MMO games should have up front a plan for a maintenance mode and game closing WHEN IT STARTS.
This.
To add to the discussion, I'll say that MMO operators need to understand this: Anyone can build a "city" with streets, houses, storefronts, skyscrapers, and so on. But it takes PEOPLE to build a
community within that city, and people
don't like it when their communities are destroyed. In fact, people will do their damnedest to keep their community intact in the face of disaster. Just look at all the small towns that get practically wiped out every year by tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, or floods. Nobody EVER abandons those towns altogether, they REBUILD, to the effect that in as little as a few months, life starts to return to some semblance of normalcy.
Contrast this with the closure of an MMO... when it's gone, it's gone. People are kicked out, and have no choice but to move elsewhere (assuming they even stay active in the MMO scene). The community IS destroyed, for the most part, with only the most die-hard members trying to remain in touch with each other (witness the Titan Network forums!).
The really big difference, though, between the destruction of a physical city and the shutdown of an MMO is that the former is [usually] an act of God, while the latter is a conscious choice on the part of some corporate bigwig. With the former, there isn't really anyone to blame... not so with the latter. Is it any wonder that said bigwig and his company can draw such ire from the MMO's fanbase? Were they really just expecting the players to roll over and die quietly?
Frankly, anyone looking to release an MMO had better be prepared to inform the players "up-front" about the developer/publisher's
really long-term plans for the game, including their plans for BOTH success and failure. Where will the game be five years from now? Ten years? Twenty? Or even longer? Will the game continue to run even if the company is sold or "changes corporate focus"? Under exactly what circumstances would it be shut down? Will there be any attempt to sell the game? Or maybe release it to the public domain?
After so many botched shutdowns in recent years, MMO gamers ought to be
highly suspicious of any developer/publisher who refuses to divulge, or even seriously discuss, such details in advance.
I'm sure the people who founded cities like Rome or Paris or New York figured they had to be prepared to be in it
for the long haul. Just like the founders of companies like Electronic Arts or Blizzard or (dare I say it) NCSoft hoped that
their efforts would result in an entity that would live on into the indefinite future, if not forever. So why on God's green Earth are they so unwilling to provide the same level of commitment to their individual
products?
