Death of a Game: Motor City Online
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- čas přidán 10. 06. 2023
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#DOAG . Death of a Game is a series dedicated to uncovering the mysteries surrounding the death of a game or company. nerdSlayer defines the term "death" in the context of the show as either... 1. Literally dead. 2. Had a mass exodus of players and never recovered (expectations etc). 3. The company ceased to exist. We follow a timeline of events, to uncover clues concerning why a game or company doesn't do well, and attempt to put it all together at the end for a deduction explaining how or why the game failed based on the evidence gathered.
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Sources:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_C...
www.gamespot.com/reviews/moto...
web.archive.org/web/200111181...
• LGR - Bringing Motor C...
www.mobygames.com/game/5465/m...
www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Mot...
games.slashdot.org/story/03/0...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need_fo...
www.gamerevolution.com/review...
web.archive.org/web/201309110...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manley_...
www.seattlepi.com/business/ar...
www.metacritic.com/game/pc/mo... - Hry
For a game I've never heard of.... it looks extremely familiar
Probably because it's built on top on NFS and had EA backing it. Likely had a lot of shared assets.
Well spoken. I could not agree more.
@@CompComp I remember right before they killed it off they added 2 imports to the game and it kind of ruined it after.
It was pretty much Porsche Unleashed.
_Sees what the next video will be_
Man, you know you fucked up when your game hasn’t even been out for a full year and people have largely rejected and moved on from it.
I legit started doubling over in laughter when I saw the teaser, for that exact reason.
When a publisher so screws up a title it's dead on arrival.
Nerdslayer put it best time and time again: "Forced competitive scenes don't work." They especially don't work when you force teams to buy franchises for millions of dollars each.
Some might even argue that it's not out at all, as all we got so far was an update to the previous game with a number slapped onto the name.
My friend put it perfectly "I like the game it's just that Blizzard doesn't want me to have fun."
Over-"We're Not Dead, Honest!"-watch
My dad played the hell out of this when it was out. I remember him showing me all the cars. Was a real way we bonded.
You should send him this video and get him set up with the offline version.
I respect that and that's a lovely memory to have.
@@CompComp oh that's neat they have one. U just race with AI?
I remember playing this alongside Planet Hotwheels and having them both shut down not so far apart was painful.
Planet Hot Wheels was great, I remember the aerodynamic spoiler being super strong but everything took forever to buy. There was also a shark minigame for some reason?
I Loved This Game, I played it till the day the server shut down. The customization, especially the engine building was and still is like nothing else. I totally miss playing.
dude even with dial up this game was so bad ass... me and my friends had a 3 person rotation it was some of the best times ive ever had in a game.
Really hope one day you will do a Death of a Game episode on Need for Speed: World, that MMORG needs to be talked about on this channel.
100% agree!!
I was just thinking about this game, played a lot of it on my childhood 🥹
I was there from beginning to end. I would obsess over setups, play the auction house meta for hours, chat with my car club on our forums. Hell I used to make our weekly racing event flyers in Paintshop Pro.
Such an innocent and care-free time. Thank you for making this.
It was so much fun. I'm not a gamer except for a few easy games. However MCO and UT (Unreal Tournament) were two that I could hold my own against good players like my ex-husband and his friends. I wish someone would bring it back. Miss those times but so glad I got to enjoy them while they were around.
I would be on the phone with my wife having her watch and bid on ending auctions because I was on the road 😂.
Hoo-Lee-chit .. this game literally got me into PC gaming. I used to go to my friend David’s every weekend and stay up all night playing MCO meeting at the drive in cafe. I got to play about 20 hours and bought it myself but unfortunately the servers went down and the game was completely useless. Man there will never be another game as deep and amazing as mco
As others have also requested, you should totally do an episode on NFS: World. Although, as someone who played the game when it was originally online, I can say that the game was killed mainly by 3 things - all the best cars being locked behind MTX, cheaters running rampant and eventual lack of updates. Thankfully, the community ran servers have mostly fixed all 3 of these problems, so anyone wanting to give the game a try can do so, knowing that, in many ways NFS: World is better now than it was originally.
Awesome. I used to play it. Unfortunately...my brother and I would have to take turns, though.
I was such a young fool. Thinking EA were in the right by making the game the way they did.
Of course, it's their game, but it wouldn't last
ooh boy, the next one will be a saucy one!
Yay! Another one of these videos! Now I have something good to watch while I eat my frozen pizza.
make sure you heat it up first ;)
You and me both
it was so epic ! to this date its still one of the best game ive played. from lunch to last minute it was so nice for the era and still today i would pay 10$ a month to play it again omg it makes me dream about it !
I don't think I've laughed this hard at a DoaG teaser before. 😂
I remember growing up and seeing this on the shelves in the PC stores. It was the one that got away, if you will. My parents didn’t want to pay the monthly fee, so High Stakes is what I stuck with. I’ve been lucky enough to track down some pictures of some cars to paint on Horizon, but I often wonder what could’ve been. As you’ve said in the video, we still haven’t gotten a caliber of this game and it’s been over twenty years.
Please do any or all of the following whenever you have a moment please. Drift city, lunia, team wolf, rakion chaos force, flyff and MU online. I spent too much of my childhood on those games lol. Would really love to know what happened to them over time. All the best from Canada ❤
This comment unlocked so many nostalgic memories for me. I second these recs!
As an MCO player, i do agree it was ahead of its time, and i dont think the sub feed had anything to do with it being shut down.
Basicly you had all the hungry players that played Street Rod 1 and 2 on DOS, having that game in a new package AND online, perfect recipe for a great game.
The biggest problem for this game, and i did follow it alot, was absolutely no promotion what so ever, even us who followed it, suddenly saw it on the shelves at the local game shop, when it had ben out for a few months!
It was a blast of a game, the music, the feeling of the game, and allso the community (if you where in one), was great.
This is what we Test Drive unlimited shoud have become! :)
The EA kiss of death is practically legendary at this point...I honestly never knew about this game but it doesn't surprise me how it died, I mean Mythic, Bullfrog, Origin, Westwood, DWI, Visceral, Pandemic...EA just loves buy a dev, let them make 2-3 more games, then fire everyone and merge that studio's IP to one of their bigger shops where it can go to die and never be seen again. Especially in regards to mmo's, they LOVE to just fire everyone after a MMO goes live then merge its updates into another studio (this game, Ultima Online, DAOC, etc)
Oh boy, OW2, that's gonna be a good one...
I like hearing about games from this time period because I was so laser focused on Counterstrike, then. So many titles passed by without a glance.
As a kid, I wanted MCO for ages so I worked the whole summer, then spent 6 weeks trying to find a copy - i finally found one, i bought it, i built up my little ford 3-window and then servers went permanently offline 2 weeks later.
I want to also add that Car Craft magazine did an article where they recreated "Project Supernova" using the same parts from real life found in the game and were surprised to find the dyno results identical and the 1/4 mile times reproducable to within 1/10 of a second. Speaks volumes for what the games physics engine might have been capable of. Might we ever see another racing game with the ability to build a car with real licensed parts rather than some arbitrary enhancement like "stage 3 engine upgrade"?
Had this game years ago and loved it. I used to dontine trials to make cash and I built a duster for the drag strip. Almost everyone had a 32 ford for drag racing and I used to smoke them regularly. There was a particular setup I used to use the design of the parts and build system was brilliant you didn’t build the fastest car by only putting on the best most expensive parts, it took the right combination of parts
This game was amazing live as a young teen, there was literally nothing else like it. The music alone kept me hooked. It was a fascinating time.
I played the hell out of this game. At the end they were just giving out bonuses because it didn’t matter anymore and then they unlocked all the rare parts. I remember saying they had rare parts and I paid millions for it just find out i could buy it for 40k in the game . A lot of cheating when on but it was so fun, it was really a community that I miss playing 20 years later.
At 34 years old today, I miss this game.
anybody remember drift city? it was like the first f2p racer i think that ever came outside mobile and this was even before smart phones
Played it. I remember it died after it got it's expansion ( kinda like Lunia ) but overall a great game
My friends and I played as kids growing up. Was such an underrated gem. Drag racing for pink slips was wild.
I still get upset when I remember MCO, it was *amazing* for someone who's a gearhead. Actually choosing your cam timings, piston CC, head shape and compression....and then checking the dyno to see if you got a good power band.
Haunting the auction house late at night to get the higher end nitrous sets or domed pistons (and 325 tires). Risking 1.5m on a Boss 302 with a GODAWFUL unique dragon paintjob and never being able to resell it.
I was in the beta and played it from day 1 of launch until the minute the servers shut down. NO other game has come close to the depth MCO had, and I've searched for something ever since.
One thing you got wrong, you did have an avatar. You picked it when you started and it sat on the left side of some screens (and earned you a weekly paycheck!).
Still have my beta CDs :)
Man I miss this game and it’s crazy no one has tried to duplicate it.
I was 14 when they shut the game down and I cryed lol. I had so much time in the game and was one of the fastest 1/4 mile players at the time with my ford coupe.
Setting alarms for the middle of the night to log on to win auctions, good times
I bought a Logitech force feedback racing wheel and pedal set just for this game, and then it was shut just a few months later. I was so hyped for it. I was done with Everquest 2's grind and looked forward to racing instead of spamming spells and waiting 15 minutes for respawns.
Mi buen amigo Mexicano con otro excelente video.
This is really one of those I missed, always wanted to try it, but never had the chance. As an avid NFS High Stakes player I see clearly what they used from there, looks like a decent time.
I saw it in a magazine and really wanted to try but internet was very limited here at that time.
Maybe just a mag review impression, but it looked like a more modern version of old Street Rod.
EA kills studio
Game Dies
😞
Sooooo many more things. Every part in the vehicle was modifiable and had wear plus repairs. You also had rare chassis that could have rare or just one paint scheme, chopped roof , no bumpers, no fenders ect to race faster. I was alpha tester at 19 years old . That just barely touches what this game did and had. Crossroads for life! Haha
The intro song is therapy tbh
I miss MCO, I was a die-hard. I was one of the best keyboard drivers and biggest rare paint collectors on Crossroads server. Really sucked to watch it go.
I remember the previews in the mags back in the day. I didn't even had reliable Internet back then lol. Shame it didn't work out, was quite fond of those very early NFS releases.
I really miss this game, had the perfect Chevy Nova for drag racing setup to run a perfect 10 did so many pink slip races and won, the ending was great the devs came in and talked and raced they made the win pots stupid money like $500k we all said our good byes seconds later gone. I still have my box and cd.
Reminds me of Drift City came out in 2007.
I never tried this game but you reminded me of drift city online that was an amazing game
I played this when I was a kid, it was amazing... was tragic when they shut it down.
hey Nerd, the NFS Hot pursuit, SE and Stakes community exist! NOTE : im not sure if they play Stakes actually. Modders speedrunners and multiplayer mode players are connected and active!! I am not part of it but i watch their videos ! i hope you see this comment!
Can't wait for the overwatch 2 video
Always gave this one some thought, but never got to see much of it. As a huge fan of NFS, this one has intrigued me almost nonstop. Would love to see your retrospective on NFS World and Planet Hot Wheels, two old favorites of mine.
That next case... that's gonna be bittersweet.
Oh man I was addicted to this game was sad to see it go
I think it uses the same engine as HIgh Stakes and Porsche, but the PC variant version of that game engine, the High Stakes game shown in this video is a PlayStation version and a not-so-well emulated footage of it, which is not the game engine they used in Motor Online, the PlayStation version of the engine is different and rendered completely different than the PC. The Devil is in the detail.
Correct, this was not researched at all by nerdSlayer.
Need for Speed was invented by EA Canada ( formerly invented Test Drive as Distinctive Software (DSi) as well )
TD1 -> TD2 -> Stunts 4D -> "The Need for Speed" as "Pioneer Productions" for EA and continued as EA Canada.
EA Seattle created the PC-versions for Need for Speed II onward.
From the looks of it, having played all of them myself and still do:
EA Seattle created the PC build of Need for Speed II
and probably made all their PC versions forward based on this established PC-engine looking at how it evolved:
Need for Speed II: Special Edition ( more content and exclusive for PC )
Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit ( plays already noticeably different compared to the PS1 version, more artificial and punishing physics ) ( PS1 more authentic )
Need for Speed: High Stakes ( physics are widely different to PS1, and interestingly cars are wrongly imported, they are too thin )
Probably the addition of the new damage model for High Stakes resulted in the different engine builds being too different to import it correctly and too little time to fix that.
Motor City was definitely based on that engine High Stakes established. The physics are the closest to PC's High Stakes version.
PC versions were released multiple month later for a reason.
After High Stakes it was EA Canada that made Need for Speed: Porsche for PC which was technological way too advanced for PS1.
Porsche PC was a technological milestone back then after all. Porsche PC'S physics noticeable play like EA Canada's Hot Pursuit & High Stakes versions.
So Eden Games was hired ( V-Rally 1-3, Test Drive Unlimited 1-2 )
and made their own version of Porsche based on their technology which is 100% a different game to the PC version.
During that time EA Seattle was still busy with High Stakes and afterwards developed Motor City
But Black Box shortly after became a subsidiary of EA Canada and made the first next gen game: "Hot Pursuit 2" for PS2.
EA Seattle was again responsible for the PC-Port but also the GC & Xbox port.
All their versions offered only half the content compared to the PS2 version Black Box created.
Probably because they got an earlier build with which the created their version of the game while Black Box kept adding more content to the PS2 version.
Black Box became EA Black Box as well the lead developer and it was decided that all future versions of the game will be build in-house.
Resulting in shutting down EA Seattle.
To be honest it is frustrating to see that all youtubers that create videos about Need for Speed get this wrong.
I watch every one of your videos on this series, really enjoy your content man keep it up!
Glad you like them!
I loved this game so much. I still have the disc of it and the disc of the beta.
Was researching this game when I was looking at all the Hotwheels games. It's an extremely interesting case.
Death of a game : NFS World?
What I don't like about the more modern open world online racing games is how easy it is to get hundreds of supercars early on. An online game where you can only afford a used car for a long time, and then using all your money to upgrade it, is much more interesting to me.
Love the video. Want to see one for Trickster online
An always Online game got shut down becasue the servers got pulled.
20 years later The Crew1 has the same fate and the new demo of TDU:SC suggests that its also only playabale with an internet connection and a working server on the other side.
Never played this but the concept of a car MMO always sounded intriguing to me
I remember seeing an ad for this in a 2002 edition of PC Gamer magazine. It looked so cool in the add but I the only pc I had back then was our crappy family PC
I've heard of this game, but never played it. Back in the Day, when there were a lot more MMO's, I used to go on a couple different websites that showed lists of current MMO's, and what type they were. Finding anything that wasn't Fantasy based was really hard for a few years, and I alaways was looking for a Point of Different, because I wanted to try something new, not the same old thing. This one did show up back then.
I remember grinding on whatever the cycle track was called. It was pretty much the only well populated lobby
Wait wait wait, it's an MMO racing rpg?
BRING IT BACK. NOW.
Man there was a cartoon with the same name that suffered a similar fate. How odd for it to happen twice.
You made me miss drift city of all things.
Wish Midnight Club would get a sequel, but yea I didn't hear about this at all. Ridge Racer etc but not this.
I was in this game for the first year. It was so fun at the time. Biggest issue was obviously early 2000s poor internet speed as a lot of racers still had dial up. I still have my MCO CD!
This was the best game I every played. I felt like I was apart of something. I miss building and selling motors. There is no game like MCO. I will never understand why a game just like it has not been released.
People used to buy and sell game cash rare cars and parts and even high ranking profiles on ebay.
I loved this game so much. Miss it randomly
You know what's amazing. A game 100% online only had 60 cars and 24 tracks. Now compare that to Forza Horizon. The difference in content is staggering.
But have you seen the catalog of parts you could upgrade each car with?
Oh boy! got chills from that sneak peak! great video as always!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I'd play a more polished modern version of this in a heartbeat. Doesn't even need to have amazing graphics just a little bit of refining rough edges.
Had no idea this existed. Nice investigation. Nice video. Keep up the good work.
Great review! I really enjoyed this game and haven’t found a game like it since
> seeing the preview
oh man, i know this will be a good one already
Welp, with the next video, you will have done two cases on the same game for maybe the first time ever.
this was by far the best racing game ever. dont let anybody fool you.
i played it i played many games and i also lived an exciting life. i started my career on here as a goofy name based on a car.
my family has a 79 corvette and a 1930 model a coupe with a 383 stroker. in the garage at the time of booting this game and making an account.
i still have yet to play a game that was nearly as fun.
it has the cars. it had all the real parts.
it had everything that made racing competitive. including the cheater parts. literally named and also undetectable by opponents.
real auctionhouses. you could even buy cars from people online and not get screwed.
you could buy and sell used parts. race for pinks race for respect or money. it literally had everything including a kickin sountrack.
I recall there is a community trying to bring Motor City Online back.
I can't believe nobody acknowledges NFS Porsche Unleashed. It was one of the NFS game that was prior to Motor City Online, and i can say it was kind of like the groundwork Motor City Online to have realistic handling and damage model, including the ability to sell parts in the aftermarket, and it has an auction house kinda thing.
Thanks for using a clip from my video i enjoy it. I like motor city online a lot
I'm glad you like it
Imagine if this was apart of the sims....
I played this game as beta tester.. i was a young boy with dial up internet.. towel over my head and huge monitor to keep light down so i didn't get in trouble from my parents😂
I had to wake up at like two in the morning to play on limited open time servers! Like 2 am to 4 am
This game is made for modern day internets! But the economy and clans would need nerfed...
I only saw one cheater during my play, it was a super decked out muscle car with blue flame Ghost look paint job the guy would trade you for cash.. you would have the car... until you logged out unknowingly logging on to empty garage and broke.. 😂
When you crashed your own car in races you would have to pay for the damages your car received.. stopped people from the demolition derby racing pretty much!
We need this game brought back to life! ❤
this video made me reminisce about ASDF Hoverboard! the first online racing game I ever played
please consider covering that game 🙏
Just found this video as I was reminiscing about this game after playing the new Forza. This game was so ahead of it's time. I played as part of the beta testing and had so much fun. I even won a new computer with a racing wheel setup from playing it. I didn't want to pay the $10/month, and by the time it came out, you could tell it wasn't going to last long. But it was a lot of fun drag racing for pink slips, and finding the rare engines and parts like the 351 Windsor. Sadly, the latency did suck. Thinking you won a race, only to find out you didn't.
Wow ive got some real nostalgia for this game. A friend and myself went deep for a while and really enjoyed.
Are there any current gen online games even similar now?
Not that I know of
I remember that game. Never played it, but I remember seeing ads for it.
Will you cover Fractured Space or Miscreated? Both those games had so much potential but seemed to of died pretty suddenly . Not before taking my money lol
I remembered I used to play Fractured Space, which was a space capital ship moba. Then one day, it just died.
This game was frecking amazing and an experience ive never had since it shut down. I still have the original box and all from when i bought it back in the day.
What killed the game was a loss in player base cause the devs started adding cars like the Supra and Eclipse which while i love both of those cars in real life did not fit into the world of MCO and offerd an advantage. In the later days you also had lots of cheaters and hackers which completely killed the racing aspect of the game.
The economy was frecking fantastic and was my favorite aspect. My buddies and me would work the auction house in shifts to buy up good deals when they were listed on parts and cars,then sell those items to people on ebay. This lead to a pay to win aspect to the game.
At some point it became way too difficult for newbies to get started so people just stopped playing. In its hayday you couldn't even read the chats as there were so many people talking that the text just flew by.at the end it was a frecking ghost town.
I was there for lights out and man to this day i have not found anything that even tries to scratch the same itch,which i do not understand why no one has picked the ip up and remasterd it to bring it back to life.
How much did you guys make in real cash lol?
**Sees Teaser for the next game**
Yeah... They done goofed, didn't they?
God, I love your channel. The presentation is sooo good, and you repeatedly cover games that few people remember, but many people played. I can only hope you cover NFS World, its what got me in to building PC's as that was the first game I could never run.
I had never heard of this game before, but I always enjoy your investigations, so if you do others, I'll be in the audience watching.
This was my teen years and I loved this game
For over 20 years ago this was a pretty amazing game. It also didn’t require a ton of hours like many games today to progress.
I still to this damn remember getting scammed out of my first car that I built cause I had no idea how the trade system worked lol. Another player would offer a really nice car for your so so car but wouldn’t fully accept the trade and ask you to confirm, giving away your car lol
Never heard of this, they should have kept the NFS in the name for brand recognition. I did play Drift City that was a fun racing arcade MMO. I think Forza Horizon has a good formula for open world MMO racing but not forced multiplayer.
This game is so underground that it took me weeks to watch the video.
If you're starting to cover more niche titles, I'd love to see an episode on Tactics Arena Online or Dofus Arena. I believe you mentioned the former in one of the videos on a tactical game. TBS games in general don't get a lot of coverage, and those two seem like one of few early titles entirely focused on online play.
The one relatively unknown game that died i truly miss is Worlds Adrift, so much potential but it just didnt make it.
Definitely loved this game. And you are correct it was way ahead of its time being I had dial up internet back then and it was super laggy. But I do think you should have mentioned you can drag race for pink slips also. That was a huge thing back then. And it was so sketchy though cause you are right you had no clue what the other person had you just had to go off what they said. And the auctioning off parts was super crazy. It got to a point I think a few people were buying up all the parts so no one else could get their hands on them. It was a great game just wish it was here now with todays internet! Great story!
wow. brings back memories.
remember finally learnkng how to build the 841hp engine in that game, and then getting booted off when my mom went to use the phone..
auctions.
first person cockpit view...
SOMEOME BRING THIS BACK..
P.S i still have the origjnal box/case/booklet if anyone is interested i will sell it for 1 million dollars.
thankyou..
P.S.p.s the data disc may be useful if someone did want to remake or relaunch it
this game on broadband now would blow many other games out of the water
bro kicked underground to the curb
I hope someday you will do a Death of a game: Tribes Ascend, pls
*sees announcement of the next video*
Wait, that game is not dead...yet? Or is it?
I played the crap out of this game. I even worked for Dev's and had races with 1 of kind cars for winning events. Wish a studio would come around and build something new based on this old school game!