Any else here also miss "Earth and Beyond"?

[Goodsport]

Even two years after EA shut the MMORPG down in September 2004?


-G

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

I played a lot right when it first came out, but there wasn't enough depth to really keep my interest. I never went back to see how they expanded or updated it.

 

[Goodsport]

If I remember correctly, Earth and Beyond was the first MMORPG to introduce actual recorded dialogue (via voice-actors) for certain NPC's.

They started adding it about a 1/4 of the way into the game's run (the game ran from September 2002 to September 2004, not including the beta period), the most well-known of which was Claudia Christian (of Babylon 5 fame) who voiced Lady Katherine Isabella Olivia deWinter in the game. More recorded dialogue was the added over time.


-G

 

[Goodsport]

I never went back to see how they expanded or updated it.

Besides the aforementioned recorded dialogue (which was unheard of for an MMORPG for its time), the game also had a lot of neat events and an actual overall background plot that evolved over time, including hints of an alien existence and rumors of a possible invasion.

Interestingly, just shortly before the March 2004 announcement that the game would be discontinued, my Jenquai Explorer (after about 1 1/2 months of me hardly playing due to overtime at work and such) visited a Progen base. To my surprise, it was almost completely empty save for a few Progen NPC's (who were, unsurprisingly, passively hostile to my Explorer) and one or two other visiting players. I just barely started flying away from the base before a huge wormhole opened in space and a massive wave of alien invaders swarmed the sector - I was barely able to outrun two of the alien ships before they apparently lost interest in me and flew back to the overrun Progen space station.

I just made it to the Terran news media space station (I forget the name of it, though in complete contrast to the Progen base, it was more full of players than usual) in time to hear the excited/terrified newscasts and the surrounding player-chatter regarding a massive alien invasion... and the Progen sector I was in was the first sector that was overrun by the long-rumored alien invasion.

It was exhilirating and scary at the same time.

It's too bad that EA announced the game's impending end shortly afterward.


-G

 

[John Crichton]

I played it for like a week. Thought it was cool and I liked the idea of building up your ship over time but got bored with it quickly - like I do with most MMORPGs.

 

[Goodsport]

Was EA's takeover of Westwood Studios the main culrpit in the game's eventual demise?


-G

 

[PoppaGunch]

Try Eve if you liked EaB. It has a lot of the same conventions, but a million times more debth.

 

[Goodsport]

Try Eve if you liked EaB. It has a lot of the same conventions, but a million times more debth.

But someone had earlier told me that beyond the space sci-fi theme, the two games were actually very different from each other.

Is what he said true?


-G