The MMORPG I Was Most Disappointed (But Not Surprised) To See Cancelled

MMOs are expensive to make. I know that isn't exactly shocking news for those of you reading an article on an MMO site, but it's true nonetheless. Projects get cancelled all the time. Sometimes, there's projects in the works that we don't even find out about until after they end up on the cutting room floor somewhere. To take on these types of projects, a company has to either be very established and financially secure to begin with, or they have to obtain tremendous amounts of funding from other sources.

Even making it to a launch of some type doesn't even guarantee that the game will stay open for a substantial period of time. We've seen games close weeks after launch just recently, in fact. Some ideas seem destined to fail from the onset and others seem like a great idea at the start, only to fall victim to any number of circumstances later.

The MMORPG I have been the most disappointed to see cancelled falls into that latter bucket. I'm not surprised to have seen it fall apart though, and maybe it's for the better. Given the nature of the IP in question, it probably would have disappointed its primary base of fans and led to some troubles for all involved when future projects were proposed. Hell, even with this MMO having never released, the IP still sees troubles on the video game front anyway.

(Some images and videos used, like the above image and the "movement" demo later in this piece, come from the online portfolio of Jeffrey Kung, the world gameplay and level design director on WoD.)

When CCP Games launched EVE Online, it was a bit of a unique beast of an MMO. The political intrigue and stories of huge space battles between allied players leading to massive destruction of "property" make neat gaming news stories. While the company was on a very cool upswing, they bought White Wolf, the company behind tabletop games in the World of Darkness, in 2006. This IP may mainly be known for Vampire: The Masquerade, but the World of Darkness has multiple properties under its umbrella.

Almost immediately, work began on an MMO in that universe. Hey, an IP where combat is an option but sex, politics, and conspiracies rule seemed like a fantastic fit for a company that was running one of the more free-flowing and politically charged MMOs out there, right? In its simplest form, the World of Darkness MMO saw players start as humans who would then be turned into vampires by one of the many factions of vampires in the world of The Masquerade. While the world was planned to be a single large server, there would be "zones" that would promote certain styles of gameplay. Yes, you could engage in combat using spells, weapons, and more, but wouldn't you rather try to create alliances with other factions, run cities through elections, and rule the night from the shadows? You could theoretically do either...or both.

That's a lofty ambition. A sandbox MMO is always a bit more challenging to make anyway. When you make players responsible for the "story" to a large degree, you need to give them compelling reasons to want to do so. Sure, World of Darkness would have a "PvE" area that was discussed at EVE's Fanfest 2012, but that was meant to just start the fire, not necessarily keep it burning. Ironically, when we were treated to screen shots, concept art, and a graphical test in 2012, there were already massive problems behind the scenes and there had been for years.

Dust 514, a PS3 game CCP created in the EVE universe, the much-maligned EVE Online expansion Incarna, and a general lack of full direction and leadership within CCP projects was leading to World of Darkness work being scraped and started over multiple times. Remember "monocle-gate?" Even that had a part to play here. There's a fantastic piece from back then over on The Guardian fully recapping all of these challenges and false starts if you want the particular details. For my part, however, let's just sum things up by saying that more often than not, because of the way CCP Games was run at the time, employees working on Darkness ended up being pulled to EVE for long stretches of time. This led to exceptionally slow progress on Darkness and finding and nailing down the actual core gameplay mechanics of Darkness became almost impossible when plans were reset as often as they were.

What's really wild about seeing Darkness at FanFest 2012 is that, in reality, the game was all but officially cancelled the year prior. CCP Games had hemorrhaged subscribers in the wake of EVE's Captain's Quarters that didn't work and a massive loss in player trust. Since the company more or less put all their finances into one bucket, any cuts made to the singular bucket impacted multiple projects. The company downsized by 20% in 2011 and "refocused" on EVE. However, at the time, they said Darkness development would continue, just with a smaller team.

That 2012 footage was the last we would see of the game. In 2014, CCP Games officially cancelled the World of Darkness MMO and laid off most of the remaining staff. (Thanks, Wayback Machine!) The company was now only focused on EVE, something that's changed more recently as the company examines the use of blockchain technologies in gaming.

White Wolf would later be purchased by Paradox Games in 2015 and, in 2018, would cease publishing anything itself as Paradox took full control after Vampire: The Masquerade's 5th edition book had its own set of controversies regarding text alluding to the suffering of LGBTQ+ people in Russia.

Since then, we've seen a few things done with the IP in the video game space including a F2P battle royale from Sharkmob called Bloodhunt, and a few false starts for the anticipated Bloodlines 2 game which is currently slated for an October 2025 release...at least as of this writing. It's seen multiple delays and a studio change already.

When the MMO was cancelled, I was kind of heartbroken. If you read my piece about the MMO that should get a remake but never will, you know I love the dark, the gritty, and the conspiracy theory-y. Add in vampires and I am totally on board. World of Darkness was going to be my "main." However, even from the outside, it was easy to tell that CCP was in a precarious position at the time and the "most expendable" project they had was Darkness. I wasn't surprised to see it cancelled.

There's also the concern about what it may have been anyway, though. While a few flythroughs may look neat (the dark cityscape did look awesome and interesting, if empty), items leaked after the cancellation didn't exactly paint a great picture. Even if CCP Games was able to pull it off, I don't know how many Masquerade fans would have enjoyed it. Roleplaying is so vital to the franchise's fans, I'm not sure that the "limiting" factors of a video game MMO would have allowed what fans probably envisioned, no matter how flexible the game's systems were.

Looking back all these years later, it kind of feels like a better option would have been an MMO in the universe of the World of Darkness, but not one that tried to emulate the tabletop's main features. Who knows, that may have just been doomed from the start, though.

I would still love to see an MMO in this world today, but given the challenges Bloodlines 2 seems to be having, I highly doubt I ever will.

What's the MMO you wish was never cancelled?