I’ve taken some big risks in my day. I once went off-roading in a Geo Metro. One time, I knowingly told an ex-girlfriend that her sister was hot. I was even crazy enough to go see Twilight, knowing the danger it posed. I’ve taken all those risks and more, but there is one thing I would never, ever do; be involved with developing a MMO. Either the people who work on MMO titles have some of the biggest stones in the known universe, or they’re all delusional space circus monkeys dressed in people costumes, I’m not sure which.

You’ve got a better chance of getting hit by a car…surviving…then winning the lottery…then being hit by a car again… only to yet again survive…and discover that Angelina Jolie ran you over…and wants to leave Brad for you…than you have of producing a highly successful MMO title.

Find out more about MMO’s taking their place among the not-so-honored dead after the jump!

I hate to say it, but everyone wants to be the next World of Warcraft. I don’t mean they want to copy the game or its setup per se, but it must be hard for development studios and publishers to look at WoW’s eleven million subscribers (plus the blizzilion dollars Blizzard is raking in) and not dream of getting in on the action. Seriously, 2.8 million copies of an expansion sold in just 24 hours?! Good luck trying to fight against that (WoW) monster.

Which is not to say that a few decent MMO’s have not managed to stay alive. Dungeons and Dragons Online is still alive and kicking, despite a lackluster launch and slow progress. For some reason people still play Star Wars Galaxies, which I have to be honest and say I don’t understand one bit. I’m not sure EverQuest can ever truly die and some of the newer big name MMO titles like WarHammer and Age of Conan may prove their worth in the long run. Oh and we can’t ignore the ungodly amount of brilliant, or brilliantly-terrible indy and free MMO’s floating around cyberspace.

Making a successful  big budget MMO title is really, really hard. Just ask NCsoft. Auto Assault got the Old Yeller treatment last year and this year Tabula Rasa ended up on the business end of a shotgun. Starting January 10, 2009, Tabula Rasa will be free for whatever subscribers haven’t already moved on to WarHammer, Conan, or already gone back to WoW thanks to the latest expansion. The game will officially bite the bullet on February 28, 2009.

Props to NCsoft for City of Heroes/Villains though.

Auto Assault was no big loss and Tabula Rasa just made me want to play Mass Effect more, but I really did have high hopes for Hellgate: London. The hype was out of control for a title being created by staff with ties to past greats like Diablo and Warcraft. Of course launching a game with more bugs than a country outhouse and a storyline that roughly translates into the sound of nails on a chalkboard is hardly the way to be a success. Which explains why the game is being put out of its misery on February 1, 2009. It is free to play until then for the 30 die hards still playing.

And we can’t forget the much begrudged Fury, which I believe is buried in a shallow grave with a cardboard sign stuck in the dirt that says, “Tombstone has been repossessed.”  Like it or not, creating an MMO is probably one of the hardest, if not THE hardest, video game format to create successfully.

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