Exploring An MMO's Dying World

An MMORPG I fell in love with, a year of hard work from thousands of players, now gone. Nothing left. The grindiest MMO of all time, requiring thousands of hours for mundane things like building a house. Before the end, we take a look around to preserve a bit of the world we loved.

Pirates of the Caribbean in the Old School Runescape font by @UnpragmaticCovers

[rathgames]

I absolutely love this game, and have nothing but the best of memories with this world. I'll be back to the regular as soon as I can, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy this little passion project of mine. Also, if you didn't watch to the end, the game is still up and available on steam now, this is just the death of the first real world I put time into, and my happy little corner of it.

[arcmoon]

Trust me on this but if you play on the very last instant of a mmo game you get reincarnated into another world as a lich overlord.

[xSephironx]

Guys guys guys. The Game still exists. They wipe the world every year, it has ~2000 players right now and just released on steam lmao

[mooglesguard]

it’s really nice to see the player count spike to 1500+ only two hours after this video dropped :]

[k-bb]

As much as I love Solo, I'm so excited to see you expanding your content. Hyped to watch :3

[willyyd]

What a strange and melancholic feeling seeing you walk into me and my friends old village. Now named poop by someone. Thank you for your kind words. Billy Bullseye got killed by ambush in his own dock, betrayed by those he once called kin for political reasons :') All the best. //Bullseye

[YeahImRose]

Oh man, that heavy heart feeling of knowing you're not gonna be able to explore and enjoy the world anymore soon. I remember that feeling strongly from Worlds Adrift as it was closing down, too

[NotTheWheel]

MMOs dying has a very weird melancholic sadness that even when I have no investment in it - I mourn for them.
Reminds me of the speech at the ending of Bladerunner. "...All those moments will disappear in time - like, tears in rain..." 😔
It's also why I hold FF14 so close to my heart. A game that died but rose from the ashes.
Not more than a year ago I saw a reddit post, a memorial to a person who played both FF11 and 14. Their friend whom seemed to have the demeanor of one of those friendly older sort of gamers made the post - in earnest reverence to their lost friend, reaching out to any who knew them. People who shared more of their lives, laughter and loves cannot be taken for granted.
Jack Elvaan from the Cerberus server. Every time I'm in Mor Dhona I visit his characters deity stone. I didn't know this person. But that story reached me so deeply.
I never wish to forget them, I talk about what has happened in the game recently, or about my own friends. Anyways. That was all.

MMOs and the memories from them and bonds are such a precious thing. These virtual worlds hold more than quests or pixelated scenery; they’re filled with the echoes of voices, countless adventures, and, most touchingly, memories of people who may no longer be there but whose presence lingers in every familiar place.

[Saito]

I think these old "alternative" MMOs are really interesting to watch. A good chunk of if not most of them have died off over the years but it's so fascinating to see more simpler games like runescape to an extent where not everything had a very player driven story like wow and 14. I would have never thought a semi-realistic game about making and keeping up a little plot of land would still be around all these years later.

[jedimasterpickle]

I've never heard of Haven and Hearth, but it was really cool seeing what the players put together. Player builds decaying when abandoned is a really interesting concept, and I appreciate your little stories about it. Having the context that even a basic wall takes several days to even start...that kingdom at the end was insane.

[Marcusianery]

I feel nostalgia and sentimentality seeing all these creations, left to fade away. Its like when you find abandoned homes and bases in survival builders. Or play old games with the markers of old players. History digitally. It is wonderful. I wish we could preserve these worlds, these creations like we do with physical things in a museum! Thank you for the video! Subscribed.

[MajoraZero]

The explanation of death at 4:40 describes a system which sounds really neat, but it's such a hard blocker for who can play the game.

[MrSpazbomb]

I haven’t played for over a decade but all my best mmo stories are all from haven and hearth. Beyond unique.

I first joined just before one of these wipes, I spawned near a man on a tiny farm who proclaimed himself my king and proceeded to lock me in his farm. He took care of my every need and taught me the basics, but also made me forcibly parade to celebrate his kingship every day.

[ari-sothoth]

man I love watching videos like these, especially from folks that have enjoyed dead/dying mmo’s like this. its a walk through memory lane that i can feel despite never having walked it myself.
thanks for the cool video funny solo man

[lyssalittlebear]

Excellent video, milord! It is really cool to see the end of an MMO as it actually ends and not just looking back at it.

[Enriath]

Oh wow, it's been ages since I heard of Haven & Hearth. I think it was an old ProJared video that I saw. Crazy how time flies.

Also, there's something sombre about exploring a dying world to the tune of RuneScape music. Absolutely on-point music selection as usual Rath.

[TheMrdrop]

10, 15, 20 years from now you will still think of this game just as I still think of my time playing EverQuest from 1999-2004.

[PrinceBrightstar]

This exploration of a world I've never seen of before reminds me of the sense of exploration, the vast ruins found, and ingenuity of players on really old Minecraft anarchy servers like 2B2T.

[Robin_Wowie]

Damn, this is a crazy hard video for me to watch. The idea that this is all gonna be gone is...rough. My wife is still a hardcore Rift player, so knowing it'll inevitably end up the same some day long down the road is hard to stomach.
Thanks for the dread! Love it!

[ResyeaK]

Thanks for letting us discover that game you love so much, it's seems so cool (too grindy for me but still cool) and that kingdom was beautiful