Whats happened to MxO

Advisary

What happened to MxO? Nothing.

Well...if SOE decided to stop SWG and Planetside then they would have more staff to work with MxO, however it's up to them to decide if thats the best decision.

Look at World of Warcraft, it's Blizzard's only MMO, thus they can afford the luxury of putting more effort into it where as Sony is stuck between several games, all of which require a certain amount of attention. Each group probably feels that should SOE give their game more attention then their game would surely prevail as the better SOE game and thus we are left with a continuing stalemate.

If you'd like to see changes in MxO, get more players. More players means more money and also means the game requires more attention. Should you just wish to see MxO sail the same steady course of development then do nothing or quit.

The ones responsible are you, not Sony. Content isn't always everything. Every game has a tendency to get boring, you just need good people/friends to keep it going. A good community can keep a game running strong, half-life for instance is being constantly played online and modded since 1998.

**RemagDiv**

Advisary wrote:

If you'd like to see changes in MxO, get more players. More players means more money and also means the game requires more attention. Should you just wish to see MxO sail the same steady course of development then do nothing or quit.

The ones responsible are you, not Sony. Content isn't always everything. Every game has a tendency to get boring, you just need good people/friends to keep it going. A good community can keep a game running strong, half-life for instance is being constantly played online and modded since 1998.

I don't agree with this. For starters, you can't compare Half-Life to MxO. HL is an FPS game that doesn't require the constant effort that an MMO needs, plus while HL can be modded, MMO's simply can't be modded because it's a persistent world for everyone, not seperate games and servers for HL players.

Secondly, yes, more players = more Devs and content, but you can't expect current members to bring in hundreds of new players soley off the same content we have been playing for months. In order to obtain new players, you need to draw them in by allowing new content so that they are interested. In order to aquire past members and new members, content is everything.

I feel the MxO community is one of the most creative communities around. The community does a ton of stuff to keep everyone happy and occupied.. without the effort, this game would have been dead quite awhile ago.

**zeroone506**

Although I bet Aiolos isn't interested in this anyway, I thought I'd add something to my previous post.

I've talked about the social and psychological aspects of the Unlimit and Anome plot. How about the Matrix-SF aspects?
Jacked-in redpills enhancing their RSIs and abilities through consumption of a code in the Matrix and making themselves dependent on the System and separated/independent of their real bodies.

I mean, come on, isn't it just a natural evolvement/enrichment of the ideas and questions based around the exact relation between real body and simulation RSI? Can the RSI and consciousness be completely transferred to the Matrix, becoming both incompatible with its source ("brain" in real body) and thus unable to jack out and independent of it?

Especially after what happened to Neo, the story continuation which MxO is almost required further elaboration of this topic. Even if there haven't been any real technical explanations for why things are as they are so far - but the movies didn't have much, either.

To return to your phrase "more than humans can do" which you probably won't explain anyway, this is more than humans can do. People can't shoot laser beams normally, and they can't in the simulation. This plot widens the limits of human capability inside the Matrix, while simultaneously thematizing social and psychological aspects.

Seems like quite an intelligent plot to me, and again, very suggesting for the Matrix concept. But people can't stop thinking of Cyclops and Superman when watching cinematic 5.2 and start believing their jokes about "mama's boy" and "butterfingers" instead of realizing that Anome's childhood and his trauma are no laughing matter.

**xBLINDSIDEx**

I personally think the SOE transition killed/is killing MxO. I don't even know where to start.

Granted, we got a couple good things at the start, the server merge was a good move, that made PvP interesting for about a month.

After that things really went downhill, in my opinion, I didn't really see it at the time but looking back on it.

First thing, was after the Death of the Destroyer event, we went so long with absolutley nothing as far as events go, while cr2.0 was hyped up as a good thing, I see it as a big factor in the decline of the game. In theory it was a good idea but let's face it, this system is way more buggy then cr1.0 ever was. Look at the numerous bugs that we've had since it was released, even up to recent patches have brought on problems. The biggest problem with cr2.0 is the fact that the majority of the players were not asking for a new combat system, we were asking for content.
Cr2.0 was met with a lot of negative, and a lot of players, at least from recursion, left upon it's release and the month or so leading up to it. Nobody wants to fight with a bugged combat system. I can count at least 50-60 players,that I personally keep in contact with still, that left when cr2.0 came out. That's just people that I know, but I don't blame them, why wait around with nothing to do, for something that you don't even care about it the first place.

Also, with SOE we got Brewko, and all the total B.S from SOE GMs, starting with data miner, banning people without reason, changing faction names that have been around since the start. What gives? SOE also saw the end of the live events team, who were the heart and soul of Monolith events. That followed by all the posts and information regarding lesig that leaked.. it just seems like with mxo, when it rains it pours.. It doesn't surprise me anymore when I hear about things that go on.

I do applaud some of the new things being worked on. I do like that the story is somewhat progressing, finally... and to people new to the game that came around post cr2.0 you may be having a blast, but I for one remember the days they would announce the monthly live events on DN1, with dates, and all of the great things that happened from day of launch to death of the destroyer, I think the players that have been around for it all will say that those months were the best time in the game, because there were always live events, and little things that kept us interested. Caghaa anyone? Now, it's OMG PVP MARA C...

While I think the little lesig events here and there are a good step, I am yet to see something that was near as entertaining as the old events.. The long 3 days events were really what a lot of players look forward to, back in the day when the crit packs led up to a live event in that month, now we really transition like nothing ever happened.

Could SOE save MxO, sure they could, but I'm sure they look upon MxO as a failure, but it's a failure because of them. Listen to the players, give them what they want. I personally would like to see a modified cr1.0, and just roll everything back and pretend like this last year never happened, but that's just me and my opinions. There's so many things that I personally would do to change the game and improve it, and I think if I ever won the lottery, the first thing I'd do is make an offer to SOE to buyout the Matrix Online.

**Raviola** · 11/20/2006 16:45:31

It sometimes appears to have jumped the shark. And asking for more live content or better gameplay is usually met with, well, that takes so much work. And here I thought that was SOE's job? SMILEY

**zeroone506**

xBLINDSIDEx wrote:

Also, with SOE we got Brewko, and all the total B.S from SOE GMs, starting with data miner, banning people without reason, changing faction names that have been around since the start. What gives? SOE also saw the end of the live events team, who were the heart and soul of Monolith events. That followed by all the posts and information regarding lesig that leaked.. it just seems like with mxo, when it rains it pours.. It doesn't surprise me anymore when I hear about things that go on.

Just this.

I think you're being quite unfair, at least in relation to the Tetragrammaton incident. It became clear that Brewko merely followed the rules by the book, and that the time a faction has been in the game was a secondary matter.
Apart from that, SOE took this issue seriously, changed back the faction name and even considered to take another (active) look at the naming policies.

As for the LESIG leak, that one goes on the account of a mean, frustrated jerk who made it into the LESIG (and then was removed). Way to blame the company for untrustworthy players.

**RemagDiv**

Saying that CR1 was better than CR2 just demonstrates that you really did not spend enough time with the system to adjust and understand the components to become a good fighter again. Many people were comfortable with CR1 (for reasons I won't even say here...) and people just don't like change. Sorry to say, but your Faction (Endless) all left the game before CR2 was even on the Live servers, so don't say you all mastered the system in a week, thought it was crap, and left.

I guess having an ability like Despoil which destroyed an offensive class was balanced, or having disarm in-game which totally destroyed the gunman class. Don't forget about everyone using the same formula of the more DR the better. I loved seeing everyone wear that Red Yoshi Trench, and seeing 20 people use the same rifle, regardless of what skills they have loaded. Interlock was fun, let's so who can spam Sidekick Combo first to get a 60% chance of Stun!

I could go on for pages, but I think the point is clear, CR1 was flawed, and CR2 was needed. Is it a perfect system? Hell no, but it's getting there, and for the variety alone now it was worth it.

**xBLINDSIDEx**

I'm not saying CR1.0 was better, I was saying it could have been fixed and the system kept the same as a whole.. Tell me what would be the big deal in fixing stun durations and downgrades? Most people complained about CR1.0 being about who hits stun or powerless first. Fix that, and as a whole you have a good combat system. Multi lock, is another thing that was something I loved! There was nothing more entertaining to me than being interlocked by 5 people at once, especially because I usually won. That as well could have been fixed... and besides a few things here and there, CR1.0 wasn't that bad. CR2.0 is way more flawed than CR1.0 ever was.. With all the rumors about exploits and everything that got thrown at us, with the exception of being able to break family timers, and block tactics before it got fixed, there were really no major exploits in CR1.0.. When you changed clothes, your stats changed (i.e if you had 70 perception, took off trolls hide, your CT was affected, and it lowered your average roll score) now, you load up all your defense clothes and abilities, hit hyper block, and you are set.. you can get naked, dance around, load up other trees, and guess what hyper block stays exactly the same. Did we ever have style stacking in CR1.0? Nope. Did we ever have passive buffs stack when they weren't loaded. Nope, and that's just a few of the things wrong with it now, and most of these things have been bugged since the test server, and still nothing has been done about it.

CR2.0 came out way before it should have, because practically every patch since it's came out there has been something new that pops up, it might be getting there but it's not even close to being there... that's like saying, here you go, here's a new car... now the brakes might not work, same with the air bag... but we think this thing is so shiny and pretty, we gotta put it out there to attempt to make a buck before we go under... CR2.0 got released because SOE needed to push mxo with their logo on it, plain and simple, and it still doesn't change the fact that nobody was really asking for it, and a whole lot of the community left because of it.

And I don't know what planet you were on during test server, but I lived on that test server, I taught a good percentage of the community of Recursion cr2.0, at least Recursion at that time. I was the ones writing the guides and how to's on CR2.0 MA... I know this system better than almost anybody. I'm not saying I'm better than anybody, because we all know someone will come on here and say, "well if you know it so well, then come duel", I'm saying I know the mechanics and how the system works better than most people do, and even to this day, I get tells from people asking how to improve their loads, and asking about various things about the combat system, so you have no place to talk about anything, and if something was done and more clothes were added in before cr2.0 with similar stats, then people would have wore other things. People wore that gear because it was the best gear available. Now, there is a variety of gear with similar stats.. There wasn't any of this back then... Adding new clothes could have easily been done without a whole combat upgrade... I'm not saying this because I'm bitter because CR1.0 is gone, I could come on then and win the majority of my duels and in pvp, and I can do the same now, it's about replacing a combat system with a couple flaws, with an unfinished product. An unfinished product that nobody was asking for... I cannot see how it cannot be considered a failure. A ton of people quit over it, game population as a whole is down, dramatically. The combat system is still flawed, we still have no content that keeps people occupied for more than 10 minutes, we still have no live events, we're in the exact same spot we were when SOE took over a year ago. If you're happy with PvP in Mara every day, then that's fine. More power to you, but for real gamers that look for a challenge, and something to keep them occupied, MxO is a total failure. With the exception of daily pvp in Mara, and the occasional new mission pack. MxO has become a 3D chat room and fashion show. That's all it is, and I blame SOE for almost all of it. I think the ball was dropped and the game was managed poorly. I applaud Rarebit and crew for at least trying to make the game more managable, but at the end of the day SOE makes all the calls on MxO, what gets put into it and what doesn't, I'd be surprised if SOE even knew they still owned the game.

**zeroone506**

"We still have no live events"? "Content that only takes 10 minutes"?

Let's just say these statements make somewhat sceptical.

Neolivesftw

zeroone506 wrote:

xBLINDSIDEx wrote:
Also, with SOE we got Brewko, and all the total B.S from SOE GMs, starting with data miner, banning people without reason, changing faction names that have been around since the start. What gives? SOE also saw the end of the live events team, who were the heart and soul of Monolith events. That followed by all the posts and information regarding lesig that leaked.. it just seems like with mxo, when it rains it pours.. It doesn't surprise me anymore when I hear about things that go on.

Just this.

As for the LESIG leak, that one goes on the account of a mean, frustrated jerk who made it into the LESIG (and then was removed). Way to blame the company for untrustworthy players.

I think his point is/was, that it's a bad idea to put so much of the game in players hands.

Paperghost

I played this game before the changeover to SOE - I remember getting quite wound up at the numerous screwups, the live events going wrong, the bugs, the complete and utter lack of content...just before the changeover i decided not to renew.

after digging through some old game pics, i got strangely nostalgic and decided to see if the game had improved, if they'd added content, new things to do etc. after an experience from the bowels of hell yesterday....ouch...i finally got in and saw.....what appears to be exactly the same game from last year, with the forums STILL full of people complaining about the lack of live events, nothing to do and so on.

please tell me the game has developed beyond the combat upgrade that supposedly came about in february? i could be mistaken but it seems to be exactly the same in most (if not all) respects. at the very least, the addition of the Euro servers meant we got a more balanced live event but it looks like you don't even have those anymore!

Ulfric

some of you dont get it, SOE isnt tryin to make the game better, they just want it easier for their dev to work on it, they are greedy bastards, so what if they have 10 MMOs, each one brings profit, its no dif than having 10 companies running each game, but SOE are penny pinchers, just like in SWG, they made it into EQ with light sabers, why? becuase they wanted to fire most everyone from SWG and just have the EQ ppl work on it, on the sides, so they did, and now its *poop*, MxO will slowly but surely become EQ with trench coats, they dont care about saving this game, or making it better, why? becuase they are barel;y paying any extra to have it running at all, so all you delusional die hards who think itll get better, keep paying for it, and sony just sucks it up, they will never turn around and actually put more effort into it, if you dont believe me go look at SWG, if you buy a copy of it, and go home, not a single page of the manuel actually....fits anymore, every aspect that the manual states is in the game...doesnt exist anymore, im suprised they havent been sued all to hell and back, 90% of their player base bitched and moaned, at least 75-80% quit outright, and yet sony, still did NOTHING that actually went along with what the players asked for, sony gives no *poop* at all what so ever about you, or what you want. so whine and complain all you like, it wont be fixed, they will do with the game as they want, they bought it, legally your just renting it, so your opinion doesnt mean anything. if you dont like how the mechanics are now, dont whine, sony just says "cool, hes still paying" and ignores you, just quit, quit the game and dont look back, sony wont fix it, now if you like the new system, im happy for you, becuase sony will never change it back. there was a petition for SWG to make 1 or 2 servers that used the old systems of game play, even stated that we would NEVER expect new content or updates of any kind, just give us the game we grew to love back as it was, and leave it, costs no extra money and the 10 THOUSAND + ppl that all had multiple acocunts would happily stay on those worlds and keep paying them....sony didnt even reply with a "*CENSORED* you" or "no we wont" ....it was just flat out ignored, just like every post you will ever post on these forums

sry for the run on post, but final point, if you like it how it is, stay, if not, LEAVE, they will NOT fix it, me, im done, i play for the hell of it, while i wait for vanguard

PS, i played in beta, and then after beta, even had 2 acocunts, left for RL issues, and came back to find my game i loved isnt remotely what i left, and its sad, and ive gone threw it b4 on SWG, and all you other SWG ppl know what im saying is true.....hopefully sony doesnt ruin vanguard somehow

Ulfric

oh yeah, that just covers the famous combat DOWNgrade, that sony made in SWG and now in MxO, as far as changing things that mattered, like content, and the feeling of being a part of the games evolution, those are dead, and gone, sony doesnt care about that stuff.....so effectively, they killed every part of the game that made it unique and worth playing, the combat is like every MMO, the original live events, even tho buggy and what not, were original, and now gone, the story line now is different, and nothing but still frame scetches

so ya, they destroyed what made it special, and will likely never add anything that matters to replace those things, what they do add, will just be some off shoot rip off of something they added to EQ years ago, they have no ability to use original thinking, ive played EQ1 EQ2 SWG, and MxO......so believe me when i say they dont care about you, they learned long ago, they can do whatever the hell they want, and enough die hards will always stay around playing and whining, while they ignore you and take your money

**452x5**

it used to pee me off but now it just makes laugh... they DO ignore everything thats suggested .. and the only time they reply is when someone speaks out against them.. 99% of the time with a thread locked for speaking out against your lord god and master reply.

**zeroone506**

Ulfric wrote:

oh yeah, that just covers the famous combat DOWNgrade, that sony made in SWG and now in MxO, as far as changing things that mattered, like content, and the feeling of being a part of the games evolution, those are dead, and gone, sony doesnt care about that stuff.....so effectively, they killed every part of the game that made it unique and worth playing, the combat is like every MMO, the original live events, even tho buggy and what not, were original, and now gone, the story line now is different, and nothing but still frame scetches

When you talk about "SOE", do you refer to the producer (Walrus) and the actual developer team of this very game, The Matrix Online, or to the "higher-ups" who stand above them and particular games, and decide about budget etc.?

If you were referring to the developers, you've just proven your insane ignorance. Starting with the fact that they're (what's left of) the original developers from Monolith, read the forums, react to feedback and constantly work on the game, and obviously are quite attached to it.

If you were referring to the second group, ignore what I just said.

J
ust so you know:

CR 2.0 wasn't Sony's idea, it was formed in Monolith. The Monolith developers who moved to SOE just continued this project and released it under SOE.

I don't know what you mean by "changing content" - they have added quite a bit of content, anyway.

I'm also not sure if the combat is just like in every MMO, except everyone' been lying to me and there is actually Interlock in other current games.

The events aren't gone, they've changed to these smaller and more private ones. Do other games have the same kind of events, tied into the storyline? People told me that they don't, in this form or on this level.

The storyline has nothing to do with SOE, it's Paul Chadwick's old outline (from chapter 7 on the revised one), and what Rarebit does with it in missions and events.
All the transition changed, as far as I know, is the progression speed, and the removal of the LET who also refused to share their plans with the team.

The cinematics are a really small part of the story content, looking at the proportions. They are drawn (or storyboarded) by Paul Chadwick, who is not a SOE employee.