Comments on: Auto Assault sunsetting

By: Sean Bulger

Sean Bulger — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 11:07:05 +0000

Not surprised, but yes, it is sad to see an MMO close. I feel bad for the players.

Auto Assault was suppose to be funded, in part, by in-game advertising. I believe said advertising was a supplement to the monthly fee players were paying. Thus, it had both a subscription fee and in-game advertising. I know a few people who were turned off from it simply because of that. Regardless, even with in-game advertising, an advertiser isn’t going to pay big bucks if the audience of the game isn’t that big. Granted, PlanetSide is still alive and kicking with it, but they also removed the fee to a certain extent, which I imagine helped.

Also, to add on to the news, NetDevil, the developer, is not buying the rights to the game as they did with their previous title Jumpgate in order to keep it running.

By: DaveN

DaveN — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 15:51:45 +0000

I actually avoided playing the game because I heard the guys on f13 talking about it having ‘cleric cars.’ WoW/EQ on wheels just did not do it for me. i wonder who else avoided it due to word of mouth?

I was a huge Car Wars fan back in the day when all Steve Jackson games were played with cardboard punchouts. An MMO Car Wars would have been fun, but tough to do. Maybe an MMORTS, though.

By: raphkoster_rss: Auto Assault sunsetting

raphkoster_rss: Auto Assault sunsetting — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 18:00:44 +0000

[...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/RaphsWebsite/~3/129915997/http://www.raphkoster.com/2007/07/02/auto-assault-sunsetting/It is always sad to see an MMO have to close its doors. It’s now been announced officially that Sept 1st will be the last day that Auto Assault sees service. [...]

By: Amaranthar

Amaranthar — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 15:32:32 +0000

They did a really stupid thing – they made Warcraft (or everquest, or diku) on Wheels, and expected their audience to like it, when their audience was expecting an MMO Car Wars.

Wow, “stupid” doesn’t begin to say how bad an idea that was.

By: Kurt Edwards

Kurt Edwards — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 14:14:45 +0000

I wouldn’t be surprised if in-game advertising was a plan of theirs, but I think that, when it came down to it, even that wouldn’t have been feasible. I remember someone commenting on a forum that they once went online one of the servers and did a /who during primetime, and ended up coming back with only thirty or fourty people – and this is a game with three factions, mind you.

By: Richard Bartle

Richard Bartle — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 22:30:50 +0000

Wasn’t Auto Assault supposed to be supported by in-game advertising?

Richard

By: FixerMX

FixerMX — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 17:41:08 +0000

I would agree with the another-diku comment, and add that a clumsy control scheme and pseudo-twitch playstyle were diku-derived problems with this game. Current single-player driving games are all about physics and precise aim, and many prospective players likely expected that instead of dice-rolling — an expectation barrier that games like City of Heroes didn’t have to leap for their more traditional MMO audience. If Auto Assault had felt more like SWG’s Jump to Lightspeed, I think it would have fared better.

By: Jason Maskell

Jason Maskell — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 14:45:33 +0000

Sad, yes.

Surprising? No.

They did a really stupid thing – they made Warcraft (or everquest, or diku) on Wheels, and expected their audience to like it, when their audience was expecting an MMO Car Wars.

It’s not because it’s non fantasy, it’s because they weren’t brave enough to make it not just another diku.

By: Brandon Levan

Brandon Levan — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 12:31:31 +0000

It’s unfortunate to see it closed. I played in the beta and didn’t buy it at release because of the problems it had that just weren’t worked out, but it always seemed from what I’d heard that a lot of those things were worked out as time went on. Of course, some people are spelling doom and gloom for any non-fantasy title now using this as an example to prove their case, which I don’t think works either.

By: RJO

RJO — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 02:53:23 +0000

Tis sad to see another retail MMO go… This game never really stuck with me or anyone I know for that matter so its not overly shocking… Its sad to see a game that went against the grain going under; queue WoW clone #98982