Motor City Online Officially Closes Doors

Thanks to MCO Stratics for pointing to EA's official Motor City Online site, which has a message announcing the closure of this MMO PC racing title: "We at Electronic Arts and MCO Staff both past and present would like to say thank you for being a part of a great online racing game experience. Motor City Online service ends today, but it will live on forever in the hearts of the racers who loved the game." The closing announcement was originally made in February, citing popularity problems after "the game was quickly dominated by skilled players", but the servers finally shut down on August 29th.

Comments

It's a shame

[Graelin]

the game was quickly dominated by skilled players

This happens everywhere. Have you played CS lately? It's the same thing. These types of games, those which require reflexes and map-study, will always be dominated in this manner. I think MMO RPGs fare better in this regard, as these skills are much less important.

America's Army has a good approach, requiring you to advance to a certain level before playing some missons. Too bad they don't enforce some kind of noob-only rules on the lower maps.

In the end this is just a hurdle all MMO games will have to face.

Re:It's a shame

[Babbster]

Everything you say is true to a point, though I think the biggest obstacle is that a game has to reach a "critical mass" in terms of its player population so that there are enough players of every skill level to make the game fun for everyone. While Counterstrike definitely has a lot of skilled players who can wipe out the inexperienced easily, it's a small matter to drop out of a game where you're outclassed and hunt down a game where people are closer to your level. This is because there are enough people playing the game to ensure said variety of skills, and because the game is popular enough that there are still new (or at least less experienced) people coming on.

Motor City Online, OTOH, never picked up enough people to develop a synergy where new people are always coming in, and the total population was never large enough to always have that special rainbow of ability.

Of course, another aspect is that most "twitch" games (Quake 3, Unreal Tournament, etc.) are going to be static in terms of the skills and equipment of the avatars being used - even in Counterstrike, a couple of lucky kills could earn you enough money to acquire the good equipment. In games where you earn your avatar's skills and equipment over time (MCO fits this because you could improve your cars and get new ones), the new people are at a serious disadvantage if there aren't enough other new people around to play with.

Re:It's a shame

[DJayC]

This happens everywhere. Have you played CS lately?

Not only that, but CS is ridden with cheaters. It seems like on every public server you have kids with wall hacks and aimbots and stuff. Valve has been trying to block the cheating server side, but the design of the game makes it hard to detect certain scripting techniques. I would go as far to say that there are more people that seem to be "skilled players" (who are actually cheaters) than people who are actually skilled. A lot of the CS "elite" don't play on public servers just for that reason, and tend to play on private servers and in tournaments.

Re:This is why I'll never touch a MMO

[Anonymous Coward]

So can I smash your computer games and DVDs after two years, as you must've had all the fun you'd ever want out of them?

"Look at me, I'm a child of the early 1900s. I can pick up games I played as a child and play with them again until I die if I desire to do so."

"Well look at me, I'm a child of the early 1990s. I can pick up games I played as a child, and do nothing but stare at my reflection on the CD, because it's FUCKING WORTHLESS otherwise."

Hence...the fact that I've never purchased an online-only game. Sorry Square, you milked over a dozen FF games out of me, but you'll lose me on FFXI.