صحيفة سودان بيزنس الاقتصادية صحيفة سودان بيزنس الاقتصادية
In 1999, the brothers (and now the sisters) Vachovsky were able to shake the world with the release of their most powerful film – "Matrix". Competent synthesis of philosophical teachings, cyberpunk and Hong Kong militants became a fresh sip of air in the plots of second -rate militants of that time, already bending from tracing paper, and also made a large breakthrough as special effects and installation.
Over time, the world of the "matrix" acquired its own media franchise. At first, these were modest publications of comics and small short stories on the official website Whatisthematrix.Com (no longer works), there you could also find small flash games and it was also allowed to indulge in the introduction of various encodings that showed moments from the film, moments from filming and premiere shows.
Soon the Universe of the Matrix began to rapidly expand not only thanks to the exit of the sequels, but also thanks to the release of the Animatritsa anthology, to continue the publications of new comics and of course the development of computer games. Yes, at that time it was fashionable to make games in films, but often they turned out at a rather low quality exit. And even despite Vachovsky’s love for computer games, the first lump for them turned out Enter The Matrix from developers Shiny Entertainment. However, after a while, a more or less tolerable Path of Neo, where obvious work on errors is visible. But today we will talk about the current game in the Matrix universe at the moment.
I ask you to love and complain – The Matrix Online.
After the release of the film “Matrix: Revolution”, interest in the franchise began to gradually fade away, and then the game unit Warner Interactive Entertainment from the support of the Vachovsky brothers gives an order to develop two new games in the setting. One of them is Path of Neo, and the second is The Matrix Online. The first was destined to become an Arcade, where the player will have to go along the plot of the movie trilogy in the role of neo. The second was prepared by the fate of MMORPG, which at that time were very popular among gamers with Dial-up modems. The development of the new MMO was entrusted to the shoulders of a young and very promising studio Monolith Productions.
Monolith at that time already had a finished engine Lithtech Jupiter, who has repeatedly demonstrated himself in games such as No One Lives Forever 2 And Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault, And on the way was also Jupiter ex, on which the developers later released their flagship – F.E.A.P.
However, Lithtech Jupiter did not have the possibilities for creating MMO-IGR and their stable functioning, therefore it was decided to create from separate developments from Jupiter ex new game engine Lithtech discovery. The capabilities of the engine made it possible to maintain the display of dynamic shadows, the processing of the water surface with the shadeers and the active use of the capabilities particle systems.
Reflecting on the main script of the game, Vachovski turned to their former colleague, screenwriter and commander Paul Chavik. During the discussions, it was decided that The Matrix Online would become a canonical continuation of the movie trilogy, allowing him to interact with the players and build a new history of the universe with them. Richard Carroll was appointed the main developer, Naitan Grigg was the composer.
During the development, Carroll was largely based on experience Blizzard With her World of Warcraft And for games under the publishing house Sony Online Entertainment. The following class of classes was created: a programmer, hacker and operative – a sort of compliance with a magician, craft and warrior. The programmer creates an avatar program that fights for him. Hackers break the matrix code to strengthen/cure associates or inflict damage at a distance. The operative fights directly with enemies and has three subclasses: a fighter (preference for hand -to -hand combat), soldiers (preference for firearms), a spy (preference for near battle, secrecy and attack with throwing knives). At the maximum level 72, 21 subclasses are available. The combat system itself was divided into long and close combat. In the first case, the use of firearms and throwing weapons is meant, and in the second-a close battle with the elements of the slush.
There were three main fractions inside the game itself:
Zion is the last city of people on Players club VIP review destroyed land, hidden deep underground. From there, liberated people make sorties to the gear limits of the matrix to search and save potential “refuser”;
01-a city-state of reasonable machines that keep the matrix and its integrity under their control, the keepers of rest to it connected;
Merovingian – apostates from among people and programs, often outcasts that have found protection under the auspices of Merovingen.
During the main plot, two subfraction were added:
E Pluribus Neo – supporters of Kid, one of the heroes of the sequels. They strive for the complete liberation of people from the chains of the matrix. Divided into liberal (peaceful coexistence of man and matrix) and radical (destruction of the matrix and opponents of this idea) of the current;
Cypherists – supporters of the excessions of Sypher, one of the heroes of the first film. Support the dictate of the machines and advocate a reverse connection to the matrix.
Closed beta game tests began in June 2004 for pre-ordering the game, and already on March 22, 2005 the game was released in the United States, and in Europe-April 15 of the same year. At the time of the release there were ten servers. The game price tag was decent, only $ 60 plus a month of free game. And literally from the very release of the game, the developers and the publisher were faced with a big problem – the average online amounted to about five thousand players in the first month after the game was released. Most servers were either empty or had an extremely small number of connected players. The profitability of the game itself gradually began to go to naught, urgent measures were required to prevent impending collapse, but Monolith transferred almost the entire staff of employees to polish the follenment of the exit in the same year.E.A.P. Under the publishing house already Sierra Entertainment.
“Since the developers decided to get into the pose, then we will look for other developers,” thought in Warner Interactive and sent their offers to such prominent publishers in European and American markets online games as Ubisoft and Sega. Ubisoft immediately refused, referring to the rather low fees of the last film franchise in the American box office. In addition, Ubisoft at that time decided to take off the load on the maximum regarding the support of online games and services, and the Mmorpg market was already oversaturated with various crafts. But in the Sega they accepted the proposal, after which in August 2005 the engine and all the components of the game crossed Sony Online Entertainment.
The guys from SOE immediately put things in order with the servers: now from the initial ten there are only three servers left:
Well, now you can talk about the plot. Here it is submitted both in the form of plot quests for one of the fractions, and in the form of synematics.
The game begins some time after the conclusion of a truce between Zion and 01. Despite this, many of the enthusiastic ones cannot fully come to terms with the fact that the matrix continues to exist. While the cars continue to monitor the peace and order in the matrix, people begin to secretly build a second zion, but already on the surface of the planet, thereby violating the truce. Morpheus, previously led by the goal of destroying the matrix and the liberation of people, is now trying to find a way to return the remains of Neo and produces a number of terrorist attacks inside the matrix.
Morpheus is overtaken by a killer program, pouring oil into a barely faded fire of enmity between people and cars. NIBOE conducts an investigation and finds out that the killer is an independent generation of the matrix created not by the will of the architect or oracle, and is the cluster of flies who personify the connection of the destroyed encodings of the matrix.
After the liquidation of the killer, Niobe, along with the team of his ally, will learn about the existence of ledile programs that are not subordinate to either the main computer or Morovingen. They want to get into the real world through “introduction” to the group of disconnected hunters, offering their help in the construction and defense of the second zion, and also indicate a case with “cheat codes” that give their owners incredible abilities.
After receiving a case with codes, ANU kills NIBOE and assigns a case for itself. With his team, he arranges chaos in the matrix, teaching riots and cruel reprisals against “connected” and “refusals”, having imagined himself with new gods. The new generation of agents carries out an abnormalities with associates and destroys violators.
In the meantime, alliances of cephalics and supporters of Kid are formed inside the matrix. Cars learn about the creation of the second zion and direct their troops to destroy it, canceling the conditions of a truce: machines return to the cyclic model of updating the matrix and declare “refusers” with dangerous elements for the system;People go underground again.
After the destruction of the second zion, a software conflict was formed inside the matrix, which releases two primary ones who, with their actions, bring an imbalance into the matrix equation. All this case is closely observed by an architect who feels the influence of those changes in the system that has brought the oracle with neo. Inside the matrix itself, people began to appear who could unintentively distort and destroy the elements of the simulation.
Soon, a ghost is announced in the matrix – a former associate of Niobe, who is now looking for people who distort the matrix. During one of the systemic errors caused by a “gifted” girl, a ghost falls beyond the simulations, where he sees the images of Neo and Trinity leading a certain dialogue.
The game lasted four years, and during these four years interest in the matrix has finally disappeared. The game itself essentially turned into one of the first services, where everything was already spinning not so much around the plot, the possibility of waging and cool battles, but around a cosmetic tinsel in the form of new skins for a character or accessories in the form of pets in the form of pets. Just imagine: pets. In the matrix.
Ultimately, by the beginning of 2009, the average online game was no more than a hundred players per day, and on August 1 at 00:00 soe they closed the game servers by returning the Lithtech Discovery engine to their owners.
The developers planned a global apocalypse as the final “Event”, but due to systemic errors it did not take place. Players raised the strength and level to maximum indicators. So on the PVP server, any player was killed from one blow.
At the moment, there is a playable emulator of one of the servers of the game, but its capabilities are significantly cut. There is the possibility of creating a game character (his level will automatically reach maximum indicators) and control of him, as well as in the assembly there are symbols that will help people interested in the plot to penetrate. The disadvantage of the emulator is the lack of plot and side tasks, a limited map of the game world, as well as the inability to interact with the majority of NPC. The reason for this was that the Lithtech Discovery engine did not have commercial distribution among other studios, and therefore the entire structure of the game remains in the hands of Monolith.
Unfortunately, The Matrix Online was the last long -lived project from the whole franchise at that time. Films are still being reviewed, but due to optimization in the work of online resources and even negligence from Warner Bros, the world has lost almost two-thirds of what the franchise itself kept on. Of course, there are groups of enthusiasts who are looking for and collected comics, novels, try to at least somehow preserve the ENT and Aesthetics of the Universe, but now we are waiting for the premiere of the new film from the “matrix” franchise. So, we will see.