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PC Games (Games) Role Playing (Games)

MMORPG Circle of Life 38

Posted by Zonk from the out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new dept.
The Massive Gaming market continues to change. Wednesday marked the sunset of Earth and Beyond, a decision made by EA back in March due to a refocusing on future projects. While E&B heads out of the picture, the new French MMOG Saga of Ryzom opened its first US server this week after a lengthy beta period. Impressions of the game are available at Gamebunny and MMORPGDot. And looking towards the future, the Dungeons and Dragons Online website just went live yesterday.
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MMORPG Circle of Life More

MMORPG Circle of Life

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  • E&B was an awesome MMORPG, and I don't even like MMORPG's. I just loved flying my ship around however I wanted and building up my ship's abilities. It was also cool walking around inside the bases and "talking" to other players and NPCs.

    I was in the beta of E&B, but after it wasn't free anymore, I didn't pay for it, so I guess it wasn't fun ENOUGH to capture part of my wallet. This may explain why it failed, but normally you couldn't pay me to play an MMORPG.

    Chris
    • I too was in the beta, and really really liked it. It was very playable (not like Absolute Failure Online) and there was a real joy in jumping to another starsystem and finding giant nebulae. It was a suprisingly pretty game, and had a nice balance. I mainly didnt join up for the pay version because I had just got laid off, that and I like Morrowind enough to not need a MMORPG right now.
      Still, E&B was very well done, and I am saddened to see it pass. It would be nice to see an effort to open up the serv
      • Whoa guys, hang on here. I was in the beta too, and in my not so humble opinion, E&B SUCKED. Every single aspect of it was little more than a poorly disguised leveling treadmill. Combat was utterly worthless... fly to target, use special ability A B or C, set most powerful weapon to autofire, wait until someone dies. Dogfighting? What's that? Hell, space wasn't even 3D - it was a flat plane with about 15 feet of vertical space before your ship magically leveled off - so you couldn't even manuver if you

  • Brings up a startling question (Score:3, Interesting)

    by tod_miller ( 792541 ) on Friday September 24, 2004 @09:04AM (#10339558) Journal
    For pure MMORPG's:

    Earth & Beyond is no longer in service. After an amazing two years of galactic adventure, Electronic Arts has made the decision to close Earth & Beyond in order to focus resources on future games.

    We hope you've enjoyed the game as much as we have and we'll see you again in another great EA game!

    Thank you,

    So, you pays your money, and then you are no longer able to play that game.... I am not fully up on the details, but I would be fskd is GTA VC stopped working on my PC one day (ok it ain't a MMORPG, but it is a game - I just don't play MMORPGS)

    So what is the deal with that? [airline peanuts?]

    If a game relies on these servers, and content, do the users know the minimum time they will be supported?

    • Re:Brings up a startling question (Score:5, Insightful)

      by chromaphobic ( 764362 ) on Friday September 24, 2004 @09:21AM (#10339696)

      I would be fskd is GTA VC stopped working on my PC one day

      In all likelyhood, one day it will stop working. It probably will be a long time from now, but at some point Windows will most likely be updated to the point where old software stops working.

      I haven't had it happed to any of my PC games just yet, but I have a stack of old Mac games that only work with OS 9 whose CD's are headed for the trash bin soon.

      At this point in time, I wouldn't expect the devlopers for the Mac port of the original Driver (for example) to go back and update it for OS X after all these years. I just accept it as one of the costs of forward progress.

      But, yeah, I might be a little upset if I'd put a lot of time into a MMO game and they just killed it one day (despite the fact that it's inevitable that every MMO will one day shutter it's doors.)

      • I think the inevitability of a MMO closing doors is sad... :-( a good network model wuold mean you could upgrade 'software' like windows, and keep playing the essence.

        Good point about PC software, I know that my amstrad copy of elite doesn't work on my PC anymore :-( It used to work at least 10% of the time on the amstrad :-(

        Seriously though, originals of frontier, and frontier 2, DOTT, Sam and Max, all these DOS days games.... *sniff* haven't figured out how to get them runnig on SCUMMVM (haven't tried,
      • The difference being that we can reliably emulate the legacy host systems for these old titles.

        I have a number of old DOS games that I run through emulation. Not to mention all my Commodore 64 and Atari 800 games.

        An MMORPG like this might survive through a server emulator, but for a relatively esoteric game with a small userbase, that seems unlikely. Kind of sad, almost like seeing a universe die.

      • I think you are trying to compare apples and oranges. That is like complaining that GTA stopped working because you got rid of your PS2. If you want to continue to use GTA on the PC, then you need to maintain a machine that is capable of running it. The user base of the mmorpg don't have that option.
    • Actually, most online games are surprisingly resistent to death. My own game, Meridian 59 [meridian59.com], was shut down by 3DO then bought and resurrected by a couple of the former developers. We've kept the game going and growing; we just released a new graphical client [meridian59.com] which includes Direct3D support, dynamic lighting, mouselook, rebindable keys, all things that weren't included in the game when it was released originally in 1996. It's not exactly cutting edge, but it looks pretty fine for a game that's about 8 years
      • Just like when the bastards at EA killed Multiplayer Battletech.

        Hell, they could have started charging for what they already had in the beta with *no additional development* and I'd have bought it.

        I still say the beta of MPBT:3025 was one of the most entertaining games ever made.

  • MMORPGs are great ... (Score:4, Funny)

    by monsterhead78 ( 815842 ) on Friday September 24, 2004 @09:19AM (#10339682) Homepage
    ... except for the fact that you have to put up other people in them.

  • Earth & Beyond (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jafuser ( 112236 ) on Friday September 24, 2004 @09:20AM (#10339690)

    Earth & Beyond is no longer in service. After an amazing two years of galactic adventure, Electronic Arts has made the decision to close Earth & Beyond in order to focus resources on future games.

    We hope you've enjoyed the game as much as we have and we'll see you again in another great EA game!

    No you won't.

    EA Bought Westwood Studios and then cut E&B's budget so it would go hurling into the ground.

    E&B had an excellent foundation and it's story was the most interesting of any other MMO that I've played or looked into so far.

    EA bought out Maxis and put an end to their product diversity. Now they just stick with one sure-fire money maker and churn out endless expansions and revisions instead of entirely new simulator games.

    And now they have the nerve to tell me I can't run certian software alongside their games because I might be a pirate. Nice way to treat your customers.

    EA will never see another penny from me.
    • "EA will never see another penny from me."

      Sure. Sure. We all beleive ya. Really.

      I think we have all said the same thing about one company or another but lets be truthful here. Next time they come out with a game you really want they will see about $50 of your pennies.

      • Re:Earth & Beyond (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Enucite ( 10192 )
        I think we have all said the same thing about one company or another but lets be truthful here. Next time they come out with a game you really want they will see about $50 of your pennies.

        If they come out with a game he really wants, he can get it without anyone--except his ISP--seeing a penny for it.

        I'm not saying it's right, just that it's possible for him to play any good games EA happens to ship without EA ever getting a penny for it.

        I think developers and publishers need to pay attention to this.
    • EA bought out Maxis and put an end to their product diversity. Now they just stick with one sure-fire money maker and churn out endless expansions and revisions instead of entirely new simulator games.

      Come on now, are we really clamoring for more along the lines of SimLife (blech), SimIsle (double blech) and SimHealth (triple blech)?

      • Here are some ideas:

        SimMicroscopicOrganism (Where you watch alcohol and CO2 being produced)
        SimSTD (Where you try to kill the world)
        SimMS
        SimVirus (Where you try to crash the world)
        SimRadio
        SimTV
        SimMoon (Hell, they had a SimEarth)
        SimUniverse

        You know... these all seem sort of dumb or boring. Except maybe SimTV or SimRadio. Maybe they could come out with a SimMedia, where you try to control a growing media empire. Shades of TWINE

    • "...Electronic Arts has made the decision to close Earth & Beyond in order to focus resources on future games."

      Surely they misspelled "...in order focus resources and talent on Ultima Online, the upcoming expansion, and an unannounced Ultima Online project"? Gee, this sure sounds familiar... not to even mention how sound strategy [corpnews.com] it sounds like!

      EA will never see another penny from me.

      Right on! Thanks to the many boneheaded zombieifications of puppet companies, continued brand necrophilia, and

    • Re:Earth & Beyond (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Toxygen ( 738180 )
      What if they make some kick ass game that you really like, and it's not crippled by any ridiculous form of anti-piracy? In my eyes that game would deserve your money, since you would be telling the company in the only language they recognize that THIS, and only this, is the type of game that you will support. It takes a bit of hope that some marketing exec will see a pattern between crippled or crippling game sales and un-crippled game sales, but that's the only way they listen.

      You really think they gonn

  • Ryzom (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Frostbeard ( 758535 )
    I played Ryzom back in the early beta days, and it was great fun even back then. The problem, I found, was that it was a bit needlessly complicated. Specifically, the skill system was kind of cumbersome.

    There were rumours back then of a Linux client coming out for SoR as well, though I haven't heard much news about it since. Does anyone else know more?

    • I agree. It was very good though. Ryzom was going to be an awesome game from the beginning, the background art and design was just some original and high quality!
    • I know one of the stumbling blocks for a linux client was always a decent sound library. The Ryzom devs despise OpenAL.

      I noticed that recently Nevrax has added FMOD support in CVS to the windows client. This at least bodes well for a possibility of a Linux port as FMOD supports Linux.
  • It looked interesting. It was one of the MMORPGS that I was considering trying out when I had some disposable income to toss around.

    Is there any talk of unofficial fan run servers, etc? This seems like it would be a good oppertunity for some small company to get into the market... buy the rights to the game, the source code, and maybe even the old hardware and pick up where EA left off. Anyways, are there any other games similar to this out there that could fill it shoes?

  • Yeah, I know, every time someone throws away a game people scream open souce it! But seriously, I beta tested this game. I really enjoyed it but didn't want to pay $13/mo for a game that I would only play from time to time. Just want to log in a spend a few hours once and a while.

    That said, I've secretly been thinking of making a game much like this but GPL. One of the coolest things about it was you could make money in so many different ways. IIRC, the most money was to be had by traders. They would
    • > If we could convince EA (doubt it but worth a shot) to release the Server/Client, people could setup their own servers. That would be nice, but like you said, it's doubtful. They'd prefer that people switched to another online game, rather than sticking with an unprofitable 'off-network' game for years.
      • True, but look at Blender. They grouped together and bought the source. However, after doing some research, I've discovered that ENB uses the same netcode as most other MMORPGs that EA has. So it's even more doubtful that they would part with that. :(
    • Trading was good profit for a beginner, but selling looted items made warriors 10x richer than any trader. Traders who built wanted items were also loaded. Miners who hoarded the minerals needed for high level ammo and weapons also made out quite nicely. Trade route XP was the only reason you 'needed' to be a space trucker, money was easily available from other avenues. As for selling crafted goods to NPCs, that would have been a huge loss. It barely covered the cost of manufacturing the parts to make the w
  • was that E&B would have made a great single player exploration/quest game... kinda like Star Control 2 but in 3D

    apart from the XP sharing benefit of teaming up with other people, the game didn't motivate me to chat it up with other people or otherwise cooperate with non-NPCs.
    • I still don't get why people want to play MMORPGs alone. If you aren't looking for social interaction, why on earth would you play one? RTS games are a challenge in skill, strategy and speed, FPS the same. RPG is all about exploring, gathering information, and hitting a button. You can't 'master' this game solo, kill all the mobs solo, so why bother with it if you don't intend to have fun with the most dynamic aspect of it, your fellow players?
      • I didn't say I wanted to play E&B alone, I just thought that the game didn't lend itself well to playing a character along with other character-playing people...

        It would be great if a game like E&B was sold along the lines of Unreal Tournament and enabled people to have their own servers... it would be even better if there was a centralized, master server that could enable individual servers (with moddable content) to interconnect, so that you could explore an ever-expanding and changing universe.
  • I'd say the precident groundwork has been laid. Has anybody approached EA with the intent to purchase the code and rights from them? Granted, there's a bit of a difference in scale between 3DO and EA, but you never know.
  • I have no idea what the % of E&B players were that migrated to Star Wars Galaxies, a game without space ships when it started, or EVE. I left E&B for SWG, EVE had no draw for me as I couldn't get out of my ship and be a true person in a RPG world.

    E&B had player balance issues as do all MMORPGs, the ID Matrix giving certain users on the server godlike abilities compared to the 1000s of other players out there and then nerfing them down to worthless status. I was one of the lucky ones who got to

  • some make it, some don't (Score:3, Informative)

    by MattW ( 97290 ) <matt@ender.com> on Friday September 24, 2004 @10:58AM (#10340579) Homepage
    I wonder how many people's first reaction to "DDO the MMO" is, "Wow, finally, I can dance off against people online!"

    The MMO market is now "mature". A lot of people have found that they have games they like, and won't leave them. You have to differentiate. A lot of games will have great stories and a few interesting features, but getting a 4-year EQ players to drop his subscription and his plans for EQ2 is going to take some work.

    City of Heroes, however, is a bona fide hit; they're proving that they can break the formula, both in setting and in gameplay, and be rewarded for it. It was over 180,000 subscribers at last count, and still growing fast (atop the retail sales chart). They're also pounding out updates, have their sequel in full development, and will have an additional angle on updates powered by their release to euro and asian markets (which NCSoft obviously knows).

    D&D Online, however, is going somewhere weird. Originally, I read they were "doing away" with attack bonuses and planned to do "combo attacks" instead, but now it sounds like you'll have to use keyboard combos to use all your attacks your attack bonus entitles you to [1up.com]. This is scary. Real time-ish combat which does away with the long-in-development nuances of attacks of opportunity and initiative hurts the ruleset - witness the issues with Neverwinter Nights, and stupid likes like 1-action spells being interrupted by random attacks that just HAPPENED to be scheduled by the engine during the animation sequence of the spell. If there hadn't been all this weirdness, I would have been very enthused over DDO.

    There's also the Matrix MMO coming out soon; people are getting their beta test entries now. They certainly have interesting combat animations. We'll have to see how the gameplay goes; I know a lot of people won't even touch it unless the word of mouth is incredible, since they're bitter over the final 2 movies and the buggy PC game. (which I thought was very fun, but it DID have some issues)
  • Scant details here. [vendetta-online.com]

    Can't say what they will give you -- though Vendetta Online is just comming out of beta. It runs on Windows (many versions), Linux, and OS X.

    The forums might have more details.

    Sign up for the beta before they ship!

    Summary of Vendetta: A team game with some personal character development. Very smooth flight sim -- very playable. Some eye candy, though not tons. The universe is dynamic and huge; each sector has over 100 areas in it and there are dozens of sectors. Wormholes to

  • they chose the part of their newest campaign setting that isn't anything like traditional D&D. I wish they'd just spun Greyhawk around in its grave for D&D Online..another fucking for that CS isn't anything bad..
  • Been playing the game since it opened up, and it's the most beatiful game I've ever seen. EVER. The gameplay is completely orginal from any other MMORPG, this is one of the best MMOs coming out throughout the world.

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