Continued from Part 1.
Vanguard sticks out as one of the biggest failures in MMORPG history. The game was praised as the hardcore player’s wet dream; promising as it was, the publisher made a crucial mistake by releasing the game before it was finished. The coding was largely incomplete, and the game required extensive polishing.
Without proper coding or optimization, the players who played Vanguard felt they had been sold an unfinished product. This lead many players to cancel their subscriptions and move on to another game. Furthermore,the developers were forced to spend their time fixing coding issues after the game was released.
Players left the game in droves, and Vanguard would become just another failed MMO.
Hellgate: London had many of the same problems. Many players had the feeling that the game was unfinished when released and the developers should have been given more time. Even now, Hellgate: London players feel that the developers are still working to finish their game. Continued…
Looking back at 2007, we can see that a record amount of MMOs have been released. As World of Warcraft hit ten million subscribers — setting a new milestone in MMOs — many people look forward to see where the MMO will be in ten years.
Will World of Warcraft still be on top? Will a WoW killer be released in 2008? What can kill a MMO? To find out, we must look to other MMOs who have withered away and examine their deaths.
Studying what kills an MMO can be an involved process. The life of an MMO is affected by countless variables and changing just one of these variables could result in a game’s upheaval. In 2007 alone countless MMO titles have died; Vanguard, Fury, Hellgate: London, and Tabula Rasa were all very promising, yet somehow they fizzled out.
While some MMOs have a dedicated audience that will allow a game to live on for years, other MMOs have had their population decimated in a matter of months. Many MMOs are destined to burn out quickly in a crowded and turbulent market. Continued…
Trick or treat! Flagship studios has dated the upcoming RPG Hellgate: London for Oct. 31, so make sure to stay in. Continued…