I love reading about MMOs being resurrected, almost as much as I hate reading about MMOs being resurrected. On one hand, it’s great to see that a game I once thought dead has attracted the attention of another enterprising company. But then I sit back and ask myself, “do I really want someone else touching my game? Tainting my memories?”

So I will be publishing several lists of dead MMOs, and whether I feel they should be brought back or if they have given us all that they can.

The Matrix Online

As much as many of us would love to see The Matrix Online make a return, the franchise hit its heyday a long time ago and it is not coming back. Bringing back The Matrix Online would be a financial investment not only in infrastructure but requiring new people to learn how to code and maintain the system, an investment that only a person of questionable sanity would be willing to forego.

There isn’t enough interest in the Matrix anymore to justify bringing this ancient one back, so sorry but:

Verdict: Let It Lie.

Bringing Tabula Rasa back would require a bit of a lore-shift for the MMO. After all, since NCSoft worked the closure into the game, when the servers shut down on February 28th, 2009, it resulted in the AFS forces detonating a massive bomb that resulted in the mutual destruction of the AFS and Bane forces. So that leaves us with humanity: dead, and Bane: dead.

Of course, re-writing history is the easy part. But were someone to purchase the rights and the code, they would find the remnants of what could have been a masterpiece, and was gearing up for just that when NCSoft shuttered the title. Somewhat like Star Wars Galaxies, in the months after NCSoft announced the shut down, Destination Games worked tirelessly to introduce many of the features players had been asking for and probably quitting over since the game launched.

Buying Tabula Rasa would be far easier and likely much less expensive than working on an original sci-fi MMO of the same variety.

Verdict: Pitchblack Games Should Buy Tabula Rasa

Absolutely not. Take this from someone who supported Earth Eternal through every company and iteration the game has gone through so far. I personally found Earth Eternal to be a charming game, but commercial success this game is not. Consider the fact that even when Earth Eternal was 100% free to play, that no one was playing should be an indication that any money spent into reviving this title for a third run would be wasting money that could have gone to a more productive service.

Like a bonfire.

Verdict: Its Zombified Corpse Has Liquified. Stop.

Sure, why not. Lego Universe was a great game and there are many reasons it should be brought back, not the least of which being that LEGO continued the great NetDevil tradition of poorly advertising their game and then wondering why it didn’t gather the attraction they so desired. If LEGO Universe is to be brought back, however, some changes should come with it.

For starters, LEGO could do well with a similar subscription plan to Wizard 101: allowing families to bundle their subscriptions for a discount. Additionally, the game would need a more open trial system than it had pre-shutdown, and LEGO would have to do some real advertising.

LEGO Universe has potential, and not the kind that you use to describe a broken system. The game is fine, more people just needed to know about it.

Verdict: Resurrect it.

I have no idea how much it would cost to translate Everquest Online Adventures to a download-format and bring it back on the Playstation Network, but I’m guessing it would be expensive. When EQOA shut down, it wasn’t because the game was busted or Sony was going under, but simply because the game had become old.

There were no new players coming into Everquest Online Adventures, and for good reason: The Playstation 2 is a dead console and the Playstation 3 is not backwards compatible (sans 1st generation). Additionally, finding new copies of Everquest Online Adventures was near impossible, or otherwise extremely expensive. Unlike other MMOs, EQOA never had the opportunity to transition to a download format, and once the game was off store shelves, its death sentence was written.

Unfortunately, translating the game to be playable on new Playstation 3’s may be too expensive or even impossible on the very antiquated engine.

Verdict: Resurrect If You Can, Though You Probably Can’t.