The final words as Asheron's Call dies
Two weeks ago I wrote a piece about the imminent death of Asheron's Call 2, the online world. On Dec. 30, the game was shut down -- and winked out of existence. Ellen Ripley, a longtime resident of the world, showed up for the grand finale and recorded screenshots and the dialogue as the end times approached. My favorite parts? The totally surreal warnings from that flashed onscreen -- "This world will be shutting down in 1 minute. Please log out" -- and the banter of the remaining residents, which mixes deeply heartfelt good-byes with howls of anguish and nerdcore quotings of The Lord of the Rings and Douglas Adams' ouevre:
Ctf: so long and thx fer all the FISH!
Mona Lee: so sad"
Royer: thanks for all the pulls jorgen :)
Ch'Tau Pei: bye all
Alty: thanks all, goodbye
Aken-Lotus: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"
Royer: peace
Bodo: bye :
That picture above shows people vanishing into the aether as the server finally shuts down.
(Thanks to Ellen Ripley for this one!)
Posted by Clive Thompson at January 03, 2006 01:20 AM
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"This world will be shutting down in 1 minute. Please log out." heh. I love that.
Now if I could just figure out a way to project that in the sky over the highway where I live...
Posted by: johntunger at January 3, 2006 8:12 AM
Just as a side note, this is the "death" of Asheron's Call 2. Asheron's Call is still alive and well.
Posted by: Teledon at January 4, 2006 9:30 AM
I'd sure love to record images and dialogue when you project those words in the sky. It'll be very interesting indeed.
Posted by: Fadzilah at January 5, 2006 9:50 AM
A few months ago, one of my students presented an article on violence and video games that employed Asheron's Call 2 as part of its methodology. We all made fun of it because no one had ever heard of the game. . . now I feel so rude. Like I was caught laughing inappropriately at a funeral.
Posted by: jepalmer at January 16, 2006 12:01 AM
I just ran across this entry in a del.icio.us search. I have a screenshot of the death flash for Darktide if you'd like it for posterity.
To jepalmer: Don't feel too bad; you aren't alone. Even more MMORPG players had no idea what Asheron's Call was when the story made news, and it's likely about as few do today.
That 10-20 million people play MMOs today, yet 1/10 of them if that know the name of what was one of the Big Three in the form's early days, illustrates a (perhaps small, but perhaps not) insanity of our culture: How can so many people dedicate so much time to an activity they don't really care about?
Posted by: einexile at September 8, 2006 9:31 AM
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"This world will be shutting down in 1 minute. Please log out." heh. I love that.
Now if I could just figure out a way to project that in the sky over the highway where I live...
Posted by: johntunger![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at January 3, 2006 8:12 AM
Just as a side note, this is the "death" of Asheron's Call 2. Asheron's Call is still alive and well.
Posted by: Teledon![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at January 4, 2006 9:30 AM
I'd sure love to record images and dialogue when you project those words in the sky. It'll be very interesting indeed.
Posted by: Fadzilah![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at January 5, 2006 9:50 AM
A few months ago, one of my students presented an article on violence and video games that employed Asheron's Call 2 as part of its methodology. We all made fun of it because no one had ever heard of the game. . . now I feel so rude. Like I was caught laughing inappropriately at a funeral.
Posted by: jepalmer![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at January 16, 2006 12:01 AM
I just ran across this entry in a del.icio.us search. I have a screenshot of the death flash for Darktide if you'd like it for posterity.
To jepalmer: Don't feel too bad; you aren't alone. Even more MMORPG players had no idea what Asheron's Call was when the story made news, and it's likely about as few do today.
That 10-20 million people play MMOs today, yet 1/10 of them if that know the name of what was one of the Big Three in the form's early days, illustrates a (perhaps small, but perhaps not) insanity of our culture: How can so many people dedicate so much time to an activity they don't really care about?
Posted by: einexile![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at September 8, 2006 9:31 AM