Let's take a look at one of the failed games of the recent past. Did you ever play Silkroad Online when it was in its prime? Let us know in the comments section below.

This series is the sole opinion of the author and does not represent the opinion of Heaven Media Ltd or the opinion of any affiliates.

In this series, we're going to take a look at games that could have been massive, but just didn't quite get to that level. A number of factors come into play for each and every game in this series, including but not limited to the actual developer's support of the game to the community running rampant among other things such as hackers killing the game with brute force. If nothing else, gather from this series the immense dedication and willingness to succeed companies need to hold for a game to be successful, even if it's not a known title. As the word is a bit vague, let's consider successful to be a game that's held its own for 5+ years without any major issues/setbacks.

The first game we'll be looking at is a game very close to my heart. It was one of the most well-made MMORPGs of its time despite not really getting into the spotlight, and is still one of the most unique to this day that I've come across (having played over 100 different ones) -- Silkroad Online (SRO). Based on a Chinese-esque setting, the game took place between three major cities: Jangan, Donwhang and Hotan, Hotan being the "Stormwind City" of SRO. Each respective city represented a part of the world in which the actual Silk Road was located in; Jangan was China, Donwhang was Western China and Hotan was Eastern Europe. As the game grew, more regions were added all the way to Western Europe with roughly half a dozen new maps (108x108 areas each, which called for an insane amount of space on your hard drive) to the south of the major regions. Needless to say, this would have put DayZ to shame as far as detail in the virtual world's design and size; it was easily the largest MMO in the world at the time as far as map-scaling went, but again it was unnoticed due to small community and the overshadowing of another game's release which we'll touch on next.

Considered the most iconic SRO screenshot ever taken; 2003 Beta by "Snapple" of Troy Server.
Coming out at nearly the exact same time World of Warcraft dropped in 2004, Silkroad Online was already off to a rough start having to compete with the most hyped Blizzard game to date, and internationally at that. Numbers were very slow at the start with just a few thousand players, but it soon grew to a Korean population of nearly 500,000 by the end of 2007, something that nobody really thought would happen. By 2008, players (mainly Turkish/Chinese gold farmers) infiltrated the server in an all-out attack with bots and hacks, forcing the game to be reset for everyone and a massive server wipe to occur. By the end of 2008 after the attacks, the game's population was peaking at nearly 3,000,000 players worldwide (that's including duplicate bot accounts) but it was ignored by media due to the game's developer, Joymax Co., Ltd, not giving any attention to the game whatsoever. Joymax was very lazy regarding patches, rarely ever banned bots and never really interacted with the community -- it was blatant from the start this was all just to widen their pockets at the end of the day.

A few players preparing for a temple raid.
More regarding the game itself, though -- usually in MMOs, we see the usual "pick a faction/side and start grinding". In Silkroad, it was much more complex than that. A triangular conflict system, or in simple words an extensive trade system within the game itself on top of the actual trading system, would be the game's biggest and most unique feature. There were three classes that over time, revealed a player's attitude and reputation within the game, which was also a very unique aspect that nobody really thought would happen. There were three main classes: Thief, Hunter, Merchant. The closest comparison would be Runescape's triangular combat system, where each cancels out the other. The Thief tries to kill the Merchant, who is delivering goods from one city to the other. The Hunter defends the Merchant (as the Merchant can't attack while delivering the goods), and the Merchant's plus side is that once the goods are delivered, you get 200% what you paid for them in the city to begin with, basically being a profitable way of making in-game currency if you know a Hunter that is willing to escort you. This all seems confusing right? Let's break it down by each class below.

Thief (expand)

Thief (contract)

Thief. These guys are generally the very highly respected people within the community on each server (which for some reason were all named after Greek mythology gods). Very advanced players that were in the scene since the beginning for the most part pick the Thief trait after level 20 (the trigger level for "jobs") due to their stealthy movement and ability to make insane amounts of in-game currency if played correctly. SRO itself is a free-roaming game where you go on quests and either gather items or hunt X of Y mob. This means that when a Thief without their job's respective uniform (in-game armor that you must purchase to hold a job) can be killing a few monsters while a clueless Merchant hops by with a Hunter, and your gang of Thief friends sneak up behind them, put on your suits and engage in an all-out battle. If the Hunter is unable to defend the Merchant they are escorting and the Thieves kill the Merchant (and his camel, horse, elephan or means of transportation he's using to travel from one city to the other) the Thief can now essentially gather the Merchant's goods and be escorted by their own clan of fellow Thieves.

The Hunter usually comes out of it with a 15% tip of the goods, but keep in mind each trip takes anywhere from 15 minutes to 6 hours -- yes, 6 hours on a camel in an MMORPG to make in-game currency with the risk of being downed at the very last second at the city's gates. The longer the trip, the more the profit: 15 minute trip 110% profit, 6 hour trip may be upwards of 2,000% profit.

Hunter (expand)

Hunter (contract)

Hunter. In SRO, the Hunters were mainly the Good Guy Gregs of the scene that were the older bunch of players. These guys ran guilds, they helped new players and helped. In the 7 years that I played, I never met a hunter that was an asshole or refused to help me with a quest or whatever, whereas a Thief would usually tell me to fuck off and try to figure it out on my own. Hunters were usually very defensive tanks that were built with a sword/shield combo, opposed to a 2H sword that a Thief usually carried for extra damage and nukes (a mage ability that dealt fatal amounts of damage). Hunters were usually very wealthy and escorted newer Merchants for fun, just hoping to snipe a few Thieves along the way. Opposed to the Thief's ninja suit with red ribbon, the Hunter's uniform consisted of a traditional Chinese flag that was meant to ward off all evils, essentially an oversized fan that looked like it had a baby with an Indian dream catcher that rested on the in-game player's shoulders. The downside of Hunters is that they could not cloak during an escort: one can't attack a Thief unless they have the Hunter's uniform on, and taking the uniform off calls for a 20 minute to 2 hour cooldown depending on level difference.

Merchant (expand)

Merchant (contract)

A perfect example of huge trade runs (despite bad quality).

Merchant. The Merchants that were in SRO were always the very new players desperate for money. These guys would grind for days, clueless as all get out, and would risk their entire bank on one trip to hopefully get a very high level Hunter to escort them through the massive world that was the Silk Road in hopes of becoming rich to buy amazing gear or other shit that they wanted. Most of the time, these guys were very low level (although a few high levels used to switch off doing runs late at night with huge loads risking over 200,000,000 in-game currency per trip) and for the most part, were immature younger players that didn't really have a grasp of the whole triangular trading system. Thieves knew how these players played, and would usually just camp outside the city gates in hopes of the newbies to be walking by as they KO their goods. During my time grinding, I saw many a Merchant that decided to quit the game due to all-inning their banks.

A medium-sized caravan/group of merchants and hunters readying up.

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WE MUST GO DEEPER! Let's take a look at what really made the game die out and what the future holds.

This series is the sole opinion of the author and does not represent the opinion of Heaven Media Ltd or the opinion of any affiliates.

So let's recap on the biggest feature in SRO that could potentially have made it a massive game if the developers weren't so shit: The Merchant buys X goods (usually sold in the town's general store, ranging from wood to cloth to silk) and travels from Town Y to Town Z. The Thieves attempt to kill the Merchants during this trip, while the Hunters defend the Merchants. If a Thief kills a Merchant, their goods drop and the Thief can now summon a caravan animal to transfer the goods to earn profit while the Merchant is left with a negative bank balance. Hunters profit from Merchant's goods with a 15% tip on top of whatever the Merchant decides to spare for them.

SRO had many features like this that I had never seen in any game before. The idea of 250 players traveling on a road at once with another 500 players attacking/defending them was mind-boggling. I've played WoW inside and out, and the most intense thing I've witnessed was a 25-man raid or a battleground with just under 100 people in it -- nothing on this scale of nearly 1,000 people all at once on a huge journey through forests and swamps and deserts. The interaction and tight-knit feel of the game was something I had never seen before in a game. Everyone knew each other after a year or so, and when you logged on it was like greeting your best friends. All of this and the massive 256-man raids or boss kills haven't even been mentioned (in SRO before the hackers, boss kills took nearly 50 people and over 3 hours -- post-hacks they usually took around 15 minutes with modified weapons).


A player's plea to the company to fix the game.
The graphics of the game were amazing for the time and still are today to some extent. The historical lore throughout the quests was for the most part very accurate. The community was very supportive until the moderation of the game died down and the players dwindled, which led to the game essentially dying out. As far as mechanics go, they were very solid and still to this day I have yet to see a class customization system as extensive as SRO's, and that's including Diablo III's.

Although the game is on the last little piece of string of its rope, it's still accessible through the main website. Plans to revamp the game have been released but nothing's official as of yet. I've always wanted a huge game company like Blizzard to pump money into it, but realistically the chance of a hippo crashing into my house is more likely than that. Through the use of Chinese and a heavy influence of ancient European culture, the game was truly unique and had nothing stood in its path, I couldn't see it failing the way it did. Nowadays over 70% of the game is bots, but I log on once in a while to see how the game has held up.


Exactly what the game turned out to be.
It's my hope that through a very small scratch on the surface of SRO, that you have learned a bit of how such a fantastic game can go down the shitter in a matter of just a few years (in this game's case, 6 months after the botters came in). There are hundreds of game like this one that never really got what it deserved, and due to the developer's horrible mentality regarding support of the game, we can say that the players can justify regret and hate towards a game that was once so fun and great to play. So what's next, will a developer buy out Silkroad Online and ressurect this hidden gem? Will it die a slow death with last attempt efforts to revive the scene with giving out free premium items in the near future? Who knows -- for now, the memory and legacy that was Silkroad Online for a few years in the underground MMORPG community halts and remains a faded presence. RIP Silkroad Online.