MMORPG Circle of Life

The Massive Gaming market continues to change. Wednesday marked the sunset of Earth and Beyond, a decision made by EA back in March due to a refocusing on future projects. While E&B heads out of the picture, the new French MMOG Saga of Ryzom opened its first US server this week after a lengthy beta period. Impressions of the game are available at Gamebunny and MMORPGDot. And looking towards the future, the Dungeons and Dragons Online website just went live yesterday.

Comments

Brings up a startling question

[tod_miller]

For pure MMORPG's:

Earth & Beyond is no longer in service. After an amazing two years of galactic adventure, Electronic Arts has made the decision to close Earth & Beyond in order to focus resources on future games.

We hope you've enjoyed the game as much as we have and we'll see you again in another great EA game!

Thank you,

So, you pays your money, and then you are no longer able to play that game.... I am not fully up on the details, but I would be fskd is GTA VC stopped working on my PC one day (ok it ain't a MMORPG, but it is a game - I just don't play MMORPGS)

So what is the deal with that? [airline peanuts?]

If a game relies on these servers, and content, do the users know the minimum time they will be supported?

Re:Brings up a startling question

[tod_miller]

I think the inevitability of a MMO closing doors is sad... :-( a good network model wuold mean you could upgrade 'software' like windows, and keep playing the essence.

Good point about PC software, I know that my amstrad copy of elite doesn't work on my PC anymore :-( It used to work at least 10% of the time on the amstrad :-(

Seriously though, originals of frontier, and frontier 2, DOTT, Sam and Max, all these DOS days games.... *sniff* haven't figured out how to get them runnig on SCUMMVM (haven't tried, well how replayable is an adventure game?)

I hope frontier first encounters is released for the Pocket PC. I noted David Braben about it... would be aaaaaace.

Earth & Beyond

[jafuser]

Earth & Beyond is no longer in service. After an amazing two years of galactic adventure, Electronic Arts has made the decision to close Earth & Beyond in order to focus resources on future games.

We hope you've enjoyed the game as much as we have and we'll see you again in another great EA game!

No you won't.

EA Bought Westwood Studios and then cut E&B's budget so it would go hurling into the ground.

E&B had an excellent foundation and it's story was the most interesting of any other MMO that I've played or looked into so far.

EA bought out Maxis and put an end to their product diversity. Now they just stick with one sure-fire money maker and churn out endless expansions and revisions instead of entirely new simulator games.

And now they have the nerve to tell me I can't run certian software alongside their games because I might be a pirate. Nice way to treat your customers.

EA will never see another penny from me.

Re:Earth & Beyond

[Enucite]

I think we have all said the same thing about one company or another but lets be truthful here. Next time they come out with a game you really want they will see about $50 of your pennies.

If they come out with a game he really wants, he can get it without anyone--except his ISP--seeing a penny for it.

I'm not saying it's right, just that it's possible for him to play any good games EA happens to ship without EA ever getting a penny for it.

I think developers and publishers need to pay attention to this. When they don't care about the quality of their product (shipping buggy software and taking a "we'll fix it later" attitude) and treat their paying customers like criminals (telling users what they can or can't run on their computer, using copy protection that affects quality of gameplay), why should they expect their potential customers to care about supporting them?

Re:Earth & Beyond

[Toxygen]

What if they make some kick ass game that you really like, and it's not crippled by any ridiculous form of anti-piracy? In my eyes that game would deserve your money, since you would be telling the company in the only language they recognize that THIS, and only this, is the type of game that you will support. It takes a bit of hope that some marketing exec will see a pattern between crippled or crippling game sales and un-crippled game sales, but that's the only way they listen.

You really think they gonna pay attention to you for bitching on some forum about their anti-piracy scheme and saying you'll never buy their titles again? If you're not a source of income for them, why would they listen to you at all? And don't tell me that they need to have a little foresight into the actions of their customers cause they make all their decisions in matters like these based on existing market data, ie lots of our games are being pirated so let's step up the copy protection.

Letting 'em know they've gone too far by boycotting a game is a good thing, but never buying another game to let them know they're on the right track again is very very bad.

Ryzom

[Frostbeard]

I played Ryzom back in the early beta days, and it was great fun even back then. The problem, I found, was that it was a bit needlessly complicated. Specifically, the skill system was kind of cumbersome.

There were rumours back then of a Linux client coming out for SoR as well, though I haven't heard much news about it since. Does anyone else know more?