Kotaku talks with Walrus about MxO's end

[Tecknik]

http://kotaku.com/5674721/when-an-mmo-dies

Exiting The Matrix

Long after the credits rolled in the third installment of the popular science fiction film franchise, players were still jacked into the Matrix via The Matrix Online. Developed by Monolith Productions and published by Sega, The Matrix Online came into being in March of 2005. EverQuest developer Sony Online Entertainment took over operation and development of the game in August of that year.

The plug was pulled on July 31, 2009.

Compared to other major MMO closures, The Matrix Online had a fairly long run.



A longer life doesn't necessarily make a game's termination less painful.

Daniel Myers began working on The Matrix Online as a community manager. By the time the game closed he was a producer. Today he works as a producer for Sony Online Entertainment's upcoming spy MMO, The Agency.

"Shutting down an MMO is rough on the development team," Myers tells me. "These games have long development cycles that then continue for years after a successful launch. How each developer reacts to shutting down a game is personal and very much intertwined with what he or she have gone through in that time. "

Myers recalls the changes he went through over the course of the five years he spent with The Matrix Online. During that time he changed companies once, attended five Sony Fan Faire events, and started working on a second project. On a more personal level he moved three times, lost 40 pounds (and gained 20 back), quit smoking twice, and added a lot more grey to his beard.

"Through all that, The Matrix Online had been a constant for me."



Myers says The Matrix Online closed because it no longer met the needs of the business as a whole. It wasn't a snap decision. "We proposed different options that were reviewed and seriously considered before the final decision was made. In the end, the overall cost of supporting the game no longer fit the business needs of SOE."

And so The Matrix Online had to close. According to Myers it was hard on the development team, but not as hard as it could have been. Working at Sony Online Entertainment, the company behind EverQuest, EverQuest 2, Free Realms, Star Wars Galaxies, and several other MMO titles, most of the team found positions with other projects in the company.

The drawn-out nature of The Matrix Online's closure also meant the developers got to send the game off with a bang. "The one thing I think all development teams want is to make whatever time is left memorable for their players," explains Myers.

"For the final few months we reactivated old accounts and made all accounts free just so everyone who wanted to celebrate The Matrix Online could join in. We turned on all the events we'd used over the last five years and bumped everyone's characters way past the level cap. One of the programmers was even triple-boxing for the entire final week just so he could fire off events on all three servers."

The spectacular end of The Matrix Online was a testament to the passion and dedication Myers and his team felt towards the game and its players.

"When a game has been a constant in your life for that long, it's hard to accept that it's gone," admits Myers. "There are still days that I wish I could log in and see the Megacity again. I don't know that will ever completely stop. I kind of hope it doesn't."

[Anamodiel]

I was hoping for a mention of All Good Things...

[Shirokumo]

These articles just make me sad. Despite falling out of love with the game after CR 2.0, I still miss that vibe. There's something you got from logging into MxO. The slightly green tint. The dark, almost despairing bones of a city torn by an everlasting (and supremely bad ass) conflict. That feeling of suspense as you traveled to the next meeting spot, the next stop on an event, the next mission area, never quite knowing who would be waiting for you when you landed your last hyper jump. A gritty, dark, and RP rich environment no MMO will ever come close to recreating. Looking back, I miss the way starting up the client felt more than the actual gameplay mechanics. I miss nailing people with staggering throw next to Mara Central. Sad... face... :<

[Fuse]

Sony Online Entertainment's Daniel Myers compares the process that players go through when an MMO closes to the Kübler-Ross model, commonly known as the five stages of grief. I've outlined them here, with Myer's comments.

Denial: "Some couldn't believe that we wouldn't find a way to continue supporting the game."
Anger: "Plenty of players were angry over the decision and how we reached that point."
Bargaining: "Lots of offers of support came through just to keep a live service going."
Depression: "There was a lot of sadness that the world they'd spent so much time in was going away."
Acceptance: "And, finally, accepting that The Matrix Online was going to shut its doors and we could have such a good send-off for it."

Myers says his team saw all of those reactions, to varying degrees, though not everyone goes through all the stages, and certainly not everyone reaches acceptance.

[Manic Velocity]

*Sigh*

[Fuse]

*Sigh*

That would be the Depression stage.

[Manic Velocity]

Actually I'm at acceptance, with some bouncing back to anger every so often.

[Baobinga]

Ah man I wish I was around for the finale of mxo. I remember one day just wanting to come back to the game for some good old fun to find out it had been shut down.

[Broin]

I literally just uninstalled the game from my system last week  

[Manic Velocity]

I still have the shortcut on my desktop. :\

[Tbone]

Version 7.5668...