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EA's Earth and Beyond MMOG To Shut Down
Zonk writes "The announcement came down yesterday that Electronic Arts' space-based massively multiplayer online game Earth and Beyond is to close this September. There is a detailed official FAQ page regarding the transition to 'Sunset', including dates, content additions, and information about billing. Commentary can be found via Terra Nova and over on Waterthread. Sigh... another one bites the dust."
Several. The other big, new one is Eve.
Actually, in most cases it's damned hard to kill an online RPG. The game I own, Meridian 59 was originally developed by 3DO and launched in 1996. 3DO closed the game down in 2000, but it was relaunched quickly in 2001 after my company bought the rights to the game. The game has been running strong ever since. We have thousands of fans. It's no EverQuest, but it does pretty well for a game on a tight development budget.
Really, you only have to worry about this with the really big companies. Smaller, independent developers have a lot more investment into the game. Meridian 59 will never die as long as I have any say in it, and my business partner is even more adamant about this than I am!
It's notable that despite the difficulty in killing off these types of games, EA is the company that's had the most success in doing so. They closed down a lot of Kesmai's games when they bought that company, shut down Motor City Online, and have now shut down Earth & Beyond. That track record speaks for itself.
Anyway, give some of the smaller games a try. We're often cheaper than the bigger games; Meridian 59 doesn't even require you to buy a box to play the game, just pay a subscription fee. You'll find that these games will be around for a very long time because the developers see them as something more than just a cash cow. I went into serious personal debt during the dot-com crash just to buy Meridian 59 from 3DO; I'm pretty serious about keeping it available for people to play.
My thoughts as an indie online RPG developer,
Brian "Psychochild" Green
MMO developer's blog
I was in the beta for a long while (right up until about a month before release), so I think i'm qualified to comment... though my memory may be a little rusty.
The Good:
For one, the universe. Seriously. It had an interesting backstory. Man reaches out to the stars and spreads his seed... and then history repeats itself and the whole place goes fucking nuts and trys to kill eachother. Things settle down after a while, but the whole galaxy is gripped by a cold-war style paranoia. And then... weird extra-dimensional shit starts showing up (and we all know thats NEVER a good thing). Throw in a few thousand psychotic mercenary-role players, and voila! Even the factions were cool. Ok, sure, they weren't anything new (anyone played Jumpgate? Same three factions, different names), but they were interesting. You had the mysterious, spiritual, hippy, crazies in the Jenquai. The thick-headed, warmongering, genetically modified warrior caste in the Progen. And then you had the ever random, unpredictable, money-grubbing Terran faction. The ballance between the three was pretty interesting sometimes.
Second off, E&BO had one of the best newbie zones i'd ever seen. You started off in a completely nonhostile zone that other factions couldn't enter, and spent your first 5 levels or so running through literal training grounds. After the beta started filling up, they even had seperate, load-ballancing instances of the newbie sectors (home zones). From there, new players wandered out into their factions directly controlled space and took on more difficult missions. After that, you started crossing through riskier neutral territory. Eventually you'd wind up in the middle of friggin nowhere as a high level player. It worked VERY well IMO.
Another thing was the graphics. For a space RPG, it was stunningly beautiful. I remember being totally blown away the first time I saw Saturn. It was this MASSIVE orangy-browinsh sphere that completely filled my screen, acompanied by a never-ending halo of tiny glittering rocks (the ring) tumbling through space. Toss in a gorgeous lense-flare from the sun, and I was ready to wet my pants. For its time, it definitly had some very pretty parts. (Too bad graphics don't make the game). Oh, and speaking of graphics... any other testers remember Megan? Your friendly neighbourhood holo-helper? And I don't mean that stupid silver-jumpsuited, anoerexic robo-whore that shipped with the game. I mean, the friggin smokin hot and button cute Megan they first had. Damn she ruled. And then they replaced her, because "it was just a temp". *Sigh*.
Now, the Bad:
Primarilly, their "three activities" sucked. E&BO tried to pride itself on giving players choices between three major activities: Combat, Trade, and Exploration. Too bad they were the worst parts of the game!
Combat. Combat sucked. Hard. It was the worst implementation of space-based combat i'd EVER seen. When most people (myself included), think of space combat, they think of things like TIE Fighter. Ships darting and dodging, diving and rolling, basically jousting for a tactical advantage. Now, as an RPG, I expected combat to be somewhat toned down, but E&BO was just rediculous. It was, quite literally, nothing more than a game "press the button lots till you win". There was no manuvering. No jousting for position. No zipping around trying to dodge your enemies fire. Nope, because it was all just a poorly-concieved cover for a standard fantasy combat system. Eg: Stand there, and hack away till it dies. Combat in E&BO was simply retarded to witness. It went something like this: Two ships (or a ship and a monster), fly towards eachother. They both stop, face eachother, and shoot their strongest weapon until someone dies. Thats it. Seriously, it was just stupid. No one flew bothered flying around because, one, you could NEVER get behind anyone (ships could turn waaay too fast), and two, it didn't matter anyways since all "to hit" rolls were done regardless of speed, position, or any
Last night on Netdevil's Jumpgate, a pseudo-physics based space-sim, we noticed a small influx of new players. We didn't ask them, but we think it has partially to do with this.
.. but I can ignore that for the most part.) flight model. Flying a cargo tow with several hundered units of Iridium is MUCH different than, say, flying a medium fighter with no cargo. Bring your joystick for this game, kiddies.
For you EnB'ers who are on the lookout for another space-sim, Jumpgate has a (free!) trial download, with 10 days free. It's also one of the cheapest MMPOGs on the market, at 9.95/mo.
It has a robust (while not quite realistic - even in space your ship has drag. It makes it easier to fly. Otherwise docking would be a nightmare. What I don't like about the model is that ships have hardcapped "top speeds"
PvP is a main aspect of the game, with guild warfare and pirate tools. If you don't like PvP, but still like combat, there are always the purple space creature menace, Flux, to eliminate. The other aspect is the realistic economy - from miners comes raw materials, which stations refine into processed materials, which combine into products like missiles and engines.
Artifact hunting is another thing to do, but I haven't looked much into it.
Granted, the graphics are slightly out of date - but it's not about the graphics... It's about the gameplay! If you're close-minded and simply want another point and click MMPOG, don't try this game. If all you've played are point-and-click MMPOGs in the past, take it for a spin. I think you'll be pleasantly suprised.
Disclaimer: I do not work for NetDevil, nor do I have any affiliation with them other than being a paying customer.