When Final Fantasy XI was announced to be an MMORPG, I was insulted by the break from the essence of the series, sickened at the death of a classic. Perhaps being a Final Fantasy Fan is just akin to being a Star Wars fan, because there are plenty of other things that Square does to bastardize its products and destroy itself; but when I say death of a classic, I mean that Final Fantasy XI can not become a classic game like its console predecessors.
Console video games can be held onto; exhumed from the depths of second hand markets; emulated; or recoded and released as special editions for newer consoles. They can be replayed and enjoyed for a long time to come, they can become classics. Original copies of classic games can even get more expensive than new generation games, I once found a deal of just over $70 for a CIB copy of Ultima: Warriors of Destiny for the NES, and Final Fantasy fetches similar high prices.
An MMORPG on the other hand, must have a death. At some point in time, the company running the server -that imperative part of the game- will find it unprofitable to upkeep the server. This may be due to an irreparable drop in subscriptions, or perhaps a more important project will divert attention away from the previous game's server; there is a chance that another company may purchase rights to upkeep the game for a time, but the same crippling situations will cause some company to pull the plug on an MMO, for every MMO. Even though it may die, an enigma of the MMO is that it can become legend -living on through videos, archived forums, and tales from the gamers who experienced its prime.
Although it remains largely undressed and even unknown by the bulk of MMO subscribers, this is also part of what makes the MMO. Any given MMO is a world complete with its own environment, species, society, culture, linguistics, politics, and currency. Much like ancient civilizations, the individual MMO will die to be replaced by another. It may fade out, or it may suddenly cease to be; but its inner workings can become the stuff of legend and curiosity to those after its time.
This is the premise of my study, the death of an MMO. I am going to play not one, but three MMORPGs to study what the MMO society is past its prime, what the mechanics and environment had to offer, what made it good, and why it is dying. My games of choice are Ultima Online, Runescape, and Guild Wars. Everquest would have been the obvious choice had reading Taylor not turned it into an issue of beating a dead horse; Guild Wars is a suitable replacement -although a newer game- because it languishes where its once parallel society, World of Warcraft, has flourished dramatically. I will follow up in the blog with a brief analysis of each world.
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Good way to talk about an MMORPG. You must have a death because if you don't, bad things may happen to the previous company. Also, MMO's don't stay up for long if they are unsuccessful. I can imagine that an MMO will have more than what you bargain for on some occasion. Each world have traits of good characteristics and bad characteristics. The question is, which MMO is better to play in?
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