This game is Dying ?

[Mitar]

I'm sorry saying this , but this game is dying ?
Game is very good but not promoted ...

[neva]

I don't believe it dying-- just has hick-ups.
I believe this game has its ups and downs due to word of mouth. I myself would play more often, but I have college and work that keeps me tied up about 24/7

Its all a matter of prospective I guess.

[Royal]

Its not really dying.. more like forsaken by the devs/owners.
Player base is still acceptable, better to have 400 nice horizons players online then 5kk WoW kids :P

Happy gamin'

[Kerech]

Dying?

It's pretty much dead... and the blame lies squarely at the feet of PME/EII. They turned their back the game and the community long ago and the game is dwindling away as a result.

[C`gan]

Development: not happening.
New subscribers/players: happening.
Return subscribers/players: happening.
Players leaving: happening.
Players staying: happening.

So, which fact do you want to highlight in order to say the game is dying?

[Hoberton]

I'm sorry saying this , but this game is dying ?
Game is very good but not promoted ...

I totally disagree with that entire statement. The game is Stagnant. No growth what so ever in the future. This game has SO much potential but is not being pursued.

Yes, People are leaving. But, not for the game dying but lack of growth.

Its not really dying.. more like forsaken by the devs/owners.
Player base is still acceptable, better to have 400 nice horizons players online then 5kk WoW kids :P

Happy gamin'

I agree with this post.

I get online every so often. Not nearly as much as I used to because of the community. I have MANY friends throughout the 1166 days since I was created. I enjoy talking to all of them.

Maybe if you became a better friend to the current players you would enjoy the game a bit better. You only joined May of 2007, MITAR. If you had been around from the early days and seen the player base from the beginning you would have seen MANY a nice player.

Yes, I wish the game would grow and live up to it's potential. I seriously doubt that is ever going to happen. But, the game is NOT dead.

[Hal`cyon Sskyler]

Horizons will remain in its current state of no development or support until Limelight decides to have a sudden garage sale on some cheap Xeon boxes.

[Justa Mirage]

Servers: Dead patient with organs failing
EI/PME: Life Support machine keeping the patient alive at all costs.
LimeLite: Power of Attorney with the ability to pull the plug

Does that answer it?

[Zexoin]

Have you ever heard about the book or the film "the scuba and the butterfly" ? (I'm not sure of the translation, or if it has ever been translated, since it is a french book).
It's the story of a man that, because of an accident, has the "locked-in syndrom" : he can't move, he can't eat or even breath all alone, and can onlymove his eyes, but is completely conscious, imprisonned in his own body, like a butterfly in a scuba.

I think we can compare HZ current state to this man : we have a great community (the butterfly) playing a wonderful game (the body before the accident) then the game is bought by EI (the accident). The game is irremediably wounded (like the man's body) but the community still remains, locked in a static world.

That's how I see things.
But in the book, the man did not give up, and continued to live. he even wrote a book, letter by letter, blinking to select the letters a nurse was pointing.
I think we should not give up with HZ too.
BTW if the book or film have been translated, go and read/watch it, it really worth your time

[IndyMan]

It has been dying since shortly after release when the 30k+ pops fell to mid teens. It gets spurts of players (mostly free accounts since some cant pay and some wont).

The game is so old now there will be no miracle surge in players. People have seen it - heard it - avoided it for years. Decisions by management were not well recieved by the majority of the gamers.

The game lives on because it probably would cost (the hosting isp (limelight??)) more in attorney fees to cut off service than to let it just go.

Someday a decision will be made to just turn the servers off and let eieio-pmei-oops try to come up with enough money to sue.

It will be a shame for those who really like this attempt at a fun game when it happens. I hope they give you at least a 7 day warning it will be happening so players can try to get some last minute fun out of this game.

*yes i have an account, since beta. no i dont play, i occasionally pop in the game and look around, kill a mob and say .. yepp still sucks.

[vahrokh_the_ancient]

I'm sorry saying this , but this game is dying ?
Game is very good but not promoted ...

They actually killed 2 servers with players still willing to pay subscriptions.
At least for one of those servers, they just trashed the accounts, no transfer, no character copy, nothing.

Just... 1100 days... terminated. Killed.

[velveeta]

often, when i am tired of reading and there is nothing on tv, memories of horizons creep in.
i wonder just how uber i would be. would def be an expert blacksmith/armorer/weaponsmith. would i have continued to work metal, with such a head start on it, or would i go back to confectioner? would i have gotten distracted by some other skewl? i would surely have made expert warrior. would i have taken a prestige class or go back to scout....or even taken up some other class? would my buildings be so full i would have to put more on my plot or would my guild have finally finished the guild lands?

but soon my thoughts turn to the mismanagement....okay if that is harsh, lets try lack of communication style - of the game i loved (and still love). 4 days notice of shard closure (over the holiday weekend, no less), promises unkept, criminally unworkable (and apparently unfixable) billing, no new updates or patches, no comm from the devs, banning experienced players from the forums for expressing their thoughts in a non-trolling way.....this is the 21st century!! EVERY company who even imagines staying in business understands that honest and open communication is the ultimate key to gaining and retaining customers.

like many oldtimers (and there are way plenty more experienced than me!), i hang around the boards, waiting for a miracle. those of you who still have fun playing (and still can play), more power to you. go monkeynuts, while you still can! as long as the lights are on, you should. but understand, the game is dying, and fast.
i am not trying to rain on anyone's parade, but the game will limp on for a few more months, then you will try to log on and will either see the closure notice or just not have anything to log on to. no game this stagnant can last for very long (altho rubies of eventide has managed to - its a little less complex than horizons. if horizons goes free [and updates for vista users, a very unlikely scenerio], it may live on due to the affection it has), and as players, we do not know the future - but it must be obvious to even newbies that this is not a viable game as it stands.

i love horizons and miss playing on blight even to this day. but that is because the parting was bad and like a parent on life support, the feelings are forced to linger......if the break was clean and ending pure, i would have said goodbye with happy sadness and moved on.

so i guess this is my longwinded reply to your question, mitar - yes the game is dying. but if you still can play and enjoy it, thank the universe for your happiness and keep going as long as you can. but know that the very real possibility exists that like me, you can (and will) unexpectedly lose that which you love so well.

those that can, do - those that can't, dream of the past and mourn for the future.

[Spirit]

They actually killed 2 servers with players still willing to pay subscriptions.
At least for one of those servers, they just trashed the accounts, no transfer, no character copy, nothing.

Just... 1100 days... terminated. Killed.

Indeed. I would really like to be omnipotent for a day just to see how much of what has been said is nothing more than lies.

All I see now is a quick transfer of login details to let us log in to the US shards, then seemingly Blight going down to create the new Unity. Someone says "Is it worth it? Costs x amount of money", then someone replies "No just shove the dvd's in a box, they'll start over on a US shard. Go and have a tea break again."

I can't believe anyone would have the nerve to pull something like that, but then again lawyers exist so I'm most unfortunately wrong. I'd so like to be proved wrong on this occasion, but the above is how I see it.

Rakku

[vahrokh_the_ancient]

Someone says "Is it worth it? Costs x amount of money", then someone replies "No just shove the dvd's in a box, they'll start over on a US shard. Go and have a tea break again."

I can't believe anyone would have the nerve to pull something like that

It's why I don't play any more.
I am feeling like handicapped and castrated without my dragon, it's horrible.

But I can't give a company, with non capital "c", who killed my (virtual) life with no preadvice nor afterthought the benefit of my money, nor my time.

[Vidken]

I have happy memories of Horizons, and for that I'm thankful. The rites were especially enjoyable.

I think the game can still be fun, if you have people to play with, but I have a difficult time with it personally because I used to play when it was a bit busier, and so it depresses me to see areas so dead. I remember when New Trismus was busling. Hatchies running around, always a ROP in progress. I remember a night helping group after group kill SD, because groups were literally lining up to take a crack at him. I lost track of how many hatchlings went through our guild and got escorted through, but it was all I did for months on end. That was my unofficial job.

But yeah. Logging on to find NT and other areas as ghost towns... not fun.