RIP Afterworld

RIP Afterworld.
My deepest sympathy Dale. I know you really put some effort into this ambitious project.
But ... guess what! Lately my coffee maker went broken. Shall I tell you what happened? Life went on.

 

Well, at least I have to add a small side note. Dale (dalewj) was my mentor ("I love grey.") and helped me a lot - omg! That was more than nine years ago ...
I graduated at January 12th 2006. The team were Dale, two more of his "children" (EyeContact, Colonel Ernst) and me and we hoffed with 1700 PED during the graduation hunt. The very first time that I heard the fanfares. Unbelievable and unforgotten:

Later, when I was member of "Hunters Unlimited", we had a running gag: Whenever something went bad it was Dale's fault, no matter if he was involved or even online. Everyone joked about this issue, Dale included. But now it makes me musing ... probably it's Dale's fault too, that Afterworld died?

 

Awww.... maybe they will all move to that unity project they post about here from time to time? I popped into Afterworld once or twice. I had all these Entropians suddenly pop up in chat going "Hey it's Wistrel! Welcome to afterworld!" It was like the old crew had all gone there.

Sadly to get into an MMO I have to be able to make an avatar or it just doesn't work for me. So yeh I never really got into afterworld.

To be brutally honest actually, to get into an MMO it probably has to be Project Entropia...

 

Awww.... maybe they will all move to that unity project they post about here from time to time? I popped into Afterworld once or twice. I had all these Entropians suddenly pop up in chat going "Hey it's Wistrel! Welcome to afterworld!" It was like the old crew had all gone there.

Sadly to get into an MMO I have to be able to make an avatar or it just doesn't work for me. So yeh I never really got into afterworld.

To be brutally honest actually, to get into an MMO it probably has to be Project Entropia...

 

I remember HU

 

MAybe we arent next, as investors are strong with this "project, called entropia".

But failures are omnipresent in this game by now and trying to be "something new (stolen/copied)" every 6 months to 1 year, will not be enough anymore one day.

MA neither followed its roots, which was trying to be THE No.1 "3d internet/e-commerce platform", nor did they fullfill the legend of planet Calypso and its wonderfull, immersive world, with a nice storyline attached to it. Instead to remain unique, they are trying to be everything at once now. Rush job after rush job.

Impressive, how hard this game got fucked by now, by slowly loosing its dignity, us watching it, like a neverending car crash.
You cant look away, even if you dont like what you SEE.

Sincerly yours,
FUMA

 

ROFL yeah! Thank you so much for doing that, Dale. Good to hear old folks are still in contact. And thanks to the twins as well. YES, it was a great time! Thank you for the help I got from HU in AW when I started there once for a very short period. That was the time when I wished they would offer a serious and solid alternate to PE. The same happend when Ozi started with Arkadia. But all failed it seems.
And special thanks for the explanation of social media like Facebook and Twitter. I really missed that so bad ;-) Unfortunately they are the same cheap goods for me like the stuff I can buy for one Euro at the entrance of a Woolworth shops. Made in China or Indonesia. Not worth to waste a single look at.

 

YEP! That's one of the most important aspects of such games for me too. I enjoyed Skyrim with all the mods regarding this special point and currently TESO as well ... but they all will never be what PE/EU once was!

 

Hmmmmm ...
... I have other standards meanwhile. I wouldn't like to look like this woman in Project Ion. My Ulla-avatar in Skyrim looks a bit better. This is possible because hobbyists made mods for the game in their sparetime just for fun!

It seems Bethesda learned from that and improved the character design for TESO dramatically. Frankly, I wouldn't go behind this level anymore in any game.

 

Hey, I see your point. But maybe out there are people with other preferences, different taste or simply a bigger wallet wich they want to show to others (an important social aspect btw.).
Spontaneous one difference comes my mind:
Valuable vs. cheap materials (haptic, joy of the view, art). The upper pictures show something wich is more than just a game. It is probably a pleasant just to view them or touch the figures even without knowing the rules of the game. I own another one of this kind:

We never ever played one single match with this figures. But I love them because they are heavy (solid tin) and I love Asterix & Obelix. For playing the game I prefer those:

I've learned the game with standard figures (wich are used for tournaments and championships for good reasons). It's easy for me to use them. I can concentrate on gameplay. But frankly, I wouldn't show them in my living room like I do with the Asterix & Obelix figures.
Fine and/or valuable material, artistic or funny design, solid manufacturing, good percebility and several other factors can increase, multiply or even exponentiate the pleasure of a game ... depending on the preferences of the player. Those chess figures say nothing about and have nothing to do with the game itself. Although they can tell alot about the owner.
Chess is by far not a social game. Typically the white lady differs from the black lady by colour only. Social games (like EU, AW, TESO and others) offer features like appearance, clothing, attributes, skills and dunno what else exactly for the social aspects while the players interact with each other.

Last note: I never judge a book by its cover. Look, after moving to a new flat the 4th time with a thin-out of our library each time we ended up with roughly 500 to 700 books left. Not a single one of them was bought by the look of its cover. By any chance you are the only one who judges books by their cover?

 

YES! It was annoying!
But I was overwhelmed by the game and by the cheerfulness of the community (even Dale helped me ) ...

Edit: I was always a fashion babe. Right from start:

That was one of the major features for me.

 

Good points listed here.

Personally I'm on both sides.

First, I think that the game play, mechanics, and overall environment need to in place and be rock solid! (This includes the immersive feeling needed to "hook" your customers and make them want to be involved in your project!)

Second, us high end computer geeks need resolution (realism) that comes with nice graphics, such as the avatars Jamira has provided. (Without sacrificing the fist listed side) To me this adds to the immersive felling of a game! If done right!

The second reason is the biggest one that stopped me playing Project Entropia from the start. I have been watching PE, along with a friend, since the early days of its existence. This has also stopped me from playing Afterworld at the beginning. (Was so looking forward to the graphics update! (Lack of time didn't help)

I have also not started Project Ion due to this very thing. Not saying PI isn't getting interesting because it is! I think Ion will go far as they are ticking all the boxes of my first side! Love the dev videos BTW. Keep them coming!

 

That was one of the reasons for me to switch to TESO. But I still enjoy Skyrim occasionally because of all the unbelievable improvements by mods and the good story you are involved in (one point we reminded to MA since ages!). I play it in survival mode - wich means I cannot swim in the northern sea without dieing immediately because of freeze - haha!

I think way back in the past at PE we were really pioneers (both of us: MA and we customers). This generated a very special feeling of kinda sworn-in community or even elite. I remember well how contemptuous we talked about Second Life. We were part of something very special. Well, times have changed. My impression is, that Entropia Universe isn't that sexy anymore, it became more and more a grinding game and lost it's former charme. The tricky part regarding AfterWorld and ProjectIon is, that they tryed to make replicas of ProjectEntropia, kinda revenants. I think that's impossible. This times are gone irrevocably. You cannot reanimate the old pioneer feeling by better graphics, better gameplay, lower costs ... dunno what else. I doubt it right from my first arrival at AfterWorld. Everybody who still likes to wander around in EU may have reasons for that. My decesion was: When I cannot have this feeling of being a discoverer or pioneer in a good community, I look for better quality and more fun and - important point for me - lower costs elsewhere. Wich I did. And since I own 2 TB of disk space I don't care much about installing one or two games more or less. So I have still access to my EU-Ulla ;-)