Earthrise has officially died.     

"EarthRise originally launched February 4rth 2011. Making this MMO less than a year old."

http://sandboxer.org/?p=591

Mortal Online went live in June 2010 making it nearly 2 years old now.  With it's rising population, steady progress with patching, and an upcoming expansion in April it looks like Mortal Online will live on for many years to come.  

So why did I post about Earthrise dieing in the Mortal Online forums?  Both games are indy sandboxes, and while Earthrise failed Mortal Online succeeded by staying true to it's sandbox principles.  Earthrise tried to take the middle road to appease both Sandbox and themepark gamers, but failed miserably.  Both Earthrise and Mortal had very buggy beginnings, but later improved with bugfixes and more features, but Mortal Online is still going strong and Earthrise has failed to find serious investors to go free to play.  

It's always sad to see an MMO die, but at least former EarthRise players can try MortalOnline for there sandbox pvp action.

Originally posted by username509

Earthrise has officially died.     

"EarthRise originally launched February 4rth 2011. Making this MMO less than a year old."

http://sandboxer.org/?p=591

Mortal Online went live in June 2010 making it nearly 2 years old now.  With it's rising population, steady progress with patching, and an upcoming expansion in April it looks like Mortal Online will live on for many years to come.  

So why did I post about Earthrise dieing in the Mortal Online forums?  Both games are indy sandboxes, and while Earthrise failed Mortal Online succeeded by staying true to it's sandbox principles.  Earthrise tried to take the middle road to appease both Sandbox and themepark gamers, but failed miserably.  Both Earthrise and Mortal had very buggy beginnings, but later improved with bugfixes and more features, but Mortal Online is still going strong and Earthrise has failed to find serious investors to go free to play.  

It's always sad to see an MMO die, but at least former EarthRise players can try MortalOnline for there sandbox pvp action.

Yeah o.k..  http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/339173/SV-releases-2011-Financials-and-Q4-continued-player-loss-CONFIRMED-Continued-loss-of-money-CONFIRMED.html

Funny for the past two quaters population has been rising yet the financials tell a different story..

Edited to add and clarify my point:  Certain people seem to "cry wolf"(the population is growing!) a lot.  It gets to the point where no one believes you and those that do log in on a trial to check it out and don't see a booming population and log off.  If that's one of the main reason they decided to take a look, that is.  We all know the stupid games hurting regardless if a person likes it or doesn't.  It's plain as day and you aren't really fooling to many people if any. The over the top posts look more like a viral add campaign ( or whatever).  My $.02

Shame to hear that they had to shut it down.

As far as MO... Its not for every one for sure.

But the more people that give it a try the more people that it is for will find it.

Originally posted by amadman

Shame to hear that they had to shut it down.

As far as MO... Its not for every one for sure.

But the more people that give it a try the more people that it is for will find it.

True, but the devs need to figure out a 'mentorship' program, or better yet, a skillset, to trick half of the asshat population into being helpful. New players are castrated, and physically, rather than taken under-wing.

Originally posted by GTwander

Originally posted by amadman

Shame to hear that they had to shut it down.

As far as MO... Its not for every one for sure.

But the more people that give it a try the more people that it is for will find it.

True, but the devs need to figure out a 'mentorship' program, or better yet, a skillset, to trick half of the asshat population into being helpful. New players are castrated, and physically, rather than taken under-wing.

 recently it seems that having the new players consolidated in fab (and meduli) has really cemented the newb population as a force that are working together. Really has been a pleasent suprise returning to fab on a blue to be greeted with so much activity and new players actually helping each other since all the big pvp guilds are fighting a war in gk new players seem to be having plenty of fun and i was to simply butchering for them and gonig about my business mining.

its simple really, they will just keep losing money each quarterly financial statements until there is no more money. :p

Originally posted by GTwander

Originally posted by amadman

Shame to hear that they had to shut it down.

As far as MO... Its not for every one for sure.

But the more people that give it a try the more people that it is for will find it.

True, but the devs need to figure out a 'mentorship' program, or better yet, a skillset, to trick half of the asshat population into being helpful. New players are castrated, and physically, rather than taken under-wing.

I'm sorry you were "castrated" as a new player in Mortal Online, but not all new player experiances are like that.  The first 20 hours your yellow flagged, meaning you can't be ganked.  Usually people are fairly helpful after that.  

Dude, I was a new player at least 3 times, even in the first OB, where it was *really* bad.

Everyone experiences it, because it's the nature of the game, but what you and all those playing it fail to understand is that every time someone ragequits, Henrik kills a cat because he's making less money.

Rather than get defensive, I would go post my suggestion in the MO forums. The part about making it a skill, under learning, and it's something mages can be good at (for once). Go, go.

Mortal must be in some really bad shape...these "MO is thriving" post are sounding more and more desperate...

How is earthrise relevant to MO anyways?

Regardless of sub numbers. It does seem more crowded with all types. More annoying people and nice people both.

Im still having fun and cant wait till we get some pve.

Originally posted by youngkg

Mortal must be in some really bad shape...these "MO is thriving" post are sounding more and more desperate...

 

How is earthrise relevant to MO anyways?

Actually it's very relevant to MO......... think about it........

Masthead CEO Atanas Atanasov says that the move is an effort to retain customer trust while the developers shore up the game's weaknesses: "We decided to let all our players unlimited gaming experience until we all are satisfied with the experience in our game. At the moment Earthrise features one of the best visuals, content, and gameplay of all sci-fi MMOs on the market. However, it is missing polish and has annoyances that spoil the fun in the game. We are learning from our experience and that is why we will remove monthly charges until we bring the game to a quality state that is satisfactory to us and our players."

Does any of the above sound familiar in regards to a certain MMO? Though I have to admit that Masthead seemed to care more about it's player base than SV.

And then this..............

Earthrise was plagued with troubles from the start with bugs, not enough features, and just a lack-luster MMO experience all around. In November, Masthead Studios announced that Earthrise would be closed to all new players, but would remain open and free for currently players while they transitioned the game to a free-to-play model.  Unfortunately, it looks like the studio has run out of money and will have to shut down.

Sounds very relevant to MO in my honest opinion.

The only difference seems to be that Masthead handled it a lot better. They didn't try to grab what cash they could before they were forced to shut down. They acknowledged that the game wasn't worth paying for, quit charging players and were working on getting it to a charge worthy state and planned on attempting a f2p approach. SV is charging AAA prices for a game they know and admit is extremely flawed.

I mean what better game to compare MO to than Earthrise, thank you OP. This should help people thinking about joining MO think twice. If an experienced developer such as Masthead had trouble staying afloat when suffering from the exact same issues that Mortal Online suffers from (Though it was never as bad as Mortal Online) then what hope does SV some rinky dink developer with 0 prior experience have?

Originally posted by GrayGhost79

Originally posted by youngkg

Mortal must be in some really bad shape...these "MO is thriving" post are sounding more and more desperate...

 

How is earthrise relevant to MO anyways?

Actually it's very relevant to MO......... think about it........

 

Masthead CEO Atanas Atanasov says that the move is an effort to retain customer trust while the developers shore up the game's weaknesses: "We decided to let all our players unlimited gaming experience until we all are satisfied with the experience in our game. At the moment Earthrise features one of the best visuals, content, and gameplay of all sci-fi MMOs on the market. However, it is missing polish and has annoyances that spoil the fun in the game. We are learning from our experience and that is why we will remove monthly charges until we bring the game to a quality state that is satisfactory to us and our players."

Does any of the above sound familiar in regards to a certain MMO? Though I have to admit that Masthead seemed to care more about it's player base than SV.

And then this..............

 

Earthrise was plagued with troubles from the start with bugs, not enough features, and just a lack-luster MMO experience all around. In November, Masthead Studios announced that Earthrise would be closed to all new players, but would remain open and free for currently players while they transitioned the game to a free-to-play model.  Unfortunately, it looks like the studio has run out of money and will have to shut down.

 

Sounds very relevant to MO in my honest opinion.

 

The only difference seems to be that Masthead handled it a lot better. They didn't try to grab what cash they could before they were forced to shut down. They acknowledged that the game wasn't worth paying for, quit charging players and were working on getting it to a charge worthy state and planned on attempting a f2p approach. SV is charging AAA prices for a game they know and admit is extremely flawed.

 

I mean what better game to compare MO to than Earthrise, thank you OP. This should help people thinking about joining MO think twice. If an experienced developer such as Masthead had trouble staying afloat when suffering from the exact same issues that Mortal Online suffers from (Though it was never as bad as Mortal Online) then what hope does SV some rinky dink developer with 0 prior experience have?

 

 

Well played

Those are actually some earie comparisons lol.

What can I say.. not everyone has a rich daddy to back one up.

And MO doesn't? I think SV charges even more than some AAA titles for EUR customers.

This PR drive is getting really pathetic.

What does it really mean that MO "outlives" ER?

To me, it simply looks like SV has a wealthy father figure standing by, always ready to put bandaids on the bleeding financials of his son's failed dream project, while Masthead actually had to man up and face the fact that they produced an unfinished game that no one wanted to play.

It certainly has nothing to do with MO being a better game, or SV being a more professional company. If Henrik's dad hadn't sponsored the project to begin with, MO would have went down a long time ago.

You "fans" (or should I say PR people) who keep claiming MO's population is booming are welcome to produce some actual numbers supporting that claim. I've not seen anything but groundless statements yet, and since there are hard and unquestionable facts painting a different picture, it will be really interesting to hear what you base your hype on.

But of course you'll produce nothing of the sort, since you simply can't. You'll just keep throwing around anectodes about how "crowded" Fab or Meduli is, or tell people to "do a trial and see for themselves", as if that meant anything. 

It's a SIMPLE FACT that SV has a very low retention rate and that they are losing money (i.e. subs and box sales are low and dropping). If you claim otherwise, you are basically saying that the financial report is false - a pretty bold statement to say the least. That a paid employee (GM Theia) would make such statements without any hard evidence is mind-boggling.

Originally posted by GTwander

Originally posted by amadman

Shame to hear that they had to shut it down.

As far as MO... Its not for every one for sure.

But the more people that give it a try the more people that it is for will find it.

True, but the devs need to figure out a 'mentorship' program, or better yet, a skillset, to trick half of the asshat population into being helpful. New players are castrated, and physically, rather than taken under-wing.

It's the same old story... PvPers killing their own game for their own short term lolz, and then wondering why no one stays.

PvP focused sandboxes will always ultimately fail because off the type of people that play them.

The sad fact is that those people cannot see that they are the issue.

The pr drive and the anti pr drive are equally pathetic imo. No bloody discussion going on in this place, the entire forum is more or less useless

Originally posted by Biskop

It's a SIMPLE FACT that SV has a very low retention rate and that they are losing money (i.e. subs and box sales are low and dropping). If you claim otherwise, you are basically saying that the financial report is false - a pretty bold statement to say the least. That a paid employee (GM Theia) would make such statements without any hard evidence is mind-boggling.

It's been stated here several times that only the lead GM receives compensation. Apart from that your post is spot on.

Originally posted by drakes821

Originally posted by GrayGhost79

Actually it's very relevant to MO......... think about it........

 

Masthead CEO Atanas Atanasov says that the move is an effort to retain customer trust while the developers shore up the game's weaknesses: "We decided to let all our players unlimited gaming experience until we all are satisfied with the experience in our game. At the moment Earthrise features one of the best visuals, content, and gameplay of all sci-fi MMOs on the market. However, it is missing polish and has annoyances that spoil the fun in the game. We are learning from our experience and that is why we will remove monthly charges until we bring the game to a quality state that is satisfactory to us and our players."

Does any of the above sound familiar in regards to a certain MMO? Though I have to admit that Masthead seemed to care more about it's player base than SV.

And then this..............

 

Earthrise was plagued with troubles from the start with bugs, not enough features, and just a lack-luster MMO experience all around. In November, Masthead Studios announced that Earthrise would be closed to all new players, but would remain open and free for currently players while they transitioned the game to a free-to-play model.  Unfortunately, it looks like the studio has run out of money and will have to shut down.

 

Sounds very relevant to MO in my honest opinion.

 

The only difference seems to be that Masthead handled it a lot better. They didn't try to grab what cash they could before they were forced to shut down. They acknowledged that the game wasn't worth paying for, quit charging players and were working on getting it to a charge worthy state and planned on attempting a f2p approach. SV is charging AAA prices for a game they know and admit is extremely flawed.

 

I mean what better game to compare MO to than Earthrise, thank you OP. This should help people thinking about joining MO think twice. If an experienced developer such as Masthead had trouble staying afloat when suffering from the exact same issues that Mortal Online suffers from (Though it was never as bad as Mortal Online) then what hope does SV some rinky dink developer with 0 prior experience have?

Wow you literally know nothing about the situation and are just assuming stuff too support your hate for MO.

I played Earthrise in the beta, at release, and at the TW patch and I can tell you it was 10x the mess MO was (and we all know MO was/is a mess in some areas).

Masthead milked ER till it had nothing left...they charged AAA prices (even more than AAA for Euro customers) and didn't stop charging till the game had literally >20 people on per day. They then announced the game would go F2P and they would take the servers down for a week or so. The servers stayed down for almost a month before anyone heard anything. Then out of the blue they annouce they are closing down the game because it will take them around 4 months to get it too a playable state.

I'm not saying there are no comparisons, both are indie MMO's that tried something different and had/are having a tough time. The difference is MO still has an active community and player base while ER literally died out around the fall of last year.

The picture your trying to paint of MO being in a similar situation with ER, and Masthead being a more caring company is just completly false.

 

Tell me exactly what it is I assumed?

I was there for both so I can confirm MO had a worse launch.

I have continously checked in on both so I KNOW that ER had more players on average than MO

Masthead had actual game developers working for them which SV does not.

Yes, Masthead was charging AAA prices for a long while up until they hit the population level of Mortal Online and then they stopped and decided to go the free to play route. This never came to pass and the game has shut down.

And no don't make the mistake of asuming that I think they just genuinely care about the players, they simply saw the writing on the wall and knew if they continued charging what they were charging for an incomplete buggy game they wouldn't have a player base left.

Mortal Onlines population continues to dwindle just like Earthrises did, they've run so low on funds they can't even afford to do a proper advertising campaigne so they "encourage" fans to come to these kinds of sites and make fake reviews and generate false hype about the game.

The situations for both games are almost completely identical. Masthead tried to at least be intellegent about it, quit charging what few remain and at least try to salvage things by converting to a free to play model.

While neither company truly cares about its players, Masthead in the end at least showed better business sense than SV. SV (in the almost exact same boat as Masthead though with less money, less people and less talent) however wishes to handle it with a blind eye, if we don't aknowledge that we have failed then maybe we won't fail! Keep saying over and over that everythings wonderful!

Show me an asumption on my part?

Originally posted by Regorz

Originally posted by Biskop

It's a SIMPLE FACT that SV has a very low retention rate and that they are losing money (i.e. subs and box sales are low and dropping). If you claim otherwise, you are basically saying that the financial report is false - a pretty bold statement to say the least. That a paid employee (GM Theia) would make such statements without any hard evidence is mind-boggling.

It's been stated here several times that only the lead GM receives compensation. Apart from that your post is spot on.

 I was under the impression that GM Theia actually gets paid for his services. At least that's what he says himself in his introduction thread:

[QUOTE] 3.) In what way are you getting paid for your work?

Handsomely. Think that's a bit private tho so not going to go into details about - if that's ok. [/QUOTE]

Originally posted by Biskop

Originally posted by Regorz

Originally posted by Biskop

It's a SIMPLE FACT that SV has a very low retention rate and that they are losing money (i.e. subs and box sales are low and dropping). If you claim otherwise, you are basically saying that the financial report is false - a pretty bold statement to say the least. That a paid employee (GM Theia) would make such statements without any hard evidence is mind-boggling.

It's been stated here several times that only the lead GM receives compensation. Apart from that your post is spot on.

 I was under the impression that GM Theia actually gets paid for his services. At least that's what he says himself in his introduction thread:

 

3.) In what way are you getting paid for your work?

 

Handsomely. Think that's a bit private tho so not going to go into details about - if that's ok. 

As far as i know GM's are getting paid in MO. I knew a councilor who was aiming at GM's salary and he was having high hopes for it. I m preety sure it isnt a worthy salary though.