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A Majestic Flop

Majestic was going to be the online game of the year, yet it's closing for good at the end of April. Misty Matonis takes a look back what has become one of the bigger flops in the last year.
By Misty "Beans" Matonis

The concept was intriguing. Based on both historical fact and conspiratorial theories, Majestic was going to be innovative and promised to bring exciting new concepts to the online gaming table. Adventure fans were going to finally get a game that they could sink their teeth into, or rather, the game was to sink its fangs into you and take over your life in ways you could not imagine. Was Majestic a vampire? Oh, yes, it was. It sucked $9.95 out of your wallet every month quite efficiently leaving most players to wonder what just flew passed their shoulder and if they should really care.

I shouldn't be too hard on Synthetic and Electronic Arts for the failure that was Majestic. But, really, it's just too easy. If you're unfamiliar with Majestic read on.

The Story
A fictional game developer developed a game based on shadow government and intrigue. Unfortunately said game developer came a little too close to the truth, which resulted in the death of the lead producer and the scattering of developers who would later seek you out for assistance. What would follow was a series of actual phone calls, faxes, Web documents, emails, AOL Instant Messages and applications courtesy of Flash that would provide you with (hidden) information that would help you advance in the game.

Interactivity… where?
Majestic was designed to allow some measure of interactivity and this was to be the "big thing" in online games. AOL Instant Messenger bots provided some form of entertainment, and the phone calls did freak out some people. Unfortunately, Synthetic/EA failed to include something that's extremely important into the game: the ability of the player to affect the game world. Let me give you an example.

In one of the earlier episodes, one of the devs on the run was given the task of breaking into a high-security building run by the "bad guys." You were given a Flash application that would train you in the task of guiding the dev in this task. On the day that the break in was to occur, players discovered that no matter how successful they were in the task, the guy would get caught. Aside from wondering why the shadow government would use an untrained game geek to break into a building, the biggest complaint centered on how you could not affect the game world. What if Mike was successful? How would the game have changed? Questions such as these were met with an arrogant shrug and a pat on the head by the real developers of Majestic.

Linear play and the inability to affect the game world had a strong negative impact for players, who spent countless hours trying to get the developers to listen to what we really wanted: an interactive, non-linear game where we could affect outcomes and fulfill Majestic's promise.

15 Minutes of Fame
Let's not forget "standby" time. Players really loved that. What's standby? I came after your daily 15 minutes of game play and meant that you had to wait another 24 hours until the game progressed again. Yes, you read that correctly: 15 minutes of game play on average per day. If you have any difficulty believing me, here's the skinny from EA themselves in regards to the cancellation of Majestic:

Players may play through their game until April 30th. Majestic puzzles and gameplay can be completed in just under two months, so it is possible to finish Majestic before the service ends on April 30th.

Emphasis mine, of course.

True Innovation
Let's do the math. If you started playing Majestic in July, 2001, the trial episode doesn't count. The game proper began in August, so that's 8 months of legitimate "game play." At $9.95 per month, that comes out to $79.60 total. Okay, now, with two months of game play according to EA's statement above you wind up with a loss of $59.70. Put it another way: you wound up spending almost 60 bucks waiting for the game to progress for you.

Now that's an innovative business model! Perhaps that was what Majestic really brought to the table: reel in the cash for the least bang to the buck.

Interest Rate Falls, Shadow Government Surrenders
Player interest began to wane after Episode 2 was released. In one of its attempts to save the game and to alleviate standby issues, EA introduced a new layer to the game called Solitaire's Puzzles. These challenging puzzles were designed to provide something to do while you were in standby, and, I'll admit, they were quite tough. It's a shame that the game wasn't as challenging as these off-peak puzzles were. Lesson learned for future adventure-game developers, I guess.

EA tried to save the game in other ways, as well. Majestic was put on the shelves in early November. The idea, as usual, was to try to snag the casual PC gamer by pushing product through the stores. And, of course, generate additional revenue for the failing product. If you bought the box you received the first handful of episodes, the Prima strategy guide (irony), 9 "classified" documents, and music. Those who purchased the CD did not have to pay for playing additional episodes.

These steps could not save Majestic. The damage was already done. Every game is designed with both the casual and hard-core gamer in mind, but never to the extent that it would seriously affect a game's popularity and revenue to such an extreme as Majestic did. Almost single-handedly, Majestic became one of the biggest flops in recent history in online gaming.

The big question is: will other developers learn from these mistakes? Will EA?

Originally published on Stratics 4/13/02