Behind the Curtain: This too shall pass

by Craig Withers Nov 22nd 2008 at 12:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Sci-fi, Culture, Economy, MMO industry, Warhammer Online, Opinion, Tabula Rasa, Behind the Curtain

And so we mark the passing of another MMO. I was going to add an adjective to that sentence, maybe 'great', 'fine' or even just 'good'. I couldn't decide, as I didn't play Tabula Rasa beyond the Open Beta. That's clearly not my fault though, obviously it's something to do with the developers not making exactly the game I wanted, needed or deserved at the time. Cry, whine, QQ, etc.

Don't worry, this won't be an obituary for TR. That would be silly; I'm not lying when I say I didn't play it beyond Open Beta. I liked it well enough, but it lacked the spark that drives me to log on, night after night.

The news of TR's demise however, has got me thinking. Like it or not, nothing lasts forever. MMOs are subject to the same financial rules as any other business, and sometimes those rules mean you lose. Regardless of how long we've been playing any particular game, how many alts you've raised up or how much of a home you've made for yourself in the community there, there's a chance your MMO will die eventually. Some games last longer than others; gaining enough momentum to garner a fair-sized and dedicated fanbase before they're shut down. Others barely get out of Beta testing before things go South, and the doors are closed before momentum really gets going.

Even large, successful MMOs are never going to be immune to this kind of thing. Eventually, World of Warcraft will no longer be economically for ActivVendiBlizzVision, or whoever owns the game at the time, to keep running. Perhaps they'll have outdone themselves, and most of the WoW players will be playing whatever double-extra-next-new-gen title is doing the rounds in the year 4000. If you happen to be a reader from the 41st century reading an archive of this on picometer-thin thought-transfer wafers, I have sad news for you – yes, the Internet really is this bad.

Trawling back through my previous posts, I find that I asked before what it would take to make you jump ship from your favorite MMO. Now I ask another, similar question – what would you do if your favorite MMO was shut down unexpectedly? If news came out of the blue that your game was going the way of the Dodo, what would you do?

Do you have a backup game? Probably – I think most players out there have at least on other game they're either playing concurrently, or are at least interested enough to join, should they have to. For myself, were WoW to shut down, I'd probably hit up Warhammer Online. I'm a 40K fan, so I don't play Warhammer Fantasy on the tabletop, I'm invested enough in the universe that I could slot myself into WAR without too many teething troubles.

What about you? Would the shutting down of your game turn you off of MMOs completely? Would you running screaming into the arms of single-player RPGs? Or, like the crazed survivalist who lives down the street, do you have a backup plan for every contingency, just waiting to be sprung into action? Hit the comments, and enlighten us all.

One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!

Tags: activision, activision-blizzard, behind-the-curtain, blizzard, closure, featured, rgtr, shutdown, tabula-rasa, vivendi, war, warhammer-online, warhammer-online-age-of-reckoning, world-of-warcraft, wow

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Tom said on 12:57PM 11-22-2008

Currently, I am playing LotRO since, for all intents and purposes, Guild Wars has gone into hibernation (no new content in ages and, likewise, little to no news regarding Guild Wars 2). Since I have high hopes for GW2, you might say I am "between games" at the moment. SWTOR and STO also are showing some promise. LotRO costs $10/month if you purchase a 3-month plan. It's a better deal for me than WoW (and I like LotRO better than WoW anyway, so it's win-win for me).

Generally speaking, I am drawn to MMOs that are fun to play but also a good deal costwise. TR was never a good deal; they could have made it a good deal or at least a better deal, perhaps, but they didn't -- and it died for want of players.

MMO developers need to price their products better. People that might be willing to shell out $5 to $10 per month for *some* game time aren't willing to pay $15 per month for unlimited play, especially if a game (like TR) is just "so-so" to begin with and/or if they have lives to lead and cannot play as "dedicated gamers." That's a big potential market that MMO developers, greedily seeking those pricey WoW-style subscription fees, overlook.

I think, for that reason (and assuming the game is good, of course), Guild Wars 2 has the potential to draw a lot of players away from the subscription-based MMOs such as WoW.

Nobody wants to pay uber fees to subscribe to a game they can only play a few hours a week due to real-life time constraints.

Wjowski said on 3:01PM 11-22-2008

"Pricey WoW-style subscription"? That was the industry norm long before WoW came along.

Gleb 70 Draka [A] said on 1:39PM 11-22-2008

When I quit WoW In the summer of 07 because I lost my main i tried just about every other MMO.

AoC
Warhammer
VG:SoH
EQ
EQ2
Planetside
SWG
FFXI

The list could go on

After trying all of those, I just ended up coming back to WoW about 1 month ago :)

Would be hard trying to find a substitute

MightyIdle said on 1:25PM 11-22-2008

I'll do what I've done since I kicked the WoW habit. I'll play anything that looks fun for as long as it is actually fun.

I played one MMO for a very long time, well past the point where it was fun and turned into a grinding job. I learned my lesson. Always have a good time, you're paying for it.

If they shut my primary game down, WAR, I'd play some more AoC and try out some others, as well. There are enough alternatives available now, or pending release, to keep me in good times.

Sticking to one thing because you've become adept at it or because you have time invested is called complacency. When you're complacent, you're not growing. In this case, growing means exploring options and maximizing your enjoyment.

MightyIdle said on 1:27PM 11-22-2008

"I played one MMO for a very long time, well past the point where it was fun and turned into a grinding job. "

Stick a NOT in there in the most logical spot and you'll get my drift. 8)

Arashikou said on 5:49PM 11-22-2008

FWIW, I think that sentence reads fine with and without the NOT. (And curiously, has the same meaning.)

"I played one MMO for a very long time, well past the point where it was not fun and turned into a grinding job."

You played the game until the point where the not-fun began and then continued playing.

"I played one MMO for a very long time, well past the point where it was fun and turned into a grinding job."

You played the game until the point where the fun ended and then continued playing.

I guess having the context of knowing that games are generally not structured to start with not-fun and then become fun after a long time pushes these two meanings together.

Kaoy said on 1:51PM 11-22-2008

I am currently in MMO limbo. Honestly, I have been for years, ever since I left Ragnarok Online for money reasons(though it wasn't quite like cutting of my wrist at that point, since Transcendents sort of broke the game in my eyes). I hop from game to game, but never like the EQ style of play, so haven't enjoyed many.

I have played mostly very quirky little things, like Grand Chase, or Lunia. I enjoyed them for a time, but got tired of them. The most I ever played 1 game since I left RO was maybe a couple months. As it is, I have just been applying for any Beta that comes along to see if that game just might be the one to really pull me back into the genre.

There is a possible light for me though, since there are 3 games out there that really look like they could be something to me. The first in Darkfall, which everyone has heard of, and is actually in beta currently, for real. Yes, I was stunned too. The second in Fallen Earth, and I am only really going by that video everyone has seen froma couple years ago, and the idea of a Post-apcotlypse MMO, with mutants, and gangs roving the wastes of the American Southwest. The third is the brightest light: Mortal Online. For those that haven't heard of it, think Ultima Online done in First Person and 3D. Now set it in a whole new world to explore, and if you aren't drooling, I don't want to know you.

My current plan is to play those as they come out. If MO flops, I will go to DF or FE. If both of those flops or all of them end up just not being for me, I don't know. Maybe I will limbo some more, but I am tired of that. If they all fail or simply fail to be for me, I will likely leave the genre for a lengthy time. Maybe I will go to Team Fortress or Age of Chivalry. Team based FPS games where people have working rolls, so even a random group knows what to do. It is not that I dislike those games, but I hope it does not come to that. I have had some very wonderful experinces in MMOs, but mixxed in with many bland or unplesant ones. I love the genre, but it just feels it has gone a seperate way from me.

Vorgaak said on 1:49PM 11-22-2008

wow-haters be damned... the game I love lives on because millions of people stick with it.

InfamousBrad said on 3:19PM 11-22-2008

This would actually be a very bad time for the MMO I'm currently playing to go under, because I hate most MMOs. I've had MMOs die under me multiple times, usually jumping ship just a month or two before the end, but there was always one MMO out there (and never more than one) for me to jump to. Right this minute? Not so much. There are things on the horizon that look interesting, that I'd try if they were out and the MMO I'm playing went under, so the future isn't bleak. But if (to get specific) Warhammer Online goes under before Stargate Worlds, The Agency, or maybe (as odd as this sounds coming from me) Free Realms comes out, or at the very least before user-created content hits City of Heroes, I don't know what I'd do; probably take a couple of months off from MMOs and catch up on my reading.

Arashikou said on 5:50PM 11-22-2008

You and me are in the same boat, brother. And like you, I don't know what I'd do if WAR folded - I narrowly missed TR folding when I went to WAR.

But look on the bright side. :) Even if WAR tanks miserably, (and despite haters, I don't think it is) EA won't pull the plug for a couple months/years at least. Killing such a high-profile MMO so young (AGAIN...) would set a bad precedent and likely make people gun-shy about their favorite new project, SWtoR. Avoiding the bad marketing killing WAR would cause is probably worth quite a few months of running the game at a loss.

Jeromai said on 5:15PM 11-23-2008

What would you do if your favorite MMO was shut down unexpectedly?

I'd run around taking screenshots of everything for the memories. Then I'd move on.

To me, an MMO is more about what I did and what I saw and what I learned, with whoever people I met, than whatever junk I accumulated along the way.

I love good MMO art, and screenshots help to record that for posterity. Screenshots serve as photos to remind me of any exciting events that happened and the good warm fuzzy feelings that resulted.

Fortunately I have the attention span of a bunny and will get captivated by whatever else is new and looks interesting. I'd move on. Probably not to games that are already too established and gear/time dependent. Playing catch up doesn't appeal. But I might try them out for fun, before switching over to the next new MMO.

I suppose it's because my 'first MMO' social roots are really stuck deep down in a MUD, which I still pop back to, just to chat, even though I'd given up on the game long ago. So I don't have very deep roots / social relationships with any current MMO and can move on a little easier.

I'd certainly spend a long time in the grieving process if any of my current favorites shut though, even while moving on.

Imo, MMOs don't shut unexpectedly though. You can see it coming if the subscriber numbers drop too much and morale gets shaky. I'm slightly terrified for CoX because it's an old game - I hope they can hang on with NCsoft's injection of money until they do something amazing with player-created content. WAR should be fine for the moment unless the player drop goes on for half a year or more without any surcease.

There's always LOTRO. That should last forever. Until they get to Sauron, or do something horribly unspeakable that kills player morale before then.

kmaurer289 said on 3:16PM 11-24-2008

Okay, my current favorite MMO is City of Heroes.

If it went under I would likely suffer quite a bit of withdrawal. But I love playing new MMOs to see if they will have that 'something' that CoH has, so I would likely do MORE of that.

My 'AAA-List' Backup is Lord of the Rings Online as I have one of those lifetime memberships. So that game is 'free' to me, though I will likely need to buy Mines if I go back there seriously.

My 'other' Backup MMO is Perfect World International, for the free play that doesn't FORCE you to do the Micro-transaction thing (though I suspect that is an illusion, as I DID buy some ZEN so I have already put the amount of money into the game that I would with a new retail box MMO of the traditional 'western' model.).

If CoH died I would likely try out many things, and be more eagerly looking forward to Champions Online and DC Universe online.

But the BIGGEST loss would be that I would lose the one MMO since Everquest Online Adventures that my wife ALSO enjoyed. She is really, really, really into City of Heroes and hasn't been pleased with ANY other MMO out there. (She's tried EQ2 and WoW and didn't like them.)

So, the most likely thing is that I would move to the 'free' choices until something truly caught the interest of both myself and my wife.

BTW, for those interested or who care, prior to CoH and EQOA, I played mostly EQ player that moved to Earth and Beyond and played that until that rug was pulled out from under me. It was onyl after the passing of E&B that I moved to WoW and EQOA.