Vanguard for me..could'nt get past lvl 3 on release day ..all quests were bugged and i was'nt gettin xp for kills.then when we eventually got to lvl up i remember doin a dungeon called graystone..while we were in there one after another we took turns to crash while never moving.once one got back into game another crashed..but you know wot,its still the best mmo i ever played by miles.

SWTOR without any doubts.

Originally posted by waveslayer

Originally posted by troublmaker

Originally posted by Caldrin

Only MMOs that ahve to sht down are fails..

I really dont consider the likes of AOC a fail infact the opposite sure it was not what they promised but it was still noe of the best themepark MMOS out there..

 

 

Unfortuantely there are many sense of "fail"

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fail?s=t

 

fail

   [feyl]  Show IPA

verb (used without object)

1.

to fall short of success or achievement in somethingexpected, attempted, desired, or approved: Theexperiment failed because of poor planning.

2.

to receive less than the passing grade or mark in anexamination, class, or course of study: He failed in history.

3.

to be or become deficient or lacking; be insufficient orabsent; fall short: Our supplies failed.

4.

to dwindle, pass, or die away: The flowers failed for lack ofrain.

5.

to lose strength or vigor; become weak: His health failed afterthe operation.

The first definition states that fail means to not meet an expectation.  Most MMos that come out do not meet expectations and thus most MMOs fail.  The topic is which one failed the most.  It's not to say which one is the worst but which one didn't meet expectations the most.

Age of Conan is by far the biggest fail in MMOs.  The game lauched with barely any quests, the PvP was imbalanced as all hell and the "one million accounts" Funcom noted dried up after the free month ended.

 

 

AOC launched with barely any quests? are you for real?

Lets face it, no game will ever live up to the expectations of the irrational masses , and expecting a game to solve all the worlds and your  problems is irrational and thats what most of you expect. So all games are fail from the start.

What really needs to happen, is for all the kiddies and kewl ppl who started playing WoW becuase everyone else was playing, and not playing becuase they love RPGs and wanted to play an online version with others, need to go back to thier consoles, FPSes and whatever else the kewl ppl do and leave this genre alone, then and only then can we get back to games that are actually good and not made to please the unpleasable masses. 

The expectations of the masses are built up by the companies.  Funcom and Mythic spent a tonne on marketing  to make sure that Age of Conan and Warhammer Online were hyped beyond all imagination.  The term "WoW killer" was coined directly relating to Age of Conan which the developers constantly touted would change gaming and kill off all inferior brands.

And yes, my argument was that a game could fail in many ways and that is ia definition problem, a language game.  A game could fail me because it did not meet the hype the devs fed, but others who were not around for that might think it was fine.

Yes Age of Conan shipped in a very incomplete state.  Damn near everyone who leveled was forced to do it via PvP.

The vast majority of people who play games are 18-35... and that is most of what WoW's audience is.  They are not "kiddies."  Unless of course you play Alliance then it's all kids!

I'm not sure its fair to do this... but I would go with Vanguard.

One could easily write a lord of the rings trilogy sized post about that game.   The typical knee jerk reaction is to blame SOE somehow.   Which is only easy to do if you ignore the years and 10's of millions Microsoft put into that game before cutting Sigil off.   (I was in beta when it was still a Microsoft game).

The "vision" was pretty good... the mismanagement between the brain and the "vision" was just sad.

I could go with the typical when the CU or NGE went live and totally destroyed a game I loved... post.   I just think Vanguard is the better example because that game really could have been awesome.   The rumors that came out about what was going on at Sigil HQ... would really explain a lot.

Well according to this thread everything.

Originally posted by Hauvarn

Well according to this thread everything.

Pretty much for me.  For many reasons, I no longer play MMORPGs.  Haven't since 2009.

Originally posted by Hauvarn

Well according to this thread everything.

Correction: According to the BOARD, everything.

Unbroken string of failures eight years long, no end in sight.

Something's wrong with the criteria for "fail", apparently.

I never took interest in the game before it failcascaded to such an unbelievable extend. Therefore I KNOW Mourning is the worst fail ever.

Seriously, look it up and you will agree, there is a good thread here.

greatest mmo failure of all time? We should do some memory / investigation work here. To start, I dont think we should count on all the mmos that are still still running. for example I didnt like AoC but we can't call it the biggest mmo failure if it is still running. There some that are already closed while some others, the oldest ones are still running, we should looks for the biggest faiulre in the ones that are already closed.

I'd say:

Dark and Light.

Originally posted by ulthar50

More often then not, when we get together my gaming friends and I always seem to wind up dissecting various MMO failures, e.g., "This game failed because of this. That game failed because of that." This got me thinking. What was the greatest MMO failure? Was it HGL? AoC?

 

Just curious as to the collective wisdom of the interwebs.

well it wasnt aoc since it came out and is still around making money.

the ones that never made it out were collosal failures.  for example, jump gate evolution.  huge potential, it was being made, then whammo, its just gone.  or that awesome mech one ea was making that got cancled in beta.

the biggest way to fail is to not take a game you get to the point of beta testing to market, you have already spent on programming it and polish passes.  if it looks like it wont make huge money, then dont spend alot on advertising, but for fuck sake, release it and polish it so it might attract a cult following that pays to play, dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd

dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd

dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd

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uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Top 3 for me:

Horizons:Empire of Istaria / Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted / Istaria / Horizons - with all the issues they had just in developers, seriously.  Some mechanics were off the wall, harvesting 1 node area for the spawns in another to appear (linked).  Great story and by far more 'events' ingame than any other I've ever seen to date, but combat that simply couldn't work.  Unreal tournament engine wasn't made for 10s of thousands of people in single instance.  Open character classes, single server for all players, and dragons pretty much topped the list, shadowed by so much of the other fail it just couldn't ramp up. The capital city, 3 zones to get across and you would only meet other players, no NPCs except trainers and a merchant or three - and ALLLLLLLL those buildings, empty

Vanguard - riddled with issues, lies and mismanagement, the potential was there to be great, and still could be, but too few and to far between. Biggest mistake was when they simply started ignoring the community outright.

Dark and Light - from the beta, to the launch, to the billing fiascos. So much put into the game to be harrowed by a lifeless world and combat mechanics from hell.  So much was put into the game by the community, only to be taken advantage of.

Other mentions for me;
Dungeons and Dragons online - instances upon instances upon 30 more instances
Matrix Online - Rolling with an oops to wtf happened?
Auto Assault - *blink*
Tabula Rasa - *blinkblink*
Age of Conan - Butt sliders were never enough to recover the hype to launch.
Lord of the Rings - Slow to expand to a known universe so rich and possible, missed the mark

But the Grand Daddy of them all for me by far, -THE- largest fail would be SOE's Star Wars Galaxies.  
- Like ALL MMOs this had bumps in the beginning, but as a mostly open world and a true sandbox when it came to well, almost everything. But alas that golden gated paradise shrouding the hum of lightsabers - oh wait, no it didn't it had everything BUT lightsabers, and when people noticed eventually the Bantha poodoo hit the fan - so they admitted they didn't put in Jedi because they didn't think people would suspect, or achieve what they thought would be the path to success so quickly, and so they retro inserted it (they got good at that) so that people could become Jedi and suffer perma death (then they made it easier to get, then easier, then a time sink, then easier).  An open world that opened so many hearts, only for Sony to squat over that heart and take a long, lengthy polluted dump almost every quarter. Jump to lightspeed was a huge bonus for the game, not Eve, but bridging that gap for all pilots of Xwing vs Tie Fighter, and then the decorating - boy howdy. But alas the SOE spiral intervened; every month was a nerf to make things easier, then a combat upgrade, then more nerfs and additions, then another combat upgrade/revamp, then same old same old, then came this monster HUGE expansion pack aligned with episode 3, only to secretly have eaten cheese taco sundaes all weekend watching that movie, preparing for what was to come; because you see, the dump they took on their paying customer base was so massive, so putrid and vile that 7 years later it still reeks throughout the community and leaves this aura around SOE that no amount of Febreeze will ever hide.


The player base is what makes the game, when a developer fails to understand it, or ignores it, they are destined to dissappoint their shareholders.

Originally posted by Suraknar

I would not say Failed, but rather disappointing MMO's, for me and my friends.

 

EQ - PVE oriented, progression based (Same old same old)

Err Same old same old? I think you might find that Everquest was basically the first 3d MMORPG so there was nothing the same or old about it LOL

Lineage II (Pre GoD) - Korean Grind, RMT

True it was a bit of a grind LOL but it had decent PVP

SWG with NGE - Great game before it got beheaded ...

When SWG was first released the game was the best out there and nothing has really done it again, sadly CU and NGE broke the game.

WoW - Progression focussed, repetitious gameplay (Same old same old).

First of the true themepark games and sadly destoryed the MMORPG industry.. but has also brought in some really good ideas.

Vanguard (Launch) - Underdevelloped, same old same old

Company had a lot of money issues and rushed the game out, sure it was basicalyl a themepark game but was a massive open world with lots of other things to do.. so not really same old same old.

EVE - Time based Skills, no Tactics in Combat, it is all strategy focussed, boring.

Well i guess this game is not for you thousands love this gmae..

Darkfall - Just a huge mess

Sure theg ame had a lot of issues to start with but it turned out to be one of the best MMORPG PVP games.

WAR - Ill thought out RvR, Poor PvP mechanics at upper levels, same old same old.

Never really played this

POTBS - How can you make a sailing Game without Trade? Same old same old.

Huh no trading ? the econamy was player run and one of the strong points fo the game.

TABULA RASA - Unfinished, rushed.

Yes

Runes of Magic - P2W, Cash Shop oriented

No idea what this is.

RIFT - Same old same old, poor PvP

Yes

Dark & Light - Empty and Barren

Was a big mess, rushed out very shady company behind the game and was a shame as well.. the world was massive and could ahve been awesome.

World War II Online - Under funded.

Very old and has been going forever still has an active player base and monthly sub.

Dawntide - under-develloped

Never released

AoC - Same old same old

Awesome combat system and one of the best PVE MMOs out there but not what was promised.

STO - Orcs and Gnomes dressed as Ships

Waste of the Star Trek IP

SW:TOR - Same old same old

Waste of the Star Wars IP

D&D onine - not an MMO

Not quite an MMO your right but still a half decent game.

LOTRO - Same old same old

Yes and a bit of a waste of the IP

Allods - Same old same old, cash shop, P2W.

WOW clone with a cash shop as you said.

Black Prophesy - Unfun, unnexciting

Never really got into this either..

 

Really makes one Jaded...

 

To me it sounds like MMORPGs are probally not the game for you hehe :)

Originally posted by alakram

To start, I dont think we should count on all the mmos that are still still running.

Um...under the original developers, perhaps?

After the collapse, Hellgate got bought up cheap and relaunched as a F2P...by all accounts, still pretty bad, to this day.

Original company destroyed and re-sold as salvage counts as a "fail", no?

Originally posted by Icewhite

Originally posted by alakram

To start, I dont think we should count on all the mmos that are still still running.

Um...under the original developers, perhaps?

After the collapse, Hellgate got bought up cheap and relaunched as a F2P...by all accounts, still pretty bad, to this day.

Original company destroyed and re-sold as salvage counts as a "fail", no?

Yep, only the ones still under the original developers, you are right.

Originally posted by alakram

greatest mmo failure of all time? We should do some memory / investigation work here. To start, I dont think we should count on all the mmos that are still still running. for example I didnt like AoC but we can't call it the biggest mmo failure if it is still running. There some that are already closed while some others, the oldest ones are still running, we should looks for the biggest faiulre in the ones that are already closed.

I'd say:

Dark and Light.

As I've said a "fail" can be the biggest disappointment as in "you failed me son."  An MMO that had no expectations can hardly been said to have failed as badly as one that had great expectations.

none of these games   failed   like auto assault 

it made it to beta  had a open beta and  no one  signed up

they closed the game

its a mmo which failed before release nothing else comes close

Originally posted by zimboy69

none of these games   failed   like auto assault 

 

it made it to beta  had a open beta and  no one  signed up

 

they closed the game

 

its a mmo which failed before release nothing else comes close

Your info is wrong,  Auto Assault released in April 2006 it didnt shut down until mid 2007 due to a lack of subscribers.

It lasted longer than some others have.

Originally posted by troublmaker

Originally posted by alakram

greatest mmo failure of all time? We should do some memory / investigation work here. To start, I dont think we should count on all the mmos that are still still running. for example I didnt like AoC but we can't call it the biggest mmo failure if it is still running. There some that are already closed while some others, the oldest ones are still running, we should looks for the biggest faiulre in the ones that are already closed.

I'd say:

Dark and Light.

As I've said a "fail" can be the biggest disappointment as in "you failed me son."  An MMO that had no expectations can hardly been said to have failed as badly as one that had great expectations.

You see fail as the diference between how much hype the game had and how much it delivered. It's looks like a good point to start but we coukd have some more points in consideration. Things like how many time it was running before closure (if it was closed) If it was bought again or not. How many money was invested, how much was recovered from initial game sales and I'm sure there are lots of stuff to take into consideration. Maybe we could even set up a "failure rating system" and evaluate a lot of mmos.

About me pointing at Dark and Light, it was just an opinion, It just came to mind at the moment. I'm not sure if it is truly the greatest failure or not, but even if it didnt had the same hype aoc had, it really had a fair share of it and at that time we had a lot of discussion and drama about it on mmorpg.com but I dont want to discuss about this mmo in particular, it is more interesting to think about how we could rate failures in the mmo genre and If we could find the greatest mmo failure.

Originally posted by thamighty213

Originally posted by zimboy69

none of these games   failed   like auto assault 

 

it made it to beta  had a open beta and  no one  signed up

 

they closed the game

 

its a mmo which failed before release nothing else comes close

Your info is wrong,  Auto Assault released in April 2006 it didnt shut down until mid 2007 due to a lack of subscribers.

 

It lasted longer than some others have.

yep auto assault went live and some people bought it, they were playing for some time until the game closed but it made to live and was running for some time.