Flat Fact is a new column for Nidzumi that entails the ramblings and rants of one Matt Maharaj who happens to be the Community Manager of GameMold.com. This week, Serial Codes…
It’s horrible when you spend money on a game that you don’t enjoy but its spending money on a game that just won’t work right that’s worse. At least, I thought it didn’t work right…
Recently I purchased the brilliantly designed and implemented Real Time Strategy game Age of Mythology Gold edition, which is the game plus the expansion in all its glory. I was enthusiastic as it had been years since I had played it and I remember having a lot of multiplayer fun many years ago at small LAN parties. After all I am a gaming addicted geek with a nostalgic attachment to the past.
I installed my new old game with anticipation knowing soon that I’ll be online. But after creating my account I found myself in a deep problem because apparently I can’t create an online multiplayer account to login.
I began to explore the reasons behind this despite the fact that any sane person would just shrug it off as an old game suffering from old problems and possibly shut down servers. I began to dig deep, surely this can’t be a technical issue. As I went through over 2 years worth of information I uncovered a sad story of neglect, forgotten love and a messy system in which the beautifully crafted title by Microsoft’s now closed Ensemble Studio was a victim.
Now before I go deeper into this, please keep in mind, this is not a bash Ubisoft or a bash Microsoft. This is a sad look at what just can happen to a game when no one cares for it. I am sure there are many other examples, but this however is mine.
After browsing over 2 years of posts for Age of Mythology: Gold I then uncovered the truth, for over 2 years, the game was being distributed with identical CD keys in every box, not allowing online play. Ubisofts support says
Response (Uk Technical Support)
Hello there,
Sorry but we do not hold the online License for the game, this is held by Microsoft.
We would like to suggest that you contact Microsoft for new online cd keys.
We do apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Kind regards,
Ubisoft Technical Support
Microsoft of course no longer supports the title with online support as they never support anything to old. The problem is this leads me back to where I started. How does a game get lost in a system of ‘I don’t care’?
After 2 years of sales and complaints, how can no one fix the problem? Age of Mythology: Gold Edition, published by Ubisoft, developed by Microsoft should be a lesson in how not to support a game post-release.
3 Comments to Flat Fact: Lost In The System
by Tenebrous
On June 19, 2009 at 9:00 am
Well, probably they saw the money coming in and didn’t look further than that – and most people who had the same problem would have done as you suggested, “shrug it off as an old game suffering from old problems”. It’s a shame really, especially as the duplicate CD keys thing seems like a bit of a con
by Sandwalker
On June 21, 2009 at 10:44 am
Distributing just one CD key seems to be a rather odd thing to do. I’ve seen that happen only once (with installing Oracle, and jumping through several hoops including creating an account with them in order to get the key in the first place). A pity we can’t get duplicate keys for Windows.
by BigPapaDingDong
On July 25, 2009 at 3:21 am
I am having the same problem. I read up on this and apparently people have two options: (1) beg for a key from ‘Ubisoft’ but not until you tell them every last thing about you and get signed up for their junk mail or (2) PAY Microsoft support for the privilege of begging them for a Key that they might charge you for.
Frankly, I’m not quite ready to do either. This sux though. I had an original copy of the Microsoft game from a few years ago. I bought a Ubisoft copy for my wife so we could play via LAN together. That doesn’t work because it tells me we have incompatible copies (even though both are the same version and are updated). And we can’t connect online because Ubisoft did little more than copy the game and send it around. Seems like lame piracy to me. They could have at least noted somewhere, anywhere, that users can’t play online with their version.