If you’ll permit me to butcher the old phrase about getting older vs. dying… maintenance mode sucks, but it’s better than the alternative.
Maintenance mode, for those who are lucky enough never to have heard it before, is the term used to describe an MMO that is kept online but receives no new content updates. Classic Guild Wars, for example, has been in maintenance mode for many years now, as ArenaNet has graciously kept it online for folks to rediscover all these years later. But apart from recurring events and some intermittent quality-of-life tweaks and bug fixes – stuff that falls under “maintenance” – the game hasn’t seen a full-fledged content update since 2012. The game is maintained and even repaired but not enriched, and the studio has promised support for “years to come.” That’s maintenance mode.
Personally, whether I’d keep playing would depend on whether I felt the game was in a good state when the news came – whether or not it was finished and acceptably solid. It’d also depend on whether I actually believed basic support would continue or suspected the game was simply going to be left to rot on the vine until it was unplayable.
If your favorite MMO announced it was going into maintenance mode tomorrow, would you keep playing?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
