Perhaps a reprieve or rethinking of this...is in order?

How many people resubscribed today SoE? Thousands? Tens of thousands?

Maybe the problem with keeping MxO up, and running, is right there before your eyes.

For four years you have maintained the game after Monolith sold it, but thats all you really did...you maintained it, you never really made it better...you never truly added to it, in fact, in several respects your CR2.0 took away from it, just like the NGE took away from SWG.

But now you say "thats it, its over, we're shutting it down"....and you see suddenly there there are thousands of people that love this game and that would be here all the time, if you'd just....do something with it for real, and not just leave them sitting there to grind pointlessly to level 50 and become bored thereafter.

Is running/developing for this game really any more costly than maintaining/developing for Planetside...or Everquest 1? Is it really worth scrapping this title and putting all your money on that craptastic Sims meets WoW G Rated Kids Game Free Realms?

MxO doesn't have to die. MxO shouldn't die, I can think of....at least five games, off the top of my head, right now, that are in far worse shape, in profitability, than this title could be if you would simply give it the chance it deserves and give it the attention it deserves.

I mean...who am I to talk I left because you were taking it over, all the customer abuse through EQ, the SWG debacles, I had a right to be cautious so I left when I heard Monolith was selling it. But there are thousands who never did and made a life and a world here that has been, largely, one of the most spectacular massively multiplayer online role playing games of the past decade.

And you're willing to bury that, even though this community has shown you more dedication than any community you have had to date in your game portfolio. Tell me your EQ players aren't a bunch of mercenaries that leave every time WoW puts out another shiny patch. Tell me that your Planetside player base is as loyal and as in love with that game as the players of this game are.

Tell me, that if you announced you were shutting down Planetside, right now, that tens of thousands of people would resubscribe simply to get that one last taste of something they enjoyed...and to be there at death bed's side, to see it go.

I don't think so, in fact, I know it wouldn't. If you shut down EQ1 today, there wouldn't be protests, people would just move to EQ2 or WoW, if you shut down EQ2, people might protest, but they'd just go to WoW.

Where are all these customers going to go SoE? There not going to go to EQ2 or Planetside or SWG, they're here, and customers of yours for one reason, and one reason only, that is The Matrix, and what living in that world means to them individually.

It is my wish, and request, that the managing developers and community managers of this title, propose to SoE corporate, that they give the title 1 year, and true support, before they go through with this closure.

1 year of true development and support, 1 year of true new content additions, on the monthly scale, like you've been doing with SWG....and tell me in 1 year, that it wouldn't have been worth it.

Summary of this is, please, not yet. Give it the chance it deserves....cause you never really did. All this game got was the bare minimum it took to keep it going. Had you done something with it, it would, I believe, be your strongest title offering on the US market at this time.

You have too many broken toys SOE, broken toys that people love so much they play through the brokeness, out of love alone.

And just like that favorite stuffed animal of a childs, you don't throw it away because it becomes ripped and torn, you mend it, you patch it and restuff it, and make it new again for them, because that child loves that stuffed animal, and it doesn't matter how many new ones you buy them....it will never make up for that one that broke...that you chose to throw away, rather than repair.

This is my plea. For all the good it will do. I love this genre, I love the world this game presents. I don't want to see it go the way of the dinosaur simply because no one has tried to mend it, patch it and restuff it. Not for me who beta'd and played til Monolith sold it, not for the players that have been here since the beta and never left...and not for the gaming industry as a whole...which deseperately needs titles like this to succeed, so there can be variance in a market dominated by World of Warcraft. MxO gives a unique and beautiful option, and its loss will be a terrible loss, not just for these players, but for the gaming industry in general.

Thank you for your time.

It's over.

Well said though

No one that could do anything about it reads DN1.  If you want them to see it, send the higher ups letters.

EDIT: Agreed Jury, very well said.

While I'm not sure the numbers are accurate, I can't say I wouldn't love to see this happen.

MotorZ wrote:

It's over.

It shouldn't be over.

Its the wrong game to be over.

I knew this day was coming, I knew it when Rarebit left and they didn't fill his spot nor announced any plans to. 

I will miss MxO.

I would love it if they gave this game a chance.  As you said, just one year of real support.  However, I find it very unlikely that will happen.  SOE, for some reason, HATES supporting the games that they did not develop.

Therefore, I have spoken to the Oracle, and this is what she had to say:

"At SOE Fan Faire, the Agency closed beta will be announced.  At that time, the current subscribers of the Matrix Online will be offered invitations to the beta.  The Agency is SOE's replacement for the Matrix Online."

As I ate my cookie on the way out the door, it did seem rather odd that MxO's closure was announced just a few weeks before Fan Faire.  And by offering current MxO subscribers free, unrestrained access to SOE's other titles until July 31st, they hope to keep the MxO subscribers around until the Agency's beta can start.  Watch the Agency's beta start on August 1st.  I'd almost bet money on it.

As if the Agency could replace this.

Fen wrote:

I would love it if they gave this game a chance.  As you said, just one year of real support.  However, I find it very unlikely that will happen.  SOE, for some reason, HATES supporting the games that they did not develop.

Therefore, I have spoken to the Oracle, and this is what she had to say:

"At SOE Fan Faire, the Agency closed beta will be announced.  At that time, the current subscribers of the Matrix Online will be offered invitations to the beta.  The Agency is SOE's replacement for the Matrix Online."

As I ate my cookie on the way out the door, it did seem rather odd that MxO's closure was announced just a few weeks before Fan Faire.  And by offering current MxO subscribers free, unrestrained access to SOE's other titles until July 31st, they hope to keep the MxO subscribers around until the Agency's beta can start.  Watch the Agency's beta start on August 1st.  I'd almost bet money on it.

I don't doubt you, but I doubt The Agency will be able to capture MxO's atmosphere.  There won't be exiles, or computer hackings, or anything like that. 

Oh, believe you me, there is no WAY the Agency can replace MxO.  This is what SOE does not understand.

I hope to God that the Agency backfires in their face.

Fen wrote:

Oh, believe you me, there is no WAY the Agency can replace MxO.  This is what SOE does not understand.

I hope to God that the Agency backfires in their face.

What are you suppose to do in The Agency anyways?

MetaLogic wrote:

Fen wrote:

Oh, believe you me, there is no WAY the Agency can replace MxO.  This is what SOE does not understand.

I hope to God that the Agency backfires in their face.

What are you suppose to do in The Agency anyways?

It's spy vs. spy BS.  Heh, they even have a replica of Club Succubus in the game.

So is this a(nother) case of Mxoers saying "our game is the best, and each concept anyone else comes up with if it ain't got exiles in it, sucks"?
Kinda has this "if we don't get success... no one should! let this new MMO [which I think HCFrog and possibly some other MxO name] participated in creating" vibe to me.


Not gonna play the Agency, you know, not trying to be particular mean or critical, but still... anyways, not that important.


I agree with the OP. Try sending that in a letter to one of the higher-ups.

zeroone506 wrote:

So is this a(nother) case of Mxoers saying "our game is the best, and each concept anyone else comes up with if it ain't got exiles in it, sucks"?
Kinda has this "if we don't get success... no one should! let this new MMO [which I think HCFrog and possibly some other MxO name] participated in creating" vibe to me.


Not gonna play the Agency, you know, not trying to be particular mean or critical, but still... anyways, not that important.


I agree with the OP. Try sending that in a letter to one of the higher-ups.

Not at all.  It's more of SOE treating us like crap and neglecting this game to the point of failure, then trying to appease us with a 'substitute'.  Again, a lot of it is speculation on my part, but we shall see.

The Agency, as a game, is likely to be leaps and bounds better than the Matrix Online, but I won't touch it due to the disservice given to MxO and all of us.  I will never give SOE another cent.

Sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but I'd never know 'cause I wouldn't eat the filthy motherfu--er.

They could at least just keep 1 server running. They havnt done anything anyway, so it cant cost that much, at least 15 bucks like they were doing. I hope they change it to keep 1 server running or sell it to someone. I have never seen a game this unique. And there is no other game that lived up to this one. I am really going to miss it, everyone can say its just a game, but after 4-5 years, its been my game everyday for 4-5 years.

Well, this post was a little late, , but I agree with the OP.

XXT wrote:

They could at least just keep 1 server running.

THANK YOU! It would cut down on costs and by doing that it would at least keep us somewhat happy. I would much rather have a game with one server and no updates than have nothing at all.

Jurymen wrote:

XXT wrote:

They could at least just keep 1 server running.

THANK YOU! It would cut down on costs and by doing that it would at least keep us somewhat happy. I would much rather have a game with one server and no updates than have nothing at all.

I am MetaLogic and I agree with this message.

However, it's 4 down, at the 50 yard line, and 3 seconds are left on the clock.  In other words, too little, too late.

Fen wrote:

The Agency, as a game, is likely to be leaps and bounds better than the Matrix Online,

I'm not sure I agree with this.  Based upon the (very limited) footage they have released of The Agency it looks a lot like a typical run of the mill team based 1st/3rd person shooter.  If there is non-prerendered footage of any actual non-shooter content I don't recall seeing it anywhere.  It doesn't look like it will have either the MMO aspect or the RPG aspect that MxO has.  Unless something changes from what they have been showing us, not only will it not be a real replacement for MxO but it won't even be in the same genre.

Jurymen wrote:

XXT wrote:

They could at least just keep 1 server running.

THANK YOU! It would cut down on costs and by doing that it would at least keep us somewhat happy. I would much rather have a game with one server and no updates than have nothing at all.

Make it so, Jurymen! >_>

The five stages of grief:

Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance

Your heart and mind is in a good place, Mere.  It really is like losing an old friend.

Unfortunately, efforts like ours equal mere vanity.

Pack it up... and know that people like Foxdie, Mave and NightTrace are always around to spit that stinging venom they call "I told you so" right in our faces.

<3

I was level 42 when I quit on my original account due to the sell out.

I just got past level 10 about an hour ago...and wrote up karate for myself, and, man I haven't had this much fun in a game in a long time.

I don't really know how any game could ever compared to interlock martial arts in MxO.

Phrack wrote:

Pack it up... and know that people like Foxdie, Mave and NightTrace are always around to spit that stinging venom they call "I told you so" right in our faces.

<3

They should have paid a sub when the going got tough like the rest of us. The only mmo based on the Matrix universe, and the legends of the game bailed on it.  Money talks in this day.

JEasy wrote:

Phrack wrote:

Pack it up... and know that people like Foxdie, Mave and NightTrace are always around to spit that stinging venom they call "I told you so" right in our faces.

<3

They should have paid a sub when the going got tough like the rest of us. The only mmo based on the Matrix universe, and the legends of the game bailed on it.  Money talks in this day.

I think NightTrace got Permabanned from MxO.

We're only back to see it die and say goodbye. Even if they decided to keep the game going I wouldn't stick around and I doubt many others would. Let's stop this and just say goodbye to a sick old friend.

Foxxdie wrote:

We're only back to see it die and say goodbye. Even if they decided to keep the game going I wouldn't stick around and I doubt many others would. Let's stop this and just say goodbye to a sick old friend.

Agreed, now is the time to set aside whatever was in the past, and join together for one final hurrah.

I'd stay if they actually put a years worth of effort into it. Subscription fees aren't anything to me. I got 5 SoE subs going atm, two NCSoft ones, two Blizzard subs, its just money for entertainment.

Blizzard subs were gonna get canceled, as were the NCSoft ones, I figured, eh SWG has sort of shaped up and they got MxO so maybe just sub to SoE for awhile, maybe they have really changed. Far as I could tell, especially with SWG and SWG customer service...they had.

Then this comes along.

JEasy wrote:

Phrack wrote:

Pack it up... and know that people like Foxdie, Mave and NightTrace are always around to spit that stinging venom they call "I told you so" right in our faces.

<3

They should have paid a sub when the going got tough like the rest of us. The only mmo based on the Matrix universe, and the legends of the game bailed on it.  Money talks in this day.

Really, are you flippin' daft? I did sub when the going got tough. I subbed for several years of this game declining. Eventually enough is enough. I've got better things to spend my money on than a broken, mistreated game. I love The Matrix universe and always will, and I loved the first 6 months of this game when we had most of what we were promised when we bought it. Why pretend to love a shadow of something I used to like? If that's not some Matrix-style philosophy - that people would "defend the system" in the face of imminent demise - I don't know what is.

JEasy wrote:

Phrack wrote:

Pack it up... and know that people like Foxdie, Mave and NightTrace are always around to spit that stinging venom they call "I told you so" right in our faces.

<3

They should have paid a sub when the going got tough like the rest of us. The only mmo based on the Matrix universe, and the legends of the game bailed on it.  Money talks in this day.

That's funny right there. I'm openly gonna sit here and pay for disservice. Screw that, it's my money.

And I'm sorry if the "I told you so" offended any of you, but if you honestly think that the way this game was going that SOE was going to keep it alive/going, then I'm sorry. But I saw it coming.

As far as I'm concerned, this game died a LOOOOOOONG time ago. The MxO we knew, shared moments with, and loved so much died a long time ago. All that was left was this carcass.

When something you love dies, you bury it out of respect. You don't leave it hanging on display as it rots day by day.

/invoke law of karma 10.0 upon the Agency and DC Online. (what goes around, comes around.)

It is done. Carry on with your workday at the cubicles.

I don't believe this is dead.

I believe this is apathy on the part of SOE in the face of better potential earnings from an "E for Everyone" SL/Sims/WoW" rip off game (With its own TCG already too!), and apathy on the part of the players that did love the game not to try to fight SOE down to the very last day.

I thought it over when I saw the announcement, I said....why would I resubscribe the day before they would make this announcement?

There has to be a reason, and maybe its because it needs as many people as it can get to fight for it.

I agree with one server, but I don't agree with no support, no development. This title deserves the treatment SWG is getting right now...even if it takes a Matrix TCG game to make it happen, it deserves it.

The last four years they spent doing nothing with this game, they spent recovering from the debacle of the NGE in SWG.

They could spend a year, with one server, recovering this title too....all it would take is the will and determination to do so. On the part of SOE and the player base.

Synapse777 wrote:

/invoke law of karma 10.0 upon the Agency and DC Online. (what goes around, comes around.)

It is done. Carry on with your workday at the cubicles.

DCUO and Agency are already in the red.

They are not expected to release in anywhere near a finished state.

As I quoted in another post, from someone on the inside, they are "troubled projects".

SoE is betting the house on Free Realms, they already know DCUO and The Agency aren't going to pull big numbers....but go take a look at Free Realms and tell me it doesn't make you violently ill.

You don't honestly believe thousands of people resubscribed, do you?

The whole "let's save MxO" mantra has been tried by how many people? and by how long? What will make SOE suddenly say "Wow, we have been wrong all along!"

I respect where you're coming from, but if SOE didn't take over MxO, the game probably would have shut down a lot sooner. Let's just be happy we enjoyed the game for this long and glad we made all the friends we've made in the game.

Meretrixx wrote:

... go take a look at Free Realms and tell me it doesn't make you violently ill.

Actually, it's quite entertaining.  It's not very deep, and the family friendly design will absolutely turn people off (and possibly turn their stomachs), but it's not terrible.  Is it a replacement for MxO?  Absolutely not, but almost nothing would be other than MxO2.

Walrus is still here, after all this time.

Walrus should go to the mat for this. Walrus is the person I'm talking about, that should be going to corporate and making a solid case for giving this title the chance it deserves.

Would it have failed earlier if SOE hadn't taken it over? Possibily so, but it didn't have to fail at ALL if SoE had actually taken the responsibility to better the game and make it work and patch it up so it was worth a few expansion packs.

In 4 years they did nothing positive.

And yet Walrus is still here....

I'm all for being happy that the game lasted as long as it did, but seriously, Ultima Online is still online....the closure of MxO indicates its total failure as a concept.

And the game itself is NOT a failure. The failure is in the hands of those that were responsible for ensuring the title was properly run and maintained, and, of course, expanded upon and made better.

There is not a title on the market that will replace this game. There are no titles in the known future that will replace this game.

SoE is truly giving up an absolute gem of a game....and I have no idea for what.

And the apathy from the player base is even more sad to see.

Heres an idea, SOE, see how it fits your budget.

You just recently offered Free Character Transfers to more populated servers in SWG, which has you ending up with more or less 6 total active population servers, of 26 total servers, and 20 other SWG servers with nothing left on them but hold outs and lost new players that ended up there because your server recommendation logic for new players is, of course, not taking into account the dead servers.

Now each SWG server, is a large server cluster. Today is June 1st, you are doing an Inactive Housing Pack Up on all servers today in SWG.

By the time you get that done, you will see and realize that there are 20 dead SWG servers and you can pretty much forcibly move the few hermits left on them to the 6 active servers.

On July 1st, you shut down 20 empty SWG server clusters, and the same day, move all active MxO accounts/characters to Syntax. July 15th, shut down Vector and Recursion.

The server maintenance, technical personnel, customer server and GM personnel and bandwidth reduction costs alone, there, would be enough to pay for Syntax to stay online for the next 10 years without a single new subscription.

Leave one server up, give it a couple of devs and community managers that can keep it going and maybe even do something interesting with it here and there, and then you can stay true to your claim that you have never, nor will you ever shut down one of your games.

Then you show respect to the time and effort all these players have put into who they've become in this world, all the time and effort they've put into their factions and crews and characters.

Show them that one respect, they deserve it.

exsuscito wrote:

The five stages of grief:

Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance

I skipped straight to depression and will probably never reach acceptance.

Naw i went straight to acceptance

We've all known it was coming sooner or later. People were saying it wouldn't last long when i STARTED playing, that was 3 years ago. Its lived its life, fooking good one at that. Its just a pity SoE didn't feel the need to support the game and would rather pull the plug than shell out a few bucks for it, give RareBit a hand, merge/transfers.

One thing that has made me lol though, upped XP, yeay. Now why couldn't they have done that at regular times years ago..

Nothing was there for the game, more so when LE's and the story went down, it just turned into another MMO. That is why people left, SoE doing jackshit for the game but i don't think they actually see it like that..

I think we've been fortunate to have the game as long as we did, considering the little man power and resources been given to it. I personally never thought we'd see an end, kinda expected it to keep ticking over a bit longer, but when the one man who had been putting a large amount of effort into the game, Rarebit, left it was on a matter of time before someone suggested that it would be better to close the game than let it live a dead life. You can't keep something on life support forever, sometimes you have it let it go , no matter how hard that decision maybe.

I see no point in suggesting a server transfer all to 1 server, with no future updates and no ongoing storyline, I rather see this game rest in peace than live to not even be a mere shadow of what it once was.

I just find it a shame that all the 'recycled content' that Rare put work into is just gonna get flushed away. He might aswell left years ago..

And we all know 1 server wouldn't work because of people like me and well yous  T'is a pity the game is gonna be gone forever soon enough. I donno about you Aquatium, but life support is better than dying altogether.

Some time ago, somebody managed to go to SOE (in person) and getting a chat with some sort of executives.

They told them they were "quite happy with MxO on their Station Pass", etc., just in case anyone remembers that.


So maybe instead of posting on DN1, you might want to organize something like that.

The_Bruceter wrote:

I donno about you Aquatium, but life support is better than dying altogether.

Unless you've had to face that decision in real life for something or someone you truly care about, there is zero truth to that. It's been painful for a long time and it's come time to put it down for good.

The fact that it's not economical to the operators of the game and no one who can affect the decision that has been made cares otherwise, it's best to put that argument to rest.

Trust me, the amount of time and effort I have given this game since it opened is a very large amount and while I would love to see this game never die, I don't want to see it like it has become now. I think it's important for us to move on and I'm sure I'll change my mind about that back and forth until the servers go offline, but I strongly believe we all must now move on.

Symmetric wrote:

The_Bruceter wrote:

I donno about you Aquatium, but life support is better than dying altogether.

Unless you've had to face that decision in real life for something or someone you truly care about, there is zero truth to that. It's been painful for a long time and it's come time to put it down for good.

The fact that it's not economical to the operators of the game and no one who can affect the decision that has been made cares otherwise, it's best to put that argument to rest.

See RL and games are 2 totally diff things, i belive more about euthanasia than life support in RL, where as this is a game. Its us that make the game live. So if charges had been dropped/reduced, more people would be playing this shell of a game, which then would make it more active, meaning less dead. Where as if someone can't breathe by theirself, eat etc, pull the plug.

We made the game, we also killed it. (well Soe did but with the mad exodus of leaving players why would they keep it on.)

See i hate to be that type of give up and let it go kind of person but well theres feck all i can really do ha ha but these last couple of posts have been just 'give up'. Fook that, i'v played the game as though it was gonna close down tomorrow. Now that i know it is gonna close...

   Do any of you know for sure that MxO will be gone forever?  We feel that way because MMOs that have been shut down in the past are currently unplayable.  But who knows?  Someday in the future, advancing technology might make it possible for there to be a service that allows people to play old MMOs.  If this does happen then I don't think it will be anytime soon, probably decades from now.  We can't see the future, so I can't guaranty this, but no one can guaranty that MxO is gone forever.

   If MxO does come back in some way, I know I'll be there.

Don't get our hopes up

I for one will defo be back if it got released / another one comes out but for now, no-more MMO's for me. I know nothing would get me as gripped as this game. Interlock FTMFW

.....Fallen Earth doesn't look that bad.....

Aquatium. wrote:

I see no point in suggesting a server transfer all to 1 server, with no future updates and no ongoing storyline, I rather see this game rest in peace than live to not even be a mere shadow of what it once was.

Exactly. If MxO was still being updated and we still had an ongoing storyline and they STILL were going to close it down, THEN we'd have a problem. But with no updates, no storyline (the whole reason why most of us still played until now), and no future, there's no reason for MxO to continue.

Aquatium. wrote:

but I strongly believe we all must now move on.

100% Agree.

        Well reading the news I just looked at I don't think the game will be re-thinked..  there is a new person in charge now should we call him "Butcher" looks like he's cutting out the fat. some ppl that make lots of money seem to only care about themselfs and thier own interests. there is no problem with that as long as it doesn't hurt the customer.  take a look..

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/P...055E/index.html