“Dungeon Runners just isn’t cutting the mustard. If she were a ship, she’d be taking on water. Yeah, she’s been taking on water for a long time now. Are my cryptic references too hard to decipher? The game just isn’t profitable. And, the first rule of business is to be profitable!”
-Stephen Nichols, NCsoft, on Dungeon Runners.
Today marks the first day of a new year, as well as the death of two MMOs: Dungeon Runners and Metaplace. Dungeon Runners shut down earlier this morning following an event that saw a giant bomb explode in the game’s main city: Townston. Here at MMO Fallout, “What Happened” has to be my least favorite section as, despite popular opinion, I don’t get my jollies from watching companies fall.
But first, some back story on Dungeon Runners. Dungeon Runners was an experimental title developed and published by NCsoft. Following a launch on March 2007, Dungeon Runners was met with pretty cold reviews, and a small following from a rabid fanbase. A parody of the MMO genre, Dungeon Runners feels more like a prank that someone pulled over the course of several years, as if to say “Look what we made.” Players started out in Noobtown, proceed to the main area (Townston), and pvp takes place in a city called Pwnston. Gameplay follows a Diablo-esque pattern of randomly instanced dungeons that change every time you enter them, as well as loot that is procedurally generated, not to mention the hack-and-slash gameplay. Dungeon Runners was a real laugh to play, if you enjoyed slapstick humor the quest dialog was generally the best part of the quest, next to the insane scenarios that the developers would think up.
Dungeon Runners has led a tough life. Even after a long delayed development cycle, the problems simply became worse when NCsoft announced a refocus away from smaller titles, and on to their large triple-a MMOs. An already low-population Dungeon Runners saw most of its staff laid off over the course of a year and a half, and by the time the notice came, there were only three people left working on Dungeon Runners. Financial projects were launched that were deemed too expensive and risky for the project, including a plan to switch to a micro-transaction system, as well as moving the project to a new platform (possibly the Playstation 3).
And finally, as I said earlier, Dungeon Runners was an experimental title for NCsoft, to be used to experiment with various business models. Dungeon Runners is the first NC title to have in-game advertising, which was a complete success (according to NC). The game died on its own, as many small titles do, because eventually the players leaving outnumber the players coming in.
So, with its official launch being March 24, 2007, Dungeon Runners shuts down after 2 years, and 9 months. Farewell, Dungeon Runners. The Mother of all RPGs.
MMO Fallout 
There were also talk about making it playable through Facebook. That and a cash-shop would have made the game survuve for sure.
Hello LordMagnus,
I find it unlikely that Dungeon Runners would have survived much longer, even with Facebook and a cash shop. I was getting some information on Dungeon Runners shortly before the announcement of closure came (the article was later canned) and I can see in my notes that during much of my time back in the game, each server had approximately 30-50 people in it at a time, the members only server often going into single digits.
Once you got over the charm of the game, and I admit I had quite a few laughs when I played in 2008, the game itself was not much to go on. I personally quit because eventually the population seemed to have a collective brain-fart and much of it collapsed on itself, and I was paying the subscription fee at the time.
Dungeon Runners, at the end of the day, was a small, experimental MMO and went out as just that: a small, experimental MMO. At least, according to NCsoft, it was a success.
FUCK YOU ALL DUNGEONS RUNNERS WAS A GOOD GAME AND I WISH IT WAS STILL ALIVE!!!
My condolences,
As an avid player of Tabula Rasa from start to finish, I know how it is to have your favorite MMO shut down and then have people talk about why it failed.
Hey: At least NCsoft considered Dungeon Runners to be a success. They trash talk Tabula Rasa every chance they get.
DUNGEON RUNNERS WAS FUN !!! Especially since you can suck XP outta higher level people when they fight but you’re just standing there collecting , like at the library place thing . But cheer up 🙂 lord of the rings online is just like dungeon runners and WoW together , but its tricky trying to download it … add me on facebook , http://www.facebook.com/nicoledweebfacechan my doggie’s my profile picture . Bye 🙂
yes i know, dungeon runners was the best game ever
with WoW……
honestly, i liked the game. it was unique in its own way. and kept me going from all the other games. i didnt play much but thats cuz i have school and sports to worry about. its names for items like the hippopotamous shotgun or something like that just gave it that edge. all these crazy names. Maybe start over from scratch? there wasnt a lot of out-game advertisments? i never saw an advertistment anywhere. i think i found out about this game by going on google and typing in “list of mmo’s” or something. cuz i was trying to find new games to play.
I feel that Dungeon Runners should make a comeback. The Game was fun and all round refreshing. I love the title and wish wish wish for it see the light of day in some form or another. 🙂