SOE Pulls the Plug On The Matrix Online

Yesterday, Sony Online Entertainment representative Daniel Myers announced that The Matrix Online will be shut down on July 31st. The game launched in 2005 after several delays and false starts, and shortly thereafter SOE bought the rights to operate the game from developer Monolith. Now, four years later, the game will join the ranks of closed MMOs. In a forum post, Myers said, "The team will also be whipping up an end-of-the-world event. It won't be quite the same as having over 100 developers in the game as Agents like when we ended beta, but we have 4 years of tricks up our sleeve. It'll be a chance to revisit all the things that make MxO the memorable experience it is. And how could we pull the plug without crushing everyone's RSI just one more time?"

Comments

I'm pissed

[FredFredrickson]

I didn't know there was a matrix MMO- and I'm pissed to hear it's shutting down, because I would've played it. No point in signing up now though. Shame.

Re:I'm pissed

[WarlockD]

I have to admint that during the beta it was a good back and forth with the developers, but 2005 was just way to late. Maybe a year or two after the first movie, but by 2005 the steam has gone out. The end of the beta rocked, but after about a month or two, it just felt like SWG.

I mean they killed Morpheus! That didn't even bring in the numbers. Only reason I am going to log in is to see the ending.

Re:I'm pissed

[Antique Geekmeister]

The Matrix Online was _painful_. The information about what widgets were needed in what order to develop what new devices and abilities was far, far too complex and far, far too painful. You had to play it for at least six months, with a a very detailed notebook on hand, to work out enough detail to begin to survive Player versus Player with the people who refused to sleep and exchanged all their information offline or bought guides.

You may enjoy that, but I found it painful.

I mean it when I say "The End"

[westlake]

It strikes me that an online RPG might begin with a book: a three or four year story arc that has a clear beginning, a middle and an end.

It would be a particularly rewarding experience for those who came in and early and stayed the course.

But you could enter and exit at any point with some sense of achievement - and a unique experience of the game.

 

Re:well that's good at least

[TheLink]

Actually in my opinion, many of these MMOGs could have epic endings as part of the game. Then you restart it again (or not if you have the next version ready).

I used to play an online webgame where the ending was part of the game AND inevitable. Players could also do stuff to cause the game to end early - so there would be people who'd choose to try to end the game early, and others who would try to stop them.

While some people might not like the idea of having to regrind to build their chars up again, they could just reduce the amount of grind involved in getting the chars up.

Because it doesn't matter that the players get to heroic levels fast, you need them at heroic levels for the ending. And after the ending they start again from scratch.

I figure the biggest problem is almost everyone might be online for the ending and that'll crash the servers :).

Re:Sounds normal to me

[Jurily]

They only made one Matrix movie. *drags you off screen*

Too bad they never made any sequels.

Re:Sounds normal to me

[hairyfeet]

I was thought they got too preachy in the second and third and missed a great opportunity for a killer twist to end it. I always thought after Cypher tried to make the deal with Agent Smith to get back to the Matrix that it would have been a damned cool twist if in the third one he went to the machine city and found out that...there simply was NO Zion. Nobody had ever actually left the Matrix at all. That Zion was simply a sub program for those that refused to accept the "reality" of the Matrix proper and that "Zion" was wiped out every so often to keep those who refused to believe from "infecting' those that did and throwing the whole thing out of whack.

They would then show him the 'real" world, that thanks to the war was uninhabitable by all life and then be given the choice: either allow a good portion of "Zion" to be wiped out so they will quit screwing up the Matrix, try to get those in Zion to accept that they will NEVER get out, as there is no where to actually go that they could survive and thanks to their doubts they will be forced to live out their days in "Zion", or allow those in Zion to keep screwing with the Matrix causing the eventual collapse of the Matrix and forcing everyone to live in the crappier Zion program.

That would have been a better ending than all the messiah junk they piled on in the second and third. Pretty much the only thing that kept me from falling asleep during the second and third was Smith. Smith for me was the only thing worth watching in the second and third, as he seemed to me the only one that just didn't seem to be a sheep going along with whatever the Oracle said.

Which is why I am frankly surprised that the MxO lasted as long as it did. When you base a game on a franchise that 2/3rds of the movies feel like "Spaceballs 33 1/3rd: The search for more money" I just didn't see how they would be able to build up a big enough fan base to keep it going. The characters and 2/3rds of the movies just weren't that interesting IMHO.

Should all MMOs die at some point?

[sircastor]

Reading this and a number of the comments, connected with the question posted to /. a few days ago about severe gaming addiction, I kind of wonder if, at some point, all MMOs need to die? Like a good television show, you get to a point where the show needs to be retired. It's lived it's life and been popular and made money. I think this is probably natural and needed. This gives the creators a great opportunity to move on to another MMO, or a different project entirely - flex their creative muscles in a different way.