April 2, 2008

Game Neverending Rises From The Dead

Duncan Riley

17 comments »

Game Neverending, the first project from Ludicorp and the foundation for Flickr, has risen from the dead.

The MMOG is a role playing game focused on social interaction and object manipulation. Game Neverending is said to be “lighthearted and humorous” with no way to win or no given definition of success. Objects “could be combined to create other objects, but any given object only served a questionable amount of purpose.” The first prototype went live in 2002 and closed in 2004.

The tools behind the game were used as the foundation for Flickr, and the .gne file extension in Flickr is a legacy from Game Neverending.

Game Neverending is using Flickr account details for login; if you’re already logged into Flickr you’ll automatically be logged into the game when visiting the site.

(thanks to Richard Giles for the tip)

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April 2nd, 2008 at 2:21 am

The game project looks nice for social interaction but the success truly depends on the quality of game, I think people would be interested in playing light game.
Curtis

April 2nd, 2008 at 2:25 am

Given the title, I thought you were talking about Duke Nukem Forever.

Ah, well.
diystartupnews.com

April 2nd, 2008 at 3:59 am

interesting, anyone think this yahoo driven? to see if there is a chance that this could become big? They don’t have any other game like this.
Praktikum Ausland

April 2nd, 2008 at 4:10 am

whats the motivation for playing if I can´t win ? Strange game concept…
GreyArea

April 2nd, 2008 at 4:29 am

Nitpick: The prototype ended Jan 31st, 2003. The beta was launched later in 2003. Flickr was launched December 2003 and mid-2004, GNE was shut down.

What they’ve made live now is an instance of the prototype.
striatic

April 2nd, 2008 at 4:32 am

“whats the motivation for playing if I can´t win ? Strange game concept…”

there are goals you can reach, points to earn, items and places to discover.

it was no more or less of a point than say, World of Warcraft. you can’t “win” that one either.
Tom

April 2nd, 2008 at 6:36 am

Is this USA only? I used to love this game and would like to be able to access it again.. but it just redirects to the main flickr site?

I hope this isn’t a belated april fools.
Neal

April 2nd, 2008 at 7:46 am

You have to be signed in to Flickr to play, and I don’t see a link to the game on the front page. So sign in and then reload the game URL.

I’m intrigued by the description and appreciate that this virtual world is urban/suburban rather than the typical fantasy land of most MMOs. There still seems to be an awful lot of grinding required, but I guess I should spend more time chatting with the others in the world to figure out how to advance faster.

After playing it for 10 min, I’d say it’s mildly entertaining so far. Don’t see where it’s particularly groundbreaking yet.
Keifer

April 2nd, 2008 at 7:58 am

I’m stuck on the loading screen…how long did it take you?
Scott Schiller

April 2nd, 2008 at 9:09 am

I think this thing was way ahead of its time (from 2002) and was quite fun to play yesterday, it has a lot of fun ideas. I recall being rather disappointed with myself when I missed the beta sign-up period back then.

[ Disclaimer: I work at Flickr/Yahoo! ]
Nan

April 2nd, 2008 at 11:08 am

And Again, the game is gone…
It was great fun while it lasted- we can only hope that it will revive again in the near future.
I vote the Flick’r team as having the best AFD bit on the web…
Nan

April 2nd, 2008 at 11:10 am

@Neal– back in 2002/2003 when it was first released– it was a bit of groundbreaking. From the in game chatter, sounded like it will not be turned back on, but that they are open to someone wanting to re-write the baby..
me

April 2nd, 2008 at 2:54 pm

I think yahoo could combine this with its other properties as an entertaining advantage
Duncan Riley

April 2nd, 2008 at 4:56 pm

Nan
looks like it might have been a very long April fools joke, least it will still up well and truly into April 2. Oh well….
China Chair

April 2nd, 2008 at 8:55 pm

http://www.china-kitchen-cabinets.com
The MMOG is a role playing game focused on social interaction and object manipulation. Game Neverending is said to be “lighthearted and humorous” with no way to win or no given definition of success.