I don't deny that there are very few players left on the PC/PS2 servers. How did we get to this point, though? How is it that the Xbox 360 community continued to thrive (and I'm using that term loosely) while the PC/PS2 servers continued to die?
People come and go from online games all the time, and this was to be expected with PSU, but the answer to this question is actually simpler than that: Sega of America killed the PC/PS2 servers. They blew it. Let's take a look back at some of the notable missteps:
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Leaving Moatoob locked at release. For three weeks after the game's initial release, the planet Moatoob remained unavailable while players ran around in just a handful of missions on Parum, Neudaiz, and the Guardians' Colony. Over that three weeks, the population declined from multiple full universes (at release) to just one or two. Yes, the Xbox 360 community also had to deal with this, but you can't argue the fact that this had a negative effect on the game right from the start.
Rampant item duping. Shortly after the Moatoob fiasco, some PC/PS2 players discovered a glitch that allowed them to dupe Scape Dolls and sell them for ridiculous amounts of money. The money soon spread to the rest of the community through the sale of elemental photons. The economy was permanently ruined, and Sega sat back and did nothing. Some players jumped ship.
Room hacking. Later in the game's first year, another exploit surfaced on the PC/PS2 servers that allowed a player to enter another player's room and access it as if it was their own. Players reported valuable items stolen from their shops. Sega acknowledged the problem and tried to fix it, and although the script kiddies were eventually banned, most players were never adequately compensated for their losses.
Error 65. Perhaps the most legendary screw-up in the history of the PC/PS2 servers began in April 2008, shortly after the start of Maximum Attack G, the latest in-game event. Sega's billing system for PSU had been fairly unreliable to this point, but during this event it finally kicked the bucket for good. Players whose subscriptions were up for renewal found themselves unable to log in for weeks. The situation got so bad that Sega decided to let PC/PS2 players into the servers for free while they tried to solve their billing server problems. Unfortunately, this left locked-out players with about one week to enjoy the event.
Sega responded by promising that MAG would be extended, but shocked players when the event was removed at the end of the originally allotted time period. The event came back nearly three months later. For many, this was too little, too late.
Lack of updates. The months following the second MAG event brought virtually no new content. Canceled server maintenance periods were a common occurrence. We bitched about the lack of updates on this blog for most of November 2008. There's not much motivation to play when the content you've got is getting old and overly repetitive.
The Xbox 360 demo. One of the perks arguably keeping the Xbox 360 community alive is a demo server that is available to Xbox Live Gold subscribers. Sega of America held various "demo weekend" events to get players to try the game out, and even offered rewards to subscribers as thanks for doing so. Xbox 360 players received a Tails statue, a Knuckles statue, Real Handgun and Real Handspear weapons, and a NiGHTS statue during some of these "demo weekends". PC/PS2 players eventually got most of these rewards, but not until months later.
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These certainly aren't the only issues the PC/PS2 servers faced over the last few years, but they are the most notable. Now, as the servers are scheduled to shut down in the next couple months, Sega of America will likely lose a number of PSU subscriptions permanently. Many players (including myself) invested a lot of time in the PC/PS2 game and are not interested in rerolling on Xbox 360.
In addition, the majority of PC/PS2 players are most likely playing PSU on a PC. The PC version of PSU is, without a doubt, technically superior to the Xbox 360 and PS2 versions. I imagine that there are a lot of PC players that do not want to go to the Xbox 360 and suffer the lag and slowdown problems that were not present on their PCs.
I understand Sega's reasons for deciding to shut down the PC/PS2 servers, but there is no way to spin this news in a way that will make players see Sega of America in a positive light. It would be nice if Sega could just patch the client to connect to the Japanese servers... but everyone knows that Sonic Team would never allow that.
In the meantime, free play for PC/PS2 players begins January 29 with the final event, Maximum Attack G+. After that, I guess it's back to Phantasy Star Online...
Who knew PSO would outlast the game that was designed to replace it, anyway?
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