Hellgate: London - A Eulogy

Ripten writes:

"Hellgate: London – we hardly knew ye.

As an MMO you were announced with much pomp and circumstance, a FPS – brawler set in a dystopian cyperpunk London where demons arose to turn the Britain metropolis into a romper-room for the nefarious powers.

Alas, it was not to be.

While I and my fellow gamers rejoiced in the freshly wrought game and the manner in which you presented it, something was amiss. I did not begrudge the amount of time it cut into my World of Warcraft. If anything, I celebrated it. WoW had become a stale, flaccid diversion. Hellgate looked promising. Hellgate looked provocative.

Hellgate looked devilishly good.

Unfortunately those in charge of your better angels forswore your development, and while 50 managers shouted and berated five techies working hours that would exhaust an Egyptian slave, the game foundered under the immense strain that was the creative ego. In the end, the game was besieged by a very different set of devils – those in management, ensconced in ivory towers."