Matrix Resolutions: A Recount Of The Matrix Online

Years ago I picked up a copy of my monthly video game magazine and was leafing through the local previews section. There was this new MMORPG in production called The Matrix: Online and I idly wondered how something like this could go wrong. Now, I wonder what went wrong.

As I returned to The Matrix Online about three weeks ago, I wandered my character down the same streets I did back in the days of the early beta. The scenery ultimately remained unchanged in every way, the same dirty gray and green streets of an open urban sprawl. With hundreds upon hundreds of buildings across the landscape, there were no two that were truly alike, some with hidden rooms and secret areas that players would be discovering years after the game’s release. It was like returning to my hometown after years of absence where familiar sights and sounds came flooding back like mother’s home cooking. It was strange walking back into this old world I and spent so much time in and as one of the very few who jacked-in and experienced this shell of a MMORPG that was now on its death bed it was truly bittersweet.  The reason being that Sony Online Entertainment had announced that The Matrix Online was in fact, going offline on July 31st.

So what exactly happened I asked myself as I picked up the pace walking through a populated district known as Mara Central.  A central hub of the game where one could see life even on the game’s most empty of days.  How could a game with so much potential, and a superb development team behind it, flop so badly?  I paused mid-step in my journey back through time, gigabytes and memories and found that perhaps the better question is, how could a game with sub-par game play mechanics, choppy servers and an utter lack of elder level content last for four years?

First off, we can’t address The Matrix Online without addressing the original Matrix series. Time took its toll on the franchise as MxO was originally planned for a early 2004 release, right on the coat tails of Matrix:Revolutions - the last of the Matrix Trilogy. Of course, like with just about all MMORPGs, the title was delayed again and again.  MxO didn’t see an actual release until March of 2005 which equates to around a year and half between chapters. A near eternity of time in the marketing world, which meant by then the ill-acclaimed Matrix series had taken a beaten with the harshly reviewed Matrix: Reloaded and Matrix: Revolutions. Many had forgotten much of the magic of the original 1999 film due to sub-par fulfillment of ginormous expectations. In the end it was ultimately released with little, to no buzz upon which the original series thrived in its heyday.

What else? How about it was never even close to actually being complete, in terms of build or story.  Even during its final days, bugs and exploits largely remained active and unpatched  whilst entire pre-planned sections of the game remained incomplete. Though one can hardly entirely blame the development team as this was new ground for developer Monolith.  Monolith Productions was, and in fact still is, a first person shooter specialist, ill-placed as a developer for an MMO. Bringing us much beloved titles such as Blood, Aliens Vs. Predator 2, No One Lives Forever and the F.E.A.R. Series, they had never even touched the RPG genre before, let alone a deeper MMORPG. The team’s inexperience was shown immediately with a near unplayable late beta experience and a released product that was sub par at best. Featuring a buggy, highly repetitive quest system, even for a MMO, tons of snap back server lag and simply random crashes meant those who gave it a chance soon had a reason to permanently disconnect. The death sentence came once players reached the pinnacle level of grinding due to the fact that there was simply no end level content. Let me emphasis this: No end raid bosses, no PvP ladder, hell you could easily obtain some of the best equipment in the game on a single night. In fact, the only thing MxO received strong marks for was it’s unique and relatively balanced combat system. But even this wasn’t enough to save The Matrix from binary death.

There also were the so-called live events, one of the premier selling points for The Matrix Online was that you weren’t playing in a prescriptive universe, much akin to fellow movie MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies.  No, you the individual, would not only see The Matrix change and evolve with a storyline written by famed graphic novelist Paul Chadwick, but you could change the Matrix Universe with your own actions.  It was billed that you were an intricate part in the story line, and your actions could directly shape the future of The Matrix as the online world grew.  As it turned out, this couldn’t be farther from the truth because whilst there were live events, they were considered hardly works of Hollywood material, well below Paul Chadwick’s level.  Most of the time they consisted of kill X until we tell you to stop, or impossibly attempt to listen to a live events character speak amid a clutter of ‘lol’ or ‘whoa’ clogging up the public area chat.  Finally, when there actually were events that the players were expected to get involved with and perhaps have an impact, often the resolution was preplanned therefore meaning that there was no official storyline growth which the players could continue on their own.  One example comes to mind that a local player had become so enamored by a introduction of a new ‘werewolf’ character into the game, that she wanted to be apart of her pack.  The end result was the player was left holding an empty bag as the plot carried on like the incident never happened. In the end, The Matrix Online didn’t need a big named writer or a even a Hollywood style storyline, what they needed was nothing more then a classically trained paper and pen dungeon master that could fit the storyline to the players.  Let them change the world around them they said but in the end, there was no innovation, the official storyline was playing you for the fool.

I continued my journey and went to visit to old landmarks within the game which to be honest, held some fond memories for me.  Every MMO has these places, little landmarks which mean something to the player. The Government Building where Neo had that classic SWAT team battle, the plaza where Neo battled with 100 Agent Smiths – all of which were placed into the game as vividly as they are on the big screen. Then there were player landmarks of which the Camon Central church was a personal favorite of mine, that and the old Dojo my guild had taken over and used as an informal base.  Little places with little memories.  All of them – soon to be gone, just like Keanu’s acting career.

So why did I continue to play this crappy game for two years of life?  What drove me to continue to blow fifteen dollars of my hard earned money, month after month, for this subscription based title?  In the end, Matrix Online will be remembered not for it’s pitiful game play, for it’s shallow itemization, it’s infamous lack of elder level content, or even its lackluster trademark live events, it shall be remembered for its community.

The Matrix Online had a community less like your modern day video game, with geek speak and childish banter, and more akin to a throw back to the old days of MUCKs and MUDs. To the younger members of our audience, a MUCK or MUD is an online text-based role-playing game in which you play by text commands and rolls of the dice with no graphical representation except for your own imagination.  Plus there is a clear emphasis on player interaction and role playing which can give you the same feeling you had back in the days of childhood with wooden swords and shields.

Now these Matrix-philes couldn’t be further away from anything happy, so they set out to create their own content in a world where they could find nearly none provided to them.  Soon after, any individual could add and create to the Matrix Universe, for better or worse, through their own tales and stories. Whilst it wasn’t exactly a game of Dungeons and Dragons at the high school lunch table, with limited resources, aspiring Dungeon Masters made the best of it. Quite often, they out-scaled the official events in scope and content. I often find saved resources on my hard drive to this day, old memories taking the form of images, pictures, and even voice acting files used to enhance their plot.

For most online games, PvP rarely gets personal.  In hundreds of hours in World of Warcraft, having a same server derby in a battleground never happens. In the rare occasion they do, you never know who you’re fighting. They’re just another faceless character class for you to combat. Even with Arena PvP, in playing thousands of competitive matches up the ladder, only a handful were against teams I knew personally. Here is where The Matrix Online actually shined, with a small, outspoken and very dedicated community you grew very close to your friends, and foes alike. Over the course of months, you would share the same world with these individuals, and experience the same lows and highs with them, and as well as against them. Team tactics would be formed to counter act not just singular person, but entire factions were individually match up against. At its peak, one might be able to pick out single players, and recall the hard fought history you’ve shared together. You knew their class build, their weapon style, hell you could even sometimes predict what moves they were going to throw. You became intimate with your enemy, as they did with you.

One of my most fondest memories of The Matrix Online is of my guild fighting until three am in a turf war. When I explain this to my friends and colleagues, they ask what the war was about. Was there some rare mob spawn that was going to come that we were camping? Did we get lots of PvP experience points to upgrade our gear? Was it for some grand plot bearing reason? No, we fought for no reason better other then our pride. A true brotherhood of guild members fighting for no better reason then say we are the best.

Where everywhere MxO had failed at in, it had succeeded as a social MMO. Too often we lose sight of the fact that in MMORPG, we are sharing it with world of others and they are just apart of our experience as the content we overcome. Too often these virtual worlds depersonalized this social interaction to the point where we consider others just another resource to further one’s own growth. In ten years from, I doubt I will remember obtaining that slight upgraded replacement staff for my druid in World of Warcraft. But I will recall the joy of directly influencing a small part of The Matrix Online experience.

MxO set out to be so much bigger, so much better then it ever became and as an MMO, hell, as just a video game it failed horribly. But as a social experience, bringing video gaming to a intimate, community based world it was a success. It showed that there is a following in gaming for stories and pride over achievements and gear. Yet as modern day MMOs reach numbers into the millions and the old style MUDs and MUCKS become relics of the past, such an experience becomes harder and harder to find and replicate, and might be one we may not see again for a very long time.

Rest in peace Matrix Online. We’ll never have a community like yours again.

Special thanks to RogueA of Fragd and DragonMaster for the images.