Seed Says Goodbye

Runestone, the developers of the online game Seed, have announced that they are closing their doors. They have been trying to secure additional funding for Seed, but it hasn't gone well, and financial reality has set in. The CEO of Runestone makes some interesting comments on the experience. "One thing I would hate to see happen as a result of our failure would be a consensus forming that the idea about a non-combat, role play-centric MMO is a bad idea."

It was certainly different, but people still have hard time relating to MMOGs that don't feature combat, which is odd considering what a success The Sims has been. In games where political intrigue and open economies are allowed to flourish, such as Eve Online, they can become more compelling than combat, which is typically quite repetitive. Unfortunately for game developers, we seem to be at a point where the majority of MMOG players can't even imagine an entertaining game mechanic outside of bashing mobs for phat loot.