The End Of The MMO World

17 Mar 2009 at 14:55:27 by Staff Writers

Nothing lasts forever, something we humans are finding harder to comprehend by the day. For instance, I can't imagine a time when the site of my home, currently a newly-built estate, will be abandoned as the coastline of south west England recedes further inland, or when the sun will eventually swell in the throes of death, slowly engulfing the earth and the rest of the planets in our solar system.

This too can apply to the MMO world.  You've spent the last four or five years building up a character. You've met a lot of people. You've all joined forces, and formed a clan, or a corporation, or a linkshell. Together, you braved the darkest dungeons and the highest peaks, traversed wormholes and witnessed the death of stars. Together, you've exposed conspiracies, dethroned rulers, fought bitterly at space stations, battled gods and demons... but one day, the inevitable happens.

The most recent to suffer is Tabula Rasa.

NCSoft's Tabula Rasa was recently shut down, just over one year after it went online. It was made by Richard Garriott, the creator of Ultima Online, the first ever MMORPG which is incredibly still going almost 12 years after it launched. TR was a futuristic shooter RPG where players controlled human characters who fought 'The Bane', hostile aliens battling with the humans for control of two planets, Arieki and Foreas.

On 21 November 2008 TR's development team announced that due to the low number of subscribers, they would be forced to switch the game off on 28 February 2009. To a faithful Tabula Rasa player, it must have been like being told the company you work for is going to close down in three months time; you have the option of leaving immediately to go somewhere else, you could take your time looking around for something else or you could stick it out to the bitter end.

Tabula Rasa, at least, went out with a bang. Too many MMOs have closed with little fanfare other than a message on the developer's site that the game will be closing on X date for Y reason, and then simply a “login failed” message should anyone try to access the game after that point. Not so with Tabula Rasa, which staged a massive apocalypse event – hordes of hostile aliens converged on the players, until a mutually-assured destruction situation occurred, annihilating everyone. It was a decent, in-character ending to the universe.

Game developers bang on about community and the importance of it to the players but I think it's more than just the community. Most MMO players I know got into their favourite MMO through real life friends, and continue to play with them online. There's also that old chestnut about people who are reluctant to leave an MMO for a new one because they would miss their friends in the old game. I just refuse to believe that's the only reason people can't stick to a new game, maybe they just don't want to admit they can't kick the habit and get into something else?

The gameplay is important for a lot of players at the high-end too, particularly those who aren't part of a larger guild. If the game isn't enjoyable, then there's little point in continuing to play – but for the hardest of the hardcore, the community is what counts.

The games work in stages with character customisation playing a big role initially too.

For example, I've been slogging away at my main character on WoW for over three years now, I know every single one of his emotes, all his movements, his yells as he fights, even the exact position he lies in when he's defeated. My friends recognise me on sight in game and I them. If my Warrior was taken away from me, I'd feel like I'd lost a limb. I'd genuinely grieve, and apparently players of other long standing MMOs feel the same way:

"I would feel like a part of me had died, my character (Dorjan) would be dead, dead... and that wouldn't be a nice feeling," says a player of the MMO Final Fantasy XI.

"I doubt I would fill the void with another MMO, realising that such a thing could happen again."

Another point he raises is that he would be put off from playing another MMO, and that's also something I can relate to. After being made aware of how fragile these alter-egos we create are, why set yourself up for another fall?

The early game is all about the gameplay; the combat, the crafting, the cosmetics, and the constant feed of rewards. “When I was a new player and everything was about my own levels and achievements, I used to think I'd be devastated,” said Curtis Hart, better known on Final Fantasy XI as Taskmage.

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