues though is that they made it where everyone and their dog could get one with the village and such and thats when we started seeing issues with them i guess. The crafting was awesome in that game also. SWG had a lot of good points, more so i think then bad ones.

n.englishb14_ESO

PBpsy wrote: »

I really wonder if Defiance still exists. I will not even bother to google that.

Dang beat me to it. Yeah, Destiny is basically what defiance promised...maybe.

ElSlayer

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/7000/shortest-lived-major-mmorpg

Knootewoot

Saga of Ryzom. Failed? Probably. The game speaks of an organic world. It is true, it is just like a weed. They pulled the plug twice on this game, but it still is there.

I left this game because i had my character which i put in hundreds of hours wiped twice. But it was the ONLY mmo which has seasons with herds of animals moving from one place to the other, special mats in autumn and a nice change of scenery when the seasons changed.

Great game. But a lot of grinding.

Rajani Isa

Knootewoot wrote: »

SWG didn't fail. It run for almost 8 years which is longer then most mmo's. SOE made sadly a lot of mistakes and drove people off. But the game still had a good steady base when they shut down and even today people play it (like me) on the emu. Not millions but at least 3000.

Yes Tabula Rasa run for only 1 year but not because it was a bad game. Because NCsoft didn't get enough money and pulled the plug. I think the story and mechanics where great and also the exploration and creatures. And i love sci-fi and sadly there are not many (good) sci-fi mmo's

Ah well, memories

Well, SWG at least had a major fail moment that probably helped lead to it's demise. The NGE episode - which invalidated most of a just-released paid expansion - isn't a way to get customers happy.

Tabula Rasa also had an (ha!) identity crisis, as I recall - didn't it do a major shift in development? At the very least I had some friends drop it because of some big change in how it was presented, at least.

Also, another big fail was Stargate Worlds - the developer went bankrupt as I recall.

KerinKor

ausmack2014 wrote: »

My experience with mmo's is quite limited, so this is purely curiosity. Has any large release mmorpg ever failed and been wound up?

Well, FFXIV V1 was an abject disaster and if it had been from a 'Western' game house I'm sure it would have died within weeks, probably not long after the 30-day 'free' time expired for early buyers.

But Square Enix is Japanese and they have a somewhat different culture in that a failure of that magnitude is almost unthinkable and since they have very deep pockets they were able to basically throw most of V1 away and re-build it as V2.

Rajani Isa

Not sure how much of it was SOE being a Japanese company, and how much of it was it being Square-Enix and Final Fantasy being their flagship property (properties?)

Gwarok

METALPUNKS wrote: »

PBpsy wrote: »

I really wonder if Defiance still exists. I will not even bother to google that.

You are right, not worth a google even. Worst let down of last year for me. I did see its free now. Lol

Then they tried to their "No tricks, No Traps" stunt with RIFT and pretty much slammed the final nails in THAT coffin.

Shaun98ca2

Ashigaru wrote: »

Knootewoot wrote: »

Hypersillyman wrote: »

Vanguard didn't really fail. It still has active servers and still brings in a steady revenue stream. It certainly didn't succeed on the level they wanted or expected it too, but it didn't really fail.

Warhammer is one of the most well known example of a failed MMO. It is notable for the sheer immensity of the collapse. They hyped it like crazy and poured a TON of money into it, and it completely and utterly crashed. It's been shut down for a while now.

Tabula Rasa is notable not just for it's failure as a product, but also for the controversy that surrounded it. Any company that intentionally screws over Richard Garriott is going to get more negative attention that they can handle. He successfully sued them for what they did to him, which just compounded the failure.

Vanguard has one server left and they are pulling the plug this summer in June i believe. I played from beta until the announcement. I loved the game and in my eyes the game did not fail but SOE's mismanagment (just like SWG)

WAR did not fail in my eyes. I loved the game. To bad it has been shut down recently.

Same as Tabula Rasa, i loved it. Richard went into space and NCSoft pulled the plug. Grrr

I feel vanguard was before its time, the graphics and sound on it were amazing (not many machines back then could handle the game) and i loved the disciple class. I played in beta and about 2 weeks after they changed the whole thing, sorc was a fun class then pvp people started crying about the AE and they nerfed it, took a lot of fun out of the class but i hated the crafting for sure. I still have the flying reindeer lol randy i think his name is lol. I loved building a house there and the whole oriental thing race and cultural rocked.

Vanguard ...... yea I bought it and played it for a couple of months.....

Game was spread too thin I believe and a LOT of content required help.

My fav class was the blood mage aaahhhh how I will miss that class.

NOW...... WOW vrs EQ2.....I have NO clue how came on top in that fight. EQ was KNOWN for being a amazing game and in my opinion EQ2 had a WAY better system. They even had every quest voice dialoged....but the dialog was TERRIBLE over all.

I think WOW won that battle due to the NUMEROUS Blizzard fans cause EQ2 was simply the better game of the 2.


TESO will NOT go F2P for a while, a LOT of people usually wait to get into an mmo to see how it turns out and let the game get most its kinks out. There might be people quitting the game but I imagine there's even more joining at the same time.

Gwarok

n.englishb14_ESO wrote: »

PBpsy wrote: »

I really wonder if Defiance still exists. I will not even bother to google that.

Dang beat me to it. Yeah, Destiny is basically what defiance promised...maybe.

Destiny WILL be a complete FAIL (IMO) because it told the PC master race to p1ss off.

You've been trolled, sorta.

Knootewoot

ElSlayer wrote: »

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/7000/shortest-lived-major-mmorpg

Odd, because the game still runs. It was dead but taken over by gamersfirst who also aquired Fallen Earth.

So basicly it is not the shortest because it was revived.

Audigy

The question is, how do you define failed?

Warhammer,

as we all know had a client that caused a massive lag due the collision detection and the refresh algorithm for buffs & debuffs, it was unplayable in large battles which first lead to the closing of all EU servers and later to the complete shut down.
Still the game was based on a much better idea than many F2P games.

AoC,

the MMO without content, a massive memory leak and BSOD every once in a while.
Once you reached level 30, there was nothing to do except grind mobs as they just forgot to add quest´s there. It also shipped without pvp and from level 20 on the NPC´s voice acting was forgotten ...
Still I have good memories about it, as it was for adults and just had the best graphics and atmosphere back then.

SWTOR,

the game that managed to destroy the progress of many thousand players by deleting their Chars in their move to a megaserver. I lost 8 Chars that day, never got any compensation, never got my Chars back - but an email stating I could come back if I wanted for a few free days... Its also known as the biggest rip off F2P, as you must buy tons of things to even be able to play decently. (hotbars, sprint, mounts, pvp and pve access - it all cost´s extra).
Besides that, SWTOR did ship without HD Textures, Anti Aliasing and a horrible foliage detection.
Still, SWTOR had the best companion system ever in an MMO.

WoW,

for many old school wow players it failed with WOTLK. Yes WoW still has the most subs if you factor Asia in, but it also had about 10 million players at the end of TBC with Sunwell release and today it has about 3 million in Europe & NA together and about 4 in Asia.
Still, Vanilla and TBC were probably the best new gen MMO´s I ever played, but this can change with ESO now

SWG,

I don't think it failed to be honest. The crafting and guild system, including the social systems are still considered high class. To be able to build whole cities, with space docks, factories and all this - that was just ace. It was shut down one week pre SWTOR, without SWTOR it would probably still exist and be played by its fans.
That said, Sony tried to do what Blizzard still does - cater to vocal minorities. Besides SWG and WoW no other game changed its appearance and design so much in its life time.

SGW,

Star Gate Worlds was never released, its the Duke Nukem of the MMO genre. License issue´s and going bankrupt stopped something, that could had ben great. That said, Duke finally saw a release so who knows what will happen in the next 10 years.
The idea behind it is still great.

sevcik.miroslaveb17_ESO

I strongly agree that good MMO is impossible to live long. Everyone want fast paced stuff. They want to hit maximum level day 1 if possible. They do not want travel longer distances, they want huge ammount of drops, they want to faceroll everything.

In all honesty ESO is my last online game to be played. I will finish whole content (current) and then have some fun in PVP. When I get bored I will quit and won't ever again touch online gaming.

I was playing games for around 24 years now and all I see in online gaming to develop are graphics, game mechanics and lower and lower difficulty and insanly increased number of cheaters. Also there is huge lack of respect among gamers these days. There is too much competition and rush rather than to have fun.

ESO is the game which I like in most aspects, but I am convinced that it's difficulty will get lower due to voices of modern "gamers"

Knootewoot

Shaun98ca2 wrote: »

NOW...... WOW vrs EQ2.....I have NO clue how came on top in that fight. EQ was KNOWN for being a amazing game and in my opinion EQ2 had a WAY better system. They even had every quest voice dialoged....but the dialog was TERRIBLE over all.

I think WOW won that battle due to the NUMEROUS Blizzard fans cause EQ2 was simply the better game of the 2.

I was one who bought EQ2. I really liked it and the graphics where amazing (even on high there was a warning "modern" pc's could not handle it). It had a lot, i was an evil ranger living in the slums. Sadly rangers could only be good later on. My friends all bought WoW instead because they never played a mmo before and where familiar with Blizzard because of Diablo and Warcraft.

Warcraft is definitly not a bad game, and is has a good story. I did not like the expansion though. It is sad the game was so good and had so many subs that other companies tried to copy stuff from it. It ruined EQ2 and SWG for me at least.

I am glad TESO has it's own ideas like the 5 skillbar which is good imho because in other mmo's i have sjitload of skills on screen and only use 4-5.

I am at work and want to go home and play. Didn't have that feeling since SWG pre-CU.

isengrimb16_ESO

ausmack2014 wrote: »

Knootewoot wrote: »

SWG didn't fail. It run for almost 8 years which is longer then most mmo's. SOE made sadly a lot of mistakes and drove people off. But the game still had a good steady base when they shut down and even today people play it (like me) on the emu. Not millions but at least 3000.

Yes Tabula Rasa run for only 1 year but not because it was a bad game. Because NCsoft didn't get enough money and pulled the plug. I think the story and mechanics where great and also the exploration and creatures. And i love sci-fi and sadly there are not many (good) sci-fi mmo's

Ah well, memories

I remember years ago playing a SF PC game, named something about Traders, where you build colonies, traded and built up stuff, had to compete with other empires etc. I'd love to see a game like that online, where you could build up resources, establish colonies, build ships and armies and so on. Don't know if there is such a game but if it was along that line I'd be in it.

Tradewars? Anyone who remembers that as a door game from the BBS years, it was still around on the web (f2p) a couple of years ago. But Tradewars was very much that, and in the BBS years, had a very strong Star Trek theme, which they had to change, I guess. I remember often having the bad luck to run into Ferengi who would steal all my holds.

If I may, I recently came across reference to another failed MMO - Dragon Ball. Apparently, it was only around for a year or so ... but I don't know if it counts, because it only had servers in Korea for some reason. Too bad, I guess it made a better cartoon than a game.

Krovax

I had been waiting on Ultima X online, but they pulled the plug before beta or so. Damn I really enjoyed the Ultima series even though I've only ever played 7.1, 7.2, 8 and Ascension (9).

(The Chronicles of) Spellborn failed pretty bad, too.

Avidus

I am going to mention one game that seems to be unheard of.

Anybody else ever play Fury? Entirely Arena PvP.
Failed so hard, so fast It made my wallet spin.

lycanslerwb17_ESO

Turf Battles, (google it) failed because it was full of bugs

mutharex

Gwarok wrote: »

n.englishb14_ESO wrote: »

PBpsy wrote: »

I really wonder if Defiance still exists. I will not even bother to google that.

Dang beat me to it. Yeah, Destiny is basically what defiance promised...maybe.

Destiny WILL be a complete FAIL (IMO) because it told the PC master race to p1ss off.

You've been trolled, sorta.

Also, Destiny isn't a MMO, they are talking about 8 players 'worlds'. It's more a semi-permanent (or fake-permanent) coop game more akin to Borderlands.

Defiance had a lot of problems but it's still more MMO than Destiny

Krovax

mutharex wrote: »

Destiny had a lot of problems but it's still more MMO than Destiny

I think I see what you did there... lol

KerinKor

Audigy wrote: »

The question is, how do you define failed?

Given the OP ACTUALLY asked

ausmack2014 wrote: »

Has any large release mmorpg ever failed and been wound up?

their meaning is crystal clear and the likes of WOW, SW:TOR clearly don't qualify while Warhammer clearly does.

Shimond

To fail it would have to be shut down, so of the 'big' named ones only a few have really failed so far. AC2 is probably the fastest fail of the bigger ones (I'm not sure I really count APB as big).

mutharex

mutharex wrote: »

Gwarok wrote: »

n.englishb14_ESO wrote: »

PBpsy wrote: »

I really wonder if Defiance still exists. I will not even bother to google that.

Dang beat me to it. Yeah, Destiny is basically what defiance promised...maybe.

Destiny WILL be a complete FAIL (IMO) because it told the PC master race to p1ss off.

You've been trolled, sorta.

Also, Destiny isn't a MMO, they are talking about 8 players 'worlds'. It's more a semi-permanent (or fake-permanent) coop game more akin to Borderlands.

Destiny had a lot of problems but it's still more MMO than Destiny

Krovax wrote: »

mutharex wrote: »

Destiny had a lot of problems but it's still more MMO than Destiny

I think I see what you did there... lol

LOL corrected my typo

sevcik.miroslaveb17_ESO

I played only APB reloaded. Free to play okay game overrun with cheaters and elitism.

It had no chance to survive as pay to play imho. I spent like 20 euro for starter kit just to say thank you for hundreds of hours I somehow played.(bought it after I had everything unlocked). Can't believe it myself. But if you got good group it was fun to play.

Drachenfier

Hypersillyman wrote: »

Vanguard didn't really fail. It still has active servers and still brings in a steady revenue stream.

Vanguard is gone man. Servers are going offline July 31.

But completely failed MMO's are, imo, ones that didn't last long. Warhammer failed, but it still carried on for several years. Games like AC2, APB, Hellgate...those flopped and died relatively quickly.

pysgod1978b14_ESO

One problem with Vanguard was the game world being gigantic. It made travel a bit messy and long.

ShadowWolf613

Warhammer saldy failed I would say. I played it near launch till it's very death. The rocky launch turned off alot of people from what I remember correctly. Also the lack of pve (not that i cared one bit about pve) caused people to leave. I love it's RVR and it's Warfronts. God I miss warhammer :P After warhammer i played rift but couldn't get into like I did in warhammer. At least ESO i'm actually into I just wish they would make pvp worth doing.