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The Matrix Online

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The Matrix Online
File:Matrixonlinebox.jpg
Developer(s)Monolith Productions
Publisher(s)Warner Brothers/Sega
EngineLithtech: Discovery
Platform(s)PC
ReleaseMarch 22, 2005
Genre(s)MMORPG
Mode(s)multiplayer

The Matrix Online (MxO) is a MMORPG developed by Monolith Productions. It is set in the fictional universe of The Matrix and continues the story told in the Matrix series. The game began closed beta testing in June 2004, and saw a special closed beta test for pre-orders beginning in November 2004. Warner Bros. and SEGA officially released MxO on March 22, 2005 in the United States. It was released in Europe on April 15, 2005.

Ubisoft originally planned to co-publish the game with Warner Bros., but backed out of the deal in February 2004 [1]. Many gamers believe that this was done in response to the mixed audience reaction to The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, but it was also part of a wider trend for Ubisoft to drop its support of MMOGs. This opened the door for SEGA to become the new co-publisher.

On June 17, 2005, Warner Bros. and Sony Online Entertainment, owners of several other online multiplayer game worlds, including EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies, announced that SOE has picked up the rights from Monolith to operate The Matrix Online. This change was apparently due in part to the game's underwhelming critical and commercial success since its debut, having sold only 43,100 copies (with undoubtedly fewer active subscribers) as of June 2005. [2] This small user base has caused a server restructuring. As of August 2, 2005 the nine game servers have been merged into three new servers. [3]. The transition to SOE was completed on 15 August 2005, with only one change to the game itself. Prior to the transition, MxO players were able to use the AIM chat program from within the game, but after the transition this function was disabled.

Overview

The Matrix Online (MxO) has a streamlined and unique combat system, consisting of several different methods of attack and special abilities, all of which embody the Matrix world, including Bullet time, Wire fu and many entertaining systemic anomalies.

Missioning, a major part of any MMORPG, is hugely different from most other games in this genre. Missions, while randomly generated, are complex, multi-step affairs that contain realistic elements of the Matrix storyline. Elements such as hacking, lock-picking, disabling security devices, Simulacra, and planting drops to incriminate foes are all included.

One of its most intriguing elements is in its Live Events. Periodically, characters from the storyline (such as Niobe, Morpheus, Ghost, and Seraph) come online or jack-in and interact with other players. These characters were previously full time roleplayer actors employed by Monolith, but are now played by the SOE game developers. The events they host come with a set of critical missions that extend the randomly generated missions with even greater plot and interactivity. However, Sony has stated through its community relations head that it will be toning down the intensity of the live events in story, appearance, length, and Live Actor participation. This has met with objection as a majority of the player base has stated that they do not want Live Events to be altered.

The game consists of four major zones, each of which has its own difficulty level and in which players wage the secret war between Zionist Humans, Exiles, and Machines. These zones are called the Slums, the Barrens, Downtown, and the International District, and it is clear that more zones (each of which contains a massive sprawl of cityscape) will be added as time goes on. Players can travel through any zone by Subway, electronic Hardlines, or walking. One can move from one zone to another easily, though if one uses a Subway or a Hardline, a small loading time is required.

March 28th, 2006 marked the introduction of Patch 42. In this patch to The Matrix Online, Combat Revision 2.0 (Which had been in development since before Sony gained the rights from Monolith), was released to the Live servers. Despite common discussion of The Official Matrix Online forums, the majority of the MxO player base finds that it has been well worth the wait. Most of the abilities and clothing have been altered to suit CR2.0, and from the reactions of many players on the External Playtest Server, it will make combat in The Matrix Online much more intriguing.

Soon following the addition of a new Combat System, on March 31st, The Matrix Online had its first Anniversary Event. Due to the new Combat Revision featured in Patch 42, the Anniversary Event was delayed from the originally set March 22nd week.

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Major events

Race to find the One

The first major event to occur in The Matrix Online was a "race" between the three factions to gather Neo's RSI (residual self-image) fragments. The organization that collected the most in a week received a defense bonus. Different organizations won on different servers.

Shapers were found that could maniputate the RSI fragments into the shape of Neo's mental projection. Unfortunately some shapers were captured by a fourth party. (believed to be the General) Those shapers were forced to create super-Agents which the organizations worked together to defeat. Morpheus has also complained that the physical remains of Neo were never returned to Zion from the Machine City (Zero One), yet cryptically, the Machines have said that they did not recycle Neo's remains either.

Red-eyed Agents

The second major event a week later was the appearance of Agents with glowing red eyes. These Agents appeared mysteriously and began attacking all humans, including those allied with the Machines. None of the three factions claimed to be controlling the red eyed Agents, and some believe they serve a new fourth faction. They attacked anyone with an RSI code fragment ("contraband fragments") or anyone attempting to defend them.

Later, a message from the Oracle indicated that "intruders" angered by the Truce are behind this, and that somehow Neo split himself up into fragments within the Matrix knowing that it was needed for the future. However, the only way to put Neo's code back together is with the help of programs known as Shapers. Fighting then broke out between the factions for control of Shapers, leading to the Red Eyed Agents capturing a Shaper in the confusion, which allowed them to create a new breed of red eyed agents: N30 Agents. Soon Niobe sent a message to players to fight the menace along with a new wave of agents which bore a strong resemblance to Neo..

Nightfall

The third major event, Nightfall, began with the kidnapping of two important leaders from vampire-like and werewolve-like Exiles gangs (the Blood-drinkers and the Lupines, respectively). It was soon revealed that Malphas and his Lupine counterpart Ookami had not been kidnapped at all, but were hiding from the Merovingian. Upon returning, they led a revolt of both gangs against the Merovingian's domination of all Exiles, attempting to rally many humans to their cause. However, while Malphas was absent his subordinate Invalesco attempted his own power grab against him, promising to turn humans that joined him into immortal 'vampires' with his source code. He was unsuccessful: upon their return Invalesco was hunted down and killed. Amidst this infighting, the Merovingian was able to defeat the uprising and capture Malphas and Ookami. Subjected to torture in the Frenchman's Chateau, they were (for now at least) bent back to his service out of fear, and the attacks ended.

Hunt for Morpheus

Morpheus stepped up his quest to convince the Machines to return Neo's body. By planting specially coded bombs near places where redpill players were likely to gather (usually hardlines, but later on or near monuments), the bombs would detonate and, while they did no physical damage to the Matrix, spread a virus to any redpills caught in the blast. This virus was designed to reveal the underlying code, showing the bluepills the true nature of the Matrix, causing them to reject it as real, and possibly crashing the system. All organizations were out to kill him. Agents patrolled the streets, as did the Lupines and Blood Drinkers. Another mysterious group emerged during this time, called Cypherites by many players, consisting of masked humans. Not only did they sabotage hardlines to trap people in the Matrix, but they also rabidly hunted Morpheus. Players rushed to defuse Morpheus' bombs in order to protect the truce, while others fought to protect the bombs.

On the sixth day of the ten day event, tragedy struck. Morpheus met a mysterious assassin as he set one of his final bombs in a waste water treatment plant. He fled the initial attack, only to be caught off guard when the Assassin caught up to him, apparently able to bend the rules of the Matrix as he slipped through a narrow vent in front of him. He was unable to dodge the onslaught of gunshots. Morpheus was dead.

Niobe met with leaders from the machines, who denied involvement. She later formed a faction of her own to track down who had sent the Assassin. The hunt for Morpheus' Assassin was on. Soon, exiles called Corrupted began to appear throughout the Matrix, attacking players at random. It was later discovered that these programs were created by the Assassin in his own image using a "corrupted virus", meaning that the programs' bodies were composed of flies. During the chaos that ensued with the attacks, Agent Skinner, liaison to the Machinist redpills, was permanently deleted by the Assassin. Soon, players found documents on the Corrupted that were attacking them, and piecing the information together from it they learned that killing Morpheus had not been the Assassin's ultimate goal. The Corrupted were designed to destabilize the Matrix upon death, and by releasing them en masse, the Assassin hoped that players killing them would completely destroy the Matrix.

The event culminated with much larger versions of the Corrupted, called Complete Corrupted, who could only be destroyed by special pesticide items. All players of all organizations put aside their differences and worked together to defeat these massive programs and restore order to the Matrix. However, with the event over and order restored, one thing remains: the Assassin is still at large.

Following the permanent deletion of Agent Skinner, the Machines activated a new Agent as his replacement, Agent Pace. Agent Pace is a 'new style' of Agent, most notably in two ways. First, it is more emotionally expressive. Second, "it" is a "she"; Agent Pace is the first 'female' Agent. Pace's behavior is markedly different from previous models of Agents because she was designed to be "more human". Pace actually smiles on occasion, and behaves almost benevolently toward human redpills under her authority. A hidden message from Agent Pace can be found on the official site, in the "Sentinel" fake newspaper page, by clicking on a typo that says "fragmenting" twice; a picture of her is also there. She seems to have the odd (for an Agent) habit of falling into using Italian words frequently when she is speaking.

Choice and Consequence

The crew of the hovercraft Novalis II must try to save the life of their crewmate, Neurophyte. This scenario had alternate ending which played out differently on the separate game servers. However, with the later merger of the 9 servers into 3, plot continuity errors occurred. Walrus, an administrator for The Matrix Online, has stated that the storyline will be dropped instead of fixing the plot conflict. [4]

Double Cross

The Cypherites, masked redpills that want to be put back into the Matrix like Cypher once did, begin a string of attacks led by Gemaskeerd and Enmascarado. In the end Enmascarado is killed by the Assassin, releasing a flame virus attached to his body, and Novalis II crewmember Toorima is revealed as a Cypherite leader called Veil, but not before she is able to kill her crewmate Vashuo.

Death of the Destroyer

An insecticide program is developed to kill the Assassin once and for all, though he splits into several copies. All three organizations team up to defeat him for good and avenge Morpheus. A new character known as The General first appears. He claims his name is General David Beatts, leader of an army that no longer has a purpose, and may be tied to the mysterious heavy air traffic of helicopters (he arrived in one). A while later, he makes a deal with Niobe to help her fight the Merovingian.

The Enigma of Cryptos

The Sentinel newspaper says that soon, boxes will appear around the Megacity as part of an "amazement" by a bluepill street magician, Cryptos. A Zion hidden message is in the same Sentinel, and says that Cryptos was the name of a Zion operative who disappeared shortly ago. Shortly afterward, boxes appear around the MegaCity as the newspaper said, which opened every two hours with Cryptos inside, who then gives a speech that sounds like it could be Cypherite propaganda, though he never mentions things very specifically. Operatives are sent on missions, and find some clues connecting the Cypherites with Cryptos.

Veil of Cryptos

Veil is broken out of the Zion prison, and as it turns out, she is the Cypherite mission controller. It is also discovered that Cryptos is the Cypherites' leader. The Merovingian makes something of a truce with the Cypherites, but worked against them as it suited his purposes. The Cypherites eventually discovered this, and their truce was broken. Meanwhile, Zion's main agenda is taking down the Merovingian, and the General's men create more powerful versions of the holy water, silver bullet, and wooden stake killcode items for killing exiles.

Meanwhile, The Kid finds a splinter group of Zionites, "E Pluribus Neo" (with his controller, Shimada). This organization is deeply loyal to Neo's vision of freeing humanity and violently opposed to the Cypherites.

A Piece of Blue Sky

Major Event taking place during May 09 through May 16 2006.

Operatives are directed to report any unusual occurrences to their commanding officer (liaison) immediately. There has been much activity in the Matrix leading up to the Anniversary Event, and anticipation is growing amongst redpills across the world. It is rumored that there are disruptions in the Code, Veil and Shimida have been known to discuss the issue to Redpills on the Recursion and Syntax Instance of the Matrix.

Also, it has been introduced that there are splinter organizations within the Cypherites and E Pluribus Neo who are willing to go to even further extremes to achieve their goals. While much is going on between all organizations, Niobe and The General are formulating an attack on the Merovingian.

With the appearance of the extremist Cypherites known as "Sleepwalkers" attacking unsuspecting redpills in every alley, the activity within the Matrix increases, with many believing the newly sprung concert sites are linked to the Sleepwalkers somehow.

On the final day of the event, the concert began, and many redpills do indeed have their worst fears realized. A message blasts out from the speakers, threatening all redpills around and telling them to prepare for reinsertion. Moments later the Sleepwalkers appear en masse to attack the redpills gathered in the parks, or rather to distract them, as the huge concert lights blast out an eerie blue light, destabizing the Matrix around them. Security officers of a redpill nature appear to fight off the redpills at the lights and re-activate them at every opportunity they get.

However, no matter how dire the situation became, the redpills managed to defeat the Sleepwalkers and re-route the power of the lights back into the Sleepwalker forces, re-inserting their bodies but leaving the rest of the redpills unharmed.

With the enemies defeated, organisational leaders appeared to congratulate their operatives, and the parties began.

Rumors

  • Neo's ultimate fate has been openly called into question as Morpheus has pointed out that his remains were never returned from 01 (the Machine City) back to Zion, but at the same time the Machines have commented that they did not recycle (liquify for re-use) his body. On an interesting note, there is a newspaper clipping found during a Zion critical mission about a 27-year-old woman named Sarah Edmontons (which is an anagram for Thomas Anderson) waking up from a coma and leaving the hospital on her own. In the text, there was a note written on it asking, "Is this him?" Furthermore, on the Machines' recent set of critical missions, it turned out that Edmontons does not exist in any known database, therefore supporting the speculation that Edmontons is Neo.Walrus has not given any outright comments, but has hinted that Edmontons will play a role in the future.
  • Rare transmission excerpts claim that the Assassin was a program in charge of recycling (of dead human bodies in the power plants) before it went rogue to become an Exile program. The same excerpt claimed that while the Assassin was still in charge of recycling, it received a command expressly forbidding it to recycle Trinity's body.
  • Rumor abounds that Agent Pace has some connection to Trinity, either that Pace is somehow really Trinity (or her consciousness) kept alive and turned into an Agent, or that Pace is an Agent created in imitation of Trinity, because Trinity was one of the best Zion field operatives. This rumor was debunked when a screenshot from an in-game event where Agent Pace was present showed that Pace herself stated that Trinity's appearance was not in her codebase. (Trinity was The Best known Duelist and gave the machines quite a difficult time, Pace is a Duelist) [5]
  • Many Zion operatives believe Morpheus has, in fact, not met his demise. His remains in the Real have not yet been seen or recovered since his supposed assassination. In the Matrix, his "body" was laid in a church and a funeral was held. His body would, at random, turn into flies. this further fueled the idea that Morpheus was not dead. In his final days, he was reported as saying, "I may have to leave this place for a while to continue my work". This suggests he may have staged his death in an attempt to evade the Assassin.
    • Another theory regarding Morpheus is that the Merovingian has somehow captured him, and sent him to the currently inaccessible prison of Blackwood. No movements toward investigating this possibility have been made.
      • According to Flood (Merovingian Controller), We never gave The Assassin killcodes. The bullets we supplied were designed to jam his signal and make it so he could never jack back into the Matrix, therefore causing The Merovingian no further harm. That said, Flood believes Morpheus is dead.
  • Rumors abound that as a direct result of Anome's recent fiasco, some Bluepills who saw a battle between some of Anome's men woke up in the Real and drowned in their pods. While there was also some evidence discovered by the Merovingians followers that one of Anome's goals is to keep Niobe as a prisoner within his construct, which some claim is linked to the cheat codes within his possession.
  • It is suspected that General David Beatts and his army of helicopter-riding commandos are actually programs of the massive Sentinel army whose attack on Zion was called off when the Truce began, who exist outside of the Matrix. He has confirmed that he is a program, though "not all bees follow the hive."

External links


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