Abandoned Online Games?

[Arnoxthe1]

Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

Asheron's Call

Ultima Online

Neverwinter Nights

Maybe Guild Wars?

 

[Tohuvabohu]

Hey guys, I'm doing a project and I want to find and explore some abandoned or nearly abandoned MMO's or online options of conventional video games. So, does anyone know any? Even games where you could be stuck in a lobby for eternity would be great

I'm not sure if this counts as a game, but it's something called "Worlds" or something like that.

From what I know, it's a 90s 3D chat site, sort of like Second Life but obviously waaay before that. It allowed users to create their own 3D "rooms" to chat with each other, you created your own 3D avatar and entered these user created rooms could wander around exploring the space and speaking with other people, it used to be popular in the early days. But it's popularity eventually died out and almost the entire userbase left.

But, the website STILL maintained it's servers throughout all of the years. And it hasn't been updated much, so it still looks like it did back in the 90s. Beyond the very small number of people who still use the website, what's left is basically hundreds of completely empty rooms that someone built and left.

And a lot of rooms, user created rooms, are really fucking weird.



[img src='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rK8-sp6Ton0/Ty6oW8rEvQI/AAAAAAAAABQ/bhio66LIgzw/s1600/1306808408955.jpg']

[img src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cnTzcGmh3Ec/TwnZByBJADI/AAAAAAAAATs/IiuHr6sxw0g/s1600/world149.jpg']

The game was rediscovered a few years back by the /v/ and /x/ boards on 4chan and had a temporary boost in popularity, but seems to have once again died down. Chances are quite a few odd rooms were built shortly before the "discovery" by 4chan and made into an elaborate troll (There exists creepypasta for this game, I believe) but a majority of it is untouched from when it was made. And I believe the game still works.

If you're looking for games that are abandoned, I think this one would be an interesting choice.

 

[Hafnium]

Just guesses, but Planetside (the first one) & City Of Heroes?

 

[AetherWolf]

I'm not sure if this counts as a game, but it's something called "Worlds" or something like that.

From what I know, it's a 90s 3D chat site, sort of like Second Life but obviously waaay before that. It allowed users to create their own 3D "rooms" to chat with each other, you created your own 3D avatar and entered these user created rooms could wander around exploring the space and speaking with other people, it used to be popular in the early days. But it's popularity eventually died out and almost the entire userbase left.

But, the website STILL maintained it's servers throughout all of the years. And it hasn't been updated much, so it still looks like it did back in the 90s. Beyond the very small number of people who still use the website, what's left is basically hundreds of completely empty rooms that someone built and left.

And a lot of rooms, user created rooms, are really fucking weird.

The game was rediscovered a few years back by the /v/ and /x/ boards on 4chan and had a temporary boost in popularity, but seems to have once again died down. Chances are quite a few odd rooms were built shortly before the "discovery" by 4chan and made into an elaborate troll (There exists creepypasta for this game, I believe) but a majority of it is untouched from when it was made. And I believe the game still works.

If you're looking for games that are abandoned, I think this one would be an interesting choice.

Oh, fuck. I remember coming across this game years and years ago and being completely fascinated with it but I could never remember its name or find anything through searching. But then again, "Worlds" is a pretty bland and forgettable name that makes Googling a little difficult...

This game is like the bastard offspring of Second Life and LSD: Dream Emulator. I love it.

 

[Adultratedhydra]

Just guesses, but Planetside (the first one) & City Of Heroes?

IIRC City of heroes got fully shut down, just as i reactivated my sub too. Original Planetside got shut down too didnt it?

 

[gorfias]

Not really abandoned, but I'll write that I visited particular maps on Titanfall and was surprised how few people playing these particular maps for a reasonably new and popular MMO.

 

[Summerstorm]

Monday Night Combat [http://store.steampowered.com/app/63200/] and its sequel Super Monday Night Combat [http://store.steampowered.com/app/104700/]

I loved these games. I absolutely did. Take the humor and the over the topness of TF2, and combine it with a Moba.

It is the future. I'd say it's the Fall of Rome in their times. So they took the dna of great people and great athletes and made easily cloneable Classes. The Assault, the Sniper, the Tank, the Gunner, The Support, and the Assassin. They can make towers, they can upgrade towers... they have powers, they can upgrade powers. It was a lot of fun.

TotalBiscuit did a good job of talking about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3KxudoBhAU

There is literally no one in the Monday Night Combat. The Sequel might have 50 players. It is why I will not buy any games that have primarily online functionality. They will die. If it isn't WoW, it's going to die.

Ah yes. I was playing SMNC - loved it, but played a bit TOO much and took a break of two weeks. When i came back i somehow didn't get any battles going. First i had to wait maybe 10 minutes or so (Normaly it was "Find game" and BAM, start) - and after a few more days i waited for an HOUR to get into a game. That was when i quit.

The games seemingly took three weeks for me (European) to go from "AWESOME, and so many dudes to play with" to "Complete Wasteland". Really strange... never seen something like that before.


I myself wanted to try and get the rights (and Software) to host Meridian 59 (My first big MMO-game - Also one or THE first 3D Graphical MMO) after the german server died down. Couldn't get it (I contacted the programmers, but they had some troubles too with it), i recently saw that a few years after that they got them too and it's free to play. I will visit it for nostalgia reasons. If the old limit is still in the code it was about 150 users per world maximum (but maybe that was just the 1999 Server Hardware) There are two worlds.

Also there seems to be an active modding scene with a third server (The Game went full open license) Very interesting to see such a revival. Very hard to do this with the "MASSIVE, mega-expensive" games though; Too many rightholders, too much bureaucracy - corporations who don't care about old projects etc.

EDIT: Found an Article about that:
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-last-survivors-of-meridian-59