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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."
I know it wasn't for everyone, but I've really enjoyed playing this game Guess it's time to switch over to Duke Nukem Forever!
It's not because of the monthly fee. It's things like this. I can still go back and play Quake 1, as long as I can get it to run on my computer I can play it. And I do get the urge to do so once in a while. But with MMOGs they're only playable for as long as the company can make money supporting them. I can't depend on the game being around forever, so I don't want to get interested in the game at all.
I find it interesting that they're offering free copies of Ultima Online and The Sims Online to all of the Earth & Beyond subscribers. First time I've heard of a closing MMO offering a sort of 'severance package'.
I tried the demo, and I didnt find the game very compelling as a MMOG, as there was little incentive to interact with other players.
It actually made me wonder why they didnt just make this into a single-player game.
They make it abundantly clear that the game will be running until September, but how is it a game if they're not going to be adding content for the next 6 months?
This makes no sense to me. Why not kill it now and save money on the server costs? Everyone is going to leave way before September anyway. With no future for the game, actions have no meaning and the (already stale) content will have no appeal.
Of course, they likely have a clause in the EULA that states that they have to give sufficient warning of the game closure.
Regrettably all Around.
If you dig/dug Earth and Beyond, I know some folks who like Eve Online.
I also have some commentary on this sort of thing in my editorial today on MMORPGDot, as well as at my own site.
I'm pretty surprised it lasted as long as it did as a pay-to-play service. If EA were to release something similar as a single player game I would surely pick it up.
It should be interesting to be logged on during those last days in September. On September 1st at 11:59PM (or whatever the exact down-date is) maybe all the remaining players will have one last battle-royale, or maybe just a virtual champagne toast, fight together for something fun, and then watch as they all "die" simultanously...
This game was poorly designed and implemented. It made no attempt to break the levelling/mob farming treadmill, had no PvP, despite constant claims that it would be introduced, and suffered from a constant lack of content and innovation..
It's EA. They tried to introduce their big budget, highly advertised yet devoid of substance game model into the MMORPG market and it failed. Maybe this will make them stop and think about the importance of quality design the next time they move to absorb an independent studio
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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