Well crap – just when we thought we’d escaped 2020 without too many MMO sunsets, another one sneaks in at the last minute to join the pile – and we didn’t even know until yesterday. Yes, unfortunately it looks as if Jane Austen-themed MMORPG Ever, Jane sunsetted over the holidays, and yes, it was simply a matter of money.
Back in August of last year, studio 3 Turn Productions and lead dev Judy Tyrer announced that 2020’s hardships had ensured the team couldn’t launch the game as planned. It ran a survey of players asking whether they’d be willing to subscribe to keep the game up. The survey was apparently quite positive, and by the end of November, both sub and free players were able to access the latest beta patch.
But by early December, the developers were already admitting subs weren’t where they needed to be: $500-$600 monthly to cover servers and licensing. “We are at 10% of our monthly subscription goal,” the studio wrote. “We have until Dec. 31 to reach 100% or we will have to shut the servers down.” The game didn’t even make it that long. On December 11th, the team admitted defeat. The closure was set and executed on December 20th, with the game never even having left beta.
“To avoid additional server costs, Ever,Jane servers will be going down on Dec. 20, 2020. It’s been a great run and we have enjoyed serving you with our fun little game. We hope you have enjoyed it as well.”
We’d been covering the game since 2013, when it was still planning a 2016 launch. It was Kickstarted for over $100,000 that same year, with its unique pitch as a purely roleplay-centric setting where players were debutantes and shopkeeps rather than murderhobos. It never had a massive following, but it was one of the more original MMOs our genre’s ever seen, so we’re surely sad to see it fall.
There’s a small silver lining here, though, so if you happen to be sitting on a nice chunk of money, you might be able to save the game: “As of now, the game is for sale. Please contact customer support if you would like to make a query.”
• Free for All: An interview with Ever, Jane's Judy Tyrer
• Women are a major marketing target for Ever, Jane
• Jane Austen-inspired MMO 'Ever, Jane' uses gossip as a weapon
• Ever, Jane meets Kickstarter goal
• Jane Austen MMO looks for funds and decorum
Something I haven’t heard anyone else bring up:
I tried this game on three separate occasions. The community was just not there and the main reason for that was a lack of activities. I never saw more than… about 5 other people online with me. Keep in mind that at least two of those other times were after updates, when I expected good activity.
I also remember that on one of my logins I saw that there was a vigorous conversation going on between two or three other people about something that I just simply wasn’t in the loop to understand (since the game basically centers around gossip), and I felt like I was back in high school watching people trade opinions I didn’t understand over events I didn’t understand concerning people I didn’t know. Hard to get into for sure and I could tell most of the community was quite seasoned.
I diagnose this game with a poor choice of community design, primarily. A real shame, but that’s how things are. Much love to the people who poured their hearts into this and I hope they at least got something out of it.
Unfortunately, I think more people have commented in this thread about it that ever actually played the game.
I wish I knew about it. I’m returning to MMORPGs and trying all sorts out and that might have appealed to me.
For what it’s worth, I will also miss Ever, Jane memes!
Nevertheless, respect for what they were trying to accomplish!
here’s one for you, miol :)
Thank you, Schlag!
How bittersweet! :’)
My wife actually cackled and laughed so hard she had to use the restroom, when I show her the meme. Lol Nicely played Schlag!
My wife gives me side eyes when I’m ‘creating‘.She thinks it a colossal waste of time because there is no income attached to my ‘labors’. She doesnt understand anecdotes like yours comprise payment in full in my mind.:)
That’s because what you do feeds the soul, which is it’s own form of payment. Not sure if I believe in such a concept as a soul but I do believe in mental health and your creative efforts as we’ve seen on this website definitely help everyone feel better through humor.
You ever shown her the comments you get, Schlag? Maybe that would help her understand.
…that being said, I’m quite single these days, so… ^_^;
Oh damn!
Did the people who are bummed this is sunsetting subscribe to help with server costs? Sucks when a game people play and support is shuttered, but the market spoke.
That’s a shame, they really seemed to care, I mean you have too with a concept like Ever Jane.
Perhaps the community can figure something out, but if they were unable to cover those costs with their players then that’s sadly not looking good.
Wow, they couldn’t get 40 people to subscribe to their game?
Well, hopefully that means that game developers now realize that a non-combat MMO is NOT what the customers want.
I don’t necessarily think that follows.
A non-combat MMO could work if the other activities were interesting and had broad appeal.
For example, A Tale in the Desert doesn’t have a huge playerbase but has sustained itself for quite a long time.
I think the “broad appeal” part is where Ever Jane faltered, not the lack of combat per se. This game seemed mostly aimed toward fans of a specific named author in a pretty specific genre of literature that would not typically have much if any crossover with the MMO audience.
I don’t think that “Most MMO players aren’t highly dedicated Jane Austen fans” automatically translates into “Players only want combat.”
I would love a non-combat MMO. I’m super excited for Book of Travels (which isn’t totally non-combat but that isn’t the main focus.) I am the audience for this type of game… but I have zero interest in an MMO about parties and carriage rides.
Yeah, this doesn’t follow at all. Non-combat MMOs already exist, as does non-combat content in many MMOs. I very much want to see lots and lots of different types of non-combat content in our genre, and I backed Book of Travels like Treehugger too!
What I have zero personal interest in is a Jane Austen anything. And nothing they did was gonna get me into it.
There’s lots of non-combat games that have huge followings. Euro Truck Simulator 2, American Truck Simulator, and Farming Simulator (15 through 19) all have pretty big audiences according to SteamCharts, and that’s *just* on Steam. I’m pretty sure all three are available elsewhere.
It’s not that there isn’t a market for non-combat games. There just might not have been a market for *this* non-combat game. I only vaguely remember reading anything by Jane Austen. I have the faint impression of it being “ugh, mandatory reading” type material that didn’t interest me at all. And I’ve read stuff like the Odyssee and Moby Dick and enjoyed it. (I’ll admit that the language in Shakespere gets a big bogged down though. >.< )
I stand corrected.
I didn’t realize that those games were considered MMOs. So you really think it was the Jane Austen setting and not the lack of combat?
Most MMOs have very little in the way of non-combat except for crafting. The most popular MMO doesn’t even have personal housing. The MMO with the largest customer base in little more than a combat theme-park.
This makes me wonder just how popular non-combat content really is.
I didn’t say those three Simulators were MMOs. Although I believe the most recent version of Farming Simulator does support multiplayer. My point was that there *is* a market for non-combat games.
WoW’s lack of lots of things isn’t because those things aren’t popular, or wanted. It’s because the devs didn’t include them at the start and retrofitting those features in would take time and resources they don’t want to spend. Honestly, I’d say WoW is a pretty crap measuring stick in any case, since the devs of that game barely support *anything* except “You will raid, and you will love it! Because we don’t feel like making anything else.”
Just FYI: both truck sims have online multiplayer, with web profiles / stats and event goals that everybody contributes to for a community reward.
Music to my ears. Finally someone realizing that WoW is a really mediocre MMORPG that just got over the bar because it had polish.
Actually, I think there’s a lot of us who have been saying this since WoW’s first beta. We may not have known how big it would get, but I don’t think anyone doubted Blizz would be able to sell it well.
In EVE Online there are players who have made trillions of ISK with zero combat, through shipping and trade, playing the market. Star Wars Galaxies allowed you to be many non-combat professions, including a dancer, and in fact saw its decline when such professions were neglected in favor of “OMG make everyone a Jedi GRRRRR!”.
From what it sounds like, EVER Jane just didn’t have shit to do. Maybe they should have created more depth in professions and the culture of the era. Let’s face it: Jane Austin doesn’t have half the depth of Lord of the Rings, or the world of Elder Scrolls or Warcraft. To make an MMO, you need depth in its world that you can build a game around, either from the source material, or from what you create yourself.
This is the main reason MMOs succeed. They create a world with depth you want to live in for hours a day, and things to do with your character. Great MMOs become a hobby more than a game. It’s one thing to sit around at your book club talking about Sense and Sensibility, or even creating an RPG around it. An MMO needs to create a world you want to live in, and give you something to do in that world.
If you mean WoW, they launched with non-combat pets people loved to collect, dance emotes, and fun items that could transform your look (the deviant fish and that furbolg wand thing). Same with mounts, which also are non-combat (and actually, vehicular combat seemed QUITE disliked in that game while I was playing it). There was also the transmog system which people LOVED, fire works, all these little non-combat toys…
WoW may have never gotten housing or that dance studio, but I think the non-combat stuff helped make explorers and social players stick around.
One of my favorite items was the Dancing Flame transform from one of the seasonal events. I went to a lot of effort to get it for each of my characters, and I had a *lot* of characters. I probably put more time and effort into getting a silly, useless trinket than I did into getting “adequate” gear for any of my “higher than starting area level” characters.
It was a very niche and specific game. I don’t even know what it was about. As an MMO enthusiast, I try almost every MMO, even ones like Ever Jane that I already know I will never play or enjoy. I could not figure out what to do in that game.
I wasn’t expecting to be fighting mobs and doing quests, but it felt like a purely RP-oriented MMO, but there was very little direction or at least hints on what to do in it or how to progress.
Keeping that in mind, I’d wager a lot of other people felt like me and that’s why the game was very niche. I think in a way the developers kinda shot themselves in the foot with this type of game. If they at least made it a mediecal fantasy RP game with some PvE elements with basic quests, crafting and dungeons, it might have had enough interest from players to survive.
Not a fan of the basic book/film genre. So no interest in the MMO.
I think the developers simply did not understand their audience, if there ever was one.
There really wasn’t one. From what I understood they game centered around Discussion & Gossip. Heck I don’t need a game to do that there’s enough of that in real life.
I wanted this to be successful, unfortunately my concern that it was a bit too niche in a niche genre would mean that it wouldn’t have enough subscribers to make it financially viable. Seems that this has indeed panned out to be true. :(
Sad to see them shut down, but this is why Kickstarter is not a place to fund MMOs. 90% of their backer rewards can now never be delivered, even though people paid for them already, because they game will never release for them to get things like their free in game items and months of subscription to the game.
How many Kickstarter funded MMO have actually released? In MOPs own article here: https://massivelyop.com/2019/10/09/perfect-ten-kickstarter-mmos-that-raised-the-most-money/
Out of all of the games listed all of them except 2 are still in early development, alphas, or early access perpetual development. The only ones to actually release are Elite: Dangerous, and a game called HEX, which is more of a Trading Card Game than a MMO. Over 14 games, just on this list, there are many more like Ever Jane that were not on this list, that were funded through Kickstarter and have never actually released a full product.
I think its because of mixed expectations for kickstarter.
Some projects are actively giving goodies if they reach a certain milestone implying an investor will always or should always get something for kickstarting.
If folks looked at kickstarting as literally ‘Hey here is some money cause I like your idea. I don’t expect anything in return and I’m not sure if you are gonna make it cause of any number of reasons but still good luck.” then I think kickstarting is fine.
That said, the company doing the kickstarting DOES need to make a good faith effort to product the product they pitched or explain why they cannot.
Pssst… Hex shut down on December 31.
I had no idea, so that’s another one gone.
This was fun to follow. It was on the perpetual to do list to check out. It is a shame as it was such a unique concept.