Wake Up: The final day of The Matrix Online
by Seraphina Brennan 
Aug 1st 2009 at 4:00PM
Filed under: At a glance, Sci-fi, Screenshots, Culture, Events, in-game, The Matrix Online, Massively Event Coverage
Like we said in our article before, "...until everyone's RSI is smashed into a tiny, tiny ball." Now you see that we really weren't joking about that.
But we were in The Matrix Online for the final hours as well, and we managed to get some great screenshots from the end of the game. There were explosions, lightning bolts, oddly colored skies until finally.... in the last few hours... it became beautiful again. The green skies were rolled back in favor of a blue sky tinged with hints of red. Then, of course, we all got our plugs pulled and ended up smashed into... well... you know.
If you're interested in how it all looked before everything crashed, check out what we got to see during our final moments!
But we were in The Matrix Online for the final hours as well, and we managed to get some great screenshots from the end of the game. There were explosions, lightning bolts, oddly colored skies until finally.... in the last few hours... it became beautiful again. The green skies were rolled back in favor of a blue sky tinged with hints of red. Then, of course, we all got our plugs pulled and ended up smashed into... well... you know.
If you're interested in how it all looked before everything crashed, check out what we got to see during our final moments!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kdolo said on 4:38PM 8-01-2009
So it is with MxO as with Tabula Rasa, the only way to get decent story content is to get them to shut down the servers.
Reply
Nala Galatea said on 5:03PM 8-01-2009
It was an honor and a priviledge to get to see everyone one last time. Hard to believe that it's all over. The friends I made there and the whole community was one unseen on any other MMO I've played, and I'm proud to say I was a part of it.
Reply
Ralica said on 5:37PM 8-01-2009
That was one of the most memorable nights i've had in an MMO in a long, long time.
Reply
Shikujiru said on 7:00AM 8-03-2009
Indeed, Ralica. I regret that I was unable to join the Prophets at the very end. May the memory live on.
Bod said on 6:36PM 8-01-2009
shame I couldn't be there for the last night, MXO was the first MMO I ever played and its deparature brings a bit of a lump to my throat.
This was a good game, possibly a great game, but it suffered from awful investment, there really never was an end game.
A shame, it could have been much more.
Reply
Jack said on 7:47PM 8-01-2009
Woot a other crap game bite the dust! Look like the end of the Matrix milking train is here!
Reply
Amana said on 1:48AM 8-02-2009
Hard to believe, but I'm with Jack on this one.
Jace Hall can KMA as I laugh in his general direction.
See ya, Matrix. Good riddance.
Then Gabe said on 12:51PM 8-02-2009
Jack, once again you're a class act.
Why you feel the need to gloat that an MMO closes down, I'll never know. MxO was far from perfect, but it had a certain charm to it, and the old Live Events have never been matched in any other MMO. Unfortunately, that's because they're very impractical to operate on a regular basis.
Then Gabe said on 12:56PM 8-02-2009
So there's no confusion, the "class act" comment was sarcasm. I tried to do a "sarcasm off" tag, but it didn't show up.
UltimateQ said on 12:44AM 8-02-2009
T_T, never really played it, but it makes me want to T_T all the same.
Reply
Mewmew said on 3:03AM 8-02-2009
It looks really beautiful, and I agree with some other people, why did they put so much content into the end story when they should have been doing good content like that all along? Maybe then the game would still be going... Or at least they should have tried a last ditch effort of free to play/micro transactions like so many other games do :D Heck it has saved a few games from going under.
Reply
Colin Brennan said on 10:57AM 8-02-2009
That's a good question, and one easily answered.
As a Matrix veteran, everything that was used in the "end times" was simply re-hashed material from other events. The eyes in the sky, the corrupted sky, the blue sky, etc, had all been used before. None of this was "new" content by any stretch.
Also, the Matrix server was pretty versatile. The "ash" was nothing more than recolored snow. "Blood" was snow colored red. The infamous "green tint" filter could be changed as well, giving the game a blue, or red, or even dark black tint. Skies could be switched in and out on a schedule after a server restart, timing their changes for specific events. Event spawns could also be "set" and then "triggered" that way by a developer. For example, the spawns of "corrupted" bluepills that occurred after the funeral of Morpheus.
Developers kept much of the game hidden from players -- that was part of the point. When code bombs and yellow lightning bolts originally went off, we were shocked/stunned. We had never seen anything like them before in the game because they were animations created specifically for events. It was crazy. When people told me that Morpheus was dropping "Code Bombs" that created holes in the Matrix, I thought they were joking... until I saw a code bomb go off and a hole in the Matrix created.
So, no, this is really nothing new. It's just old content put together in a clever way to signal "the apocalypse." Developers were still strapped for cash and personnel, but hey, the final event looked good on the outside, apparently.
InfamousBrad said on 4:45AM 8-02-2009
"Rocks fall, everybody dies." An oddly appropriate ending to The Matrix series, really. With the real world uninhabitable, and the Neo compromise leaving hackers and rogue programs running around freely inside The Matrix, it's actually fitting that the story should end with a Matrix crash that kills all the people and, thereby, kills all the machines. Depressing, but an ending that I'd foreseen as terribly likely by the end of the first movie.
I really, really wanted the game The Matrix Online not to suck, but like almost every MMO that's come out in the last 5 years, the design was way too ambitious for the budget, the development technology just wasn't up to the challenge of building (let alone maintaining) what the developers envisioned. If MxO had lived up to its original marketing hype (and if the 2nd and 3rd Matrix movies hadn't killed all interest in the franchise), this could have been the game that changed gaming forever.
Reply
Jack said on 1:26PM 8-02-2009
I did play this game!! when it still was under Warner I wanted to know what did happen after the Matrix but after 2 months I quit this junk after I found out the story did go no where and I really did not enjoy the game all to much. After Everquest this was my 2nd mmo! And I am happy to see it go like it did play like a big cash in on the IP!
Reply
Deana said on 3:06AM 10-29-2009
Those of us who played MXO from beta were very sad to see it go. despite all of the problems it had over the years. The community which remained after all this time was very tight knit.. and even now, the Matrix storyline meant a lot to the players, It was more then your typical "I pwn you" type of MMO. although there was certainly people who engaged in that sort of thing. If you are familiar with the Matrix storyline, there were spiritual and philosophical aspects to it. although the way SOE massacred the game over the years, you would be hard pressed to find that towards the end.
Some people blamed Ben Chamberlin (Rarebit), but considering that SOE expected him to be a one-man dev team, I think he did the best he could. Could he have done better? Sure, and I think he would be the first one to say that. The people who I blame, though, is the higher-ups at SOE whose incompetence and apathy towards their own customer base shined through like never before,
Reply
QUICKSILV3R said on 10:52AM 8-03-2009
age of conan wants you!
Reply