Perfect Ten: 10 MMORPGs that came back from the dead

    
5
Wow, positive.

The fact that I loved Charlotte’s Web as a child probably had some influence on my developing brain, but it does mean that I am forever thinking of a beautiful quote from the book and movie: “We’re born, we live a little while, and we die.” And for most MMORPGs, that’s really the arc of things. They come online, they entertain people for a while, and then they wind up going away. It’s sad when that happens, and we mourn them, but it does happen.

But sometimes that’s not what happens. Sometimes a game shuts down and then comes back after all. Sometimes that doesn’t always help a whole lot, but it does happen. And here are several MMOs where it did happen, either through official relaunch or through a rogue server that’s stable and developed enough that it might as well count for something. Unlike continuing promises that Alganon is coming back again, really, these ones actually came back.

ANSWER TOGETHER

1. Final Fantasy XIV

You could argue that everyone knew Final Fantasy XIV intended to relaunch, and that is true. That is entirely correct. However, Square Enix still turned off the servers, subscriptions, and so forth. The 1.0 version of the game shut down, full stop. This may have been an entirely expected revival, but it was still a revival just the same. It shut down and came back. And you know, I think it did all right for itself after that happened. Someone should keep an eye on it, probably.

2. Warhammer Online

It’s really too bad that Warhammer Online just launched far too early as a janky game that was not ready for prime time and then… well, kind whiffed every attempt at rebuilding from that. But the game was memorable and fun enough that fans banded together and kept it going with a rogue server, Return of Reckoning, that has not only kept the game available but actively expanded it since then. Cheers to these folks.

City of.

3. City of Heroes

And then you have this story, which I am still not tired of telling. We lost City of Heroes forever, we said our goodbyes, we hurt and we moved on… and then not only did we get multiple rogue servers that allowed people to really enjoy the game once again, but the Homecoming servers even got a license to make the game as official as it could be on top of that. The game is, in fact, as back as you could ask for it to be. It’s amazing and really the best possible outcome. It came back.

4. Gigantic

This one was actually a big but welcome surprise when it happened; it was a memorable and fun little MOBA from Motiga that just didn’t have long-term legs, but then it got brought back into the spotlight and came back as a buy-to-play offering called Gigantic Rampage Edition. So it may not be the life its original developers wanted or even we, as fans, might have wanted, but it still came back. That’s pretty great.

Oh jeez.

5. Asheron’s Call 2

It’s all right if you forgot about this, but before everything that happened with Turbine… you know, happened, we actually did regain access to Asheron’s Call 2 for a while as a sort of bonus offer alongside the game’s predecessor. Sadly, it got whisked away alongside the original Asheron’s Call, which means that now both games exist only in emulators. That’s not ideal by any means. Look, I never said that all of these stories had happy endings. I just implied it.

6. Hellgate: London

On the bright side, Hellgate: London came back… so, so many times. Actually I think it’s been a while now since the last attempt to resurrect this game went through, so at this point we may be finally in a post-Hellgate world where no one is going to buy the rights for dirt cheap and try to resurrect it yet again. But that may be too hopeful. I really feel as if having said that I will turn around only to find that once again, Hellgate: London has been licensed and is relaunching once more. To that I say: please don’t.

Um.

7. Paragon

Epic’s old shooter Paragon has been revived at least four times, as Paragon The Overprime, Fault Elder Orb, Kingshunt, and Predecessor, thanks to the fact that Epic generously licensed its assets to be used by the public. I will admit that this one triggers my cynicism meter a little bit. Was it really something worth resurrecting more or less in identical form with only a change of ownership? What exactly makes this different enough from the original to validate its presence? I suppose I don’t need to be the one asking or answering that question, since I’m not the one taking money to keep it running, but even so.

8. The Repopulation

Here is the rare case where not only does this story not have a happy ending, it doesn’t even have a happy resurrection. The title’s supposed resurrection was less a case of bringing back a beloved classic after it was unfairly shut down and more about pillaging the corpse for money after you killed it, then propping it up Weekend at Bernie’s-style in the hopes that you could get a few more dollars for it. Jeez, why did I want to do this column again?

Oh boy.

9. Star Wars Galaxies

Oh, right, this. This is why.

I think there’s loads of space to debate the merit and good or bad decisions made with this particular game, but the reality is that it tried a lot of new ideas, took a lot of big swings, and it ultimately shut down not because no one played it or cared about it but because licensing sucks and the companies involved were afraid its existence would hamper a certain new Star Wars MMO rival. And it has very little chance of a formal revival because of complicated rights issues, regardless of how spiritual sequels to the title shake out. But thanks to rogue servers, the game has been playable in multiple forms such that people who loved it in the past – or who never played it but want to see what it’s about – can all dive in.

And you know what? That’s a good thing. It’s good when people get to play more video games. We are still struggling to get video games recognized as art that deserves preservation for its own sake, and online games are even harder. So while some of these resurrections aren’t great and maybe even the games underneath were janky and imperfect, we can all be happy for a world where “coming back” is a potential ending to their stories. We’re born, we live a little while, and we die… but with games, death doesn’t have to be the end. Sometimes it’s just a pause.

10. Jade Dynasty

Wait, that’s right, there’s a last entry here, and I don’t have nearly as emotional a send-off for this one. Oh, well, it hasn’t even confirmed any sort of North American revival, just a Chinese one. Just pretend that the order of these was swapped and I had an equally good picture for Jade Dynasty, yeah? Thanks.

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.”
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