Falling into obscurity and then being completely forgotten is the nightmare of any creative artist. This tragic scenario is compounded when it comes to MMORPGs, where scores of people work together to create a huge interactive product… that sometimes is shuttered, abandoned, and gradually put out of the public’s mind altogether.
For today’s list, I want to dredge up 10 MMOs that released at some point and were fairly well-known, only to be closed and forgotten by most of us. If you’re not snapping your fingers and going, “Oh yeah, I remember that!” at one or more titles here, then I’m not doing my job well.
Alganon
To avoid being mean-spirited, I am merely going to say that Alganon was never much of a trend-setter back in the day. It had its fans, yes, but the title was easy to forget even it was running. But following a very dramatic turn of events, the MMO went down to the corner store for a pack of smokes and never returned. Six years later and this situation hasn’t reversed itself, despite claims to the contrary. The question is, if Alganon does return as its owner says it will, will anyone be there to play it?
City of Steam
I’ve always thought that steampunk was a terrific idea for an MMORPG setting, and in fact, we have seen several titles dabble in the area. Yet the one that did so the most — City of Steam — ended up being a very odd turn-based duck that didn’t make any headway with the larger MMORPG population. It shut down in 2016 and left a legacy of an interesting idea but little else.
DUST 514
At this point, I legitimately believe that EVE Online spin-offs are cursed. CCP has been trying for so long and so hard to build a huge multi-game franchise out of this universe, only to see pretty much everything other than EVE fizzle or be canned. DUST 514 was a promising attempt at integrating two games together — one space-bound, one ground-focused — but shooting in stations didn’t end up being the huge draw CCP wanted it to be.
LEGO Universe
Looking at titles like Roblox and Minecraft might make you think that a massively multiplayer LEGO game would be a perfect fit for the younger creative crowd. The thing is, it’s been done. Several times. And it never seems to work. LEGO Universe was perhaps the biggest of these attempts, but even it couldn’t sustain its own life for very long before being put back into the storage bin of used online toys.
Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures
As I said in my Game Archaeologist column from a few years back, Clone Wars Adventures tends to be that SOE Star Wars title that most people forget existed alongside of its much more popular big brother. Obviously aiming for the younger set who grew up on the Star Wars prequels, Clone Wars Adventures was a colorful, cartoony set of online minigames with all of the trappings of the movies. Despite being initially quite popular, it ended up being buried twice over: once when SOE closed it, and again when pop culture moved on from the prequels to the newer Disney era.
MapleStory 2
Argh, this one still hurts. Objectively, MapleStory 2 was better than its predecessor in every way with a unique 3-D world on a sort of Q*Bert grid, lots of activities, and plenty of interesting classes. I found it far more accessible than the first game, as did some of my colleagues. Yet it couldn’t gain traction with modern players or even the MapleStory crowd, and before you knew it, this sequel was thrown in the trash.
Dragon’s Prophet
I swear, the only reason I even remember that Dragon’s Prophet existed is that I still have a t-shirt that SOE gave me with tour dates for its inaugural year. An MMO on tour? Sure, why not. Comfy shirt, forgettable MMO — that had an even more forgettable sequel. Any Dragon’s Prophet 2 torch-bearers out there? I didn’t think so. In any case, this became one of several lessons that merely throwing “dragons” into an MMO didn’t make it an automatic smash hit.
Devilian
In its heady expansionistic days, Trion Worlds wanted to branch out into publishing and online ARPGs. This was always a nut that the industry was trying to crack, and considering the recent releases of Diablo IV and Lost Ark, I think it was a worthy goal. Instead of building one from scratch, Trion elected to import Devilian from Korea already fully formed. It wasn’t the worst game, really, but it lacked that hook and identity that would make a title stand out, and it became one of the few titles the company took offline well before the Gamigo era.
Dungeon Runners
And speaking of online ARPGs, can we pour one out for the late, great Dungeon Runners? If there’s such a thing as a cult MMO, this had to be it with its wacky sense of humor, RPG trope nose-tweaking, and some pretty satisfying combat. As a bonus, it could run on a toaster (I mean, look at those graphics). But the small handful of classes and weird experimental monetization — which included in-game ad banners — didn’t help any, and this one ended up on the refuse pile.
Motor City Online
For my final pick, I’ll swivel my gaze back to Electronic Arts and its attempt to bring the MMO format to all sorts of genres in the early 2000s — including custom muscle car racing? Sure, let’s go with that. Motor City Online was such an odd duck of an MMO, and anyone who was aware of the poor latency of early 2000s internet could probably predict why a car racing game wouldn’t actually function as intended. A fun story but a lackluster MMO.
Everyone likes a good list, and we are no different! Perfect Ten takes an MMO topic and divvies it up into 10 delicious, entertaining, and often informative segments for your snacking pleasure. Got a good idea for a list? Email us at justin@massivelyop.com or eliot@massivelyop.com with the subject line “Perfect Ten.”
