MMORPG Eschatology
What happens when a shared world dies? Witness the quiet, strange, unsettling end of The Matrix MMORPG.
A grand finale was planned where all online players were to be crushed, however due to a server glitch, most players were disconnected before the final blow came. What had been envisioned as a last hurrah transpired as a gruesome slide show. High pings and low framerates caused by the developers giving out advanced powers (with graphically demanding effects) and abilities to all players, coupled with the flooded chat interface, meant many players were unable to experience the final event as intended.
I do love half-empty online spaces, which is one of the reasons I enjoy MUDS-they give the solitude and space of, say, the early Infocom games where you are alone in an underground empire or a giant spaceship. In an MMORPG, when someone pulls the plug, there are always going to be consequences.
