Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Asheron's Call 2 the death of a virtual world


A gentleman called Clive Thompson over at wired has written a piece on the forthcoming demise of Asherons Call 2, an online mmorpg. So if your a fan of science fiction and ever wondered what human emotions people experience at the brink of World Destruction this piece is for you. And in case you need more convincing here's an excerpt.

"Anybody out there?" I type, but I already know it's pointless. There's nobody anywhere near me. For almost an hour, I've been wandering around a desolate plain: Gray clouds scud slowly over rough quartz mountains, while a few birds wheel in the air near mushroom-shaped trees. I never see another living soul. It feels like the end of the world.

And in fact, it is. I'm inside Asheron's Call 2, an online game that is scheduled to die in two weeks. It never acquired enough players to make it self-sufficient, so the game's owner -- Turbine -- is going to do something that only happens rarely in the world of online play: On Dec. 30, it'll flip the power off on the remaining servers, and an entire world will blink out of existence.

Not with a bang with a whimper: Clive Thompson

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