Cue “Another One Bites The Dust”…Auran announced on their official servers today that their PvP-centric MMORPG “Fury” will be shutting down in 48 hours. Fury had a somewhat unique approach to the MMO market, with a focus on the PvP side of the genré, almost continuous tournaments and real-life cash prizes for those that won said tournaments.

This turned out to be a recipé for failure, apparently.

Unlike single-player games, in my mind a community makes or breaks an MMO. Period. And when you design a game for a group that, by definition, almost exclusively likes to kill other players for fun…well, let’s just say they’re not going to be a sedate, “work with you” kind of group when taken as a whole. This is even true with a successful PvP-centric game such as EVE Online, but by and large CCP seems to have figured out how to keep their customers happy…for now. (And yes, that “…for now” is a nod to their incoming nano nerfs, which is a topic for another time.)

I’ll give you an example; Ryzom. When Saga of Ryzom closed its doors (with little advance notice of the final closure), how did the community react? By mourning their lost world, commiserating with one another on various forums, and by longing for the return of their game. How did the Fury community react to today’s announcement? Well, let’s take a peek at the official forums and find out, shall we?

Hello development team of Fury,
I want to first say thank you for the fun pvp experiences I had with my old Fury account.

Second…don’t ever try to make an MMORPG again. This game was a disaster. This concept was never meant to be put into an MMORPG and if you wanted more customers you should have launched with a much better product and with more social and long lasting features.

Good luck with your future development and from one developer to another – you gave it your best to accomplish your dream and that is a success.

And then there’s this one:

You f*ckers ruined everything. You could have made time for this game. YOu could have listened to the countles feedback about how to fix the broken to hell PvP system. YOu should have thought about GAMEPLAY, NOT PROFIT.

Basically, the entire team behind Fury got money hungry and as result they are shutting down.

I can taste their tears and it is sweet.

F*ck you Fury developer team you bunch of good for nothing rejects. You had a chance to make this right but look at you now.

I am laughing.

I am laughins o hard at how hard your project that you supposed “care” about has been allowed to fall to pieces.

Are you proud?

Are you proud of the shitty f*cking job you’ve done?

f*ck. F*CK YOU.

(Obviously, I cut and pasted these from the forums without any changes save the occasionally well-placed asterisk…at least, I hope you could tell that.)

Believe it or not, I think there’s a lesson here…it’s a fairly obvious one, but this situation gives us a unique look at it…if you’re developing an MMO, the one thing that will make or break you is…your community. Yes, you have to have a good game. Yes, you have to introduce new content, fix bugs, and address issues…but those are all aspects of dealing with your community. If you have put the effort into building a good community, one that feels that they’re part of your world, not a subscriber to it, then they’ll be with you through thick and thin.

Just ask the folks at Saga of Ryzom, which is now starting up again after a near-death experience. Would it have returned without the community it had built?

Possibly, but not probably.

Would Fury still be here if it had spent a little less time focusing on “huge cash prizes!” and “non-stop PvP excitement”, and spent a little more on fostering a sense of community?

Possibly. Notice the line in that first forum comment I quoted above: “you should have launched with a much better product and with more social and long lasting features.” It’s not enough to just hire a crackerjack community manager…they have to have the tools to work with, or they’ll never succeed. Design for community, develop for community…and then take the community paycheck to the bank.

Fury hath no hell like a playerbase scorned.

Tags: Auran, closing, Fury, games, gaming, mmo, mmorpg, R.I.P.