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Reader Comments (72)

Posted: Feb 17th 2010 3:36PM rjbr2000 said

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The Simpsons? Last time I played that game, nothing was on the online section!
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 3:42PM Ziekk said

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That's because you're the only one who played it online!
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 3:50PM Tiptup300 said

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I thought Microsoft had a policy with xbox live that if your game supported it, it HAS to run off of MS's servers. This is how it should be.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 3:57PM onan said

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They had to make some HUGE compromises to get EA to sign on with the service. Before that, they were only online on Sony consoles, and online Madden was a major factor when it came to trying to sell an online service to people.

Same thing with trying to court Japanese companies to release their stuff on 360, the process to get online for FFXI especially is particularly awful, but Phantasy Star Universe isn't much better. (Hey Sega, how about just releasing PSO for XBLA?)

On a completely separate note, isn't that "server" in the picture an HP Mediasmart running Windows Home Server? That's where I keep my porn.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:00PM NBA Kirkland said

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I don't think there is any online support except leaderboards in The Simpsons. Am I missing something here?
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:07PM copa said

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Remember that when they brought up the new version of XBox Live in 2005, the most popular online console game was Madden on the PS2. EA was running the most popular game, and was already managing their own servers, so they had the leverage to make demands.

EA liked collecting our e-mail addresses and spamming us if we wanted to play online. And they REALLY liked the idea of discontinuing online support for their sports franchises after one or two years, since they correctly predicted that was the easiest way to force users to "upgrade" their sports games year after year. So they told Microsoft let us run our own servers, or you don't get our games on XBox Live.

XBox Live was an unproven service at the time, and Microsoft felt it would be crippling if they relaunched the service without supporting the most popular online console game. So they caved into the demands. I'll be very curious to see if EA still has the leverage to enforce this for the next console cycle.

I suppose at the end of this year, EA will be cutting off the Cerberus Network, and you'll be forced to buy the GOTY edition of ME2 if you want to use the "improved" Cerberus 2.0 service.

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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:50PM Vcize said

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I *HATE* that EA demands to run its own servers rather than let MS do it.

EA's servers suck suck suck suck suck. The games never work online the first week, they have various issues throughout their life, they get shut off after a few years, and they're very unintuitve to use compared to XBL (Cerberus network anyone?).

I wonder if MS would have held out if EA would have caved.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 3:35PM (Unverified) said

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Better hurry if you want platinum or all the achievements.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 3:35PM Captain Planet Planeteer Power said

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Lord of the Rings: Conquest!????

www.nooooooooooooooo.com
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 3:37PM Captain Planet Planeteer Power said

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Linkage failure

http://www.nooooooooooooooo.com x2
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 3:53PM BrianH said

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i've clicked it at least 100 times since you linked it.

god damn you captain planet!
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 3:53PM Ziekk said

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That is a great link. Thanks.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:00PM Professor Lario said

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Seems odd to pull support for what is essentially an online based game.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:06PM flannelbeard said

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thats so awesome! :)
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 3:35PM Spookimitsu said

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Oh LoTR: Conquest....

... I hardly knew ye.

*wipes tear*
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:52PM omgwtf said

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I played the demo and thought the combat system played like garbageeee... no disappointment here!! lol
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 5:14PM The Pirate said

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It was an Insanely easy Platinum so its odd they are taking it offline. At least i got my Platinum on it when the gettin' was good!
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 3:39PM BrianH said

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this is the main reason i like dedicated servers...

Not flaming, but if i want to play a game online 5 years later i couldn't, unless i had a dedicated server.

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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:27PM RKN said

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Why would I want to play a 5+ year old game online? WoW says high. : )
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:27PM RKN said

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Tomato, Tomato, its all the same, high, hi, whatev!
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:36PM Canefan said

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Counter Strike Source says hi as well..
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:55PM Vcize said

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Wait, what? The whole problem here is that EA is shutting down their servers. In this case they're matchmaking servers, but they could just as easily do the same if they were hosting dedicated servers.

If anything, having dedicated servers makes it MORE likely that a game will get shut down and not be playable 5 years later online, because they won't want to keep all those servers up any more.

Now granted, if you're talking about a PC game where you can host your own servers that's not the case, but if we're talking consoles here you are using someone else's servers, that they can shut down at any time. With non-EA p2p games on the 360, you're using a p2p connection with MS's matchmaking servers, so there's nothing that's going to get shut down. However, if that same game used dedicated servers managed by the company that developed the game, those are introducing something to the equation that can be shut down.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:56PM kevinski said

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Perhaps because some people play their games for more than five years? This is precisely why games that focus on multi-player experiences are far less appealing to me. You never know when their multi-player components will be discontinued.

Oh, and Counter-Strike says hi.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 5:00PM Vidikron said

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Sure, there are a couple of exceptions, but you can look at that list and safely say that most will have little to no online communities. Most people play an online game for a year or two then move on to the next big thing. I mean, that why most of these are being shut down in the first place, no one is playing them anymore. If they had communities like WoW that wouldn't be getting shut down. That should be rather self evident.

But that said, I still think games should support dedicated servers or at least LAN play. That way hardcore fans or people looking to scratch that nostalgic itch can still find a way to play even after it's no longer economically feasible for the publisher or developer to support the game.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 5:01PM liquidsoap89 said

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You should ask anyone that plays a valve game why they keep playing it, even though it's over 5 years old. All the counter strikes being the main culprits..

Oh yea... and games like Starcraft, diablo, WoW, battlefield 2....

many people play games older than 5 years!
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Posted: Feb 18th 2010 3:04AM jmood88 said

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You would still need to have people to play against and I doubt that many people were going to play any of the games on that list before they heard that EA was shutting down the servers.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 3:43PM ytilanigiroon said

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I tried to play NBA Live 06 online about 6 months ago on the 360. No servers were found by the game back then...
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 3:46PM WhiteShield said

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ahh man not LOTR Conquest! I was just about to buy it used and was actually looking forward to playing it online! oh well.... you snooze you lose i guess
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 3:47PM iaacp said

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Surprised about LOTR: Conquest, considering it just came out a year ago. That is a really quick death.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 7:11PM BoBsS said

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That caught me by huge surprise too. The game came out in 2009 so I'm confused as hell.
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Posted: Feb 18th 2010 6:08AM GCountach said

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Madden 09 says hi.
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Posted: Feb 19th 2010 4:13AM iaacp said

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Madden 2009 also came out in 2008. And it is phased out every year. Conquest isn't.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 3:51PM puddyman said

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Damn you LOTR Conquest! Why did you have to suck so bad? You could've been fun like Star Wars Battlefront....but no. Oh wait, Battlefront is gonna go too after the orginal xbox online support is gone too. Shit.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:00PM (Unverified) said

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Get a PC. Heh.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:07PM Dr Blight said

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So get the PS2 version.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 3:58PM NIck PSN ID Rattlehead91 said

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I'm surprised that LotR is going offline in the sense that it is a fairly new game, but when I factor in how bad LotR: Conquest is, it doesn't surprise me at all.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:04PM MarkHawk said

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Especially with the Blu-ray release in less then 2 months.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:00PM onan said

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This doesn't bode well for "Project Ten Dollar". Two years from now every EA game currently being released is going to be missing a substantial amount of content because they'll be shutting down the servers for them.

So long, Zaeed. Adios, Stone Prisoner.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:02PM BrianH said

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i think that goes through Bioware though, i don't think it should affect their games.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:03PM Acosta02 said

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My roommate keeps playing ME2 and purposely lets Zaeed die every time. Something tells me he won't miss him. :D
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:18PM onan said

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Bioware is wholely owned by EA at this point. EA is why they started offering DLC for their games to begin with.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 5:22PM alinos said

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thats when youll DL the pirate copy anyways if they do that

But logically since those the 10 dollar project is really nothing more than your EA account and a verification server theres really little reason to take them down since there gonna apply to most games

Beside they wouldnt want the backlash from the community that there losing there shit
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:00PM blah604 said

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should have done the hosting on someone's system
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:01PM CaptainProtonX said

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So long and good night.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:03PM MarkHawk said

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Wish they would put these on Xbox servers now.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:07PM flannelbeard said

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no one plays these games anyway, might as well do some spring cleaning.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:13PM jedimacfan said

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No wonder Direct2Drive had some of these titles for $5 over Christmas.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:16PM (Unverified) said

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mhmm how you like your xbox Gold account now.


I sticking with PC for now on.
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:21PM Jawmuncher said

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I really hate EA's Online System.

I can understand a bit for Older Sports Games but some of the stuff that get's pulled is dumb.

Lord of The Rings has been out pretty much a year and already it's getting pulled.
Since it runs of shitty EA servers. Not a big deal but I don't understand why EA loves making MP achievements when they love going right ahead and cutting that feature.

Just weird to make achievements or trophies that require online and some time later make them IMPOSSIBLE to get.

Not to Mention Lord of the Rings Battle For Middle earth still only has like 760 gamerscore. WTH is up with that?
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Posted: Feb 17th 2010 4:39PM Canefan said

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I remember when there was a post about Calling All Cars shutting down its servers and started something over how XBL doesn't do this because of the membership fee. I wonder where he is now.
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