38:08 - That OST sounded similar to a game called "San Francisco Rush 2049" with the track called "Morning" if you or anyone is curious on listening to that song. The entire game OST oozes the late 90's/early 2000's futuristic feel so if you want give those songs a try!
It isn’t just models that you can build with in Lego Universe; you can also build brick by brick. There was also a coding system to give objects behaviors, but that isn’t in any version of DLU yet; however, it is being worked on. There was also a simple event for the shutdown where admins, which are called Mythrans, interacted with the players a bit and gave out items (which they had also been doing for a while beforehand, if I remember correctly (they also gave out unreleased weapons during the shutdown event), once the shutdown was announced), and players gathered together to talk, party, and such until the servers were turned off (I already commented this, but I’m putting it here too so that it is more visible)
I remember playing Lego Universe when I was a kid and it was my introduction to paying a subscription to play a game, my dad was pissed because we got a physical copy at a store and expected it to be a one time thing, and it was up until I made it to the lil rockets on top of the mountain, and because I didnt want my dad to pay any more money I just kinda wandered around all over the place just enjoying the look of the game
Same exact experience myself😂 I didn’t understand it either after buying a disc for it but felt even worse after seeing my parents reaction so I just enjoyed the scenery hahaha
Lego Universe was the first MMO I played. Back in the Day it was awesome. Wish it would have gotten some more things to do and would at least last so long that it would gotten an Addon or Expansion. 35:48 It was not really because most players, like me at the time, needed their parents to buy a membership. That meant that not many did in the end pay for it. The Studio did not really think about that and expected way more money then they actually got. Also because it was a MMO aimed at kids LEGO demanded a lot of Moderation, like a PP detection on these Building sites. In the End they spent more then 20% of all revenue on moderation, which was far too high to be sustainable
Yea it had a bunch of potential! And thats very interesting to know, I never wouldve thought about the moderation cost but it makes a lot of sense. 20% of all revenue is a crazy amount though no wonder it shutdown
i feel like if they made sets for the game that included like a few weeks or a month of membership (depending on size?) they would’ve gotten a lot more money idk
I remember when I was a kid my dream was to play Lego Universe and I never got to because the family computer didn't run it. I remember leaving it downloading for 2 days and the game simply wouldn't open.😢
i got the game before the big expansion so I didnt get to experience the new sub-classes and the ninjago theme. At the time i was the biggest ninjago fan and this was a wish come true lego universe + ninjago, but as u mentioned my parents aswell only bought base game with the included 1month and i played it for a month. I giga spammed the shit out of it tho and its probably my second fav game of all time. The sound, the world, the atmosphere everything just clicked for me. The only game that would come near this exp for me was wow classic, even tho I never played it before It felt kinda familiar. Not to mention that I was such a fan of the game that I played a lot of the free trial aswell. I perma made a new char just so I can play this game.
There was actually a shutdown event of sorts on the last day of Lego Universe, and it was basically just the admins spawning in random stuff (like trains) at the nexus tower hub as well as gifting players items like the jetpack and some test items they didn't release.
Yup one of my core gaming memories. I remember saying goodbye to the group of kids I played with on there, having access to items I had never owned, and participating in a countdown to the end. It was so bitter sweet. I cried for probably an hour after it ended.
I was gonna say. I fondly remember the last few hours jetpacking around. I think I had even got a few before everybody started to get 'em. Sold those ones for some big bucks despite the server's imminent death.
yesss, do you remember the golden hammer they gifted few days before the shutdown? you could just kill EVERYTHING with a single click. god i miss that game i was like 7-8 years old during that time
Can't think of abandoned MMOs without thinking of the one I put so many hours in back in the day: Cartoon Network Universal Fusion Fall. I remember checking the Update Page regularly only to be met by the same Halloween Count Dracula update from Grim Adventures as I grinded out a new account after a Respawn Glitch bricked my player for the 3rd time. My favorite part of the game was the Early game Map being completely open, and the game would became a stealth quest, walking along the boundaries to avoid detection from enemies that'd one-shot me; the fear of the respawn glitch balanced with my childlike sense of exploration and wanting to hopefully find a beloved cartoon character in the vast, quiet map. Lots of fun finding Courage the Cowardly Dog literally in the middle of Nowhere in a huge Desert. I think there's alos a community driven server community these days, but man was it a cool idea to kid me haha
You def had people who’ve successfully kept it alive, even added to it, with these versions of the game keeping it alive being Fusionfall Legacy and Retro
@@ghjjiyeqsg1052 Legacy and Retro were shut down a long time ago, OpenFusion & Retrobution are what can be played now and Legacy is "Saturday Morning Invasion" now
Dude. Fusion Fall was a MASSIVE obsession of mine, and I was devastated when I realized it was dying. Back in the day, I wrote this massive rant tumblr post because I had started over after the new company had taken over, and there was a quest near the beginning of the game that was impossible to complete because the number of enemies that would spawn was EXACTLY the amount needed for the quest, which was timed, meaning that if there were other players there, it was just... impossible for anyone to complete it. They had removed the entire original intro where Dexter teleported you to the future, and then you had to fight to get sent back, and replaced it with some stupid combat school. I used to read fanfiction for it, too, and my dead favorite was by a username that was like LightningBird. She wrote the most in-depth, amazing fiction surrounding the Cartoon Network universe involving like the Powerpuff Girls adopting Dexter- it was NUTS
LEGO Universe was such a childhood game for me omg. I remember visiting the player house called Red Town all the time and trying to go out of bounds everywhere else
RIP to all the dead mmos, especially the ones that you can't play _at all_ anymore. Those 10 (11 in less than a month) years have been way harder on me than they should have...
there is so much to uncover in the realm of forgotten/now dead mmos. i miss the days of the mmo boom, there was always something new going on and people were still figuring how to get things working and profit at the same time. Now everything follows the same models also i love the animations and pixelated style you've got in these vids man, looks great
The problem of that time was that the MMOs that actually had something great like Wildstar were drowned out by 100 others. The attention was too wide-spread.
27:30 i remember this being changed during the lifetime of the game. You where able to originally just use the loose bricks and do whatever you want with them. But alot of people made some „inappropriate“ stuff what is why it was changed
Regarding Lego Universe's early game slog - a good chunk of that was added during the game's Free-to-Play update to pad out Avant Gardens and boy does it show. The Rusty Steele thing is especially egregious, which is why we modded it on our server to be optional side content - before the F2P update he just sent you on your way.
Just a random dude who has played BOTS since late 2006 and I'm really grateful for your effort in making an introduction for this game. It's true that BOTS is not a great game in story-telling and actually in many other aspects, but what I still found fun these days about it is the way PVP and Base vs Base work out, and how you can chill with your friends and others in these game modes when the room size is big enough. Anyway a well explained video about BOTS and you earned a new sub from Hong Kong👍🏻
Lego Universe was my childhood mmo for real. I remember playing it fondly and getting interested in the lore. For a Lego game, it was pretty rad and may have inspired later Lego media, even my own projects. Glad to hear someone finally talk about it
Goodness, I haven't thought about LEGO Universe in a minute. I still remember how in the Ninjago world you could jump on some rocks and clip through the terrain, and for reasons I'm not sure of, there was a giant grass textured platform you'd land on after falling down for a bit, so a group of us would just go down there and hang out.
I remember when I wanted to play lego universe, I wasn't old enough to use it so my mother made me wait until I was old enough to play it, but alas, come the time when I could play it the servers were gone.
18:29 "This is hands down the coolest most unique way a game has shut down servers I've seen" Allow me to introduce you to Final Fantasy XIV 1.0's shutdown, the fall of Dalamud
On my grandmothers old computer, I believe she still has it somewhere, it still has the launcher for Lego Universe and an old version of the lego digital designer on it. I've been waiting for years to see someone else that remembers it. I played it a bit while it was active, never got so far as to the hub world because I was like 7 and had a short attention span, but its one of the few things I remember from that early on. This video really brought me back. Was another old star wars one I can't remember set during the Clone Wars era that I had on there too. A lot of good ones have just been lost to the wind.
it's established in several places (Matrix Reloaded and Resurrections eg) that things like vampires, ghost, etc. existed as programs in previous versions of the matrix before getting rebooted. the merovingian even has some of them working for him
went looking for this comment so I wouldnt have to say it myself lol. in matrix reloaded its even implied that the merovingian had werewolves working for him.
i've been currently getting into starbreak, a level based mmo that stopped getting updated in 2018 but still has it's server up, despite having like 50 concurrent players it looks surprisingly lively. i miss those types of mmos a lot, they feel much more focused than the popular open world format, and my high point for these multiplayer games was always the raiding, so bots looks right up my alley.
27:44 Nah, you could actually collect individual lego pieces to make custom builds. In fact, you could take the pre-made model items and deconstruct them into individual bricks to use.
yea kinda weird how he makes that point when being able to build from scratch was one of the main selling points. Maybe the current fan-run servers don't have that feature?
Well the problem is a lot of the time people would end up building things that were a bit...uhh...let's say not exactly friendly to the age range LEGO is usually meant for.
I appreciate the look into more obscure MMOs, feel like there's a few surface level ones people talk about first with these types of videos. If you ever did a part 2, would recommend looking into Myst Uru based on the puzzle game series. In the early 2000s someone thought that would be a good idea for a MMO with what seems to be interesting results. Was later rebranded as a singleplayer game after the servers closed, though some MMO aspects lingered.
What an amazing video dude. Every MMO described in this was interesting (which finding interesting topics is a skill all on its own) and you explained them in a very informative and fun (couldn't think of another word that wasn't interesting) way. The format was simple and DIDN'T drag on too long at some parts. The way you implemented your character into the games themselves was actually inspiring. Actually kinda fustrating that you're still "up and coming" because it makes me feel like pos for not being able to put this effort in myself. Good job all around.
Wow! This is awesome, yesterday I was literally talking about how much I miss MMOs. I feel like this generation of kids doesn't have the same game or shared experience that brings them together like MMOs did for my generation.
The matrix having known characters role play in the game by staff is amazing. It would be cool if like Pokemon had a mmo and Ash Ketchum would show up and give u a shiny or something
5:58 The Blackout Club did this in a less direct way when its story was running. You were able to send voice recordings as prayers to the Voices/Daemons/gods and they (the developers) would reply to a fair few of them in the form of auditory dreams you'd receive after a mission. Old Jagex had the odd staff-run event back in RuneScape 2's heyday, too
BRO, this video is incredible. All my favorite MMOs as a kid. I got Lego Universe on Christmas and I remember playing that game so dang much. Absolute throwback. Also when I left for school always so eager to come home and smash stuff on BOTS. Great video, thanks for the nostalgia trip.
LEGO UNIVERSE MENTIONED!!! absolutely loved that game for the few short weeks I played it. honestly, one of the other MMO's I quite enjoyed that kind of died off is Spiral Knights. great artstyle, but it got killed off due to lack of maintenance and updates. sad times.
Man i played lego universe and 3 month after that the game closed, i was stil playing them that happen, i'm brazilian, took me some years to learn englih and find out what happen to the game, manage to find some ways to play the game now, you bring so much nostalgic memories, sorry about my english its not the best hahaha
I miss Lego Universe so much man, genuinely if they were to remake it today I would gladly pay for the membership because that game was genuinely one of the only MMOs I’ve played and really got hooked on. I was actually devastated when they shut it down when I was still young
THANK YOU for being someone to finally make notice of Bots!, it's such a fun game and I was so sad when it initially shut down. It had a small loving community that stuck with it until the end.
I've never heard or played BOTS!! before, but it made me remember an old MMO that I used to play as a kid named GetAmped. But the one I used to play was GetAmped 2.
Lego Universe was a huge memory of my childhood as i used to play a lot of MMOs and i was inredibly hyped at the announcement, shame i never got the chance to actually play it, as it wasn't available in my country... 27:50 An online lego/brick-by-brick building game is very possible and has been done successfully more than once, just not with the lego brand or officially - in fact, the first significant example i can think of dates back to 2007 and its game called Blockland, which is an absolute hidden gem. Far from a unplayable or messy game, and with massive modding potential that did indeed lead to a lot of pieces and potential for builds, other than the fact it allowed for event scripting for blocks and custom items, vehicles and the like; Think gmod, but with lego bricks. While it only retains a tiny loyal playerbase , the game is still fully functional to this day (other than being re-released on steam years later) and is still one of the best games i ever played. The only reason we don't have far bigger and successful games like that today is that no one wants to make it, despite the potential. (an obligatory mention goes to Brickadia, which is an attempt at a spiritual sequel to Blockland by completely different people, but hasn't been fully released yet, although an early build is playable)
Man, this brings back so many memories about Lego Universe. I remember being like 11 and trying to communicate in English, the game's chat was very strict with what you could type, but that just helped me learn vocabulary better. I also remember some things differently, like the factions only having 2 classes to choose from, they must have added the 3rd one later? But I remember playing when the game was about to shut down, there were TONS of people gathered in the center of Nimbus Plaza, even some mods, and it was so wholesome how we all gathered to say the last goodbye to the game.
just wanna say, vampires are in the matrix movies but you wouldnt know it by looking at them the movies are not very clear about that that's what theyre supposed to be but yeah, there are vamps and even werewolves and they do fight each other at some point and the movie does not specify that lol but it is in the lore
Oh my god, you unlocked some long forgotten core memory for me by talking about Bots. I had completely forgotten about its existence until now and I'm so happy to see that there's still a community for it.
Yeah the zombie virus being a thing is mentioned in passing in one of the films. There's also vampires and werewolves which are featured more prominently. They're in Reloaded and the Enter the Matrix ps2 game. Part of the 'Exiles' from previous versions of the Matrix that were wiped.
27:53 not entirely true, lego worlds took a fairly good crack at this back in 2017. While you couldn't make functional builds with moving elements in any way as far as static sets were concerned it was very good at letting you build what you wanted. Couple that with the vehicles most of which had uniue function and it wasn't a bad game to explore, unfortunately it greatly suffered from a complete lack of direction, like minecraft without the survival elements, a world you can do everything without having a reason to do anything
It isn’t just models that you can build with in Lego Universe; you can also build brick by brick. There was also a coding system to give objects behaviors, but that isn’t in any version of DLU yet; however, it is being worked on. There was also a simple event for the shutdown where admins, which are called Mythrans, interacted with the players a bit and gave out items (which they had also been doing for a while beforehand, if I remember correctly (they also gave out unreleased weapons during the shutdown event), once the shutdown was announced), and players gathered together to talk, party, and such until the servers were turned off
I forgot about Bots entirely! I played it as a ton as a kid during my "f2p mmo" phase. I remember it being really grinfy but u spent hundreds of hours in it
Cities have parks, subways, skyways, corporate megacomplexes, rundown neighborhoods, posh neighborhoods, undercities (if you're into urban exploring, look these up), redlight districts, little 'insert country' town', hidden and/or private clubs/bars, etc. There is variety to cities, but it is difficult. I think if a Matrix game got made today, this type of stuff would be implemented better thanks to modern tech.
Regarding lego universe being switched off without any official shutdown event, they did actually make some crazy things happen. I remember leading up to the closure, the moderators, gamemakers or "mythrans" went off the rails with the gamemaking tools and started spawning loads of unused assets around the game world from various stages in the game's development. This included cut enemies and npcs from the early pre-alpha stage, as well as models and environmental assets from cut maps. They also gave everyone a bunch of busted cut weapons and gear such as a jetpack which allowed you to fly infinitely and go out of bounds. They were essentially teaching the kids about the game's development by showing us absolutely everything they had worked on. Lego's costly "big brother" esque moderation system may have doomed the game, but seeing how they were able to watch over us and alter the game environment in real-time is genuinely the most bizzare thing I've ever seen in a video game. I never understood why this game's shutdown made me feel sad and no other has, and now that I think about it, it's because the devs were personally showing us all of their work which was soon to be lost to time after they lost their jobs. I think there is some footage out there of the game during this period but it is hard to come by.
I wanted to mention that there was a sort of event before the servers turned off in lego universe. In the mailbox, the devs sent everybody a bunch of gear, including the weapons all the faction leaders had. It was so cool!
27:52 Technically there are things that match that description. Lego Worlds allows for the uses of an insane amount of lego bricks that can be used in game. And for the CAD side of things, we have Lego Studio Bricklink (formerly Lego Digital Designer), which can even make custom instructions!
the only other online game I can think of where the narrative was continues through staff interacting with players in real time, in character, was FFXIV 1.0, the game's Producer-Director actually played the role of a "Wandering Minstrel" and would log in as the character as the game was hitting it's final days, before it was relaunched, hyping up what was basically a game ending apocalypse, GMs even spawned monsters like mad outside towns to simulate monsters attacking in the final day of service
I have fond memories of Bots. I hopped around MMOs with my brother around the time it actually had a playerbase. One memory in particular I have is being scared shitless in the mission where the big Chernobyl robot chases you. Another memory is that same mission, but we were playing with a random and he was a hacker who one-shot everything.
I hadn't looked at the description or chapters yet, so I was startled and had to stop right at 37:05; before the transition was over, I already knew what I was seeing. BOTS was my first MMO and I played it religiously from the month it launched to the day the login and server select window became empty. The gameplay was simple, the region chat was hellishly toxic, and the game was downright pay-to-win (wings and transformation boosters were meta, but they were also real-money RENTALS that would expire), but I loved it so much regardless.
You seem like the type of guy who might enjoy LEGO HERO FACTORY, or at least one of the games made to go along with the episodes of the series. Just a warning for anyone who wants to know more about LEGO HERO FACTORY it was on Netflix back when Netflix still prioritized mailing dvds instead of being an actual streaming service, I'm pretty sure it was either in the early 2010s or before and I remember when I was a child I used to love watching the series on Netflix and playing the two games that I knew about on my Nana's Laptop and those games were quite fun.
Really enjoyed this! I would love to see another one of these. There's plenty of "dead MMO" videos out there but not a lot of them delve any further than what's on Steam. If I could offer some suggestions: Asheron's Call: Known for having one of the smoothest MMO launches in history, and was a technical powerhouse; thousands of players hosted in a seamless, zone-free world. In 1999! Playable through private server emulation. Vanguard: Saga of Heroes: Brad McQuaid's next project after Everquest, just as rough around the edges but without the benefit of being as groundbreaking as EQ. Playable through private server emulation. Hellgate: London: This got a rerelease on steam but it's terrible and lacks multiplayer completely. Spearheaded by David Brevik (Diablo 2) and might be the original "Looter-Shooter". Playable via London 2038.
Lego universe lets you build on your property with separate single pieces you get from enemy drops, not just the pre builds. Something you didn’t mention.
This was a fun dive into dead mmos! This isn't really an MMO, but you should look up the Blackout Club. Game's dead now, but it had REAL TIME interactions in it. Kind of like the Matrix mmo did, but more... intense may be the word? The Voices were actually voiced and some via text. The story was being told real time as well amd you may enjoy the deep dive on that game. Sucks they had to cut it short, but the VAs they hired and the pandemic more than likely shot their budget bad.
I still have my lego universe case with the disc in it sitting on my gaming shelf! I loved this game as a kid and was so happy I could finally replay it on a public fanmade reboot project! I was always fond of the assembly league and doctor overbuild, but I also liked the venture league as well so i had two characters just so I could be on both factions since you were only limited to one faction per character the classes I mainly played were engineer and buccaneer respectively, if i had gotten more time with the game then I woulda made a third character and joined the sentinels, I thought samurai's looked so cool in game!
I used to love lego universe as a kid. Pretty much anything that was a virtual world I would try when I was younger it was for sure the golden age of mmo/virtual worlds. I remember playing the kung fu panda world game, the mcdonalds virtual world, and one of my favorites Nicktropolis. Of course the big ones like club penguin and webkinz but I can think of a lot more. Great videos i love exploring dead games like this it's bittersweet. It would be cool if you made another part of this.
6:00 the under presents is a recent (vr) game that did this, although i dont think they have anyone active now. it was super super cool. at the end you could even meet some of the devs. it was a much smaller scale. i still think about the under presents way too damn much. the main story and online are still playable i think, and I'd still say it's worth it if you have vr. i could talk about it all day. snap snap snap.
I made my own story when MXO Emu brought it back. My own lore I made is My Character who died after the plug was pulled officially, his data got corrupted he was a Machine then was converted to a Zion then when the Matrix was booted back up. It tried to retrieve my data but only can find fragments of my RSI and was rebuilding me back from a previous data. I reverted back to a Machine Operative losing all my Zion loyalty to them. The Reconstruction was successful but my character only remembered being a Machine operative. Also funny thing is, Machine Operatives and Zion players kept tugging me back and forth on staying machine or going zion. I was known as Gabumon or Gabumon404 in MXO. I enjoyed the combat despite its issue, Its still memorable and I love its quirky way of doing stuff. Also the npcs that are standing around are actually enemy factions the guy who is working on the project is trying to get enemy npcs working. That was only the first step. The Zombies are part of a Halloween Event.
I played the Matrix online, was on the day it shut down. All content for the most part, was player added at the end. The clubs had parties, the matrix allowed you to pipe in music, link it in the chat box, and you could click and listen in game. Tournaments were all player run. I played Merovingian on the pvp server, it was a gank fest.
The lego universe devs put out a tweet saying that it was shut down because it wasnt generating revenue fast enough. It was profitable if it was given time, like a lot of successful MMOs, but the lego company didnt want to give it that time.
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Where are you
38:08 - That OST sounded similar to a game called "San Francisco Rush 2049" with the track called "Morning" if you or anyone is curious on listening to that song. The entire game OST oozes the late 90's/early 2000's futuristic feel so if you want give those songs a try!
It isn’t just models that you can build with in Lego Universe; you can also build brick by brick. There was also a coding system to give objects behaviors, but that isn’t in any version of DLU yet; however, it is being worked on.
There was also a simple event for the shutdown where admins, which are called Mythrans, interacted with the players a bit and gave out items (which they had also been doing for a while beforehand, if I remember correctly (they also gave out unreleased weapons during the shutdown event), once the shutdown was announced), and players gathered together to talk, party, and such until the servers were turned off
(I already commented this, but I’m putting it here too so that it is more visible)
I remember playing Lego Universe when I was a kid and it was my introduction to paying a subscription to play a game, my dad was pissed because we got a physical copy at a store and expected it to be a one time thing, and it was up until I made it to the lil rockets on top of the mountain, and because I didnt want my dad to pay any more money I just kinda wandered around all over the place just enjoying the look of the game
i had the exact same experience, and i feel like this is also why the game ultimately failed
Same exact experience myself😂 I didn’t understand it either after buying a disc for it but felt even worse after seeing my parents reaction so I just enjoyed the scenery hahaha
Same experience! haha like 1 to 1
Same lol
same for me
Lego Universe was the first MMO I played. Back in the Day it was awesome. Wish it would have gotten some more things to do and would at least last so long that it would gotten an Addon or Expansion.
35:48 It was not really because most players, like me at the time, needed their parents to buy a membership. That meant that not many did in the end pay for it. The Studio did not really think about that and expected way more money then they actually got. Also because it was a MMO aimed at kids LEGO demanded a lot of Moderation, like a PP detection on these Building sites. In the End they spent more then 20% of all revenue on moderation, which was far too high to be sustainable
Yea it had a bunch of potential!
And thats very interesting to know, I never wouldve thought about the moderation cost but it makes a lot of sense. 20% of all revenue is a crazy amount though no wonder it shutdown
i feel like if they made sets for the game that included like a few weeks or a month of membership (depending on size?) they would’ve gotten a lot more money idk
Same! I had loads of stuff on it but my account got lost sadly. I loved it so much.
I remember when I was a kid my dream was to play Lego Universe and I never got to because the family computer didn't run it. I remember leaving it downloading for 2 days and the game simply wouldn't open.😢
i got the game before the big expansion so I didnt get to experience the new sub-classes and the ninjago theme. At the time i was the biggest ninjago fan and this was a wish come true lego universe + ninjago, but as u mentioned my parents aswell only bought base game with the included 1month and i played it for a month. I giga spammed the shit out of it tho and its probably my second fav game of all time.
The sound, the world, the atmosphere everything just clicked for me. The only game that would come near this exp for me was wow classic, even tho I never played it before It felt kinda familiar. Not to mention that I was such a fan of the game that I played a lot of the free trial aswell. I perma made a new char just so I can play this game.
There was actually a shutdown event of sorts on the last day of Lego Universe, and it was basically just the admins spawning in random stuff (like trains) at the nexus tower hub as well as gifting players items like the jetpack and some test items they didn't release.
Yup one of my core gaming memories. I remember saying goodbye to the group of kids I played with on there, having access to items I had never owned, and participating in a countdown to the end. It was so bitter sweet. I cried for probably an hour after it ended.
Thats awesome
I was gonna say. I fondly remember the last few hours jetpacking around. I think I had even got a few before everybody started to get 'em. Sold those ones for some big bucks despite the server's imminent death.
yesss, do you remember the golden hammer they gifted few days before the shutdown? you could just kill EVERYTHING with a single click. god i miss that game i was like 7-8 years old during that time
@@x0668 Holy crap I forgot about that. I think I was 6 when I played and sadly it's becoming hard to remember everything lol.
I absolutely adore the self insert edited sequences with the game cinematics, and your little character wiggling sitting down in the room. great job.
I was an alpha tester for LEGO Universe. They let me keep my gear from it through to the full release. I had a lot of fun with it.
You were a BEATER!
Can't think of abandoned MMOs without thinking of the one I put so many hours in back in the day: Cartoon Network Universal Fusion Fall. I remember checking the Update Page regularly only to be met by the same Halloween Count Dracula update from Grim Adventures as I grinded out a new account after a Respawn Glitch bricked my player for the 3rd time. My favorite part of the game was the Early game Map being completely open, and the game would became a stealth quest, walking along the boundaries to avoid detection from enemies that'd one-shot me; the fear of the respawn glitch balanced with my childlike sense of exploration and wanting to hopefully find a beloved cartoon character in the vast, quiet map. Lots of fun finding Courage the Cowardly Dog literally in the middle of Nowhere in a huge Desert. I think there's alos a community driven server community these days, but man was it a cool idea to kid me haha
You def had people who’ve successfully kept it alive, even added to it, with these versions of the game keeping it alive being Fusionfall Legacy and Retro
@@ghjjiyeqsg1052 Legacy and Retro were shut down a long time ago, OpenFusion & Retrobution are what can be played now and Legacy is "Saturday Morning Invasion" now
fusion fall was s tier.
Dude. Fusion Fall was a MASSIVE obsession of mine, and I was devastated when I realized it was dying. Back in the day, I wrote this massive rant tumblr post because I had started over after the new company had taken over, and there was a quest near the beginning of the game that was impossible to complete because the number of enemies that would spawn was EXACTLY the amount needed for the quest, which was timed, meaning that if there were other players there, it was just... impossible for anyone to complete it. They had removed the entire original intro where Dexter teleported you to the future, and then you had to fight to get sent back, and replaced it with some stupid combat school.
I used to read fanfiction for it, too, and my dead favorite was by a username that was like LightningBird. She wrote the most in-depth, amazing fiction surrounding the Cartoon Network universe involving like the Powerpuff Girls adopting Dexter- it was NUTS
The only reason I clicked this video is bc it reminded me of fusion fall . So cool .
LEGO Universe was such a childhood game for me omg. I remember visiting the player house called Red Town all the time and trying to go out of bounds everywhere else
the Matrix MMO was ahead of its time and i’m sure if it was created with todays graphics it would have done really well.
RIP to all the dead mmos, especially the ones that you can't play _at all_ anymore.
Those 10 (11 in less than a month) years have been way harder on me than they should have...
i feel that
Which is why stopkillinggames is important.
Every MMO gets free fan revivals lol just search em up
there is so much to uncover in the realm of forgotten/now dead mmos. i miss the days of the mmo boom, there was always something new going on and people were still figuring how to get things working and profit at the same time. Now everything follows the same models
also i love the animations and pixelated style you've got in these vids man, looks great
The problem of that time was that the MMOs that actually had something great like Wildstar were drowned out by 100 others. The attention was too wide-spread.
Its funny to me you have to go to old experiences rather than new experiences to get something unique these days lmao
Cried when Lego universe shut down as just a week before I had saved my pocket money to get membership for it :(
I loved Lego Universe a lot as a kid, I'm still trying to figure out how to replay it.
I linked a discord in the description that has guides on how to make a private server :))
@@Daiazal there are some "public" private servers too
@@DemoriaMcPlWHERE AT 👀
I managed to get into a server a while ago but the missions just got so repetitive.. 😢
27:30 i remember this being changed during the lifetime of the game. You where able to originally just use the loose bricks and do whatever you want with them. But alot of people made some „inappropriate“ stuff what is why it was changed
Regarding Lego Universe's early game slog - a good chunk of that was added during the game's Free-to-Play update to pad out Avant Gardens and boy does it show. The Rusty Steele thing is especially egregious, which is why we modded it on our server to be optional side content - before the F2P update he just sent you on your way.
Just a random dude who has played BOTS since late 2006 and I'm really grateful for your effort in making an introduction for this game.
It's true that BOTS is not a great game in story-telling and actually in many other aspects, but what I still found fun these days about it is the way PVP and Base vs Base work out, and how you can chill with your friends and others in these game modes when the room size is big enough.
Anyway a well explained video about BOTS and you earned a new sub from Hong Kong👍🏻
Wow LEGO Universe really takes me back, thanks for reminding me! What a trip, now I’ve gotta play it again!
Lego Universe was my childhood mmo for real. I remember playing it fondly and getting interested in the lore. For a Lego game, it was pretty rad and may have inspired later Lego media, even my own projects.
Glad to hear someone finally talk about it
Man I miss Lego universe so much.. my mom got it for me as a Christmas gift one year. Absolutely loved it
Goodness, I haven't thought about LEGO Universe in a minute. I still remember how in the Ninjago world you could jump on some rocks and clip through the terrain, and for reasons I'm not sure of, there was a giant grass textured platform you'd land on after falling down for a bit, so a group of us would just go down there and hang out.
I remember when I wanted to play lego universe, I wasn't old enough to use it so my mother made me wait until I was old enough to play it, but alas, come the time when I could play it the servers were gone.
18:29 "This is hands down the coolest most unique way a game has shut down servers I've seen"
Allow me to introduce you to Final Fantasy XIV 1.0's shutdown, the fall of Dalamud
On my grandmothers old computer, I believe she still has it somewhere, it still has the launcher for Lego Universe and an old version of the lego digital designer on it. I've been waiting for years to see someone else that remembers it. I played it a bit while it was active, never got so far as to the hub world because I was like 7 and had a short attention span, but its one of the few things I remember from that early on. This video really brought me back. Was another old star wars one I can't remember set during the Clone Wars era that I had on there too. A lot of good ones have just been lost to the wind.
it's established in several places (Matrix Reloaded and Resurrections eg) that things like vampires, ghost, etc. existed as programs in previous versions of the matrix before getting rebooted. the merovingian even has some of them working for him
I literally scrolled down looking for this comment becuz I knew someone else had to know this too
went looking for this comment so I wouldnt have to say it myself lol. in matrix reloaded its even implied that the merovingian had werewolves working for him.
i've been currently getting into starbreak, a level based mmo that stopped getting updated in 2018 but still has it's server up, despite having like 50 concurrent players it looks surprisingly lively.
i miss those types of mmos a lot, they feel much more focused than the popular open world format, and my high point for these multiplayer games was always the raiding, so bots looks right up my alley.
27:44 Nah, you could actually collect individual lego pieces to make custom builds. In fact, you could take the pre-made model items and deconstruct them into individual bricks to use.
yea kinda weird how he makes that point when being able to build from scratch was one of the main selling points. Maybe the current fan-run servers don't have that feature?
Well the problem is a lot of the time people would end up building things that were a bit...uhh...let's say not exactly friendly to the age range LEGO is usually meant for.
:O A dead MMO video suggested to me that isn't just old abandoned realism shooters? Good stuff.
I appreciate the look into more obscure MMOs, feel like there's a few surface level ones people talk about first with these types of videos. If you ever did a part 2, would recommend looking into Myst Uru based on the puzzle game series. In the early 2000s someone thought that would be a good idea for a MMO with what seems to be interesting results. Was later rebranded as a singleplayer game after the servers closed, though some MMO aspects lingered.
Love your content man! From cool animations, to presenting style, all of it is really cool and unique! Hope you stick to it
I will! And thank you, your kind words mean a lot :D
pretty well made and informative video about bots, very nice mane
Dude, your presentation style is super unique! :D Great video.
Those stick figure visual aids are absolutely adorable, keep up the good work.
What an amazing video dude. Every MMO described in this was interesting (which finding interesting topics is a skill all on its own) and you explained them in a very informative and fun (couldn't think of another word that wasn't interesting) way. The format was simple and DIDN'T drag on too long at some parts. The way you implemented your character into the games themselves was actually inspiring. Actually kinda fustrating that you're still "up and coming" because it makes me feel like pos for not being able to put this effort in myself. Good job all around.
Wow! This is awesome, yesterday I was literally talking about how much I miss MMOs. I feel like this generation of kids doesn't have the same game or shared experience that brings them together like MMOs did for my generation.
The matrix having known characters role play in the game by staff is amazing. It would be cool if like Pokemon had a mmo and Ash Ketchum would show up and give u a shiny or something
5:58
The Blackout Club did this in a less direct way when its story was running. You were able to send voice recordings as prayers to the Voices/Daemons/gods and they (the developers) would reply to a fair few of them in the form of auditory dreams you'd receive after a mission.
Old Jagex had the odd staff-run event back in RuneScape 2's heyday, too
BRO, this video is incredible. All my favorite MMOs as a kid. I got Lego Universe on Christmas and I remember playing that game so dang much. Absolute throwback.
Also when I left for school always so eager to come home and smash stuff on BOTS.
Great video, thanks for the nostalgia trip.
Me and a friend played SO MUCH Bots back in the day
come play :]
another video from the spiral to remind me of things i didnt know i missed
anytime! Glad you enjoyed :D
Great to see a new video! I'm so glad I found this channel, your videos are really interesting and well made :)
omg thank u rei...
BRO BOTS WAS LIT when i was young. I miss it.
it’s still there 8)
LEGO UNIVERSE MENTIONED!!! absolutely loved that game for the few short weeks I played it. honestly, one of the other MMO's I quite enjoyed that kind of died off is Spiral Knights. great artstyle, but it got killed off due to lack of maintenance and updates. sad times.
Man i played lego universe and 3 month after that the game closed, i was stil playing them that happen, i'm brazilian, took me some years to learn englih and find out what happen to the game, manage to find some ways to play the game now, you bring so much nostalgic memories, sorry about my english its not the best hahaha
I miss Lego Universe so much man, genuinely if they were to remake it today I would gladly pay for the membership because that game was genuinely one of the only MMOs I’ve played and really got hooked on. I was actually devastated when they shut it down when I was still young
THANK YOU for being someone to finally make notice of Bots!, it's such a fun game and I was so sad when it initially shut down. It had a small loving community that stuck with it until the end.
We're still here friend! Active and passionate
I'm glad Lego Universe is still being covered by youtubers, I loved that game as a kid lol, I feel like that game has so much missed potential.
What? Why would a matrix game NEED to be in a city? Villages and forests exist in the matrix.
Not necessarily need, but more heavily expected, most people think of cityscapes when they think of the matrix imo :))
Very good video and good job on the animations
I've never heard or played BOTS!! before, but it made me remember an old MMO that I used to play as a kid named GetAmped. But the one I used to play was GetAmped 2.
Lego Universe was a huge memory of my childhood as i used to play a lot of MMOs and i was inredibly hyped at the announcement, shame i never got the chance to actually play it, as it wasn't available in my country...
27:50 An online lego/brick-by-brick building game is very possible and has been done successfully more than once, just not with the lego brand or officially - in fact, the first significant example i can think of dates back to 2007 and its game called Blockland, which is an absolute hidden gem.
Far from a unplayable or messy game, and with massive modding potential that did indeed lead to a lot of pieces and potential for builds, other than the fact it allowed for event scripting for blocks and custom items, vehicles and the like; Think gmod, but with lego bricks.
While it only retains a tiny loyal playerbase , the game is still fully functional to this day (other than being re-released on steam years later) and is still one of the best games i ever played.
The only reason we don't have far bigger and successful games like that today is that no one wants to make it, despite the potential.
(an obligatory mention goes to Brickadia, which is an attempt at a spiritual sequel to Blockland by completely different people, but hasn't been fully released yet, although an early build is playable)
Man, this brings back so many memories about Lego Universe. I remember being like 11 and trying to communicate in English, the game's chat was very strict with what you could type, but that just helped me learn vocabulary better.
I also remember some things differently, like the factions only having 2 classes to choose from, they must have added the 3rd one later? But I remember playing when the game was about to shut down, there were TONS of people gathered in the center of Nimbus Plaza, even some mods, and it was so wholesome how we all gathered to say the last goodbye to the game.
just wanna say, vampires are in the matrix movies but you wouldnt know it by looking at them
the movies are not very clear about that that's what theyre supposed to be but yeah, there are vamps and even werewolves and they do fight each other at some point and the movie does not specify that lol but it is in the lore
Dope vid! Thanks for covering the Bots!! mmo. The ohka server welcomes lots of new players!!
27k subs is CRIMINAL. I love your character and the video was awesome!! Instant sub
Oh my god, you unlocked some long forgotten core memory for me by talking about Bots. I had completely forgotten about its existence until now and I'm so happy to see that there's still a community for it.
Yeah the zombie virus being a thing is mentioned in passing in one of the films. There's also vampires and werewolves which are featured more prominently. They're in Reloaded and the Enter the Matrix ps2 game. Part of the 'Exiles' from previous versions of the Matrix that were wiped.
27:53 not entirely true, lego worlds took a fairly good crack at this back in 2017. While you couldn't make functional builds with moving elements in any way as far as static sets were concerned it was very good at letting you build what you wanted. Couple that with the vehicles most of which had uniue function and it wasn't a bad game to explore, unfortunately it greatly suffered from a complete lack of direction, like minecraft without the survival elements, a world you can do everything without having a reason to do anything
It isn’t just models that you can build with in Lego Universe; you can also build brick by brick. There was also a coding system to give objects behaviors, but that isn’t in any version of DLU yet; however, it is being worked on.
There was also a simple event for the shutdown where admins, which are called Mythrans, interacted with the players a bit and gave out items (which they had also been doing for a while beforehand, if I remember correctly (they also gave out unreleased weapons during the shutdown event), once the shutdown was announced), and players gathered together to talk, party, and such until the servers were turned off
I forgot about Bots entirely! I played it as a ton as a kid during my "f2p mmo" phase. I remember it being really grinfy but u spent hundreds of hours in it
come play >:]
@NemesisBOTS might do! Busy with adult life and all but would be nice to stick my head back in, even if just for a little bit
yooooo, a new upload from up-and-coming, rising star, 🗣Daiazal‼‼‼
It would be cool for someone to revitalize the MMO genre with new ideas and a modern spin on it.
Cities have parks, subways, skyways, corporate megacomplexes, rundown neighborhoods, posh neighborhoods, undercities (if you're into urban exploring, look these up), redlight districts, little 'insert country' town', hidden and/or private clubs/bars, etc. There is variety to cities, but it is difficult. I think if a Matrix game got made today, this type of stuff would be implemented better thanks to modern tech.
Finally, A NEW VIDEO!!!!!
Regarding lego universe being switched off without any official shutdown event, they did actually make some crazy things happen. I remember leading up to the closure, the moderators, gamemakers or "mythrans" went off the rails with the gamemaking tools and started spawning loads of unused assets around the game world from various stages in the game's development. This included cut enemies and npcs from the early pre-alpha stage, as well as models and environmental assets from cut maps. They also gave everyone a bunch of busted cut weapons and gear such as a jetpack which allowed you to fly infinitely and go out of bounds. They were essentially teaching the kids about the game's development by showing us absolutely everything they had worked on.
Lego's costly "big brother" esque moderation system may have doomed the game, but seeing how they were able to watch over us and alter the game environment in real-time is genuinely the most bizzare thing I've ever seen in a video game. I never understood why this game's shutdown made me feel sad and no other has, and now that I think about it, it's because the devs were personally showing us all of their work which was soon to be lost to time after they lost their jobs.
I think there is some footage out there of the game during this period but it is hard to come by.
OMG BOTS!? i forgot that was called that! been low key after that for years! ty!
I wanted to mention that there was a sort of event before the servers turned off in lego universe. In the mailbox, the devs sent everybody a bunch of gear, including the weapons all the faction leaders had. It was so cool!
Lego legends of chima was grand too! Loved that game, but it's wiped off the face of the earth sadly 😢
27:52 Technically there are things that match that description. Lego Worlds allows for the uses of an insane amount of lego bricks that can be used in game. And for the CAD side of things, we have Lego Studio Bricklink (formerly Lego Digital Designer), which can even make custom instructions!
the only other online game I can think of where the narrative was continues through staff interacting with players in real time, in character, was FFXIV 1.0, the game's Producer-Director actually played the role of a "Wandering Minstrel" and would log in as the character as the game was hitting it's final days, before it was relaunched, hyping up what was basically a game ending apocalypse, GMs even spawned monsters like mad outside towns to simulate monsters attacking in the final day of service
i think an even more notable example of real people as NPCs (like Matrix Online) is most likely Club Penguin and its mascots
The lego universe segment brought back so many forgotten memories... if I didnt see this video, i mightve never remembered it existed
Bots was mindblowing to me as a kid in 2008-10. Still super cool aesthetically
come back brother!!
Giant bomb has an endurance run of the matrix online if you want to see what it was like right before it shut down
Loved the dimensional doors video n this just sealed the deal. Subbed :)
I have fond memories of Bots. I hopped around MMOs with my brother around the time it actually had a playerbase. One memory in particular I have is being scared shitless in the mission where the big Chernobyl robot chases you. Another memory is that same mission, but we were playing with a random and he was a hacker who one-shot everything.
IN [8:00], THERE'S AN [7+1] IN HIS HAND!!!1! FANT[astic...]!!!
I will NEVER superate how much I miss Lego Universe :(
A video essay speaking about LEGO Universe. I WILL BE HERE
Never watched more than 10 minutes of an Matrix, the bad men in 2 were vampires, and an allegory fot the brothers wanting to be sisters
I hadn't looked at the description or chapters yet, so I was startled and had to stop right at 37:05; before the transition was over, I already knew what I was seeing. BOTS was my first MMO and I played it religiously from the month it launched to the day the login and server select window became empty. The gameplay was simple, the region chat was hellishly toxic, and the game was downright pay-to-win (wings and transformation boosters were meta, but they were also real-money RENTALS that would expire), but I loved it so much regardless.
come back :]
Lego Universe was released at a time when parents still knew better than to pay for a billion subscription services...
You seem like the type of guy who might enjoy LEGO HERO FACTORY, or at least one of the games made to go along with the episodes of the series.
Just a warning for anyone who wants to know more about LEGO HERO FACTORY it was on Netflix back when Netflix still prioritized mailing dvds instead of being an actual streaming service, I'm pretty sure it was either in the early 2010s or before and I remember when I was a child I used to love watching the series on Netflix and playing the two games that I knew about on my Nana's Laptop and those games were quite fun.
Man, i remember being so upset that i couldn't play Lego Universe...
Great content, love your animations and narrative skills. +1 sub!
Lego universe in the thumbnail literally struck my heart with a knife. It breaks my heart everytime i remember that game.
Really enjoyed this! I would love to see another one of these. There's plenty of "dead MMO" videos out there but not a lot of them delve any further than what's on Steam. If I could offer some suggestions:
Asheron's Call: Known for having one of the smoothest MMO launches in history, and was a technical powerhouse; thousands of players hosted in a seamless, zone-free world. In 1999! Playable through private server emulation.
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes: Brad McQuaid's next project after Everquest, just as rough around the edges but without the benefit of being as groundbreaking as EQ. Playable through private server emulation.
Hellgate: London: This got a rerelease on steam but it's terrible and lacks multiplayer completely. Spearheaded by David Brevik (Diablo 2) and might be the original "Looter-Shooter". Playable via London 2038.
I just found your channel. I really like this video. The wiggly lines is so nice. Also, your avatar reminds me of Obito from Naruto.
Lego universe lets you build on your property with separate single pieces you get from enemy drops, not just the pre builds. Something you didn’t mention.
This was a fun dive into dead mmos!
This isn't really an MMO, but you should look up the Blackout Club. Game's dead now, but it had REAL TIME interactions in it. Kind of like the Matrix mmo did, but more... intense may be the word?
The Voices were actually voiced and some via text. The story was being told real time as well amd you may enjoy the deep dive on that game. Sucks they had to cut it short, but the VAs they hired and the pandemic more than likely shot their budget bad.
Now explore PopularMMOS
I still have my lego universe case with the disc in it sitting on my gaming shelf!
I loved this game as a kid and was so happy I could finally replay it on a public fanmade reboot project!
I was always fond of the assembly league and doctor overbuild, but I also liked the venture league as well so i had two characters just so I could be on both factions since you were only limited to one faction per character
the classes I mainly played were engineer and buccaneer respectively, if i had gotten more time with the game then I woulda made a third character and joined the sentinels, I thought samurai's looked so cool in game!
I used to love lego universe as a kid. Pretty much anything that was a virtual world I would try when I was younger it was for sure the golden age of mmo/virtual worlds. I remember playing the kung fu panda world game, the mcdonalds virtual world, and one of my favorites Nicktropolis. Of course the big ones like club penguin and webkinz but I can think of a lot more. Great videos i love exploring dead games like this it's bittersweet. It would be cool if you made another part of this.
Your visual style is incredible
your videos are super high quality and really good.
6:00 the under presents is a recent (vr) game that did this, although i dont think they have anyone active now. it was super super cool. at the end you could even meet some of the devs. it was a much smaller scale. i still think about the under presents way too damn much. the main story and online are still playable i think, and I'd still say it's worth it if you have vr. i could talk about it all day. snap snap snap.
I made my own story when MXO Emu brought it back. My own lore I made is My Character who died after the plug was pulled officially, his data got corrupted he was a Machine then was converted to a Zion then when the Matrix was booted back up. It tried to retrieve my data but only can find fragments of my RSI and was rebuilding me back from a previous data. I reverted back to a Machine Operative losing all my Zion loyalty to them. The Reconstruction was successful but my character only remembered being a Machine operative. Also funny thing is, Machine Operatives and Zion players kept tugging me back and forth on staying machine or going zion. I was known as Gabumon or Gabumon404 in MXO.
I enjoyed the combat despite its issue, Its still memorable and I love its quirky way of doing stuff. Also the npcs that are standing around are actually enemy factions the guy who is working on the project is trying to get enemy npcs working. That was only the first step. The Zombies are part of a Halloween Event.
I played the Matrix online, was on the day it shut down. All content for the most part, was player added at the end. The clubs had parties, the matrix allowed you to pipe in music, link it in the chat box, and you could click and listen in game. Tournaments were all player run. I played Merovingian on the pvp server, it was a gank fest.
The lego universe devs put out a tweet saying that it was shut down because it wasnt generating revenue fast enough. It was profitable if it was given time, like a lot of successful MMOs, but the lego company didnt want to give it that time.
Seeing BOTS!! gameplay absolutely unlocked a slew of memories my God I remember playing the hell out of that game for a while.
Lego Universe was a big part of my childhood and I miss it a lot.