Games like TERA and Closers will no longer operate as such. This was posted on their facebook page. Their news pages on their official website infinitely load, and they haven't posted anything to twitter since June.

I saw this too, apparently management of those games will go to another publisher / operator though who specifically hasnt been announced.

(Fun fact, Closers Online's Japanese release was handled by Sega of Japan)

I just hope Nexon, Aeria, IGG, Perfect World nor Trion Worlds doesn't pick up either. Otherwise it'd be a death sentence.

@coldreactive said in En Masse Entertainment closing down:

I just hope Nexon, Aeria, IGG, Perfect World nor Trion Worlds doesn't pick up either. Otherwise it'd be a death sentence.

I just learned of this news when I checked how the Tera forum was doing. i used to post there regularly for a while. Seems the most likely candidate for Tera is GameForge, which according to people reviews, are much worse than Enmasse was... And EME has been acting Aeria-like for years now. So imagine what will happen. Actually I feel Tera NA won't last long after this. But I'd like to be proven wrong on this one. Won't make me come back but it's always hard to lose a game you are actively playing.

As for Closers, seems the actual dev of the game, Naddic or whatever it's called, will begin self publishing. I wonder if they will be taking existing accounts or making a full fresh start server.

Sega devs should study these happenings and take them as cautionary tales on how not to deal with NA audiences.

Not going to lie, the day En Masse closed was a happy day for me. Even though they eventually uncensored Elin starter outfits, my jimmies are now eternally rustled.

I feel what did EME in was that their parent company made them kick into greed gears after PUGB went mainstream. The initial 2012 EME was actually a bit better in managing the game, regardless of the self imposed censors.

Cultural differences of West vs East, I guess.

En Masse realizes elin swimsuits are making money and censorship is stupid, uncensors game and doubles down on fanservice, adds maid outfits and more.

SEGA realizes cosmetics are making money and censorship is stupid, doubles down and adds more censorship.

Yeah... how about we not turn another thread into yet another argument about the game's censorship?

@Leonkh99 said in En Masse Entertainment closing down:

Yeah... how about we not turn another thread into yet another argument about the game's censorship?

It wasn't just that. The major reasons were after a year of free to play, a lot of game mechanics were changed, such as Crafting/gathering being more heavy-handed on stamina, and the new catalyst materials needed (which was a forced currency sink imposed on the players. Crafting before only needed materials, period. Now they need catalysts too, which can only be bought from NPCs/etc. for in-game currency.)

In addition, cutting a lot of the game's content (story, and side-quest hubs/etc.) Just put me off of it. The story makes almost no sense now that the Isle of Dawn's story was cut by 2/3rds and doesn't introduce two of the major characters as a result.

To me the first sight of doom happened when they removed the awesome playable intro. That was to me, an integral part of the story. Then we went down a path that saw the player character being plucked away from the original story and retconned from a soldier who fought alongside the original heroes to some kid's care taker. That was a huge downer to me.

@ZorokiHanuke said in En Masse Entertainment closing down:

To me the first sight of doom happened when they removed the awesome playable intro. That was to me, an integral part of the story.

Not sure if I explained this here or on another forum. But the old buy/pay to play intro could be accessed as long as you had a character that was created and did said intro. The game would then ask if you wanted to do said intro or skip to the Isle of Dawn if you attempted to make a character on an account with a character that had done it.

I'm pretty sure it was removed during the whole Catalyst addition and cut of Isle of Dawn though, which was a year or so after free to play.

I would know how epic it was though, since I played it too. Since I got the game right before buy/free to play.

@coldreactive I started playing in May 2012, so yeah, I did play the intro. But when I quit in 2013, I deleted all my initial characters. I came back about a year later but it was never the same to me. From what I understand, the f2p model worked well for too little time, as greed tactics started to surface in 2014 and became well cemented by the time PUBG started making a name for itself. That's when apparently things really went downhill for Tera.

There was even a time when people started preferring GameForge's EU version. That was the time EME started banning VPNs, and a small exodus from US to EU became apparent in the forums, if my memory collected all that correctly. I was long gone by then so I just read the stuff on the forums.

Also played from launch, even bought collectors edition with a cute mount. Unfortunately launch version had no endgame, even crawling to levelcap at a snail speed solo without a group didn't help much, ran out of content within the free month that came with the purchase. Never felt enticed to come back to the f2p version, I don't like most f2p models.

@havox4 You must have been pretty fast then. When I started, I think "end game" was ebon tower (the god dude who turned into yet another crab boss), and players were farming on akasha hideout and golden labyrinth. But solo leveling and story was pretty long for me. I can say I had fun on the nexus stuff that was later added, regardless of having to drop all graphics to minimum to make it run.

@ZorokiHanuke said in En Masse Entertainment closing down:

Sega devs should study these happenings and take them as cautionary tales on how not to deal with NA audiences.

+1

Not just NA tho, but western audiences in general when it comes to MMOs. TERA NA for a while housed most of the EU players because GameForge was downright horrible. Then it switched around and a lot of NA players left for EU (about 1-3 years ago?)

One thing that kept TERA NA going was the General Managers, Tonka specially, who listened to the community, kept livestreams interesting and actually interacted in game with the community. Once the holy trinity of Tonka, Minea and Harmonia GMs left, the game started declining slowly until it just went downhill like a roller coaster.

Here's a few pointers actually in case someone from SEGA drops by. EME failed all of these:

• Reskins are NOT new content;
• Recycled enemies are NOT new content;
• New content is important, but don't overwhelm your community. Don't set a pace you can't keep either. Don't set a crazy gearing pace that only a shut-in could keep up with (this coming FROM a shut-in);
• Contact between the West and East is important! Content, translations, adaptations to the market. Also be very, very careful about replacing VAs too often. People notice. People don't like it;
• Events help keep a community together. Keep up the UQs, concerts, collabs, etc. Bring people together. Notice that people will go to the concerts just for the wholesome atmosphere of it and feeling of unity and belonging somewhere. Also everyone loves Taiko;
• Keep the game F2P friendly. Supply and demand. While you have F2P players willing to pay Meseta for cash items, you will have people buying cash and cash items to sell for Meseta;
• Community managers must be able to differentiate work from personal. Be unbiased, calm and able to communicate easily and firmly, but not rudely. Clout hunting CMs are a death sentence;
• Don't lie. If an item is a 1 time thing then it's a 1 time thing. Don't put it back in circulation out of greed;
• Get rid of Meseta sellers as fast as you can. People WILL be tempted, not to buy from them, to SELL to them. This absolutely breaks game economy and cuts into your profits. Supply and demand applies here too. The more people selling to these websites, the less money they pay, the more Meseta people farm to sell, the more these websites profit being able to lower their prices and still keep profits above 70%. Yeet those bots. Now;
• Absolutely DO NOT gender or race lock ANY classes! You will regret it. Trust me;
• Repetitive seasonal events will tire your community out and make them less special. Do not have only 1 (one) type of event that you implement every year with 0 changes. Even if you have a fixed event, change SOME things every year or people will stop caring about them.