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Friday, March 12, 2010
The Passing of Gatheryn, a Steampunk MMORPG
 

The last airship leaving Gatheryn...

In late 2008, Mindfuse games announced plans for the first Steampunk-specific MMORPG, which was to include a series of mini-games, adventures, social interaction options, and a variety of other unspecified Steampunk activities. Alas, after the end of their Beta trials (in the fall of 2009), it appears that Gatheryn (and Mindfuse.com) have passed along into the great beyond.

A view of the seaport, near the edge of the Beta map

I admit to being disappointed in seeing its demise, but having played it, can see that it had a number of huge hurdles to overcome. The main coin to obtain items in Gatheryn were obtained by completing mini-games - which would require a good amount of time to collect even enough to purchase a "Steampunk" hat (sigh). Seriously, with limitations of the ability to personalize one's avatar after the initial av design, a lack of in-world build options (unlike Second Life), and perhaps the most damning of all, the lack of participants (in spite of extensive media coverage in the MMORPG blogs and magazines), it didn't stand much of a chance against other established Steampunk online communities (again, most notably being SL, but Neo-Steam and a few other sub-communites (e.g. in the now-defunct There.com)). The last bit of information (via Massively.com) was that the company "ran out of funding", and sounds like it fell victim to difficult economic times.

A docking bay in Gathryn, which is sparsely occupied, as one can see

So, it was a noble effort, but excellent screen captures cannot make up for the shortcomings that plagued Gatheryn. A visit to the Mindfuse website produces the dreaded "Link is Broken" display, essentially placing a period at the end of the adventure for Gatheryn. ~ Posted by Dr. Rafael Fabre

Pity, was nice to see something a little different.

I've even never heard or seen annything about this game :o

But again, it's a pity to see another one goes down. It are though times these days.

thanks to the OP to show us this news

Originally posted by kingtommyboy

I've even never heard or seen annything about this game :o

But again, it's a pity to see another one goes down. It are though times these days.

thanks to the OP to show us this news

Yeah a shame, heard it had some decent ideas

actually, im one of the very few who have actually download this game and play this game 2 years ago

but yeah, it's just sad that this game never made it out of the piles of MMO out there

i logged in and found out that im actually the only person in the game at that time, i mean it was like so creepy, i purposely travel through all the world, infact, the emptiness creeps me out, really, i mean, out of this world, only me logged in?

the concept was so good, i was so interested, even ready to gave up my subs MMO that i was playing at that time (SWG)

Originally posted by TweFoju

actually, im one of the very few who have actually download this game and play this game 2 years ago

 

but yeah, it's just sad that this game never made it out of the piles of MMO out there

 

i logged in and found out that im actually the only person in the game at that time, i mean it was like so creepy, i purposely travel through all the world, infact, the emptiness creeps me out, really, i mean, out of this world, only me logged in?

 

the concept was so good, i was so interested, even ready to gave up my subs MMO that i was playing at that time (SWG)

I tried it out too for a while. I logged in every night for a week and never ran into anyone, not even one person! It was sad too because I was hyped about it when I heard 'steampunk mmo'. Everything the OP said was right. To me aside from the emptiness the interface felt clunky and the mini games were not enough to keep me interested. Great concept, bad execution. Hopefully someone else will give the steampunk theme another shot.

yep, i mean, throw this game to a moderate Dev, and i think this could be a very very nice casual MMo for people out there who love Steampunk ( because the only alive steampunk game is NeoSteam, which is horrible )

Originally posted by TweFoju

yep, i mean, throw this game to a moderate Dev, and i think this could be a very very nice casual MMo for people out there who love Steampunk ( because the only alive steampunk game is NeoSteam, which is horrible )

I'm kind of glad, though. I'd never heard of this until now, and the graphics in the first two screens look nice.

You would think that someone here at MMORPG.com would go through the games list from time to time, and remove all the dead games from the list. I hate going through looking for a 'new' game to try, and finding that half of the ones I click are no longer in development.

They keep the game information pages and forums for even defunct MMOGs for posterity. They usually take closed down MMOGs off the active game list though because some people are easily confused... Probably a little more vigilance may be in order though.