• JuJutsu

    :(

  • DoubleD

    That has to be the best goodbye letters I’ve ever seen.

  • dartwick

    Well it did suck.

  • http://dsob.wordpress.com geldonyetich

    NCsoft has worked with us on a plan to compensate Dungeon Runners players. I think we’ve come up with a nice package for all players with paid memberships as of today (9/16/2009). You’ll be getting a 30 day game time serial code and digital copies of City of Heroes Architect Edition and Guild Wars Prophecies. FREE games FTW! I know, it’s not Dungeon Runners… but it’s still frigging nice!

    We sure have an interesting precedent in MMOs where somebody can pay for one product, the merchant gives them another instead, and nobody bats an eye. Same thing happened when MxO shut down. Is bait and switch completely lost on your average MMO subscriber?

  • http://stabbedup.blogspot.com/ Stabs

    It’s not bait and switch. They’re sorry to be shutting the game down and they’re giving them something else free.

    Most people who have an active sub on 16th Sept will not be paid up past 1st Jan.

  • Wanderingfool

    That’s a shame. DR is somewhat amusing and entertaining, although it didn’t offer enough to hold my interest for more than a few months.

    Helluva farewell (or pre-farewell) letter, though.

  • http://www.psychochild.org/ Brian ‘Psychochild’ Green

    I guess the lesson here is: Don’t get too attached to NCSoft games. ;)

    Again, really interesting to see all these games get the ax, given that people once said online games pretty much never died.

  • ceolstan

    I think the letter is a good one. I’m glad that the players are compensated, but the people I know with paid subscriptions to DR also have CoX and GW. Sucks to be them!

  • http://dsob.wordpress.com geldonyetich

    It’s not bait and switch. They’re sorry to be shutting the game down and they’re giving them something else free.

    It’s not exactly bait and switch, but it’s too close for comfort. We’re sorry that product of ours turned out not to be available, but hey, we’ll keep your money and give you this other product instead.

  • http://www.damnedvulpine.com/ J.
  • Nerd Rage

    It might look like a bit of bait and switch from this, “NCsoft has worked with us on a plan to compensate Dungeon Runners players. I think we’ve come up with a nice package for all players with paid memberships as of today (9/16/2009). You’ll be getting a 30 day game time serial code and digital copies of City of Heroes Architect Edition and Guild Wars Prophecies. FREE games FTW!”

    But then just a few words later, “Of course, any of you guys that need refunds for multiple-month membership purchases will be taken care of. And, as always, our helpful support staff will be available to help you with any issues you have.”

    Not really bait and switch at all. You want a refund? You get a refund. And some free shit. Nice selective quoting though.

  • Aufero

    I played it for a few hours – it was mildly amusing, but there wasn’t anything there that was interesting enough to make me want to keep playing it for free, much less pay for it.

    This might be a problem with the play-for-free, pay-for-extras model. Unless the game is engaging in the first hour or two, (and few MMOs are) you’re unlikely to have enough people shell out for the extra content to have it pay off as an investment. AO seems to have made a successful go of it, but then they had a core of players already paying before trying that model. (And even so, they’ve had to supplement with in-game ads.)

  • http://xorakis.wordpress.com/ xorakis

    I played the game for a couple weeks. it wasn’t a popular MMO, but I have good memories of it because it was hilarious so I’ll miss it.

  • fatbutt

    Too bad I suppose, but the game really was like an anemic Diablo clone.

  • mer

    I remember looking at the site, the impression I got was there was no female toons, just preset male characters. So I never bothered to try it. Its a pity for the fans of the game.

  • http://hgamer.blogspot.com heartless_

    Standrad hack and slash. Can’t imagine why it didn’t survive as a subscription game.

  • Freakazoid

    I totally forgot this game existed.

    I’ll give it a smug “heh” for lasting longer than TR, at least. Also, a bling gnome that poops items.

  • Davide

    I played it for a month or two, heck I even subscribed. It was a decent game but had one very serious drawback.

    You could play it solo in regular mode which was about 3 on an excitement scale.

    Or, you could mooch off a high leveller and run bosses and basically follow them around picking up all the loot, which is like being fed crack.

    The high leveller could run bosses that were way above you and the loot dropped was better because it was tied to the level of the guy (or party) making the kill.

    Once you saw a high leveller AoE wiping out the entire boss layer in 3 seconds and hundreds of gold and purple (forgot all the color loot drops) items drop you wre hooked, and would never go back to actually playing the game again.

  • DoubleD

    Pack notes 666 lol.

    These guys are fun. A shame.

  • http://rawasaur.livejournal.com Rawrasaur

    Is it sad that I have a dungeon runners T-shirt I picked up at an E3 sometime (that I still wear occasionally!), and it will outlive the game it was meant to promote?

    –Rawr

  • Goodgimp

    Are you serious, Geldonyetich? They are giving refunds. They are offering free materials as a parting gift. How is that bait and switch? The game is shutting down. GAME OVER. LIGHTS OUT. The perfectly normal thing to do would just be to shut off the servers at the announced date and move on.

    But because they decide to be a bit classy and offer freebies current subscribers, they’re bait and switching?

    Unreal.

  • VPellen

    This song is getting kind of repetitive.

    Steve walks warily down the street
    With the brim pulled way down low
    Ain’t no sound but the sound of his feet
    Machine guns ready to go
    Are you ready, Are you ready for this
    Are you hanging on the edge of your seat
    Out of the doorway the bullets rip
    To the sound of the beat

  • http://dsob.wordpress.com geldonyetich

    Are you serious, Geldonyetich? They are giving refunds. They are offering free materials as a parting gift. How is that bait and switch? The game is shutting down. GAME OVER. LIGHTS OUT. The perfectly normal thing to do would just be to shut off the servers at the announced date and move on.

    But because they decide to be a bit classy and offer freebies current subscribers, they’re bait and switching?

    Unreal.

    Power down, squishypants. I just didn’t notice the part in the letter about refunds is all.

    Apparently, neither did you. They are refunding “multiple-month membership purchases” only. Because it doesn’t do you a whole lot of good to get a free month of CoH or copies of Guild Wars Prophecies multiple times over.

    So, if you only have a single month to Dungeon Runners? I hope you like City of Heroes or Guild Wars: Prophesies, cuz’ it’s cheaper for us for you to get that than a refund. Already have both? Hmm.. good question.

    But, but to be really fair, if I were an irate customer demanding a refund instead of free stuff, they’d probably give it to me. It’s just, in typical business practice, you’re being given coupons instead of a proper refund except in exceptional situations.

  • Alarik

    They’re only refunding multiple month subscriptions because there’s more than a month of service left. They’re not going to refund unless your subscription actually runs past the end of service date, which is pretty standard.

  • Raad

    Geld generally writes good stuff but sometimes dude, you will post some insane shit that makes me go welp. Lay off the weed man.

  • http://dsob.wordpress.com geldonyetich

    I’m not without reason here. The trouble with me is that I oft over-think something without adequately explaining it, and then people come in and are like, “WTF are you on about, man?”

    Let me see if I can clarify. Generally speaking, whenever you do a return to a store, they will prefer to give you store credit instead of a full cash refund. That way, they’ve still got your money, you’re free to choose something else instead. Slightly underhanded, but not a problem so long as you can find something you genuinely want.

    I think they’re stopping over the line when they say they’re going to give you some free junk you didn’t ask for instead of a refund. That’s all.

    Now, under closer examination of this situation, that’s not really what’s happening here. It just appeared to be the case because of the way the letter flowed when read.

  • http://dsob.wordpress.com geldonyetich

    Up until now, I actually thought that this was the way it was for The Matrix Online. However, I did a little research just now and determined that they did, in fact, mail refund checks. Well, alright then, I guess there’s no real precedent to believe that a MMORPG keeps your money and gives you another product you didn’t ask for instead of returning it.