It has been a LONG while since I have generated a Top 10 list. Thus I put on my pimp hat and sat down to ponder a worthy list to publish. Reviewing the MMO vendor list for this years E3 I thought to myself, one or more of these games are going to bomb.
Thus I based my list on the MMO Games that failed to live up to their hype or deliver on promised 'feature' list. In the end my list took an especially brutal view on SOE. Which wasn't my intial intention, my list was just 'made that way'.
Thus I present my list of the Top 10 Biggest MMORPG Busts of ALL-TIME! Plenty of time and Dos Equis (the writers brew) went into generating this list.
EverQuest 2 - While EQ2 realistic graphical engine captured the medieval fantasy flair of Norrath, it failed to capture its established EQ crowd and its learning curve kept it from drawing over and keeping any WoW players. EQ2 was a true example of, "If ya snooze ya loose". Verant's MMO credibility was also damaged by the SWG like overhaul of the character class system introduced in their original EQ2 release. This "rebalancing" of ALL 24 classes meant the original character class design was inherently flawed. Verant which released EQ and defined the term "MASSIVELY Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game" could not recapture the magic of their past glory and in my view that made EQ2 a bust.
ShadowBane - The biggest of the over hyped PvP MMOG's. ShadowBane promised to placate the disaffected PvP crowd that games such as EQ and UO were actively seeking to dismiss, however broken promises, incomplete game world features and faulty mechanics destroyed its street cred with the North American PvP crowd.
Star Wars Galaxies – Proving that SOE oversight can ruin the best laid plans, SWG was supposed to be the WoW of MMOGdom. Instead SWG turned into one of the biggest MMOG cautionary tales. The game ruined the mystique, the fun, and the action of the Star Wars universe. SWG detrimental world management decisions and abysmal player community relations ensured a "Hits Away" on the MMOG bust list.
D&D Online - D&D is the all-father of all Fantasy MMORPG's. Any Fantasy Elf, Dwarf, and Wizard can trace their RPG roots back to Gary Gygax and David Arneson. Wizards of the Coast should have realized that selling your soul, err product license, for a buck is not the best idea when you don't think of the longterm ramifications, e.g. using the world of Eberron when Forgotten Realms has such an established and faithful following. Turbine's choice to use the limited Guild Wars template for a gaming world and charging a monthly fee was also an atrocious business decision. In my opinion, DDO could have had a respectable offering by just MMOGizing Bioware's venerable NWN or NWN2 engines, instead they pushed out a bastardized Diablo/GW game that was something only a Lich could love.
Anarchy Online - The first Sci-Fi game of the modern MMOG era and the biggest example of, "Make your first impression count". Developers have this lofty ideal that they can release an alpha grade product and supply bug fixes over time, meanwhile the playerbase is supposed to be ecstatic to lay down their funds for this honor. AO found out the hard way that this is not the case. AO is still the "Mendoza Line" standard for which all MMOG releases are measured. I was one of the first in line to play AO and it only took 1.5 years to get a (mostly) stable product. Patch 12.1 FTW!
PlanetSide - I beta tested this game and it had awesome potential. Then again Ryan Leaf, Sam Bowie, and George "Dubya" Bush all had potential. PlanetSide was a simple Team Fortress type FPS. Utilizing various skill and pilot certifications one could lead a squad of merry men over a dynamically fluid battleground. However, as with all FPS games, variety, map changes, and vehicle/weapon additions are the key to maintaining player interest. The lack of these components doomed PS to the bargain bin of SOE MMOG stockpile. (I am noticing a SOE theme)
The Matrix Online - MXO could have been an above average MMOG if it had been released shortly after "The Matrix". Fast forward five years and 2 abominations, oops, I meant sequels later and the furor for MXO was cooled, like the surface of the earth after a nanite induced nuclear winter. With the prior releases of innovative mass market and niche market MMOG's (e.g. WoW and CoH) MXO's fate was sealed, like a human in a biofusion pod preserved with protoplasmic gloop. Dated graphics, a lack of graphical innovation and of course numerous game world glitches doomed MXO to be sold to the "Architect" like presence of SOE, it didn't take an Oracle to sense instant mediocrity for MXO.
Asheron's Call 2 - Developers always have this "Pie in the Sky" theory of game changes. Apparently if your in-game population is X and you make changes to attract non-game playing population Y, then your total population will increase to X + Y. This theory has been clearly debunked. I will make this really clear, if you make changes to attract population Y, you’re going to piss off population X and wind up with my favorite NPC "Jack Schitt". Turbine buried the AC franchise with their short sighted cash grab, in process they antagonized Microsoft and ended up selling out to SOE before closing their virtual doors. (That SOE theme rears its ugly head again). I implore developers KEEP YOUR PAYING POPULATION HAPPY. Reaching for a non-existent player base in order to increase your numbers always fails.
The Sims Online - Take one the most popular PC Games (in terms of raw sales NPD Group). Make a MMOG that combines elements of "Desperate House Wives" and "Jackass the Movie" and voila instead cash cow. Not so fast, my friend. Once again proving nothing in MMOGdom is a given. TSO is a desolate waste land of whore houses and drug dens unworthy of mention. A lack of updates and the thuggish monopolizing of useful property has led to a steep entry curve which will ensure no one will ever want to play this niche game.
World War 2 Online - Call of Duty, Battlefield 1942, and Medal of Honor these games conjure up the entire gamut of gritty WW2 warfare in all of its forms. WW2 Online dismisses all of them and makes warfare feel like HELL. The HELL of waiting to get into combat, the HELL of finding anyone to shoot at, The HELL of getting capped off in one shot, The HELL of being unable to do crap in a vehicle because you need a full crew (working together) to get the cranky beast to work. The HELL of paying for all of this "joy", when the afore mentioned games are available for a one shot cost. WW2 should have listened to the FPS crowd. Make a FUN™ game and leave the realism to the History Channel™.
Needless to say this is the bigget BoAT no one wants to get on.
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08-01-2008 14:19
After reading the review and going through the comments I have nothing to say but I agree with your opinion on a lot of things. EQ sucks compared to WoW, since wow has over billions of players and still growing. DDO could have been better if they would have gone the NWN way. Now to comment to some of your more intelligent responders, Since they seem to not understand that just because a video game is also a simulator, its said that a lot of old arcade games were used to recruit people into the military, either way its suppose to be fun. Games are like movies. You have 15 minutes to wow your crowd or they will forget you. If you wanted to play a game for realism then well you need to stop playing games. And to everyone who came here to bash the article because it didn’t share your own views, Grow up. Life isn’t always going to agree with you, so quit being a fan boy. Stop throwing insults because it makes you look ignorant. Agree to disagree and go on about your life.
It looks like the entire WW2OL playerbase (all fifty of them) has stopped dissing their game in their own forums long enough to protest that someone else dissing their game.
Somewhere the staff responded to a comment by saying "I'll spend more than 5 minutes when they create an engine better than Doom" or something like that. FYI: WW2OL game engine is a fully persistant (no zones or in-game loading) world that is europe at 1/2 scale. Included in this world are: atmospheric calculations, ballistics calculations (firing a single round results in literally thousands of calculations done during flight, and thousands more upon impact) as well as all vehicles are created using blueprints and contain all the strenghts and weaknesses of their real life counterparts.
He He He. Funny to see a person misjudging a game like that :-] WWII online, is more like a WWII-Simulator. Sad that this fine magazine, is lowering their journalistic level, to such a low place. You clearly dont have any clue about what you write about. Please stop your work, and go back to jerking off at a BF1942-Lara Croft addon :-]
Jayson Blair (born March 23, 1976, Columbia, Maryland) is a former New York Times reporter who was forced to resign from the newspaper in May 2003, after he was caught plagiarizing and fabricating elements of his stories.
Contents [hide] 1 Background 2 Blair's rise at The New York Times 3 Plagiarism and fabrication scandal 4 The fallout 5 See also 6 Bibliography 7 References 8 External links
[edit] Background Blair is the son of a federal executive and a school administrator. He attended the University of Maryland, College Park as a journalism major.
There already are games like Battlefield and Medal of Honor, why would you want to have another one?? WWIIOL is unique and incredibly fun for the player that is willing to spend the extra time learning the ropes... your article is retarded and probably so are you
You just simply suck, didn't give the game a good try and/or didn't bother to set up any controls, if you couldn't work a vehicle without multicrew!
It really is a shame to see people like you who suck at a truely realistic game and go rant about how un fun it is. Go back to pressing the space bar after running away while shooting your SMGs in Bf1942, and blow up a few tanks with grenades while you are at it!
You should quit instantly and give yourself some 50 caliber aspirin..
ww2ol = simulation Tanks have the real thickness of amour... rounds drop realistically... 3 sherman rounds frontally wont blow a Tiger to shit.... NO and i repeat NO WW2 based shooter/strat game beats ww2ol... i dont even have to explain myself..
dont even call yourself a reviewer and get the fuck back to BF1942
It has been a LONG while since I have generated a Top 10 list. Thus I put on my pimp hat and sat down to ponder a worthy list to publish. Reviewing the MMO vendor list for this years E3 I thought to myself, one or more of these games are going to bomb.
