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Role Playing (Games)

The Final Moments of Asheron's Call 2 75

Posted by Zonk from the not-with-a-bang dept.
Via Kotaku, the final moments of Asheron's Call 2 in text and images. Highlights include the in-game appearance of a community moderator, and a killable version of a notorious dragon. Then, a lost connection. Gamespot has the story as well. From that article: "Turbine performed a little house cleaning this weekend as it shut down its massively multi-player online role-playing game Asheron's Call 2. Originally released in November of 2002, the fantasy game world met an unceremonious armageddon December 30. As of press time, the Asheron's Call 2 forums were still up for mourning players, and blow-by-blow accounts of the world of Dereth's final moments had started circulating the Web. "
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The Final Moments of Asheron's Call 2

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  • At least we have the first Asheron's Call which is going quite well right now.
  • Well, this didn't kill Turbine, hopefully they learned from this and are stronger as a result (despite it being a rather expensive lesson).

  • Game box (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Lord_Dweomer ( 648696 ) on Tuesday January 03, 2006 @08:12PM (#14388864) Homepage
    So now that this is over, when will these players be getting back the $60 they forked over for the game initially? I mean, you purchase the game and pay the monthly fee, shouldn't there be some sort of guarantee that you can keep playing the game as long as you want?

    What's that? There isn't?

    I swear, there should be a law that if a MMORPG closes its servers, they open the source to the playerbase so people can create and host their own servers off of it.

    I'm so sick of paying for a game that may not exist in the future. Its the same reason why I'd never sign up for a subscription music service.

    • Re:Game box (Score:5, Insightful)

      by HTH NE1 ( 675604 ) on Tuesday January 03, 2006 @08:21PM (#14388905)
      I swear, there should be a law that if a MMORPG closes its servers, they open the source to the playerbase so people can create and host their own servers off of it.

      It's called the public domain, and it won't happen within your lifetime, nor that of your great grandchildren, nor even within the lifetime of the codebase.

      Welcome to the new dark ages as mandated by international copyright law.

      • Re:Game box (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Breakfast Pants ( 323698 )
        Wtf is this tripe? The public domain doesn't require anyone to release the source to their servers after the expired time. They could eschew their copyright right now by announcing that all their server code is now a part of the public domain and unless they were to release the code for people to see it wouldn't mean a damn thing. Trade secrets last as long as you can keep them.

        • Re:Game box (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Cecil ( 37810 )
          Well, public domain is what it becomes. It's actually true that copyright law (used to) require that something become public domain after the copyright period has expired.

          Now, I agree it doesn't require anyone to release the source, unfortunately. But what it does do, is allow completely legal reverse engineering, emulation, and cloning. Trade secrets have never been a problem in the software world. bnetd never used any leaked source code, they simply sniffed the network traffic and figured out what it was

          • If copyright ever expired on the Battle.net protocol, then bnetd would be legal.

            Wrong. The DMCA doesn't protect the copyright of the Battle.net protocol (there is none), it (and the way it does so is flawed) protects the copyright of the works served by the Battle.net protocol. If, for example, all the code which makes up the Battle.net system's copyright were to expire and Blizzard released a new game which used Battle.net without any changes, bnetd would still be "illegal" (your word, not mine).

            Now,

      • The real problem isn't necessarily server code. It's server hardware, and bandwidth; a mmorpg server can't run on the kind of hardware mere mortals can afford. And the amount of bandwidth isn't cheap either.
    • Games are just as subject to reality and commerce as everything else. If a business venture isn't commercially successful, it closes eventually.

      The fact that people lost something (in this case, a game they enjoyed playing) is sad, but that shouldn't make it mandatory for the developers to open source the game. It should always be the choice of the copyright holder, for as long as the copyright exists.

      Besides - where's the guarantee with anything in life? Sometimes you just have to accept it and move on.
    • the released an expansion last year only to follow it with an annoucement a few months later they were closing down the game.

      AC2 was dead from launch. It was a game for developers, lauding themselves, and ignoring the players. It deserved to die and it did.
    • I have the source for Ultima On-Line 2 around here somewhere. Knew a developer on the team before it was cancelled, he has a copy. Just no art files.
    • You're telling me that there isn't a caveat that if Company X has discontinued Product Y, it automatically goes into the public domain? How do all those "25 nintendo games on your TV" joysticks get made, then?

      So, like, if Scrooge ran Phizer, and the company discovered a cure for AIDS, he could simply say "nya nya, you can't have any!" and sit on it for 90 years or so?
      • The 25 in one nintendo joysticks ARE illegal. In fact I beleave if you check the archives you will find an artical here about nintendo cracking down on them and the malls that let those people set up shop
      • Pfizer, and all the other pharmaceutical companies, are in the business of making money. IANAL, but if they found a cure for AIDS, they have no legal obligation to sell it.

        A pharma company spends loads of money in R&D. They want to recoup that loss and also make more money for future research...and that cycle is why they wouldn't just sit on it.
        • No they'd sit on it; there's no money in curing diseases, but a whole ton of money to be made in managing a disease.
          • Yes, nobody wants to cure AIDS and earn a trillion dollars for it.

            Same for cancer and heart disease.

            Now, if s corporation knew it would have to invest a hundred billion dollars in research, and had a crystal ball wherein governments around the world would not pay them, and just l00t the product and manufacture it locally with no royalties, would that encourage or discourage the company from doing the research?
      • Inventions fall under patent law and patents expire much quicker than copyright and unlike copyright, patent lifetimes become shorter with each law passed on them. Pfizer would have to grab a patent and that patent would expire after 17 years or so (not sure how long patents currently go).

        Discontinuation is not a reason, most of those plug-into-your-TV joysticks (at least those sold in stores) are licensed products and the rest is illegal. Besides, even if such a law existed Nintendo wouldn't fall under it,
        • So the patent (nes box) will expire before the copyright (came carts?). That'll certainly be interesting.

          In any case, doesn't that make it already legal to made knock-off NES consoles since the system was out in '86?
        • > At times warez groups can be even more anal about their
          > "property" than the most paranoid copyright holders.

          Witness the angry fights various web sites get into when someone else "steals" their scanned picture. "I violated copyright by scanning in this picture to put on my web site. How dare you steal my hard work by putting it on your web site!"

          Truth is stranger than fiction.
    • "So now that this is over, when will these players be getting back the $60 they forked over for the game initially?"

      About five minutes after Sega gives out rebates for people who bought the Dreamcast version of Phantasy Star Online (at least version 2, which was pay-for-play).
    • I'm so sick of paying for a game that may not exist in the future.

      Eventually everything fades into oblivion. I have a bunch of old console games (NES, SNES, Genesis, PS1) and if the console goes bad I can't play it anymore. Should Sony/Nintendo/whoever have to give me a refund? (And, yeah, PS1 games play on a PS2, but some games don't like my favorite Monster Rancher. Plus, will the PS3 play PS1 games?) So, this argument is really meaningless.

      Anyway, I'm going to disagree with your assessment that game

  • They should have gone out with a bang (Score:3, Funny)

    by Zork the Almighty ( 599344 ) on Tuesday January 03, 2006 @08:46PM (#14389043) Journal
    I would have liked to see them go out with a bang. Unleash hordes of monsters into the towns and have the server randomly modify items!

  • it woulda been nice.... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by B3AST! ( 916930 ) on Tuesday January 03, 2006 @08:59PM (#14389102)
    ....if they went out better than that...something fun for the players, not so sappy

    they shoulda turned it all PvP, and each day for like a month they'd continuously add more mobs.....once you died, you're DEAD...no coming back.....no creating new chars. and then finally they'd come up with a final survivor and he'd win something

    like...a cake
  • Urgh.

    This rather makes me think these guys need a life. I don't know, meeting on a virtual mountain with your virtual friends (probably people you wouldn't even feel comfortable sitting next to on a bus)?

    MMORPG's just feed of people's loneliness. Most players would probably better off investing the money into their real life.

  • It was the end of the world, sekai no hate. (Sorry, just finished the finale of Revolutionary Girl Utena.)

    Really rather touching. While the world was virtual, the relationships were not. If reality really is mostly what's in your head, then the end of AC2 really was the end of a world. Hmmm, there's gotta be a good story in there somewhere.
  • well it might be on http://www.shareware54.com/category.asp?category=G ames [shareware54.com] beside they have 10% discount on software if you use there buy now link

  • AC2 (Score:2)

    by Konster ( 252488 )
    The four remaining subscribers will now have to find something else to do.

    In other news, Anarchy Online today announced that it received a glut of new subscribers after the closure of Asheron's Call 2.

  • Another site's coverage (Score:3, Informative)

    by Teh Suq ( 655848 ) on Tuesday January 03, 2006 @10:11PM (#14389424)
    More coverage of the end of Asheron's Call 2 here:

    The End Begins (And Ends) [killtenrats.com]

  • It really can be a sad moment (Score:4, Insightful)

    by SmallFurryCreature ( 593017 ) on Wednesday January 04, 2006 @01:46AM (#14390274) Journal
    When the time comes to say goodbye to a MMORPG it is more then just uninstalling a single player RPG. Unless the bugs were to bad you will usually have spend some good time with other players getting to know a land.

    Most single player games never have this. In fact if in a single player RPG you would still visit the beginner level merchant it would probably be considered a bad thing. Yet in MMORPG land you can really get to know your neighbourhood.

    Leaving it can really create a sense of homesickness, a sense of something lost. Of course you know that the game is nothing more then a IRC with pretty pictures and yet it is more.

    No MMORPG is any good if it were judged as a single player experience. Combat is simplistic and repetitive with moronic AI. Guild wars is about the only game were I seen proper interaction between AI enemies in that they really know how to use their healers. Even then simple pathfinding is a joke compared to "real" games.

    The quests/story are a pale shadow of a single player RPG.

    So the only "pull" left is either the level up OR the sense of community.

    That community is more then simply chatting online. The MMORPG gives you a common goal to achieve. Chat for days on a IRC channel and you will maybe have made some friends. Play a MMORPG for days and you will have gone to hell and back shared victory and defeat, died and achieved vengeance. You will in fact have done more then most people can do in real live.

    Leaving all that can cause a twinge or two. Or perhaps it is just the realisation that with the money you spend you could have bought several single player games.

    Those who never played a MMORPG or do not become involved with other players will not understand and that is good. There is a reason we call it Evercrack.

    I fear the day that an MMORPG will arrive that does not have horrid framerates and game breaking bugs. When someone invents a MMORPG that is bug free, glitch free, cheat free, lag free and has game play that would not be out of place in the best single player games that is the day I will sign up to be a battery in the matrix. Just plug me in and call me SmallFurryCreature Eater of Rats.

    • Very well stated.

      I played EQ for nearly 5 years. I only left after my frustration level with Sony started to outweigh the pleasure I got from playing the game. And, since folks were starting to leave in anticipation of both WoW and EQ2, it was time to go.

      While game developers can make a great game, the social aspect often keeps you around for a long time beyond where you would have stayed if it was a single player game. Who would have kept playing EQ after reaching Time (not that I did) and killed all th
  • and why does it bring the Kotaku link up inside the GameTab window? Lame.
    • It's like Gamerankings.com, basically lists combined ratings of other reviews out there and lets you click off to read any of them. And, like Gamerankings, puts a dumb bar at the top of the screen to remind you what site you really came from. The submitter didn't bother to just cut and paste the URL to the article itself.
  • I knew at the time when I was all of a sudden catapulted to level 150 (Due to a bug in the game) that I would be the one and only player to ever hit that level. My name was Serla on the PvP server. And what a day it was when I hit that level. Every one on the server tried ganging up and killing me. Which was probably more eventful then this lame ending!
  • I don't play AC2, but I wonder if the people who paid $60 retail can file a class action suit against Turbine now...after all, they paid for the box and expected the service and now the publisher has decided it doesn't want to provide the service any more, so perhaps they should get their $60 back.
    • So, if in 2075, World of Warcraft shuts down, the ten surviving people who still play it and don't like the new fangled "beam images directly into your brain interface" of World of Warcraft XII can sue Blizzard? Nowhere on the box of any MMORPG I've seen does it guarantee the service will be available for all eternity, and no thinking person would expect it to be available for all eternity. It's simply not possible.

      If I had to pay an installation fee to my cable company, and then they went out of business

    • What possible justification do they have for a class action suit? They paid 60 bucks, but played the game starting in 2002 if they got in at the start, and bought an update in Feb. of 2005. They paid a monthly fee for patches and server uptime, which they are no longer having to pay now that the game is done.

      So, 60 or so bucks for a little over 3 years of playing, plus monthly maintenance fees. And more than half the players left prior to the cancelling of the game, because they felt it wasn't worth it.
  • Turbine is behind the upcoming D&D online.

    The company that backs an MMO seriously makes a difference. I now lump Turbine into the same camp as Sony (SOE). They are both companies that don't take their userbases seriously.

    SOE screwed the Star Wars Glaxies (SWG) fanbase by pretty much cutting out half of the things that made SWG fun, and hardly giving the existing base warning.

    The executives that run these companies are out of touch with the gamers that play their games. At the very least with Asheron's C
    • I'm in the beta, and I don't see any of the AC or AC2 problems cropping up.

      Yeah, they are having beta bugs, and they are working on them. So far, though, they seem pretty responsive to most issues. They read their forums. They reply with more information than Blizzard often would give for WoW.

      Since DDO is going to offer zero PvP, and classes are sticking very true to the 3.5 ruleset, the framework is already in place.

      I don't see DDO having EQ like subscriptions, but it will be respectable enough to keep
      • That plus the fact the rules melted until they resembled other MMORPGs out there. The D&D you play now isn't the same game played by those of use who played it with pencil and paper in the '70's. I'm not predicting too much from it.
        • Ok, so I don't play first edition... but I also don't play that tripe known as 3e or 3.5 or whatever you wanna call it.

          We play AD&D 2E, and we love it. Sure we play with house rules, but I enjoy it much more than the new and extremely rigid rules. We actually have imagination when we play, not extremely nimble fingers to look up all the rules we need, or handle our miniatures.

          WFRP (Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay) also rules.

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