The Matrix Online Q&A

[Evil Avatar]

Gamecloud has posted an interview (http://www.gamecloud.com/article.php?article_id=2859) with Sony Online's Dan Myers, getting an update on the movie based MMORPG, The Matrix Online.

Gamecloud: What upcoming updates and additions to content can players expect in the coming months?

Dan Myers: Our major focus at this time is Combat Revision 2.0. The team began talking just after launch about some inherent problems with our combat system that keep the game from being as fun as it could be. Since then, we’ve worked to redesign the combat and Abilities systems to eliminate some of the more glaring problems.

Design and implementation have been in the works for a long time now and we’re just now seeing the fruit of that labor. Right now, we are working towards a build of the game that we will release on an external playtest server. We’re looking forward to getting player input on the changes over the next month.

We just began releasing hard information about how combat will work and the community is chomping at the bit to start playtesting.

[Suicidal ShiZuru]

Does anyone even play this?

[thecrazyd]

If they make the combat like the new Star Wars Galaxies, it may be interesting.

[Royal Fool]

Yeah Sony, just keep changing the core gameplay every few months for your games. That is sure to keep those customers happy, I'm certain everyone will keep their subscription that way. They'll think "Sony's games are the best, they keep changing into something new every month!".

[GrinR]

Our game sucks. We redid it. Bait-and-switch isn't bait-and-switch if we already have your money. Suckers.

[eatme]

Fool: if they only do it on the really shitty games, who cares?

[A-Team]

Yeah Sony, just keep changing the core gameplay every few months for your games. That is sure to keep those customers happy, I'm certain everyone will keep their subscription that way. They'll think "Sony's games are the best, they keep changing into something new every month!".
If you're referring to SOE's decision to adopt the New Game Enhancements (NGE's) for SWG, then I can't see where changing the fighting system will hurt TxO. The SWG dev team admitted to losing quite a few people post applying Publish 25 to the Live servers, but over 80% of the people subscribed today were subscribers prior to Publish 25 going live. They also saw a good number of those people return not too long after Publish 25 went live (Nov. 15), and subscribers that were lost forever aren't really a concern given the 100,000+ people who have tried the 10-day trial to date.

If you've ever played TxO (Beta, Open, and Retial), then you already know that the quests are horrible, getting a group together is a pain in the ass (or at least it was prior to merging the servers), and leveling isn't as hard as it is boring. I'm not sure that a change in the fighting system will fix all of these problems, but Sony has a better shot at fixing things up than WB ever had.

[Vaginasaurus]

Didn't they kill off Morpheus in this game? What happened with that?

[SynapseLapse]

I kind of wonder at the logic of even making a Matrix game. The biggest influence behind making an MMORPG game is to have a fantasy world you can immerse youself in. Like running around in Norrath, Kalimdor, Champion City, Dagobah, Camelot, etc.

But who the hell wants to run around a dingy city like the on in the Matrix? Yay! I'm done driving home in rush hour traffic, let's log onto the Matrix and see how the Traffic is?

Anyone MO players disagree with me?

[bstiff]

Does anyone even play this?

Yeah I thought matrix died a while back after being sold. You can pick it up at best buy for like 10 bucks.

[Klade]

Seriously though.. has anyone played MO in the last say month or two? Does anyone know the current state of its population?

I knew the game was doing badly.. I mean usually companies don't sell the rights to their products unless things are going very badly.. But does anyone know just how badly its doing?

[KNOTE]

Didn't they kill off Morpheus in this game? What happened with that?

Morpheus was killed by a hired assasin, and the players started doing missions to try and find out who hired him. Then he started growing in power and every faction had a reason to want him killed. I think he started duping himself. The players then hunted down every version of him and wiped him out as part of a live event.

The result of the assasination is that the investigation is ongoing and that the Zionist faction has a splinter group led by Niobe. They have story updates on their main page for anyone interested. If they get combat revision 2.0 sorted out and streamline the worlds, it could actually be really awesome.

[eatme]

If you're referring to SOE's decision to adopt the New Game Enhancements (NGE's) for SWG, then I can't see where changing the fighting system will hurt TxO. The SWG dev team admitted to losing quite a few people post applying Publish 25 to the Live servers, but over 80% of the people subscribed today were subscribers prior to Publish 25 going live. They also saw a good number of those people return not too long after Publish 25 went live (Nov. 15), and subscribers that were lost forever aren't really a concern given the 100,000+ people who have tried the 10-day trial to date.


Thanks for the figures. Are they a good thing, though? You say "80% of the people subscribed today were subscribers prior to Publish 25 going live." Doesn't that mean that it has been unsuccessful in attracting new players? If 100,000+ people have tried the 10-day trial, the conversion rate must be rather small.

To be fair, conversion rates are typically low, so getting 10,000 people out of those 100,000 would be a very positive reflection on the trial.

Once the trial has been tuned to maximize conversion rate, I'd expect a strong marketing effort to keep new people trying the game. 100,000 is just the tip of the iceberg of what a Star Wars game can pull in (especially for something free), so if they're serious about turning SWG into a real money maker, we can expect to see a re-launch several months from now.

[kickmybum]

Does this game have a steep learning curve?

[KNOTE]

Does this game have a steep learning curve?

Yes, that's one of the things they are working on.

[thecrazyd]

Does this game have a steep learning curve?
It does not, and never did. There is really just about nothing to do in the game.