The Digital Continuum: Why must MMOs die?
by Kyle Horner 
Nov 22nd 2008 at 1:00PM
Filed under: MMO industry, Opinion, Tabula Rasa, The Digital Continuum
It seems like a silly thing to outright shutdown any MMO. When it happens, you always find yourself wondering, "Couldn't they have just cut down operating costs?" or something along those lines. I've had the chance to talk with various people on the development and publishing side of the industry and strangely enough most of them tell me that when an MMO gets turned off, it's usually because the publisher just lost interest in making it work.
Some say that since a game world is being sunsetted, that it must not have been that important. Generally, those are just people who don't play the game. If they do -- or were -- playing it, then they're likely embittered by the situation. Ultimately though, when a game dies it's a loss for everyone involved. This is one of the reasons I love Sony Online Entertainment. Say what you will about your beef with SWG, I know I've got my own gripes, but SOE doesn't seem to ever sunset a game no matter the situation; They get it. SOE keeps a world around for people regardless of subscription numbers and those players are eternally grateful for it. Something like that tells me that there was probably no reason for Electronic Arts to cancel Earth and Beyond or for NCsoft to cancel Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa.Let's imagine that City of Heroes wasn't as popular when it first came out. There wasn't much to do in that game back than, other than fight bad guys. Fight, fight and more fight. Sometimes you had a costume contest, but then you'd go back out and punch/blast some baddies. However, if you play the game again today there are tons of new things to do: crafting, superbases, new instances, new zones, villain play, loyalty perks, PvP, even more customization, new power sets and soon even player-made missions. All of these updates have been incredibly high in quality, too.
"But Kyle," you may be thinking, "wasn't that done on a fairly sizable budget?" To which I would reply, "Hells no!" I was as shocked (and as grateful) as everyone else when I found out that the City of Heroes team has only been 15 people since the launch of City of Villains. This is a group that's been churning out three large, free content updates a year non-stop.
If you needed proof that a game like Tabula Rasa or Auto Assault could have soldiered on and seen tangible, worthwhile improvements on a rather small budget, you now have it. There's no big conspiracy at work here, though. The sad truth seems to be that the people with the money simply expect a lot more from some games than they probably should, and when their expectations aren't met the lifeline is cut off. I'm as disappointed in NCsoft as all the Tabula Rasa fans are, because of what could have been and because of what this says for future NCsoft titles that don't quite live up to expectations.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Syena said on 1:05PM 11-22-2008
Earth and Beyond died because EA is evil. It took the dev team and redistributed them into fraking football games! I mean HONESTLY! That game was wonderful not to mention MY first mmo and they shut it down to squeeze out more of that console fecal matter they were putting out then. Idiots. Now that the mmo market is a contender and WoW has shown what mmo's can do...I bet those EA ceos are really feeling like jackasses now.
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John said on 1:10PM 11-22-2008
It's a lot like how TV shows now get like a few episodes to prove themselves and if they don't make it big...they're canceled. I LOVE "Pushing Daisies" and just found out it has been canceled. What's sad is its a very creative show and could easily have had a nice, small following. Games work the same way..especially MMO's.
This will backfire on these companies ... I hesitate buying MMO's anymore...at least until I hear more about it.
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Samael said on 1:36PM 11-22-2008
Wow, first person I know to like Pushing Daisies, I really liked it too.
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torak said on 1:43PM 11-22-2008
Well it comes down to gamers voting with their wallets. TR was clearly rejected by the market as was AA. (Dunno about S&B)
Although I do think NC is quick to pull the plug on things there is more to this them subs. Spaceman Spiff err...Richard Garriott promised NCSoft the MMO to end all MMO's with TR. There was much drama right down to Rich deciding to go on dispite the fact NC Korea didn't like the game's design direction and chose not to launch it in Korea way back when.
Now Rich mysteriously desides to pursue other interest...(no, they asked him to resign) and I'm telling you, the last thing they were going to do is keep a game with his name plastered all over it after he cost them 74 million dollars making it and the game hardly sold at all.
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Dab said on 2:06PM 11-22-2008
Now you've gone and made me all nostalgic about Earth & Beyond. That was my first MMO, and still my fav. I met a bunch of friends there, and we all still wish it hadn't been killed in it's infancy by the corporate idiots at EA. First they swallowed the great company that was Westwood, then the neglected, and eventually abandoned E&B. For shame, EA. And this is a repeating industry trend, seen over and over again. Sad, really.
P.S. Check out the E&B Emulator project - these peopel have been trying since EA crushed the game to revive it, and it is nearly complete! http://www.enb-emulator.com/
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Alarie said on 2:25PM 11-22-2008
Wow Dab that is pretty neat about the E&B emulator. Maybe down the line a group can develop a Tabula Rasa emulator.
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Terazeal said on 7:27PM 11-22-2008
Sad to see TR go the way of Hellgate. Well, that's just another of the four MMOs I've ever enjoyed to go down the tubes. Hopefully WoW and CoX will be around awhile yet.
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Will H said on 3:01PM 11-22-2008
Even keeping 15 staff to work on a game is very, very expensive. Assume the average coh dev costs the company $250k a year in salary, benefits, office space, equipment, etc. (That's a lowball number considering they're in Mountain View, CA.) That's 3.75 million a year. CoH would need to make more than that to cover the cost. If NC Soft nets $13 per month per subscriber (there are transaction costs remember), that's $156 per player per year. They'd need over 24 thousand subscribers every month just to break even. Does CoH have that many anymore? Perhaps. But I am skeptical that TR or AA did before their demise was announced.
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torak said on 3:21PM 11-22-2008
CoH has about 145,000 subs.
You can view their quarterly reports on ncsoft.net
Dab said on 3:43PM 11-22-2008
CoX is in the 150,000+ range for subscribers.
Ombwah said on 7:50PM 11-24-2008
lol @ 250k a year.
That's a very generous estimate, mate.
Neurotic said on 4:08PM 11-24-2008
Ha ha, I wasn't surprised when British 'left' the scene either... :D
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InfamousBrad said on 3:26PM 11-22-2008
Reakktor GMBH kept Neocron 2 running with, at one point, one full-time employee and one part-time. But they weren't doing anybody any favors doing so. Without a team generating new content, without at least some hope of core game-mechanics and game-engine and net-code bugs some day being fixed, game worlds get empty, sad, bitter, and pointless.
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mandrill said on 3:58PM 11-22-2008
My first MMO was also Earth and Beyond. It died and I moved to EVE which was still young at the time, alot of people went from EaB to EVE as there was (and still isn't) no other space base MMO going. Personally I'm glad EaB died, it was bit rubbish really and EVE, as we all know, has gone from strength to strength.
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Dab said on 4:13PM 11-22-2008
Maybe EVE was great for you and your friends, but my entire E&B guild (200+ players) tried EVE, and the vast majority of us hated it, and left after the free trial.
EVE is a great game for a certain type of gamer, which didn't automatically include anyone who played E&B. Glad you found a new home there, but MANY if us E&B-ers didn't.
BookhouseBoy said on 4:56PM 11-22-2008
I enjoyed Pushing Daisies (and Dirty Sexy Money, also not to be renewed, for that matter), but the comparison between MMO's and TV shows doesn't entirely hold up for big reason... a TV network has limited real estate in a way that game companies don't.
Using Pushing Daisies as an example... ABC only has one "Wednesdays at 8/7 Central" slot. Their advertisers have certain expectancies of how many people they can reach at that time (on any network). If ABC can't deliver numbers comparable or better than their competitors, then the advertisers may take their Wednesday, 8/7 dollars elsewhere. So, when looking at the big picture down the road, it becomes obvious that maybe they should ditch their current main title for that timeslot, and pick up a new pilot for the next season.
Now, obviously, there are other options, like timeslot changes, which are sometimes successful, and often not. In the case of "Pushing Daisies", it already has a pretty good timeslot, so moving it isn't likely to improve things much. Also (and this is getting off the subject), "Pushing Daisies" is a very expensive show, so that's no doubt a factor above and beyond the fact that the ratings are "eh."
Now, to bring this post back more directly on subject... NCSoft should have started a SOE-like membership plan years ago (for the USA, I know they'd never do this in Asia). City of Heroes is too shallow, for example, to get my cash every month, but a theoretical package of CoH/CoV, Auto Assault, Lineage II and Tabula Rasa? That would have been enticing to a lot of people.
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ScytheNoire said on 5:05PM 11-22-2008
The market can only support so many subscription based games. WoW holds such a large market share of that, and with most people having their friends there, they tend to play there.
If other MMO's want to succeed, they need to do one of two things, or both:
1) Have something different, unique and new
2) Use a method other than subscription for income
Pretty plain and simple, and even then, it won't be easy.
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Weiser_Cain said on 6:09PM 11-22-2008
Because they're set up as a one way service. No matter how dedicated fans are if the plug gets pulled you can't play anymore. Modding isn't an option so it's all up to the devs and luck.
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Calarius said on 6:21PM 11-22-2008
The weak must die so the strong can continue. Sure SOE is willing to keep their games on life-support. It's acceptable for them to do that, it's their product. Plus it generate more product can company loyalty. But a company like NCSoft, who hasn't really done all that much to endear itself to anyone, has no business keeping a dead MMO alive. Better to just finish shutting their doors and be done with it.
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BaronJuJu said on 7:02PM 11-22-2008
Ah, there you go mentioning E&B. Man, I miss that game and my Jenquai explorer. Not a lot of folks played (30-50k), but then again 100k subs was considered a ton during its time.
I wish more devs would take their time with their MMO's and not cancel or fret when it doesn't reach WOW numbers w/in a year. Start with a small, strong foundation of a game and build on it from there throughout the years. Eve is a great model, it doesn't have the WOW numbers but it is increasing subs 5 years later, has added a ton of content and has one of the most loyal fanbase of any MMO on the market.
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