Closure of MKO


Hi folks,
 
If you're subscribed to the Midkemia list, you already got the news that we are shutting down MKO on September 9th. Otherwise, now you know. Unfortunately, the fact that Midkemia isn't our intellectual property and that we have an annual license fee to pay to its author forced our hand. MKO is just too small to afford that fee going forward.

Our other MUDs don't have this problem, because the only costs that really matter are staff compensation, which can be scaled up or down. With MKO, we have this fairly big payment due around the beginning of September every year, and this year MKO has gotten to the point that we can't justify making the payment. 

So, you don't need to worry about our other MUDs going anywhere. They're there for the long haul.

On another note, you're going to be seeing some MKO refugees use their retirement credits and join your games. Please, please make them feel welcome. They've just lost their online home, and it can be really intimidating to join a community as intense as ours are. Help them out!
 
Best,
 
Matt Mihály
CEO, Iron Realms Entertainment.

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(I'd add something more substantial but am armed with only my phone right now.)
I have 150 Lusternian credits that I'll trade over for Achaean ones. Let me know if you're interested!
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  • SzanthaxSzanthax San Diego
    That makes me sad :( I never got into the midkemia universe but i'm sure a lot of people loved it. 



  • Having played MkO for quite sometime, I'm sorta happy to finally see it happen. The game was great and all, and I loved the concept behind it. Unfortunately, they never really had the right people running the game. The producers were good people and all, but I don't personally feel they were producer material. If something had been done sooner about replacing the producers, if the right people were chosen to replace them, I feel something could've been done about it, but it was so far down already, maybe not.

    The only thing I'm really truly upset with about the shutdown of MkO, is the fact that the credits are retirement credits, and thus can't be used to transfer credits to already settled characters. With such a timely thing, it kinda ruins it for people that used their retirement credits at an earlier day.

    If only there were some way to allow the credits to go to already established characters.
  • SzanthaxSzanthax San Diego
    I dunno.... if i game closes is there a way to go around that?



  • I feel like they should let any retirement credits from MkO be accessible to any character, whether they are an older character or not.
  • Szanthax said:
    I dunno.... if i game closes is there a way to go around that?
    Yeah, it's not like there's a precedent for this...
    I have 150 Lusternian credits that I'll trade over for Achaean ones. Let me know if you're interested!
  • Katsuragi said:
    Szanthax said:
    I dunno.... if i game closes is there a way to go around that?
    Yeah, it's not like there's a precedent for this...
    Sarapis said it is a done deal. Nothing changing it.

    The cost to just simply keep paying for that annual license fee didn't make sense when the game kept losing money every month.

    And there were so many creative limitations due to that licensing... it was enough to make any producer lose their passion whenever they want to do an event and it wasn't allowed due to the limitations of creative license.

    Wanna do Kelewan stuff or anything related to half of the universe of Midkemia? Too bad. That's not owned by Feist. Half of the universe was literally locked away.

    It's just super hard to do anything with an IP that isn't yours to begin with. Had they created an original fantasy MUD from the beginning. I think it would have gone better.
    That is not an ordinary star, my son. That star is the tear of a warrior. A lost soul who has finished his battles somewhere on this planet. A pitiful soul who could not find his way to the lofty realm where the great spirit awaits us all.
  • Tolan said:
    I feel like they should let any retirement credits from MkO be accessible to any character, whether they are an older character or not.
    Yes please, oh baby my MKO char had a lot.

  • Cynlael said:
    Tolan said:
    I feel like they should let any retirement credits from MkO be accessible to any character, whether they are an older character or not.
    Yes please, oh baby my MKO char had a lot.
    It's not even because my character had a lot. I retired my bigger characters from all other IRE previous to Tolan. My thing about it, is this last character on MkO, who did not have enough worth to be retired, is now threatened to just be deleted if I don't retire him. But, since I only play one character throughout all IRE, I only really have one place for those credits to go, and it can't happen because he is older than 14 RL days old
  • Having played MKO i'd like to highlight some enjoyable features I found to it.

    - I loved the rp focus placed on your race. Races there felt much more impactful than simple stats. Your race defined the city you initially join, the languages you can speak (common did not exist there), and finally by relation to city the skills you can acquire. Addtionally and naturally there was heavy RP association with your race and if not acting up to it makes you seem like an outside (such as a dark elf getting along with a human).

    - I rather enjoyed the concept of not having to carry around 50+ kinds of curatives. The main way to cure affs there was by utilizing 3 types of "focus". This allowed for players to easily get in and rejoin the warfare of the game. There also was no sipping health and mana as they were tsken care of by regeneration and other capabilities.

    - I thoroughly enjoyed the CONCEPT of the faiths there and i have to give props to the tremendous work required to finish such a project. The gods in MKO were more of enigmatic beings (or were suppose to be mainly) that players would devout a cult to a specific focus of that god. Most cults were already in existence but if a player managed to get enough supporters then they could create a new cult to glorify an aspect of that god. For example the god of warfare had one cult glorifying combat and another triump (or some such). Someone could have perhaps created another cult to perhaps glorify domination or some such.

    Additionally and perhaps the best part, those of the priest archetype would gain a tertiary skill based on the god they aligned with and joined. Naturally this meant that it was required to make a unique skill for each god...which is a hassle.

    - I enjoyed the concept of gaining tert skills for your archetype in the game, requiring to find a unique denizen or completing a mini quest.

    - Some of the skills were amazingly tasteful and fun and i honestly pity if they arent somehow remaining a part of IRE. Demonology skill was very well built and had a lot of flavor to it, truly well done. Shadowweaving was a priest tert for followers of the god of thieves, rogues and stealth and was bursting with flavor. It was hands down one of my favorite skills to use in IRE. Truly amazing fun

    - the fact pk did not cost you xp was great...however the heavy abuse this brought was not.

    - i loved the use of common hobby skills like fishing and how they worked. Every time you fish or excavated or whatever your skill in that art increased. There was a cap percent it could increase each day. When you reached a new rank you gained xp and credits.
  • So while the wiki is still up, here is a link to it, for any curious of what the game once had:

    http://wiki.midkemiaonline.com

  • edited August 2016
    I honestly had no idea that this was happening. Real sad. 

    Any MKO player that needs a "state of Achaea PVP" that finds their way to this thread, PM me any questions and I'll give you a rundown. 


  • Check out the Lore behind one of the unfinished skills of MKO.

    This one is called Greenseeing. It's got a very Lovecraftian meets Forestal feel. :)

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/19TKbwZzF6zwC8vM9HwewDKDC72KUBeqsErbZXii0d8k/edit
    That is not an ordinary star, my son. That star is the tear of a warrior. A lost soul who has finished his battles somewhere on this planet. A pitiful soul who could not find his way to the lofty realm where the great spirit awaits us all.
  • I always wanted to get into MKO but never really did, unfortunately. A friend of mine was really into it and was always inviting me to come play and telling me about how cool it was, but I simply never had the inclination. I think I tried a couple of times to make a character but it never stuck. 
    I have 150 Lusternian credits that I'll trade over for Achaean ones. Let me know if you're interested!
  • I'm just so excited about the influx of MORE PEOPLE! 

    I played MKO for a little while when it first opened, but Achaea is definitely where my <3 is. I can't even imagine losing my e-home. Gah. :(
  • For a moment, I was wondering what the Mortal Kombat Online forums had to do with Achaea.

    [ SnB PvP Guide | Link ]

    [ Runewarden Sparring Videos | Link ]
  • Now that they made all the skills available in the short time before closure, I liked the Assassination tradeskill the best.

  • Synbios said:
    Now that they made all the skills available in the short time before closure, I liked the Assassination tradeskill the best.
    Being able to use assassination properly was amazing. I mean, even being able to look through it, yes, it's badass. I understand they released the skills to everyone, but there's a lot with assassination that I'm sure people don't really understand even if it is available to them
  • Not sure what upkeep the costs for Achaea servers are like, but if it ever comes to this PLEASE call for player crowdfunding before we do any of this closing business! 

  • They already do player crowdfunding. Our "kickers" for crowdfunding are access to virtual goods, both unique and generalized. 
  • Sarapis said:
    Aesgar said:
    Not sure what upkeep the costs for Achaea servers are like, but if it ever comes to this PLEASE call for player crowdfunding before we do any of this closing business! 

    I would be very surprised if we fast forward to 15 years in the future and Achaea is not still running. The question is more about how much development/admin staff it'll have, I think, which is ultimately a function of its ability to produce revenue. It's almost impossible for me to see Achaea not still running in 2031 though, seriously. This was my first game creation, and there's no freaking way it's going down. 
    That's actually pretty inspiring. Kudos, and thanks!
  • Guys, we're going to be teaching our kids this shit.
  • Tahquil said:
    Guys, our kids' kids' kids' will be teaching their kids' kids this shit.

  • Tahquil said:
    Guys, we're going to be teaching our kids this shit.
    Going to be? You've obviously not seen Havyn's profile pic here on the forums.
  • Synbios said:
    Tahquil said:
    Guys, our kids' kids' kids' will be teaching their kids' kids this shit.


    By that time, it'll likely become a mind-linked think process where you think of your commands and they are done. Just imagine how triggers would work.

    I picture a bug would cause this.






  • Sarapis said:
    Aesgar said:
    Not sure what upkeep the costs for Achaea servers are like, but if it ever comes to this PLEASE call for player crowdfunding before we do any of this closing business! 

    I would be very surprised if we fast forward to 15 years in the future and Achaea is not still running. The question is more about how much development/admin staff it'll have, I think, which is ultimately a function of its ability to produce revenue. It's almost impossible for me to see Achaea not still running in 2031 though, seriously. This was my first game creation, and there's no freaking way it's going down. 
    If this ever goes bust, I'd be okay as long as it's not @Jinsun's signature on the chapter 11 filing.

    [ SnB PvP Guide | Link ]

    [ Runewarden Sparring Videos | Link ]
  • Tolan said:
    I feel like they should let any retirement credits from MkO be accessible to any character, whether they are an older character or not.
    I am really surprised this was not the case.  The game is being shut down.  And MKO was a place where frankly, a fair number of people headed to pretty far down the line.  Check out that kooky litt game you haven't checked out yet and all.

     I have at least one very well kitted or unbelievably artifacted char in EVERY game.  In a couple, I have more.  So now I have a bit over 5700 credits from my MKO guy, but I'm not really keen to build any NEW chars.  Should have just let me use on whatever char I want.  Seriously.  
  • Sarapis said:
    Aesgar said:
    Not sure what upkeep the costs for Achaea servers are like, but if it ever comes to this PLEASE call for player crowdfunding before we do any of this closing business! 

    I would be very surprised if we fast forward to 15 years in the future and Achaea is not still running. The question is more about how much development/admin staff it'll have, I think, which is ultimately a function of its ability to produce revenue. It's almost impossible for me to see Achaea not still running in 2031 though, seriously. This was my first game creation, and there's no freaking way it's going down. 
    So reassuring to hear. I like to imagine Achaea as my retirement hobby when I get into my sixties! 

    Thanks Sarapis. 
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